Yesterday
was one of those days when dinnertime came around far too quickly. Busy beating
deadlines and then my stomach started to grumble. I realised the cupboard has
issues of an Old Mother Hubbard nature. In the freezer were some Quorn chicken
pieces for my 17-year-old son, Tom who is vegetarian. The fridge offered up a
packet of chicken thighs and a pack of ready prepared stir-fry vegetables.
Now I don’t
make a habit of buying cookbooks written by celebrities but at Christmas my
daughter Rosie asked me for Gok Wan’s Gok Cooks Chinese cookery book as a
present. This made sense as she loves fashion and Chinese food but I have to be
honest that I wasn’t that convinced by
it. I admit I was wrong- it’s full of tempting recipes. Rosie and I have
both used it frequently.
Gok learnt
to cook, as a youngster, while working with his father who ran a Chinese take
away and his passion is apparent. The recipes are pretty easy and though a few
ingredients require you to take a trip to a specialist Chinese food store, most
can be found in supermarkets. Everything we have made from this has been really
enjoyable. Even the recipes with tofu have been great and before Gok came along
we had had some tofu disasters.
I wanted to
make something I had made before so I opted for Gok’s Garlic Chicken. Deliciously
moreish and helpfully enables me to simply grab a separate pan and follow
exactly the same recipe for Tom’s veggie chicken pieces. Hope Gok won’t mind but I have modified it a
bit, mostly due to my lack of resources and also because of a desperate urge to
add to their 5-a-day, I bunged in the ready prepared stir-fry vegetables. To
recreate Gok’s original garlic chicken recipe and other delicious dishes, I
wholeheartedly urge you to get your hands on his book.
What you
need:
2 tbsp
cornflour
4 boneless
skinless chicken thighs cut into small chunks
or Quorn
chicken pieces
oil to shallow
fry (Gok specifies groundnut, I only had rapeseed)
4 garlic
cloves
3 spring
onions cut into batons
2 tbsp dry sherry
2 tbsp soy
sauce
packet of
medium egg noodles or you could serve with rice
packet of
prepared stir-fry vegetables (absolutely entirely optional)
pinch of
sugar (Gok says caster, I only had granulated)
What you
have to do:
1. Put the flour into a shallow bowl,
add seasoning and coat your chicken pieces in the flour mix before setting
aside.
2. Heat your wok or frying pan over a
high heat and add oil. When it’s sizzling hot add your chicken pieces and fry
for 4 -5 minutes. They should be golden and slightly crisp on the outside,
cooked through in the middle. Obviously if you are cooking Quorn chicken this
won’t be quite the same but it should have coloured evenly and I would fry this
on a lower heat for around 10 minutes, making sure it doesn’t burn. Remove the
pieces and put aside.
3. Clean out the wok; add more oil and
heat over medium heat. Add garlic and spring onions and stir-fry for a couple
of minutes. Take care not to burn garlic as it makes it taste very bitter.
Splash in the sherry, soy sauce and sugar. Mix it well.
4. Now this is where I added my pack of
stir-fry veg and while they were cooking put on a saucepan of boiling water and
dropped in the noodles.
5. Return the chicken to the frying pan
and stir everything together.
I guarantee you won’t have to call your family for dinner.
They will come out from wherever they are lurking once the aroma of this dish
wafts their way.
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