Kung Po Chicken and Snow Peas with Garlic

It had been awhile and I was feeling the need for a bit of Chinese. Maybe it had something to do with people talking about it at the office the day, maybe it had to do with my extra hours of devotion to the food channel this weekend.  Whatever reason, tonight Chinese was on the menu and I was pleased.  These recipes are again from My China by Kylie Kwong and are super fast to prepare once you've got the wok on, so make sure you have everything ready to go before you start actually cooking. 

The smells during cooking are some of the most amazing smells in the kitchen but then again I'm a huge garlic fan so that's not too surprising. These Chinese meals are made to share, so it's always a good idea to make a few dishes at once to serve with rice.  Kung Po Chicken is one of my favourites, but I do have to say that Wil's favourite Fried Rice with Lup Cheong is pushing for first place, and he's a big fan so that's more likely to appear on our menu. My other fave is Mapo Tofu and I have noted down Kylie Kwong's recipe for this so I think I might need to get onto this in the near future.

Anyway, I digress. Try this, it's good. Oh and watch out for the chili, it's a hot one!

Kung Po Chicken

600g chicken cut into 1cm cubes

2 tbsp cornflour

2 tbsp shao hsing wine

2 tbsp peanut oil

10 small dried red chilies

5cm ginger, cut into thin strips

1 green pepper, cut into 1cm slices

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 cup roasted (unsalted) peanuts

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp brown rice vinegar

Combine chicken with cornflour and rice wine and leave to marinate for at least one hour, or overnight

Place oil and chilies in a cold wok and then turn heat to low. Cook 1 1/2 minutes until chilies darked. Remove and keep to one side.

Turn heat to high and add stir-fry chicken 3-4 minutes until cooked. Add chilies, ginger, pepper and stir-fry 1 min.

Add sugar and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add remaining ingredients and stir-fry 30 seconds.

Serve immediately!

Stir-fried Snow Peas with Garlic

2 tbsp vege oil

1/2 tsp salt

250g snow peas, trimmed

4 garlic cloves, roughly crushed

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/4 tsp sesame oil

Heat oil until shimmery. Add salt and snow peas and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add garlic and stir-fry 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add sugar and stir-fry 10 seconds.

Pour in stock and simmer 2 minutes or until snow peas are tender. Stir through sesame oil and serve immediately.