Sunday, September 16, 2007

Spicy Ginger Chicken Stir Fry

I've had this bottle of 'ginger refresher' sitting on my shelf for a while. It's basically a cordial, a syrup, that you mix with soda water to get very tasty ginger ale, or as they call it in Australia, ginger beer. The syrup is very strong and not too sweet and every time I helped myself to a drink I wondered if that syrup could be used as a marinade/sauce for cooking. So I tried.
Prepare:
-Chop stir fry vegetables. I used: cauliflower, broccoli, onion, pepper, hot pepper, zucchini, carrot, green beans, green onion, bok choy-Chop chicken
-Crush several cloves garlic and some fresh ginger
-Find some ginger ale syrup
Cook:
-Cook some rice, separately
-Heat a large wok, medium heat, and add some olive oil
-Throw in the chicken with half the crushed garlic and half the onions
-Add some salt and pepper
-Cook for about 3-5 minutes or until there's no pink on the outside of the chicken-Add the rest of the vegetables (include the other half of onions and garlic... don't include the green onion and bok choy) and turn up heat to medium-high
-Stirring constantly, add Asian sauces and spices (I did soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, Korean pepper powder and another Korean thing) and add about 2 tbsp of the ginger syrup and the crushed ginger
-Continue stirring and cooking for about 7 minutes, adding another tbsp of ginger syrup, until vegetables are reduced and chicken is cooked through. Add bok choy and green onion
-Turn off heat, stirring for 5 more minutes until greens reduce a bit-Serve with rice
Tips:
-Have everything ready before you start cooking, as it cooks quickly and stirring a lot is optimal to have the taste homogeneous and prevent sticking to the wok
-Adding an egg after the veggies have been cooking for a couple minutes could thicken it up a bit and add some more protein/taste
-If not saucy enough, add 1/4-1/2 cup of water with a bit of stock powder and let simmer for 5 minutes. This should be done after the veggies have cooked in the spices for a bit

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