# Chinese Recipes #1 - Kung Pao Chicken



## hotcooking (Oct 27, 2003)

Hey buddies,

Would you like to try some Chinese food, cooked by yourself? From today, I will introduce some great Chinese dishes and cooking tips. I bet you will like it. Let's move on...... 
==================================================

Chinese Recipes #1 - Kung Pao Chicken

(A spicy Szechuan dish made with diced chicken, peanuts and chili peppers. It is named after a Kung Pao or court official)

Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:
1 chicken (about 2 lbs) or 1 lb of chicken breasts
8 dried red chili peppers
1/2 cup skinless roasted peanuts (unsalted)
1 slice ginger
1 garlic clove, peeled and sliced

1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 Tbsp cold water
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Sauce:
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp dry sherry
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
a few drops sesame oil

2 - 4 cups oil for deep-frying
3 1/2 Tbsp oil for stir-frying

Directions:
Remove all the bones from the chicken and cut into 1-inch cubes. Add the soy sauce, cornstarch and water, Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes. 
While the chicken is marinating, prepare the vegetables. Peel and slice the ginger, and remove the tips and the seeds of the dry red peppers. Cut into 1-inch chunks.

Mix the sauce ingredients and set aside. 
Heat wok and add 1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Stir-fry the peanuts until they turn golden, remove and set aside to cool.

Heat wok and add oil for deep-frying. Carefully slide the chicken into the wok, and deep-fry the chicken for about 1 minute. Remove the chicken and drain off the oil.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in wok. Add the dry red peppers and stir-fry until they turn dark. Add the ginger and chicken, stir-frying rapidly. Give the sauce a quick re-stir and add to the wok. Stir until the sauce is thickened and mix together with other ingredients. Add the peanuts and mix just before serving.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Zhou

Cooking Tips #1 - Selecting Ingredients

Chinese cooking uses a wide range of ingredients, including meat, meat products, fish, seafood, poultry, eggs, vegetables, bean products, wild plants, game, and many seasonings. Most come in both fresh and dried forms, but the most important features to look for are freshness and quality.

Meats should be judged by their place of origin, season of production, and any other characteristic-for example, old or young, male or female-that may be specified in a recipe. Appearance, color, weight, water content, and smell are also important.

Different dishes call for different cuts of meat because cuts have different textures once they have been cooked. Cuts of the same meat may be tough or tender, coarse or fine. For example, the Chinese distinguish eighteen different cuts of pork. These include filet, streaky pork, shoulder butt, ham butt, hock, and shank.

The filet is considered the best cut and is generally stir-fried or quick-fried (see the section below on "cooking techniques" for descriptions of these and other procedures) to take advantage of its tenderness. Streaky pork is best when marinated with spiced rice flour (see recipe Steamed Pork with Spiced Rice Flour) and then steamed, or red-cooked (braised in soy sauce). The shank and hock are best suited to lengthy simmering, with or without soy sauce, while the ham and ham butt are often used as substitutes for filet. The ribs and feet are best prepared 'by lengthy, low-temperature methods like braising, baking or simmering, while spareribs are suitable for sauteing, quick-frying, slippery-frying, and deep-frying. The methods used for pork are also applicable to similar cuts of beef and lamb or mutton.

With reference to poultry, the tenderest and most versatile part of a chicken or duck is the breast. Chickens or ducks less than a year old are usually quick-fried or deep-fried, while older birds need long, slow cooking like simmering or braising to tenderize them.

Fish is as nutritious as poultry. Crab, prawns and shrimps are rich in phosphorus, calcium and vitamin A. You can tell a fresh fish by its tight, undamaged scales, red gills, and clear protruding eyes. Fresh prawns and shrimps should be greenish-white, with firm bodies that curve slightly. They should not be flat or limp, and their heads and tails should be intact. Fresh crabs should be alive and active. They should spit foams and have green upper shells and white under-shells.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Zhou


----------

