Schezwan Sauce Recipe / Indo - Chinese Cuisine

Schezwan Sauce is the magical ingredient used in many of the dishes of Indo - Chinese Cuisine. Magical because this one ingredient can give a spicy and flavorful kick to any dish. This sauce is added to Schezwan fried rice, Schezwan noodles , Manchurian and many other lip smacking dishes. The sauce serves best with hot piping Momos and Spring rolls. This flavorful and fiery hot sauce is indeed a treat to the spice lovers. 

Originating from the Sichuan province of China, Schezuan cuisine is characterized by bold flavors, brought about by liberal use of pungent ingredients like garlic and chilies. The original recipe uses special Sichuan peppers that have a lemony taste.

Source: Wikepedia

Schezwan sauce is easily available in malls but we can make this sauce at home too and the recipe is very easy to follow with minimal ingredients. The best part of making the Schezwan sauce at home is that it is devoid of any chemicals added for preservation, colour and flavour enhancement .

In India, this hot and spicy sauce recipe uses dried red chilies and garlic as the main ingredient. The sauce is a blend of many flavours. The dried red chilies and black pepper make the sauce fiery hot whereas the Soy sauce and Vinegar give the desired sourness. Little sugar is added to balance the spicy flavors. I have used Kashmiri red chilies which give the desired colour to the sauce. I follow the recipe of Schezwan sauce from Sanjeev Kapoor's Khana Khazana. 

Ingredients:

• Dried Red Chilies- 10 to 12
• Finely chopped Garlic- 2 tbsp
• Finely chopped Ginger - 1 tsp
• Vinegar- 1 tsp
• Soy sauce - 1 tsp
• Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Soak the dried Kashmiri red chilies in warm water for about 1/2 hour. Now remove the seeds and grind the chilies to a paste using very little water.

     2. In a non stick pan, heat the oil on a medium heat. Add the chopped Garlic and Ginger. Stir well and now add the Chili paste and saute until oil start oozing out from the mixture . This step is important to remove the rawness of Chili and Garlic. 

   3.  Add Sugar, Salt and Black peeper powder to the paste. Be careful while adding salt, as we are going to add Soy sauce also which has salt , so add accordingly.Mix well.

   4.   Now add Soy sauce and Vinegar to the sauce.

     5. Now at last add some water to the mixture so that it attains a consistency of a sauce. Check for seasoning at this stage. 

    6. Put off the flame . Transfer the sauce to an air tight container on cooling and refrigerate. Use as per requirement. 

                                                                    

 

     You can check out for some of my recipes from Indo Chinese Cuisene like Soya Chunk Manchurian , Paneer Lolipop