We were sent some rather lovely training chopticks by CleverstiX from the Science Museum shop and in order to try them out to their best possible advantage I decided I was going to cook some Chinese food. With Chinese New Year coming up on February 19th there seemed like no better time to get the Wok out and make an oriental feast. I have made this recipe before and I have adapted it from a 1980’s Marks and Spencer cook book from pork to chicken with some other changes along the way. Now I think it’s definitely one of our family favourites although it IS a bit of a faff so I don’t make it often. This is my way of making sweet and sour chicken with special fried rice and oyster mushrooms. I do the mushrooms and rice in advance and then reheat them or keep them warm in the oven while I do the chicken. It’s probably not terribly authentic but it does taste rather good and with nothing too spicy the whole family can tuck in, even with chopsticks these days but I’ll come on to that!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients: 225g chicken breast (cut into strips), 100g bamboo shoots, 1 medium sized pepper (cut into strips), 1 small onion (sliced), 1 spring onion (sliced to 1 inch lengths), 1 5ml spoon salt, 23ml sherry, 1 egg (beaten), 15ml spoon cornflour, oil for deep frying & 3 x 15 ml spoons plain four

For the Sauce: 45 ml vinegar, 45 ml sugar, 2.5ml salt, 15ml tomato puree, 15 ml soy sauce, 15 ml cornflour & 5 ml sesame seed oil

Method: Mix the chicken with the salt and sherry and marinate for 15 minutes. Add the egg and cornflour and blend well. Mix together the sauce ingredients in a bowl. Heat the oil in a Wok, coat each piece of chicken with the flour and deep fry for 3 minutes. Remove Wok from heat but leave chicken for further two minutes and then remove with a perforated spoon. Heat the oil again, refry the meat with bamboo shoots for two minutes or until golden, remove and drain. Pour off excess oil leaving only 15ml in the wok, add the spring onion, onion and pepper, followed by the sweet and sour sauce mixture and stir until it thickens and there is not much sauce left. Add the chicken and bamboo shoots, blend well and serve.

Special Fried Rice

Ingredients: 2 Spring Onions (chopped), 3 eggs, 5ml salt, 60ml oil, 50g cooked ham (diced), 50g cooked prawns peeled, 100g green peas (cooked), 4 cups of cooked rice and 30ml of soy sauce

Method: Mix half the spring onions with the eggs and a pinch of salt and beat lightly. Heat a third of the oil in a Wok, add the eggs and stir until scrambled, when eggs set transfer to preheated plate and break into small pieces with a fork. Heat another third of the oil and fry the ham, prawns and peas with the rest of the salt for one minute. Remove with perforated spoon and set aside. Heat remaining oil then add the rest of the spring onions along with the cooked rice, stir to separate each grain of rice, add the soy sauce and stir until it is blended. Add the eggs, ham, prawns and peas and reduce the heat. Serve as soon as everything is well mixed.

Oyster Mushrooms:

Ingredients: 450g button mushrooms, 45ml oil, 30ml oyster sauce, 10ml cornflour, 30ml stock, 10ml sesame seed oil and a handful of finely chopped fresh parsley

Method: Clean mushrooms, heat oil in Wok and stir fry mushrooms for 1 and a half minutes, add the Oyster sauce and continue cooking for 1 minute, mix the cornflour to a paste with the stock, add this to the mushrooms, when the gravy thickens add the sesame seed oil. Blend well, transfer to a dish and garnish with the parsley to serve.

So that’s it (along with some shop bought prawn crackers and spring rolls)! What do you think of my home cooked Chinese New Year feast? The children really enjoyed it and managed very well with their chopsticks! They’re really easy to use as they have a thumb hole and two holes for for the first two fingers so it’s a bit like using a pencil. We were at my friend Denise’s just before Christmas and she had cooked Vietnamese Pho; Florence and Jimmy were very jealous of their Brazillian friend who could use chopsticks perfectly so now they are learning with their wonderful pairs from the Science Museum. I think they’re great and wouldn’t mind a pair myself, I definitely eat my Chinese food using a fork!

I was sent the chopsticks for the purpose of an honest review.

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