Spicy Chicken with Cashewnuts

This is an easy riff on the traditional kung pao chicken. It's super easy to make too. 

                                (terrible photo, sorry. Didn't have time to take a good shot before serving!)

Spicy Chicken with Cashews

3/4 kilo Chicken, boneless and cut into bite sized pieces or smaller
2-3 cloves Garlic, peeled and sliced thin
2 tbsp Sesame Oil
2 tbsp Soy Sauce
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Cornflour
1 Spring Onion, chopped
A pinch of black Pepper powder
1/4 cup Cashews

Marinade: Mix together the soy sauce, salt, sugar, cornflour and pepper. Coat the chicken with the marinade. Cover and keep aside for 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, heat a pan with the sesame oil. Add the garlic and saute. Then add the cashew and stir until slightly browned. Now add the chicken. Cook, stirring, for about 15 minutes or until cooked through. Transfer to a bowl. Garnish with the spring onions. 

Serve hot with brown rice, or noodles. 

Kung Pao Tofu

There are some restaurants and foods from the Bay Area that I miss terribly. One of them is Eliza's in San Francisco, which serves amazing Chinese food. Especially the Vegetarian Kung Pao with Tofu.

I thought of calling and asking for the recipe and telling them that I needed it to remain sane! :) But they are known for their rudeness and I wasn't sure they would speak to me for very long!

So I searched the Web and decided to put this recipe together on my own, trying to remember the ingredients that went into it.


Kung Pao Tofu and Broccoli
1 package Extra-Firm Tofu, sliced into bite-sized pieces
5-6 pieces of Broccoli, steamed but still firm
2 cloves Garlic, sliced
2 Spring Onions, chopped fine, green and white parts separated
1/4 cup Roasted Cashewnuts
8-10 dried Red Chillies, broken in half
1 tbsp Oil

Sauce:
Now this is the important part. I combed about 20 recipes and finally decided on Rasa Malaysia's sauce for Kung Pao Chicken.

1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 t dark soy sauce
1 t sugar
1/4 t black vinegar
2 T water
1 t corn starch

Toast the tofu pieces in a pan without oil, or bake in a 180 deg C oven for about 10-15 minutes until browned on all sides.


Heat about a tablespoon of peanut oil in a wok or wide pan until smoking hot. Add the garlic and give it a quick stir. Add the whites of the spring onion, stir once. Add the chillies and stir until you get a spicy aroma. Now add the cashewnuts and the broccoli. Another quick stir.

Now add the tofu and stir for a bit until everything is completely combined. Finally add the sauce. Stir until everything is coated and the sauce has thickened. Garnish with the spring onion greens.


It turned out to be great. Home made Kung Pao. I served it with steamed rice and a quick stir-fry of bok choy and sliced mushrooms.


This is off to Sia @ Monsoon Spice for JFI: Soya.

Simple Fried Rice

When my dear friend, DK, announced that China was the destination for this month's AWED, I really didn't know what I could contribute. I've tried very hard to replicate Chinese flavors at home, without much success - it always seems to require ingredients that I end up substituting, and then it just never tastes the same.

I love spicy food, but when it comes to Chinese, I'm not a huge Indian Chinese person. I much prefer stir fried Bok Choy and Greens to Cauliflower Manchurian. This is one of the staples we used to make - a very simple fried rice, which was always well appreciated.


Simple Fried Rice

1.5 cups cooked long grain Rice (chilled overnight in the refrigerator (leftovers are perfect) - the rice needs to be cold. I used Basmati)
3/4 cup or more Bean Sprouts
2-3 cloves Garlic, chopped
2 tsp Soy Sauce
2-3 Spring Onions (white and green parts chopped separately)
1/2 cup Mushrooms (I used button, but shiitake are preferable)
1 Egg, beaten with a tsp of water

Heat a tsp of sesame oil in a pan. When hot add the garlic, white parts of the spring onions, mushrooms and soy sauce. Stir fry until mushrooms are cooked. Remove from heat and keep aside.


Add the egg to the pan and swirl around to form a very thin layer. Let it set (about a minute), then gently slide off the pan and roll into a cigar shape. Cut cross-wise to form the restaurant-style strips.


Now add the cold rice to the pan, saute for a minute and then add the mushroom mixture. Toss with the rice for about 2 minutes until combined. Add the egg and toss through. I like to add some more bean sprouts at this point to add some crunchiness, but its completely optional. Now add the chopped green parts of the spring onion.


Serve with stir-fried greens.


This rice can obviously be made very personal by adding or subtracting any of the veggies. It tastes great with peas, carrots as well. Feel free to leave out the mushrooms or eggs if you don't enjoy them. This is a very basic recipe that can be easily customized for your taste.