Paneer Schezwan

Description

Indian Chinese cuisine, Indo-Chinese cuisine, Desi-Chinese cuisine, Sino-Indian cuisine, or Chindi cuisine is a distinct culinary style which combines aspects of both Indian and Chinese foods and flavors. Though the cuisines have mixed throughout history both through trade and geographical influence, the most popular origin story of the fusion food resides with the original Chinese ethnic community of Kolkata, who immigrated to India looking for better prospects and a better life around 250 years ago. Opening restaurant businesses in the area, these early Chinese immigrants adapted their culinary styles to suit the tastes of their Indian patrons.

Chinese Indian food is generally characterized by its ingredients: Indian vegetables and spices are used, along with a heavy amount of pungent Chinese sauces, thickening agents, and oil. Stir-fried in a wok, Indo-Chinese food takes Chinese culinary styles and adds spices and flavors familiar to the Indian tongue. This idea of flavorful, saucy Chinese food cooked with Indian spices and vegetables has become integral to the mainstream culinary scenes of both India and Bangladesh, and its diffusion to nations like America, Great Britain, and Canada has shaped and altered the global view of Chinese, Indian, and Asian cuisines.

Schezwan

Schezwan (sic) Chicken/Prawn/Fish/Mutton/Vegetables/Paneer – dishes with this name in fact usually bear very little resemblance to ones from China’s Sichuan Province (although they sometimes contain Sichuan peppercorns). They instead center mainly around a sauce containing Indian red chilies and garlic. (The spelling of “Schezwan” is not a mis-print; this is indeed how the term tends to be spelled in the Indo-Chinese kitchen rather than “Sichuan”, “Szechuan” or “Szechwan”).