Daily Dinner tonight!
Today's dinner was courtsey of Fuchsia Dunlop, a talented lady whose chinese recipes are brilliant, easy to follow and prepare and simply yummy! Her book, Every Grain of Rice, is my go to for many, many dinners. Brings back memories of numerous chinese takeout nights in Manhattan...
The menu tonight:
“GONG BAO CHICKEN WITH PEANUTS
GONG BAO JI DING 宮保雞丁 (page 291)
GREEN OR ROMANO BEANS WITH BLACK BEAN AND CHILLI
JIA CHANG DAO DOU 家常刀豆 (page 382)
Served with Jasmine Rice
Delicious! Here's the recipe for this delicious Kung Pao Chiken - the authentic one!
2 boneless chicken breasts, with or without skin (11–12 oz/300–350g in total)
3 garlic cloves
An equivalent amount of ginger
5 spring onions, white parts only
A handful of dried chillies (about 10)
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp whole Sichuan pepper
3 oz (75g) roasted peanuts
For the marinade
½ tsp salt
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp Shaoxing wine
1½ tsp potato flour
For the sauce
1 tbsp sugar
“¾ tsp potato flour
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinkiang vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chicken stock or water
Cut the chicken as evenly as possible into ½ in (1½cm) strips, then cut these into small cubes. Place in a small bowl. Add the marinade ingredients together with 1 tbsp water, mix well and set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
Peel and thinly slice the garlic and ginger and chop the spring onions into chunks as long as their diameter (to match the chicken cubes). Snip the chillies in half or into sections. Discard their seeds as far as possible. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
Heat a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the oil with the chillies and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until the chillies are darkening but not burned (remove the wok from the heat if necessary to prevent overheating).
Quickly add the chicken and stir-fry over a high flame, stirring constantly. As soon as the chicken cubes have separated, add the ginger, garlic and spring onions and continue to stir-fry until they are fragrant and the meat just cooked through (test one of the larger pieces to make sure).
Give the sauce a stir and add it to the wok, continuing to stir and toss. As soon as the sauce has become thick and shiny, add the peanuts, stir them in and serve.
(Excerpt From: Fuchsia Dunlop. “Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking.” ).
In Delhi, it is sometimes hard to get all the ingredients, so sometimes I improvise.
Try it, and and also pair it with her lovely green bean recipe.
What recipes work for you and your family?
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