Gong Bao Ji Ding aka Kung Pao Chicken

Ni Hao!! If you followed my Shanghai Connection it might be obvious on what my next recipe should be. Yes, I have been influenced... Kung Pao Chicken was one of my staple lunch diets at Panda Express at Lloyd Center mall along with Black Pepper chicken and Chowmein. I guess that was the one of the few "spicy" chinese dishes I could have almost anywhere in US. After a few years they came up with Kung Pao Prawns - not sure if they still have it. Anyways...had an opportunity to experiment this out for a few guests at home last week. After a long contemplation between Gong Bao Ji Ding (traditional Chinese name) and Black Pepper, ended up with Gong Bao. 

Ingredients

1) Chicken breast fillets

2)  Raw peanuts (skin less)

3)  Dried Red Chillies

4) Soy Sauce

5) Chinese Cooking Wine

6) Spring onion (bottom white part only)

7) Corn flour

8) Vinegar 

9) Minced Garlic

Of course you can add some red capsicum (bell pepper) to add some colour.

The Method

For a dish that looks simple it's actually a bit of a process involved. It had to be done in different phases.

1) Marinade the the diced chicken breasts in soy sauce with a bit of salt and corn flour powder. 

2)  In a large wok, add a few "generous" tablespoons of oil and fry the red chillies and peanuts for a few minutes. Try not to burn the red chillies. You can stop when you see some brown spots on the peanuts. Strain the fried mixture from the oil and set aside. By this time the wok should've got a nice smoky nutty flavour.

3) In the same oil (please note it has to be the same oil) shallow fry the chicken for a few minutes. Add a dash of vinegar and rice wine as the chicken cooks. You will have to ensure the chicken is cut in such a way that it cooks in a few minutes. Strain the chicken (if you still have excess oil) and set aside.

4) Sautee the garlic and shallots in few tablespoons of oil (use remaining oil if available after frying the chicken).

5) Mix the chicken along with a few dashes of soy sauce, rice wine and vinegar. 

6) After a few tosses with the chicken add the peanut / chilli  mixture and toss it around. If you had some red capsicum now would be a good time. Check and add some salt to taste as required.

Gong Bao Ji Ding ready... 

Serve hot with steamed rice or just by itself as an appetizer.

Happy Cooking!!

C

Vegetarian American Chopsuey

American Chopsuey yet another Indo-Chinese delight which you can rarely find anywhere outside India. Niven - this one is for you. :-)  American Chopsuey is neither American nor Chinese. I think my first attempt at eating American Chopsuey is either at China Tower or Golden Dragon. It was a very unique experience to eat "Murukku Noodles" with gravy. Not particularly a huge fan of american chopsuey, but did have it every once in a while including "Chung Wah" in Koramangala. They used to dish out a killer chopsuey with just the right amount of everything.

Technically it is not supposed to be a very complicated dish. Chopsuey is nothing but a Chinese Avial where you put in all left over veggies and make some sauce out of it. The difference with the "American" version is of course the usage of Ketchup.

Ingredients:

1) Boiled noodles. (Do  not use fresh - ready to eat ones).
2) Garlic (thinly sliced)
3) Green chillies
4) Onions, Cabbage and Capsicum - all cut into 1.5 inch wedges
5) Carrots - thinly sliced
6) Baby corn
7) Vinegar
8) Soya sauce
9) Tomato Ketchup
10) Corn flour
12) Seasme oil

The Method
1) Boil the noodles, drain, dust it with corn flour (this is very very important!!)  and set aside.
2) Heat up a wok and pour a few tablespoons of sesame oil.
3) Once fuming add garlic and chillies and sautee for a few seconds.

(If you would like to add any thin slices of meat now would be a good time.)

4) Add the onions and carrots and sautee for a 1-2 minutes.
5) Add a few teaspoons of vinegar.
6) Add cabbage, baby corn and capsicum. Sautee for a few minutes. (Note: Do not let the veggies go too soggy)
7) Add few tablespoons tomato ketchup.
8) Add water as much sauce is needed and bring to a boil.
9) When the water comes to a boil add the corn flour water.
10) Bring the mixture to a boil until the sauce thickens to the required consistency. It should not be too watery or should not be a porridge either.

Tip: If it becomes too sour add a bit of sugar.

....Now comes the tricky part....frying the noodles

11) Heat up a wok with generous amount of oil.
12) Once the oil is hot enough start frying the noodles one handful at a time. Of course you can do more if you have a bigger vessel. This is THE most trickiest part of the recipe. It took a few batches of trial error.
    a) Once you plonk the noodles spread it around so it forms a circle.
    b) Leave it to fry until you hear frequent crackle. Another test is to slightly prod the noodles. If it is soft, it needs further frying. If it is hard enough then flip it over and give it another minute or 2.

13) Fry an egg and keep aside.

14) Place the fried noodles on the plate, pour the veggie sauce over the noodles and top it up with the fried egg. American Chopsuey Ready!!!

Murgh Makhani aka Butter Chicken

As they say...when it rains it pours. After a long break trying to get back into the groove and catch up on the posts. Niven - Sorry mate Chopsuey is yet to come. :-)

The very first time I "cooked" butter chicken was in Yercaud. We 3 Mustkeers wanted to experiment cooking butter chicken at THE Nanjam. I must've been in my 7th or 8th class at the most. I think we were inspired at that time by many things...can't recall exactly. But we did want to cook "Butter Chicken". We got a whole chicken but a stick through it, lit up a bon fire and started roasting it with by basting loads and loads of Amul butter.  The result of course was a few days of eating Lomotil. It was only after several years did I get to know that Butter Chicken is a staple Punjabi chicken delight. One of the dishes I normally eat to "test the waters" in any new Indian restaurant. If they get this right, they usually have a good chef in place. For a long time I've always thought this is one of those dishes that is best done by a professional. After a bit of research from a few websites was able to get to something pretty close. It does takes a bit of work, but the outcome was worth every minute spent. A word of caution to those who are calorie conscious - this definitely is not a dish for you.

What goes in:

1) Butter
2) Cream
3) Chicken
4) Tomatoes
5) Tomato paste
6) Onions
7) Red chillies
8) Ginger juliennes
9) Ginger & Garlic paste
10) Garam masala spices (Bay leaf, Cinnamon, Star aniseed, green elaichi (most important), cloves, cumin seeds
11) Coriander powder
12) Kasuri Methi. - Wonder what the magic is in that unassuming dried methi leaves.
13) Honey

The process:

Butter chicken has to be done in 2 phases.

Phase 1
1) Make a paste with the following:
   a) Ginger garlic paste
   b) Red Chilli powder
   c) Coriander powder
   d) Salt
2) Marinate the chicken in the above paste.
3) Heat up a large skillet and melt a generous amount of butter.
4) Saute the spices, chillies and ginger for a few minutes
5) Add onions and saute until translucent.
6) Add the tomatoes and saute until the mixture becomes mushy.
7) Set this mixture aside to cool down.
8) Saute the marinated chicken until they are half cooked.

You should have












9) Blend the tomato-onion mix to a fairly smooth paste.
10) Filter the blended contents using a sieve. This gives the smooth texture of a restaurant style butter chicken gravy. Of course this method can be used for any tomato based gravy.

Phase 2
1) Heat a skillet and melt butter. (Is someone counting calories already?)
2) Sautee the ginger juliennes.
3) Add tomato paste and saute until the oil (er..butter) separates.
4) Add the blended paste and bring to a simmer.
5) Add the cream and bring to a boil.
6) Add a few tea spoons of honey.
7) Add chicken and bring it to a boil.
8) Based on the required thickness of the gravy keep adding water in small quantities.
9) Add the Kasuri Methi leaves and give it a stir.
10) Garnish with coriander leaves and its ready to serve.

A  tip

Instead of doing the chicken thing as mentioned above...a better idea would be to make some tandoori chicken tikka and add it to the gravy.

Aloo Gobhi

Hello,

Finally BIA at the Kitchen after a "short" break. Aloo Gobhi has been on the agenda for quite some time. Everytime we had aloo there was no gobhi and vice versa. As with any "Northi" / Punjabi dish my memories always begin from Bangalore. In this case the Gurudwara Dhaba in Ulsoor. Can't say I came close to it, but definitely worth repeating. Until a very recently our spice rack was quite "South Indian". Thanks to some of my IGT mates I came to know of a few more tricks to make it more authentic. This time it was Amchur powder which gives the zing.

Ingredients:

1) Aloo (Potato) (1 - 1.5 inch cubes)

2) Phool Gobhi (Cauliflower) florets

3) Minced Garlic

4) Cumin seeds

5) Onions

6) Tomato wedges

7) Amchur powder 

8) Asafoetida
9) Turmeric powder
10) Garam masala (optional)
11) Red chilli powder

Method:

1) Heat a skillet with a "generous" portion of oil.

2) Sautee the garlic and cumin seeds for a quick 20 seconds.

3) Add the potatoes , asafoetida,  turmeric  and roast it. This is the part that requires utmost patience. You can try to cheat by having smaller chunks of potato, but then it may not become Aloo Gobhi!! So patience please. Potato has to be roasted until you can easily cut through it with a spoon. A better test....try to eat it and it shouldn't taste raw. :-) (Duh!!)

4) I made a mistake of adding the onions along with the potatoes. As part of the slow roasting process, the onions became almost charred and I had to fish it out. On the positive side, it gave a pretty good flavour to the potato. So if you haven't added the onions already, now is a good time.

5) Add the Cauliflower florets and most of the tomato wedges (2/3rds maybe..).

6) Stir fry this mix for about 10-15 minutes along with amchur powder, red chilli powder and garam masala  (optinal) until the Cauli is cooked. Indication - should be slightly soggy.

7) Add the remaining tomatoes and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

8) Garnish with chopped coriander (Cilantro) and serve with hot Chappatis.

Aloo Gobhi Ready!!

Khao Pad Tom Yum (Tom Yum Fried Rice)

Many have enjoyed the hot and sour Tom Yum soup, but this one is a fried rice with Tom Yum. Recently tasted this in a Thai restaurant in Sydney (@Bangkok) and found it to be a very interesting combination. One could call it the Thai Puliyogare for the sour taste. Apparently this is a popular dish in Thailand just not too popular in the westernized restaurants.







What goes in:

1) Tom Yum paste - just get it from the store. I think it's too much of a hassle if you need to make it on your own. And yes this has shrimp paste in it not sure if there is a veggie version of this.
2) Jasmine Rice (Cooked at least 6 hrs in advance)
3) Kaffir leaves
4) Bamboo shoot
5) Bean sprouts
6) Chives
7) Garlic
8) Mixed vegetables
9) Eggs
10) Thai Red chillies

The process:

1) Heat up a wok to as high a temperature as possible.
2) Add a generous amount of oil and wait for the smoke to come out of the oil.
3) Break open the eggs and stir quickly for a good scrambled fried egg.
4) Add the garlic, chillies and Tom Yum paste and stir well for about a minute.
5) Add the mixed vegetables and bamboo shoots and give it a stir for about 2 minutes.
6) Add the chives and kaffir leaves, give it a short stir.
7) Add the boiled Jasmine rice and give it a good mix. Add more tom yum paste if needed (not smelling the flavour enough?).
8) Add fish sauce as required to the amount of saltiness you need.
9) Toss in the bean sprouts for a final stir.

Tom Yum Fried Rice - Done!!

Enjoy!!

C

Tomato Chutney

Someone had asked me if this blog will contain only "exotic" cuisines and recipes. Not really - so here's one of the everyday recipes. But then everyday to us might be special to someone else!! This is Uma's production but I'll take credit for photography, posting and of course tasting testing. :-)

Ingredients:

1) Asafoetida (the famous L.G. Perungayam). I sincerely wonder if there is any other brand for perungayam.

2) Grated coconut (for those who can afford fresh - go for it)

3) Onions

4) Tomatoes

5) Garlic

6) Tamarind

7) Channa Dal

8) Urad Dal

9) Dried red chillies

10) Curry leaves

11) Mustard

The method:

1) Sautee Urad dal ,Channa dal and dried red chillies  for a few minutes in vegetable oil (any kind would do) until brown.

2) Sautee garlic, coconut, onions and tomatoes until the onion becomes translucent and the tomatoes gets mushy. 

3) Add tamarind (make sure there are no seeds in it). You can also use tamarind pulp.

4) Mix all of this in blender until it comes to a smooth chutney. 

5) Garnish with sauteed mustards and curry leaves.

This can be had with Idli/Dosai - typically. Maybe you can try this with a phulka or maybe pita bread??

Enjoy.

C

Pad Thai

Hello,

Alvin - This one is for you. The one who asks for 2 * Pad Thai @ Eagle Thai!! Pad Thai is what made me fall in love with Thai food. Especially the one at Eagle Thai - Pad Thai in Tomato sauce - 5 * (at times over the scale). Since then Pad Thai has been my dip stick to measure my likingness to any new Thai restaurant I try. If the Pad Thai is good then the other dishes can't be that bad. The version below may not be the typical recipe for Pad Thai. It's a mix and match of many recipes I have seen. Some claim that Pad Thai is actually not a Thai dish - but guess what - who cares!!

What goes in:

For the sauce:

1) Tamarind puree
2) Fish sauce (can substitute with soy and salt)
3) Peanut butter (smooth)
4) Tomato sauce (ketchup)
5) Palm sugar (ordinary sugar would do as well)








Other stuff
1) Flat rice noodles - thin variety
2) Egg
3) Dried prawn (shrimp)
4) Pickled turnips (this is the signature ingredient)
5) Prawn - preferably raw (can substitute with chicken, tofu or any other veggie)
6) Chives (substitute with spring onions)
7) Bean sprouts
8) Ground peanuts (roasted)



The procedure:

1) Mix the ingredients of the sauce together and make a paste. The quantity of each of this ingredient would make or break the taste of Pad Thai. Happy experimenting.
2) Boil the rice noodles. Make sure it is not too soft that it breaks apart or gets mushy mushy.
3) Heat a large wok and add a few tablespoons of oil.
4) Break in an egg and scramble fry it.
5) Add the dried prawns and turnips and saute for a few minutes.
6) Add the mixed sauce and saute for a minute or 2.
7) Add the prawns and cook them until they just turn red.
8) Add the noodles and add some more fish sauce. Remember to sprinkle some water if the noodles gets too sticky.
9) Mix well for a few minutes.
10) Add the chives.
11) Add bean sprouts and garnish with roasted peanuts.

Some serve with a wedge of lemon - personally I never preferred that.

Happy Cooking!!

C