Sichuan dry-fried chicken, green beans with ginger & garlic, rice & peas

For the new year I’m trying to move away from focusing all (foody) things Turkish. We live in area of London chock full of Anatolian grocers full of fresh herbs, cucumbers & peppers galore, and about a billion different types of feta, halloumi, yoghurt, tahini, olives etc. Consequently 2009 has had a definite Levantine flavour.

However, with an austere new year beckoning, it feels right to explore all the cuisines i’ve been neglecting, and bring more variety and excitement to the plate. Far eastern food has a purifying effect suitable to post-excess January, in particular the strong flavours of Thai, the simplicity of Japanese and the warmth of Sichuanese.

Accordingly last night’s dinner was Sichuanese dry fried chicken, sticky rice with peas and green beans with ginger and chilli.

Sichuanese dry-fried chicken
Adapted from the recipe in Fuschia Dunlop’s Sichuanese Cookery, this has a combination of different heats that excite the taste buds without blowing you away, or wiping out all sense of flavour. Warming heat from the dried chillies, pungent heat from the chilli bean paste and lip-tingling, slightly astringent heat from the sicuanese pepper.

1 large chicken breast sliced into 1 inch pieces
A glug of groundnut or vegetable oil
1 tblsp Chilli bean paste
4-5 dried chillis
8-10 whole sichuan peppercorns
A small glug of dark soy (about a teaspoonish)
A glug of Shao Xing rice wine (about a tablespoon full)
Half a red pepper cut into pieces a similar size and shape as the chicken
2 leaks also cut into pieces a similar size and shape as the chicken
Sesame oil to taste

Heat the oil in a wok until it smokes and add the chicken. Stir and fry over a high heat for 3-4 minutes, until it starts browning. Add the dried chillis, whole sichuan peppercorns, stir & fry for a minute and then add the chillibean paste and stir for another minute.

Turn the heat dowen to medium and add the soy and rice wine. Stir and fry for about 10 minutes. Warning – i found that the chillibean paste welded itself to the wok and was a real bugger to cleam. Adding the odd splash of water might prevent this from happening – don’t add too much though, you want the chicken to be dry when you finish.

Add the peppers, stir and fry for a minute, then the leaks and stir and fry for another couple of minutes. Add a splash of Sesame oil (or more if you like).

At this point i turned the heat off and left it for another five minutes or sop while a finished the beans off and it didn’t lose anything by way of flavour or warmth.

Green beans with Garlic and Ginger
A bit of a Ronseal dish this one so i won’t bother with a receipe listing. Just grab a handful of green beans, top & tail them and chop them into bite size lengths. Slice a thumb of peeled ginger and one clove of garlic into fine slices. Stir fry the garlic & ginger for a few seconds, add the beans, stir and for about five minutes. Serve. i like to add a splash of Soy or sesame oil at this point. But all sorts of things go, some chilli flakes, lime juice, use your imagination.

Sticky rice & peas
I use a rice steamer for this and it’s dead easy. Take equal quantities rice and water. Cook for 15 mins, then warm for another 15 mins. Add cooked peas, a splash of mirin, mix and leave covered until your ready to serve up. This is great, with some wasabi, for the next day’s lunch too.

Tags: beans, chicken, Chinese, rice, Sichuan

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 13:45 and is filed under Eating in. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.