Trying my hand at Chinese cuisine: garlic chicken and hakka noodles with moong sprouts

 

Cooking Chinese food... this is a completely new experience for me. I have been enjoying hakka noodles and multiple varieties of chicken here in Delhi, but, till last weekend, I never cooked anything Chinese, or Indianised-Chinese, as some people might define it. 

So I started the recipe search and found a very simple garlic chicken recipe on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chinese-garlic-chicken/detail.aspx which I spiced up a bit according to the content of my fridge. The inspiration for the hakka noodles came from http://sproutpeople.org/recipes/entrees/sprouts_in_garlic_butter.html (Yes, I have started growing my own sprouts, and will write about it soon). The recipe is for "sprouts in garlic butter", which can be used as a tasty sauce for noodles or fried rice. 

Now, let's start with the chicken, you will need:

• 500 g boneless chicken cut in bite-size pieces
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3-4 tbsp flour (maida)
• 2 tbsp peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
• 6 big garlic cloves, minced
• 2 capsicums
• 3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (I didn't have it, so I used Rum... other alternatives are Gin, other white wine, apple juice)
• 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock (boil water with Maggi cube)

After cutting the chicken to bite-sized pieces season it with salt and pepper, then toss it in the flour, until it is nicely coated.

Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken for 3-5 min, till it becomes lightly brown. Next add the minced garlic and the capsicum, fry it again for 5 minutes.

 

The final step is to add the wine, soy sauce (not too much as happened to me, that's why my version is so brown!), and chicken stock. Let it simmer for around 20 minutes and here it is!

Now coming to the noodles, it is all about the tasty "sprouts in garlic butter"! I used my first moong dal sprouts for it. 

Here is what you need:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2-3 big garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large onion, chopped fine
• 1 small chilly, or jalapeno, minced
• 2 cups of sprouted moong dal (or other sprouts)
• 3 tbsp of chicken/veg broth (boil water with Maggi cube)
• sprinkles sesame oil

In a Wok (or karai) heat 1 tbsp butter and the vegetable oil, add the onion, garlic and chilly, sauté for 1 minute. Subsequently add the sprouts and sauté for another minute or two. 

Add the broth and reduce the heat. Let it simmer for few minutes, or till the broth dries up to the level you desire. Remove from the heat, add the rest of the butter and sprinkle with sesame oil. 

Now you only need to boil your noodles in salty water for few minutes and then mix everything together.