Musing By Moonlight

Photograph of Chinese Kitchen by Peter Griffin courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net.

In Chinese food, the harmony of visual appearance, aroma flavour and texture come together in yin-yang unity. The Chinese favour the creative interplay of fresh ingredients from land, sea and air blended with an amazing assortment of sauces.” The-Chinese Food.com

I’ve had this recipe in my family cookbook since 1972 or ‘73.  The reason I remember when it landed with us is because it’s from Hunan Provence and until The Hunan Restaurant opened in 1972 in Manhattan our Chinese population was largely, if not exclusively, from Guandong Provence.  Hence our only experience of Chinese language and cooking was Cantonese.

I did a search for The Hunan Restaurant and find that there are a number now in New York, but I don’t think any are the original. The first was a big hit rating an article by Raymond A. Sokolov in the New York Times. This recipe is from that article. There are a number of ingredients, but it is easy to prepare.  The only adaptions I have had to make are the omission of monosodium glutamate and the exchange of wheat-free tamari sauce for dark soy sauce. Given the recipe’s origin, I have always been stumped by the use of peanut butter in this recipe, but it works . . . unless you’re allergic to peanuts.  

Hacked Chicken

This appetizer recipe

serves four 

• 1/2 lbs. chicken breast, boned and skinned
• 2 tablespoons of smooth peanut butter
• dark sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon wheat-free tamari
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons scallions, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh garlic, minced
• 1 /12 teaspoons fresh coriander, chopped
• 1 tablespoon brown Szechwan peppercorns
• 1 cup peanut oil

Place the chicken breast in boiling water and leave it for five minutes. Remove it and pull it into narrow strips, about three inches long and one-quarter inch wide. 

In one small bowl, combine the peanut butter with a tablespoon of sesame oil. Blend until smooth. Add the tamari and rice vinegar and blend.  In another small bowl, mix the cayenne pepper and the red pepper and blend to moisten with a bit of sesame oil. Add this the peanut butter mixture along wit the ginger, scallions, garlic and coriander and blend well.

Heat the peanut oil to 300 degrees and fry the peppercorns for about fifteen minutes.  Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of this oil to the peanut butter mixture.  You can save the rest of the oil for other Chinese cooking adventures. 

Pour the sauce over the chicken strips and mix to cover.  Serve on small, flat dishes.