Cashew Chicken

This is a fabulous recipe if you like stir fry chicken. I found it on Rasa Malaysia, a great food blog.  You marinate the chicken twice, and it completely changes the texture of the chicken, so that it is tender, just like you get in great Chinese restaurants.  It sounds weird, but bear with me, as the results are fabulous.  I have doubled the sauce ingredients from the original recipe, as I found there was not enough sauce. If you are using more chicken, double the sauce ingredients again. You can also use whatever vegetables you have on hand, eg. broccoli, choy sum, carrots, bean shoots etc

CASHEW CHICKEN

1 large boneless & skinless chicken breast, cubed
1/2 cup cashews
1 small green pepper cut into squares
grated green ginger, about 2 tspns
1/4 onion sliced

MARINADE
1 tspn baking soda
1 tspn cornstarch/ cornflour
1/2 tspn rice wine

SAUCE

1tblspn oyster sauce
1 1/2 tblspns soy sauce
6 tblspns water
6 dashes white pepper
1 tspn sugar
1 tspn rice wine
1/4 tspn sesame oil

METHOD

Marinate the chicken with the baking soda for 15-20 mins and then rinse thoroughly. (Make sure the chicken is properly rinsed and clean of baking soda.)

Pat chicken dry with paper towels and then marinate in the cornflour and rice wine for 15 mins.

While you are waiting, mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside.

Heat up a wok with 1 tblspn oil and stir  fry the chicken until the colour turns white and it is half cooked. Take out and set aside.

Add another 1 tblspn of oil into the wok and add the vegetables.  Stir fry until you smell the peppery aroma from the green peppers and add the chicken meat back in.

Add in the cashews and do a few quick stirs.

Add in the sauce and stir continuously until the chicken is cooked and well coated with the sauce.  Add salt to taste, (I don't,) dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

I used choy sum and bean shoots this time.

You can find the original recipe here.

Blogging

I started this blog many months ago, and had no idea what I was going to write about, other than the weird weather we had been having. Roll forward six months and I still have no idea what I want to say. I love reading other blogs, I think it is wonderful that this can be used as a diary, or to disseminate information. I have become an avid follower of quite a few foodie blogs and have found some wonderful recipes. I have also been following ordinary people who lead extraordinary lives. It has meant that I have spent far more time on the computer than before, but I have loved every minute of it.

I would love to be able to tell anecdotes that make people laugh.

I would love to remember to take my camera with me so that I can have photos to show where I have been and what I have been doing.

I have been far more interested in cooking, thanks to Rasa Malaysia and Almost Bourdain. I have started to get back into my crafty ways, thanks to Dottie Angel, and emma lamb, and I have realised that it was perfectly ok to paint over old furniture to give it a new lease of life, instead of spending a small, no, large fortune.

I love reading blogs, I very rarely if ever leave a comment, but maybe one day I will get up the courage to be more adventurous.