Cooking: Chinese Night !

Cooking is an inspiration that comes at really awkward times! 
Its one of these nights where I craved Chinese Fried Rice! 
and of course it will always be accompanied by a main juicy dish!

I wanted to share the Chinese night with you guys
Chinese cooking style depends a lot on cooking your ingredients over a wok !

 you might be surprised by what you add to your Wok but its okay the weird ingredients were a shock for me too but it turned out to be fantástico!
Also another important ingredient is the soy sauce!
 when you want to go asian in cooking you must have soy sauce in hand ! It is the secret sauce to master the asian taste. And it is a great source of protein so ya health !

I wrote below the original source from where I got my recipes but I changed them a little to be easier for what I have in my kitchen and matching my preferences.

Alright so I started by making :

Chinese Fried Rice

The trick about chinese fried rice is to use cold rice cooked couple of hours ( maybe days ) before and this works great for me as usually we have a lot of rice leftovers from lunch which saves a lot of cooking time!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup finely chopped onion

oil

2 eggs

3 drops soy sauce

3 drops sesame oil

1/2 cup finely chopped carrot 

1/2 cup frozen peas

4 cups cold cooked rice

4 green onions, chopped

2 tablespoons soy sauce 

Steps:

1-  Fry onions in wok until they turn light brown and remove from heat.

2-  In a small bowl beat eggs with the 3 drops of soy sauce and sesame oil.

(I didn't have sesame oil so I used a little sesame seeds to taste)

3-  Fry the egg mixture in wok to make an omelette then flip when one side is cooked. Remove from heat and chop it into small pieces.

4-  Heat oil in wok and add carrots and peas ( in my case I used mixed frozen veggies) and stir for couple of minutes.

5-  Add the rice and green onion and stir fry for another few minutes until all mixed well.

6-  Add a little drops of soy sauce to the rice mixture then stir in the chopped eggs and serve warm !

Now that the rice is ready I was wondering which type of chicken to prepare and ended up educating myself about :

General Tso's Chicken

Ingredients:

for marinating chicken:
vegetable oil for deep frying
1000g boneless chicken breasts cubed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of white pepper
1 cup cornstarch

Others:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 green onion chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 red/green whole chillies ( you can add more but 2 is good for mild heat)
half orange zest
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon rice vinegar ( I used white vinegar )
1/4 cup soy sauce 
pinch of sesame seeds

2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water 

Steps:

1-  Marinate chicken: Beat the 2 eggs and add the cubed chicken breast then sprinkle with spices ( salt, sugar, white pepper). add the cup of corn starch and mix well - preferably with hand - to assure that all cubes are coated with the mixture.

2-  In hot oil, deep fry few cubes of breasts until floating and golden yellow. keep the chicken to cool for few mins then start the second time frying until golden brown then drain on kitchen paper to cool.

3-  Over high heat add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil to a large wok. add green onion, garlic, chilies and orange zest for 2 mins till the garlic is golden and chilies are brighter. Add sugar ginger and vinegar, soy sauce, sesame seeds and wait for it to boil. cook for more 3 minutes.

4-  Add 2 teaspoons of cornstarch to 1/4 cup of water and add it to the mixture on the wok. Keep on cooking until you achieve a thick mixture ( sauce ). Add the already fried chicken cubes and reduce the heat to cook for couple of minutes until the chicken absorbs the sauce.

Wooooh look at that yum yummy:p!

So thats it ! My favourite two for now and my first Chinese dishes :) 

Enjoy your weekend Everyone

Bon Appétit !

Amna

References:

1- http://www.food.com/recipe/chinese-fried-rice-38748

2- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/general-tsaos-chicken-ii/