I admire Chinese cuisine, in fact, I go quite often to Christina's place 'Art of the orient' (Arte d'oriente)*, the most genuine and high-quality chinese restaurant I ever knew.
I always wondered if I would be able to prepare a chinese dish giving just the right amount of authenic flavour. I bought Ruyi Zheng's book, 'Chinese Cuisine for Italians' (Cucina cinese per italiani)**, and decided to begin my adventures with this one.
I personalized a little bit the recipe, changing the quantities and a little bit also the methods, according to my experiences.
Ingredients:
peanut oil for sautéing almonds (and rest)
500 g chicken breast
100 g almonds
3-4 carrots
1 spring onion
3 tablespoons of potato starch
50 ml water
5 tablespoons of soy sauce
2-4 tablespoons of of rice wine
salt and pepper
Preparation:
Slice the carrots and the spring onion crosswise.
Finely chop the leaves of the spring onion, too.
Cut the chicken breast in 2-3 cm cubes or strips.
Melt 1 (or 1.5) tablespoon potato starch in 50 ml water.
Place the chicken slices in a bowl, add 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of potato starch, salt and pepper. Mix well then put aside for 15 minutes. This is a very important step, because the chicken cubes are going to be moist and tender only this way.
Drizzle peanut oil in a large pan, heat the oil over medium-high, add the almonds, then lower the heat (to avoid burning them). Sauté almonds for 2-4 minutes or until the colour changes. Stir often.
Put almonds aside.
In the same peanut oil fry the spring onion slices for 1 minute, then add the marinated chicken cubes and fry until they turn to white and the juice comes out.
At this point, throw in the carrots and the almonds and toss them together well. Cook for some minutes.
Lower the heat, then add 3-4 tablespoons of rice wine, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, salt. To thicken the sauce, pour in the potato starch melt in water. Combine well. Cook until you are sure chicken cubes are ready.
Dividing between your plates scatter over chopped spring onion leaves.
I was literally thunderstruck when finally put a spoonful of my Almond chicken in my mouth. I definetely have to tell to Christina.
