That ‘80s Chili Chicken

This is an old school Chili Chicken every young Indian Mother from the 1980s was christened into when it came to Chinese cooking at home.

Finely Chopped’s Chili Chicken metaphor rekindled the desire to do what my Mum – a Mother of two very finicky daughters loved to cook. Okay, make that one – the me who believed that gourmet food everyday was my birthright. In other words, I was the problem child. I choked on Ilish maach bhaja, vegetables made a pocket around my throat, and I was happy eating luchi-mangsho for breakfast, lunch and dinner. While Little Sis B drank her milk, ate her egg yolks with panache and even relished uchche bhaja.

That growing up ‘80s decade sure was fun, except for the bitter gourd part. The 1982 Asian Games, color television, Different Strokes, and cartoons which made sense.

I grew up in Patna, which had its share of Chinese immigrants. The men were dentists and their wives ran thrifty beauty parlours. Giving the uninitiated populace of the capital of Bihar the Lily’s and the Chang’s salons. The rest of the 40% opened restaurants. The best Chinese food memory from my childhood was this family-owned place called Hsin Long (Thanks Kaushik for the correct spelling). The food was the greatest a 12-year-old had had. One day, we heard the restaurant had closed, it is hazy why they shut shop. We heard the family had left town after paying a huge ransom for living in Bihar to the then gunda state government. That also ended our monthly outing to a great Chinese restaurant.

Which meant we were stuck for life with my Mum’s Chili Chicken, which went on to become a bestseller in our extended family.

Ingredients for the ‘80s Chili Chicken are:

500 grams boneless, skinless chicken, cut into bite-size pieces (I used thigh portions,which have the tenderness like drumsticks and the meatiness of breasts)
1 medium red onion, cut into quarters, peels separated
4-5 fat cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 bell pepper/capsicum, diced
6-7 green chilies, cut into little pieces
Half cup white vinegar
Half cup dark soy sauce
Half cup green chili sauce
2 tablespoons Canola/vegetable oil

Marinade the chicken in the vinegar for about 30 minutes. I do this to make the chicken tender and also to remove any gamey smell from it. Drain the vinegar.

Heat oil in a wok and add the chopped garlic and green chilies. Sauté for a couple of minutes, do not brown the garlic.

Add the onions and give them some heat. Let the onions turn pink in color before you add the soy sauce and green chili sauce.

Toss around the onions in the sauce and add the chicken pieces.  
Cook for 5-7 minutes till the chicken becomes tender. Add the diced capsicum.

Cook for another 5-7 minutes till the sauces dry up a bit. Serve immediately.

 

Take A Wok

The wok is the guest star of this recipe. Apart from being fun to cook in, it also lends a logical system of flavor building. Let me explain, heat spreads evenly in a wok. Its a tool that is built for speed. Because cooking in a wok is done on high flame, the rule is to add the more hardy ingredients first and then toss in the vegetables and meat which take less time to cook.

The versatile wok is a big part of cooking in Asia and the Indian sub-continent. In most parts of India, we do some heavy duty deep frying in a kadhai (Hindi for wok).

In Chinese cooking, woks are used for stir frying too, which is a very active process of throwing fresh ingredients in a wok with very little oil.

You can call today’s recipe Stir-fried Seafood with Noodles, with a Chinese influence. I will call it Seafood Chowmein.

Ingredients for the Seafood Chowmein are:

Egg noodles enough for 4 people
1 cup seafood mix (I used from mixed bag of octopus, cuttlefish, squid, clams and mussels)
Half cup shrimp, cleaned and deveined
Three-fourth cups bean sprouts
Half cup snap or snow peas
Couple of green onions, (green and white) julienned
1 tablespoon ginger cut into matchsticks
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon sesame seed oil
Fresh black pepper powder
Salt

When you are cooking in a wok, the key is to keep everything sliced, diced and prepped. Arrange everything on a plate in the exact same order they will go in the wok. Something like this!Thoroughly wash the frozen seafood before you cook them.
Cook the egg noodles as per instructions on the packet. Drain and keep aside.
I started off by heating a spoonful of sesame oil for that authentic Asian flavor. You can use any high smoke point cooking oil like sesame or peanut oil for Asian stir fries. But definitely not olive oil.

Add the ginger and garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Toss in the seafood mix next.
Cook on high flame for about five minutes and add the snow peas and bean sprouts and toss around for another couple of minutes. Add the sauces and the salt and pepper seasoning.
Add the cooked noodles and mix well.

For the garnish, toast sesame seeds in a frying pan on low heat, shaking the pan frequently not to burn them.
Check the seasoning before you finally serve the Seafood Chowmein, which is pretty much immediately after you turn the heat off!

Garnish with the the julienned green onions and the sesame seeds which are all toasty by now. And maybe a hint of cilantro for special effects.
I have a wok. Actually two. Who needs take out now?