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Fidel Castro - Stir Fry Chicken with ginger and chillie
and Fried Rice - serves 4

Always a favourite, and pretty healthy as it goes. You will need a large Wok (or two).

If you can, get the bottled ingredients from a Chinese supermarket, where they will be much cheaper and proobably better than ones from an everyday supermarket. If you have never been to a Chinese supermarket it makes a great outing - so many new things to try!

Ingredients

What to do with them

basmati rice sufficient for 4
(300 ml or 1/2 pint) - other rice will do

Cook the rice in your normal way (or try Fidel's "Pretty Damn Foolproof Rice") method.

When the rice is cooked, set it aside to dry for 15 minutes (or longer) - spread it out on a large plate - it's important to let the rice dry a bit before stir frying

2 lb (1kg) boned chicken thigh meat, fat removed, cut in small pieces.

You can use any boned chicken, but thigh meat is the tastiest. My local asian store sells boned chicken thigh meat for only 99p a pound!

Stir fry the chicken in 4 batches until it is cooked through, then set aside.

It's best to prepare the following ingredients in advance and put them in little dishes ready - it all gets a bit busy at the end.

some fresh green chillies

1/4 cup of shaohsing wine

chop the chillies and soak them in the cup with the wine for as long as you can (up to 1 hour).
- you could use sherry if you have no shaohsing.

I use about 1 chillie per person. WARNING! - this much chillie is pretty hot and can cause complaints of overheating from people who like their food bland.

You can use less (or more) chillies if you don't (or do) like your food spicy hot.

1" cube of fresh ginger

peel the ginger with a potato peeler and chop into thin pieces about half the size and thickness of a matchstick.

2 bunches spring onions

chop the onions into thin roundels and put them in a dish. I tend not to use the very green bits.

4 eggs

beat them in a cup

When your guests are all seated and ready, do the last bit.
It will taste nicer if you can make some gutteral shrieks while stir-frying.

INGREDIENTS

sesame oil (if you can)

600g of pre-prepared stir fry veg from the supermarket

the ginger and chillies and shaohsing wine (from above)

the cooked chicken

FLAVOURINGS

1 or 2 tblsp light soy sauce

1 tblsp oyster sauce (preferably not oyster "flavour" sauce)

heat some oil in the wok.
- a mixture of corn oil and sesame oil is good.

put in all the ingredients and stir around at medium heat.

include any juice that has drained off the chicken

cook until the veg is starting to go soft and there is some liquid in the bottom of the pan.

FLAVOURINGS

Add a good dash each of light soy sauce and oyster sauce and stir them in.

taste some, and add more soy sauce or oyster sauce if you want.

Leave to simmer gently while you stir fry the rice.

Lastly, the rice

the cooked rice

spring onions (from above)

eggs (from above)

dark soy sauce

heat some oil in your other wok
(if you only have one wok, put the other stuff in another pan to keep warm).

fry the spring onions for about a minute

add the beaten egg and stir like crazy so that it doesen't turn into one large omelette. A proper chinese wok stirring tool is great for this.
Gutteral shrieks are appropriate here.

when the egg is nearly solid but still runny, add the cooked rice and stir briskly to mix in the egg.

Continue stirring for for a minute or two to warm it through.

splash on some dark soy sauce and stir briefly so the soy sauce is mixed through a bit, but don't stir too much or the rice will become uniformly brown.

Serve the rice and veg/meat direct from the woks.