{"id":15737,"date":"2014-04-30T22:25:27","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T20:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=15737"},"modified":"2014-04-30T22:30:19","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T20:30:19","slug":"stir-fried-cucumber-chicken-and-cashew-nuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=15737","title":{"rendered":"Cucumber Stir Fried with Chicken and Cashew Nuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"stirfried_cucp\"I don’t know if you have the habit of eating cooked warm cucumber, but for me, even after a year, it’s still an astonishing discovery. Since I learnt this new way to serve it, thanks to Fuchsia Dunlop’s Cucumber Fried with Perilla<\/a> (from her\u00a0Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook<\/a>), I haven’t stopped experimenting, especially with stir-fries. Fried cucumber never fails to deliver tasty results, whatever the seasoning or ingredients it is paired with and its sole presence here made me consider this simple stir-fry worth sharing with you. This delicately seasoned refreshing dish is a great quick meal idea and a perfect introduction for those who haven’t dared frying cucumber yet.<\/p>\n

If you look rather for a cucumber side-dish, you might like this Chinese dish:<\/p>\n

\"Cucumber<\/a>
Cucumber Fried with Perilla (Shiso)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TIPS: I never peel the cucumber (unless I use the thick skinned, short ones; then I peel half of it). Peel the whole cucumber if you really have to, but you will lose much of its pleasant crunchiness.<\/p>\n

Cashew nuts are my favourite in stir-fries, but you can use unsalted peanuts instead.<\/p>\n

You can substitute leek white part with white parts of spring onions.<\/p>\n

Preparation: 20 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n

Ingredients (serves one):<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/2 chicken breast<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/3 of a long cucumber<\/em><\/p>\n

white part of a small leek, sliced (or half of a big leek’s white part, there should be about 2 heaped tablespoonfuls)<\/em><\/p>\n

10 cashew nuts<\/em><\/p>\n

oil<\/em><\/p>\n

salt<\/em><\/p>\n

Sauce:<\/em><\/p>\n

1 tablespoon soy sauce (or more if using low-sodium sauce)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon water<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon sake<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon syrup or sugar \u00a0(I used agave syrup)<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon corn starch<\/em><\/p>\n

Cut up the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces and season it slightly with salt.<\/p>\n

Cut up the cucumber into bite-sized thick match-like pieces.<\/p>\n

Combine the sauce ingredients in a glass or small bowl.<\/p>\n

Heat a small amount of oil in a pan or wok. Roast the cashew nuts until slightly golden. Put them aside.<\/p>\n

Add more oil and stir fry the chicken pieces for about five minutes.<\/p>\n

Add the leek pieces and continue stir frying until the chicken is cooked.<\/p>\n

Add the cucumber and stir fry for about 3 more minutes.<\/p>\n

Add the cashew nuts, the sauce and heat, constantly stirring, until the sauce thickens (maximum one minute, but usually 30 seconds are enough).<\/p>\n

Serve with rice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t know if you have the habit of eating cooked warm cucumber, but for me, even after a year, it’s still an astonishing discovery.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[203,185,125],"tags":[45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15737"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15737"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16050,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15737\/revisions\/16050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}