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In recent weeks I’ve had two several-day long family visits. Nowadays on such occasions (unless it’s a special party or celebration), I no longer cook complicated meals or new\u00a0 discoveries, but stick to well-tested recipes I know by heart. On the other hand I always choose the ingredients rarely enjoyed by my guests or the dishes they aren’t used to on a daily basis. This is not difficult since Asian cuisine, a staple in our house, is rarely or never eaten by our visiting friends and family. This Chinese-style stir fry, our regular no-fuss weekend lunch, is the best example of such a dish: quick, easy, crowd-pleasing, but with an exotic touch. It’s vaguely based on something we ate a long time ago in a department store’s food court and my husband asked if I could copy. My version contains less potato flour, less fat and the addition I’m very proud of is black Chinkiang vinegar and Xiaoxing wine. I fell in love with these while discovering Sichuan cuisine and always add them to what I consider “Chinese-style” dishes of my own invention. I think they add quite an unusual exotic touch. Last but not least, when guests’ palates allow it, I also add some green chilli peppers for a nice fresh fiery kick. (Of course I always do it when we have it alone!).<\/p>\n
TIPS: If you don’t have Xiaoxing wine, add sake (not the sweet mirin) and if you don’t find Chinkiang vinegar, use malt vinegar instead (I find both ingredients even in a Vietnamese shop in my city, so make sure you ask for them in any nearby Asian grocery shop).<\/p>\n
You can replace the potato starch with rice flour or cornstarch, but the texture will be a bit different and you should add more cornstarch (I don’t know about the rice flour amounts though).<\/p>\n
Preparation: about 30 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n Ingredients (serves two):<\/em><\/p>\n 1 tablespoon oil<\/em><\/p>\n 15-20 cashew nuts<\/em><\/p>\n 2 small chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces or strips<\/em><\/p>\n 1 big onion or four big shallots<\/em><\/p>\n 1 big bell pepper (or two medium long peppers)<\/em><\/p>\n a handful of mung bean sprouts (you can add other vegetables instead, for example bok choy)<\/em><\/p>\n (fresh green chillies, cut into slices; if using jalape\u00f1os, I add one per person)<\/em><\/p>\n Chicken marinade:<\/em><\/p>\n 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce<\/em><\/p>\n 1 tablespoon Xiaoxing wine or dry sake<\/em><\/p>\n Sauce:<\/em><\/p>\n 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce<\/em><\/p>\n 1 tablespoon dark Chinese soy sauce<\/em><\/p>\n 1 tablespoon Xiaoxing wine or dry sake<\/em><\/p>\n 1 tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar (or 1 tablespoon malt vinegar)<\/em><\/p>\n 1 teaspoon sugar<\/em><\/p>\n 1 flat tablespoon potato flour<\/em><\/p>\n 1 garlic clove, crushed<\/em><\/p>\n 200 ml chicken stock or water<\/em><\/p>\n Combine the chicken with the marinade ingredients.<\/p>\n Prepare the sauce combining all the ingredients in a bowl.<\/p>\n Cut the onion lengthwise and then slice it.<\/p>\n Wash the sprouts (it’s very important!).<\/p>\n Heat a pan and toast the cashew nuts until slightly browned (don’t burn them).<\/p>\n Remove the cashew nuts from the pan, add 1 tablespoon oil and when it’s hot, add the chicken pieces.<\/p>\n Stir-fry at medium heat for about 3 minutes.<\/p>\n Add the onion and the pepper (and chilli pepper) and continue stir-frying.<\/p>\n When the chicken is almost done, add the cashew nuts, the sprouts and the sauce.<\/p>\n Stir-fry until the sauce thickens.<\/p>\n Serve with rice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In recent weeks I’ve had two several-day long family visits. Nowadays on such occasions (unless it’s a special party or celebration), I no longer cook…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[185,149],"tags":[45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20392"}],"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=20392"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20410,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20392\/revisions\/20410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}