Continuing my not so ongoing series of easy cooking in a wok I would like to share a recipe that I tried yesterday. Easy to make, quick to prepare and incredibly rich in taste. First, a word of catuion: beware of the chili cucumber. Had this been served in a place like Bar Shu where hot food is the norm, it would have two or perhaps even three dangerous looking chilis next to it on the menu...
Chili cucumber, ingredients (serves 2):
1 dl lemon juice
2-3 table spoons of sugar
Half an ordinary cucumber
2-3 red chilis
Instructions:
Put the lemon juice in a small serving bowl and dissolve the sugar in it. Slice the cucumber very finely (tip: to get really fine slices use a cheese slicer to cut the cucumber and to be really fancy, cut long strips slicing the half cucumber length wise), slice the red chilis. Put it all in the bowl and mix it good, then leave in the fridge to soak.
The longer you leave it to soak, the stronger it gets, so if you don't want it to sting too much prepare this no more then 15 minutes before the serving.
Hoisin chicken, ingredients (serves 2):
300 gr chicken breast filet (or simply put, two filets), cut in 2 cm sided dices
1 dl Sherwood hoisin sauce
8-12 spring onions, cut in 2-3 cm pieces
150 gr oyster mushrooms, halved (fairly big pieces)
1 red chili, finely sliced (leave seeds in for extra heat)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped or mashed
200 gr rice noodles or egg noodles
sesame oil
vegetable oil
salt
pepper
roasted onions for decoration
Instructions:
If you don't have an electric water boiling kettle, put water to boil (for the noodles) right away. If you DO have an electric kettle, use it to bring the water to boil first and then put it in a pot on the stove. Saves energy you know.
Note: when I say "salt and pepper lightly" I do mean "lightly". The hoisin sauce is a bit salty in itself, so go easy on the seasoning or you will end up with a very salty dish.
Cut up all ingredients and put in bowls before you start cooking. Once you start things happen fast. Put spring onions, garlic and chili in one bowl; oyster mushrooms in one bowl; and the chicken in a separate bowl mixed with the hoisin sauce.
When it comes to the oyster mushrooms I simply like to cut them in half, following the stem. That makes them fairly big, but they shrink when you fry them and in this way they look great on the plate when serving.
Heat the wok to really high heat. Add some vegetable oil and start with frying the spring onions, chili and garlic for a few minutes while constantly stirring. Salt and pepper lightly. Then put them back in their bowl. Add a little more oil if the wok looks dry and fry the mushrooms in the same way for a few minutes. Again, salt and pepper lightly and put them back in their bowl.
By now the water should be boiling. While you fry the chicken and hoisin sauce in the wok, boil the noodles according to instructions, this usually takes about three minutes. When the noodles are done, leave the chicken on slightly lower heat to cook completely. While draining the noodles, heat half a table spoon of sesame oil and half a table spoon of vegetable oil in the noodle pot and then put the noodles back in the pot, turning them gently so as to cover them with oil. Salt and pepper the noodles lightly.
Place the noodles in an oblong shape on a preferrably rectangular plate, along one of the long sides. Make a small pile of chicken and next to it a small pile of mushrooms. Distribute the spring onions and chili over the chicken and mushrooms. Drizzle some of the hoisin sauce on top of the spring onions and then decorate the noodles with some roasted onions.
In a corner of the plate, make a small heap of chili cucumber.
Serve immediately, and enjoy. I love the texture of the oyster mushrooms, and the contrast between the salt and sweet hoisin sauce and the acidic chili hot cucumber is wonderful. That chili cucumber really cleanses the palate, but I can imagine the heat can be too much for those not really enjoying strong food. If you serve this to chili newbies, make sure you don't leave the cucumber to absorb too much of the chili before you serve.
