Kung pao chicken
THE FOOD CLUB
| The kung pao chicken of one restaurant will be dry; its neighbour may make it with gravy. The dish as offered by one restaurant may be red in colour, while another may be brown. One version may include cashew nuts, the other may feature almonds. |
| The original was concocted in honour of an army general in China who managed to oust a hated empress. At that time, so goes the story, he was stationed in Sichuan, and his cook created this dish. |
| Today, kung pao chicken is a classic of Sichuan cookery, and occupies a place in every Sichuan menu in China. It's easy enough to make at home, as long as you are aware that peanuts "" not cashew nuts or almonds "" are a traditional part of the recipe. It is always dry: some braised dishes in Chinese cookery contain a couple of teaspoons of liquid, but this is not one of them. |
| Sichuan pepper and dried red chillies flavour the dish, which is spicy and mildly vinegary, though every chef outside the Sichuan province adds a dash of some sweetening agent to balance out the flavours more fully. |
| Ingredients 315 grams chicken breasts diced, marinated for 20 minutes with 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp cornflour. |
| 3 dried red chillies 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns (available easily at stores in India) 90 grams raw peanuts 2 spring onions 4 thin slices ginger 2 cloves garlic oil for deep-frying |
| Seasoning 150 ml chicken stock 1 tbsp dark soy sauce 1 tsp sugar or liquid glucose 1 tsp vinegar 1 1/2 tsp cornflour |
| Method Chop the chillies into two halves and lightly crush the peppercorns. Drop the peanuts into boiling water, leave for a few minutes, then drain and peel off the skins. Cut the spring onion and ginger into shreds and thinly slice the garlic. |
| Heat the oil in a wok to smoking point. Deep fry the chillies and peppercorns for a few seconds and remove. Add chicken to the wok and fry until the colour changes to white. Remove, then fry the peanuts till lightly coloured, lift out and drain. |
| Pour off all the oil, leaving 2 tbsp in the wok, then stir-fry the spring onions, ginger and garlic briefly. Return the chicken with the chillies and peppercorns and stir fry together briefly over high heat. Add the seasoning ingredients, bring to the boil, then simmer for about one minute, stir in the peanuts and serve. |
| It's also perfectly legit to boil a quantity of chicken stock down to 150 ml with the fried chillies, ginger and peppercorns. That way, you and your guests won't have to pick out the pieces, yet the dish will be flavoured with them. |