Schezwan Sauce Indo-Chinese Style

Now who does not like Indo-Chinese cuisine?I personally love everything that it offers.The fusion flavors of this cuisine is simply addictive.Though it's really hard to pick my favorites but a plateful of Schezwan potato wedges can make my day.Like literally! But i always buy the ready made Schezwan sauce that we get in the market.Until today it never struck me that i can even make it at home.The simplicity and the finger licking flavors of this home made sauce made me wonder why didn't i make this before.But it's better late than never,Isn't it?

Ingredients serves-1 cup

• Paste of 25 dry kashmiri red chillies
• 1 heap tbsp of grated garlic (around 10-12 fat cloves of garlic )
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp of soy sauce
• 1-2 tsp of vinegar
• 1 tsp of white sugar/brown sugar
• 4 tbsp of tomato sauce
• 4-5 tbsp of vegetable/sesame oil (i used vegetable oil)

Method

1. Heat 2 cups of water in a pan on low flame and add in the dry red chilies and cover the pan.Cook till the chilies turn soft and the water completely dries up.Turn the chilies occasionally so that they get cooked evenly.Once cooled make a paste of the chilies. This.This process takes around 15-20 minutes.
   
2. Heat a wok or a kadhai. Add.Add in the oil.
   
3. Once the oil is hot Turn the flame to medium and toss in the garlic and ginger.Saute for a while to remove the rawness of the garlic.The garlic should not change it's color or turn brown.
4. Add in the chilly paste and saute till the oil separates.
   
5. If you feel it's too thick or dry add a bit of water at this stage.I added around 1/4th cup of water to dilute the sauce and to give it a perfect consistency.Cook till the chilies leave it's raw taste.
6. Pour in the soy sauce,vinegar and tomato sauce.Give it a good mix.
   
7. Add in sugar and salt to taste.Cook till the sauce attains a perfect consistency.Your delicious home made Schezwan sauce is ready.You can simply serve it for dipping sauce or use it for making Schezwan noodles,Schezwan rice or my favorite Schezwan potato wedges and Eat it up! :)
   

Tips:-

1. It can be stored for 1-2 weeks in fridge if stored in an air-tight container.
2. To increase it's shelf life increase the quantity of oil sufficiently.Oil acts as a preservative.The more oil you see floating on top of the sauce more is it's shelf life.I have used only 4-5 tbsp of oil as i had the intention of using up the sauce in a day.As i have mentioned if you want to store it longer add oil generously.
3. Keeping the kids in mind i made this sauce with Kashmiri red chilies but to make it more spicier you can definitely mix the the hot dry red chilies with it or just entirely use the hot ones only.
4. Do not skip the vinegar as it acts as a preservative.