Chicken with Cashew Nuts

As promised, here is another recipe from the Girl's Night feast of a few weeks ago. I know that these posts are a little bit of a deviation from my usual cakes and bakes, however I really wanted to share how easy and delicious homemade Chinese food really can be, and give you a selection of recipes that do not need a cupboard full of exotic, hard to find ingredients.

Of the main courses served last Saturday, this Chicken and Cashew dish is one of my absolute favourites, and the one that was eaten up the quickest. This is a really quick and easy dish, and on it's own would make a really good mid-week meal served with fluffy rice. (You'll have to forgive some of the photography on these posts, people were already eating before I had chance to get the camera out!)

Here's how I made it...

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons Cornflour

- 500 ml Chicken Stock

- 3 tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce

- 1 teaspoon crushed Ginger, or 1/2 an inch grated

- 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (or similar hot chilli sauce)

- 2 large Chicken Breasts, diced

- 1/2 an Onion, diced

- 1 large Green Pepper, chopped

- 150 grams Cashew Nuts

- 100 grams Water Chestnuts (optional)

Step One: Make the Sauce

In a saucepan, heat the chicken stock. Add the cornflour, and mix well making sure that all the cornflour has been absorbed by the stock, and there are no lumps. Add the soy sauce, ginger, and tabasco sauce, and set aside. Tip: you can even make the sauce element ahead of time, leave it to cool, and put in a sealed container in the fridge, then it is ready to add to the chicken and vegetables whenever you need it! I found this useful for the feast night, as I made three main dishes at the same time, so having the sauces pre-made made the whole process much easier.

Step Two: Cook the Meat

In a wok, or a large frying pan, heat a little cooking oil, then fry the diced chicken breasts until slightly golden on the outside, and cooked all the way through. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.

Step Three: Assemble the Dish

Add the onion and pepper to the wok, and lightly fry for 2-3 minutes until they start to colour. Add the cashew nuts and the water chestnuts (optional) and cook for a further minute. Finally, add the chicken and the sauce, and stir well. Cook for a minute longer, or until the sauce has warmed through if you have pre-made it, then serve.

Fortune Cookies and a Girls Night In

Tonight I'm hosting a Girls Night In, with a group of close girlfriends. I've set myself the rather ambitious challenge of creating a full Chinese takeaway from scratch, the magnitude of which as always, only hit me after I had committed myself to the cause. 

After batting a few text messages around, to find out what my guests normally order in from their local takeaway, then making a few calculated choices, this is the menu that I have arrived at... recipes for all the dishes listed will be posted up here over the next few weeks as I get chance to write them up;

Appetisers:

- Chicken Satay Skewers

- Chinese BBQ Ribs

Main Courses:

- Sweet and Sour King Prawns

- Chicken with Cashews

- Sweet Chilli Crispy Beef

Sides:

- Egg Fried Rice

- Chow Mein

Dessert:

- Pineapple Sorbet

- Coconut Ice Cream

Last night, as an addition, I decide to attempt to make a batch of fortune cookies to really add a Chinese restaurant feel to the meal. Making fortune cookies is not unlike making Tuile biscuits, there is a simple batter, a knack to getting the biscuits thin enough before baking, and then the hot biscuit has to be shaped quickly before it starts to cool. This for me was the tricky part, and I had slightly tingly fingertips by the time I had finished my batch, however there really is now way to avoid this, just carefully pick up the hot cookie and work fast. Here are my finished cookies... I made two batches, and the first were a little too thick, but they definitely improved in batch two.

Homemade Fortune Cookies

To make approx 12 - 15 Fortune Cookies...

Ingredients;

2 large egg whites

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

8 tablespoons plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons cornflour

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons caster sugar

3 teaspoons water

The most important thing to start making your fortune cookies is of course the fortunes. Write or print your fortunes on thin strips of paper, and then fold and fold again to be roughly 1 inch long. I left Gary to write the fortunes, so that they would be as much a surprise to me as anyone... this could be interesting. 

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees c, and grease a large baking tray. 

To make the cookie batter, place the egg whites, vanilla and almond extracts and the vegetable oil in a large bowl, and beat with an electric whisk until frothy but still runny. Set aside.

In a smaller bowl sift the flour, add the sugar, cornflour, and salt, and mix well. 

Add the water to the flour mixture and stir through. This will start to clump together, don't worry, it's supposed to do that...

Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg whites, beating continuously, until a smooth batter is formed. The batter should be of a dropping consistency. 

Now, using a tablespoon measure, drop an even tablespoon of mixture well spaced out on the baking tray, I would recommend making about 5 cookies at a time, firstly because the mixture will spread, and secondly, because you need to move quickly to shape the cookies before they cool and become brittle.

Bake the cookies for 5 - 10 minutes, checking the progress constantly. As soon as they start to colour on the edges as shown, they are ready to mould. 

Using a spatula, remove all the cookies from the tray (if you only do them one at a time they will crisp up, and not come off the tray in one piece. 

Now, moving very quickly, but being careful not to burn yourself...

...flip the cookie upside down...

...place a fortune in the centre of the cookie...

,,,fold in half, pressing the edges together...

...bend over a bowl like so...

...place the shaped cookie in a muffin tin, or half sphere mould to keep its shape whilst it cools.

Repeat the process until you have used all your batter, or all your fortunes. 

The recipe for these cookies is very easy, the process a little more tricky, but only due to the speed needed, and the handling of the hot cookie. They are however well worth making, they taste great (of course I had to sample) and I have no doubt that they will add the final authentic flourish to our party tonight... and there goes the doorbell! 

Night x