Indo Chinese Chili Chicken

When an eight year old eats a dish, wipes it clean and declares - "This is the best thing I have ever had!", you gotta write that recipe down and share it with the world. Even if said eight year old is a particularly non-fussy eater. Even if you've only recently shared another recipe called Chili Chicken. 

Ever since I have come back from my holiday in Bombay, I have been going through an Indo Chinese food phase. It might be because my parents live perilously close to a Chinese restaurant in Bombay and I could smell their delicious food. All. The. Time. 

It has taken several iterations but I have got this Chili Chicken recipe down exactly the way I like it. One of the most important factors has been acquiring the right equipment. A wok is almost non-negotiable when it comes to cooking stir fries of any kind. I feel almost like a broken record when I say - High heat, quick cooking time. The shape of a wok is best for stir fries as well and you can get away with using much less oil while cooking a typical Indo Chinese dish. After several months of deliberation, I have recently invested in a large electric wok. It wasn't an impulse buy, I assure you. I have only used it thrice so far, but it works like magic. One of my friends tells me that his electric wok started to warp because he was using it on the highest heat setting all the time. But since I got this thing for its high heat setting potential, I am going to keep going. I will report back on any wok warping in a few months and let you know how it goes! For now, I present to you this eight-year-old approved dish. 

Chili Chicken can be had "dry" or "with gravy"(sauce) in restaurants and food carts around India. This recipe can be adapted for both, but as you can see, I prefer a thick "dry" sauce sticking to the chicken. The amount of chillies, garlic and ginger is up to your personal preference (see notes for ingredients marked *). Chilli chicken is a particularly pungent dish, so if that's not your scene then maybe this recipe is not for you! 

Yield - Serves 4

Prep Time - 45 Minutes

Cook Time - 15 Minutes

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1 comment LABELS: Asian, Indian, Poultry

Chilli Chicken Wings

Back when my hand was broken, we were invited to several barbecues - it being the holidays. We couldn't really manage much more than the easiest and simplest recipes at the time, so we almost always ended up bringing either my favorite Baby Spinach, strawberry, walnut and blue cheese salad or these sticky delicious wings for the grill (sometimes both).  As long as we weren't feeding it to the same people over and over again, we figured we'd get away with it. Both were instant hits and with minimal effort, extremely rewarding!

The flavors in these wings are inspired by the Indo Chinese dish Chilli Chicken which is one of my favorites. I pigged out a lot on them while I was in India a couple of months back. If you are in the northern hemisphere, then it is grilling season for you now (I am SO jealous!) and this is a recipe you absolutely must try. But if you are not planning on firing up the grill, you can still enjoy these oven baked chilli chicken wings. 

Yield - 6 - 8 Servings
Prep Time - 20 Minutes + Over night marinate
Cook Time - 40 Minutes (Oven)

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Leave a Comment | LABELS: Asian, Poultry, Snack

Thai Basil Shrimp Stir Fry with Dipping Sauce

Remember the Thai Basil Chicken recipe I posted a while back? Of course you do. It took 20 minutes to cook and saved you from ordering in on a crazy weeknight. It was pretty good, but authentic it was not! Which is why I timidly named it "Thai Inspired Basil Chicken". See what I did there? One of the main reasons was that I used regular sweet basil in that recipe, because Thai basil is not readily available in the supermarkets here.

Last winter I started some Thai basil seedlings indoors and they have grown into a nice little bush this summer. Look at it! It has had a few trims already but it is a source of much joy in our little apartment. This ingredient is NOT optional! It lifts the dish and gives it such a beautiful distinct flavor that you (or I) will never go back to using sweet basil in our Thai dishes. 

I have several stir fry recipes on the blog. They are true weeknight heroes - fast, easy and healthy. Don't let the word "fry" fool you, with just a couple of splashes of oil and high heat, the veggies and meat cook well and retain their crunchiness - the veggies that is! Which brings me to my ONLY rule about stir fries - quick cooking over very high heat. That is all.

Yield - Serves 2

Prep Time - 20 Minutes

Cook Time - 10 Minutes

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Leave a Comment | LABELS: Asian, Seafood, Weeknight Lifesavers

Chili Paneer Stir Fry

I was looking through my drafts and found this old gem. Why I haven't posted this earlier, I don't know! This is one of those meals that I put together in a jiffy by scrounging up ingredients and hoping that something edible comes out of it. I ended up with something that will make its way back on my table again and again. The whole dish took about 20 minutes to make, mainly because I turn into a hungry multi tasking beast after work on weeknights. You might take a little longer to chop but don't cook it too long. Stir fries love high heat and quick cooking. Slowing it down make them soggy and mushy - no good!

I don't usually think of making chili paneer, which is a common Indo-Chinese fusion dish. Paneer almost always turns into some form or the other of matar paneer or palak paneer in my kitchen. Primarily, this is because most recipes for chili paneer start with battering and frying the paneer, which is a bit of a culinary turn off for me. Do you really want to deep fry your cheese? I don't, so I didn't. What we ended up with was a definite keeper. It has a good amount of heat from the chilies and chili sauce. Adjust the amount of chilies to suit your palate. 

Yield - Serves 2

Time - 30 Minutes

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Leave a Comment | LABELS: Asian, Indian, Vegetarian, Weeknight Lifesavers

Indo-Chinese Shrimp Chow Mein

Indian Chinese Shrimp Chow Mein Noodle Bowl

When Chinese food arrived in India more than a couple of centuries ago, it incorporated the influences of Indian flavors and resulted in the most delicious marriage of cuisines - The Indo-Chinese cuisine. The Chinese community in India settled in the eastern part of the country, mainly around Kolkata - formerly known as Calcutta, the birthplace of Indo-Chinese food. Chow mein is standard Indian Chinese fare. You can swap the shrimp out for any protein of your choice - chicken, beef, pork, tofu and even paneer. Now on to the fried spicy garlicky goodness!

Yield - Serves 4

Prep Time - 20 Minutes

Cook Time - 15 Minutes

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2 comments LABELS: Asian, Indian, Seafood, Weeknight Lifesavers

Thai Inspired Basil Chicken Stir Fry

Calling this dish a weeknight lifesaver is a bit of an understatement! It takes about 20 minutes from start to finish and tastes absolutely delicious. Use Thai basil if you can find it, but regular Italian basil works too if you're not too fussy. You can adjust the spice level by changing the amount of red chilies in the dish. I wouldn't recommend leaving it out all together. For palates with lower heat tolerance, I'd suggest using one chili pepper and discarding the seeds.

Total Time - 20 Minutes

Yield - Serves 2

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Leave a Comment | LABELS: Asian, Poultry, Weeknight Lifesavers

Char Kway Teow

I have been really enjoying the flavors of Southeast Asian cuisine lately. The flavors are intense but the cooking process is quick and not too complicated. "Char Kway Teow" is a Malaysian stir fry made with fresh flat rice noodles, very common on the streets of Penang . It can be described as Pad Thai's Malaysian cousin to the uninitiated (like me!). I recently ordered "Char Kway Teow" at a restaurant in Auckland called Mix Moon (very close to a certain infamous sculpture) . It was fantastic. Though traditionally it is cooked with shrimp, Chinese sausages, blood cockles and cooked in lard, the recipe I am sharing with you today is closer to what I ate at Mix Moon. I am just not sophisticated enough to cook with lard. Rasa Malaysia has a really good step by step recipe for authentic Penang Char Kway Teow that came in handy while I was trying to deconstruct this dish. 

The key to a good stir fry is a hot wok (or pan) and prepping your ingredients before hand. Quick cooking on high heat ensures that the vegetables are crisp and flavorful rather than soggy and wilty (yes that's a word). Don't overcrowd the pan while cooking. This effectively reduces the cooking temperature. Stir fry in batches. Use the freshest possible ingredients you can find. I found fresh flat rice noodles at the Asian market. Fresh rice noodles can get clumpy so loosen them up at room temperature by hand. Don't soak it in water. In fact, there should be no water added anywhere in this dish. Water is the enemy of stir fries. The noodles I got were coated in a bit of oil, which helped with the unclumping (yes that's a word too). I have used mild dried red chilies in this dish to control the amount of heat but still have the flavor of chilies. 

Yield - Serves 4

Prep Time - 15 Minutes

Total Time - 30 Minutes

Char Kway Teow - Malayasian Stir Fried Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Garlic Chives

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2 comments LABELS: Asian, Seafood, Weeknight Lifesavers

Malaysian Sambal Eggplant

I picked up some Chinese eggplants from the Asian grocery store with the very noble intention of including more vegetables in my diet. Eggplants are not my favorite vegetable, so you can appreciate just how noble an intention this was. The only way I enjoy eating them is in a baingan bharta - mashed and spiced beyond recognition. Sometimes when you are an adult you have to sneak veggies in your meals, even the ones you don't like. These long skinny eggplants though, are not ideal for bharta so I decided to try something new and exciting. Sambal Eggplant! The idea came to me in a flash - I am not sure from where. It might have had something to do with random ingredients in my fridge that needed to be used up or it might have been this flighty little bird called inspiration. Either way the Sambal Eggplant was fantastic.

Yield - Serves 2 - 3

Total Time - 40 Minutes

Sambal Eggplant

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Jiaozi - Chinese Pork Dumplings

Dumplings are the kind of food I would eat every single day for every meal, if there were no consequences! They are so good! You simply can't go wrong with ginger and scallions - a match made in dumpling heaven - or any other heaven, to be quite honest.

Dumplings are actually quite easy to make, they are just a bit time consuming. If I am making them by myself, I usually put on a good movie (or a Star Trek marathon anyone?) and entertain myself while I wrap them. It is ideal to invite friends over and make a night of it. Most people I have invited over for my "dumpling parties" have really gotten into it and have had a smashing good time. Beware of food coma afterwards though, I have had friends pass out on the carpet / couch because they'd had too many dumplings! 

Dumpling wrappers freeze very well. I keep them handy in event of a dumpling craving.

Here is a little trick. I add a bit of olive to the filling. Olive oil in dumplings you ask? Ideally you'd use sesame seed oil, but I prefer extra virgin olive oil in this recipe. I am a rebel that way. This recipe is all asian except for the olive oil! Use good quality soy sauce in the dipping sauce recipe at the bottom of this post. There is nothing in the world worse than bad soy sauce. Okay, may be there are some things worse than bad soy sauce!

Yield: 120 dumplings
Prep Time: 2 Hours
Cooking Time: ½ Hour

Chinese Pork Dumplings with Ginger Scallion Dipping Sauce

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Bo Kho - Vietnamese Spicy Beef Stew

The first time I had Bo Kho was at a Vietnamese restaurant called Far East Cuisine at a strip mall in Tallahassee. I kept going back again and again to that restaurant just for their Bo Kho. I am sure they had other things on their menu, and I might have even tried a few over the years but their Bo Kho was love at first bite. Bo Kho is Pho's distant spicy, stewy cousin flavored with ginger, star anise and lemongrass. I haven't found it on the menu at any of Vietnamese restaurants I have frequented here in NZ, which is such a shame! I have decided to try and recreate the magic by turning to the internet for recipes.Wandering Chopsticks have come to my rescue with their recipe. I have adapted their recipe and tweaked it to resemble the Bo Kho I remember. Though I have cooked it in a slow cooker, I think a pressure cooker will work well too. If using a slow cooker, I'd recommend not skipping on searing the meat with the spices. It tastes a lot better when cooked this way. Also, an added benefit to this method is that the flavor of the spices get released beautifully.

If you are in Tallahassee, my advice would be to stop reading now, haul yourself to Far East Cuisine on Thomasville Road and order some Bo Kho ASAP!

Yield - Serves 4
Prep Time - 30 Minutes
Cook Time - 7 Hours (Slow Cooker)

Bo Kho - Spicy Vietnamese Beef Stew

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2 comments LABELS: Asian, Meat

Pepper Steak Stir Fry with Black Bean Sauce

Stir fries are the perfect weeknight lifesavers. They are highly customizable, healthy and ridiculously easy to put together. 

There are just three things you need to keep in mind to create the perfect stir fry:

1) Prep all of the ingredients before you start cooking. So slice the meat, chop the vegetables and the herbs before you even think of putting the wok/ skillet on the stove top.

2) Cook everything fast and on high heat. This is quick work, the veggies will get soggy and over cooked if you take too long to cook them. Unfortunately, most domestic stove tops are not nearly as hot as you need them to be, so go ahead and cook it on the highest heat it will get to.

3) Do not over crowd while cooking. Refer to point # 2 above. Over crowding will reduce the overall heat distribution. Split it in two batches if need be.

Steak and peppers are a match made in heaven. The flavors are classic, simple and work fantastically together.

Yield : Serves 2 - 3
Prep Time: 10 - 15 Minutes
Cook Time : 10 - 15 Minutes

Pepper Steak Stir Fry With Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients

1 LB  ( little less than half a kilo) Steak Meat (Whatever kind you prefer)

2 Red Bell Peppers (Red Capsicum)

1 Onion 

3 Scallions (Spring Onions)

1/2 inch Ginger

3-4 cloves Garlic

1-2 Green Chiles

4-5 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon Black Bean Sauce (fermented black soy)

1 Tablespoon Corn Starch

Salt (very little if at all)

1-2 Tablespoons Oil

Method

Cut the red bell peppers and onions into a one inch dice. Chop the garlic and ginger finely but don't mince it.  Slice the chiles and scallions. 

Slice the steak into thin strips. I asked my sous chef to cut it in thin strips and he took it as a challenge to cut it as fine as he could. Oh well, it worked pretty well!

Sprinkle and combine with corn flour and salt. Don't use too much salt because you will be dousing this with soy sauce later.

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Yaki Udon : Udon Stir Fry Recipe

I will be honest with you. This is the first time I have cooked Japanese food. After spending two fantastic weeks in Japan a couple of months ago, and gorging on the most mouth watering food, I have made it my mission to learn to cook authentic Japanese food. I would definitely call my first attempt a success!

Before I get to the recipe, I want to share some photos I took in beautiful, vibrant Kyoto - a city of ten thousand shrines.

Omusoba at the Toji Temple Market, Kyoto

(The stunning beauty of Fushimi Inari)

(Street food, Shijo Dori, Kyoto)

Now for today's recipe: Yaki Udon. Stir fried udon noodles with vegetables and shrimp seasoned with dashi and sprinkled with a generous amount of bonito flakes. This took me right back to Kyoto with the first bite.

Ingredients

Udon Noodles - 4, 200g Packets 
Shrimp/ Prawns, shelled and cooked - 500g
Dashi Seasoning - 1-2 Teaspoons
Bonito Flakes - 1 cup
Nori Sheet - 1
Soy Sauce - to taste**
Cabbage, roughly chopped - Quarter head
Carrots, Sliced - 2
Dehydrated Assorted Mushrooms - 2 cups
Spring Onions/ Scallions, sliced - 2
Vegetable Oil - 3-4 Tablespoons

**Use good quality dark thick soy sauce, because the nasty stuff will ruin this dish.

Method

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3 comments LABELS: Asian, Japanese, Seafood, Weeknight Lifesavers

Weeknight Lifesavers : Easy Thai Red Chicken Curry Recipe

The recipe for Thai red curry that I am going to share with you today is the easiest and most delicious dish you can bring together in under 30 minutes, including prep time. It is one of my go-to dishes to cook in a hurry so I always keep the ingredients handy. Kaffir lime leaves combined with store bought red curry paste gives this dish an authentic fragrant flavor that will leave you wanting more!

Yield : Serves 4

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cook Time: 20 Minutes

Thai Red Chicken Curry

The ingredients might sound a bit exotic if you are not used to them, but I can usually find everything I need in my local Countdown/ Woolworths.

Ingredients

Chicken breast - 0.5 LB sliced thin*
Carrots - 2 large, sliced diagonally
Bamboo shoots - 1 cup
Onions - 0.5 chopped
Garlic - 2-3 cloves chopped fine
Red curry paste -2-3 Tablespoons
Fish sauce - 1-2 teaspoons
Kaffir lime leaves - 4-5 leaves, chiffonade**
Coconut Milk / Cream - 1 can
Palm sugar or Brown sugar - 1 tsp
Basil leaves - a small bunch, leaves torn (optional)
Salt
oil - 1 tablespoon

* Slice the chicken as thin as you can. Partially frozen chicken is easier to slice.
** You can use lemongrass if you don't have lime leaves. You will find packets of frozen kaffir lime leaves in asian grocery stores that last in your freezer forever. They thaw out in under a minute and still retain their flavor!

A quick glance at the ingredients:

(Yes, that's homebrand coconut cream. Now don't get all snooty with me!)

(Slice the chicken nice and thin)

(Kaffir lime leaves, chiffonade: Cut and discard the thick stock from the center of the leaves, roll them and with a pair of kitchen shears slice them into thin ribbons)

Now let's get started!

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2 comments LABELS: Asian, Poultry, Thai, Weeknight Lifesavers