RECIPE OF THE WEEK
Hot and Sour Mushroom and Chicken Stir Fry
Despite hot and sour soup being a recipe of Sichuan province, I tasted it for the first time in a suburban town in Essex, England, having been cooked by my Irish uncle. I was a child at the time but I still remember how exciting the dish was to my young palate. The sour tang of vinegar danced around my mouth before the heat of the white pepper kicked in. This dish is a play on hot and sour soup, it’s super simple to make and will liven up any occasion.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 200 g Mushrooms, finely diced
- 2 tsp Fresh Ginger, finely chopped
- 250 g Chicken Mince
- 250 ml Vegetable Stock
- 2.5 tbsp White or Cider Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 3/4 tsp Ground White Pepper
- 1 tbsp Cornflour
- 3 Spring onions, thinly sliced
- 150 g Silken Tofu (Optional)
Instructions
- Grab a large frying pan or wok and put on the stove over a high heat. Add your vegetable oil, after a minute add your mushrooms, ginger and chicken mince. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until the mushrooms and mince are browned. Stir often.
- Whilst the above is frying, combine stock, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and white pepper in a small bowl, stir to combine.
- When the mince and mushrooms are browned, add the liquid ingredients and stir thoroughly. Turn the heat down to medium and bring to a simmer.
- Combine the cornflour and 1 Tbsp of cold water to a small bowl and mix thoroughly. Pour into the pan in a steady stream, stirring the ingredients constantly.
- Turn the heat down to low and stir through the spring onions and silken tofu. Cook for a further 8 minutes to ensure that the mince is cooked through. The silken tofu will break up as you stir.
- Check the seasoning, you may want to add some salt at this point. Once it’s perfectly seasoned, serve with white rice and garnish with chives and fresh chilli, if you have some to hand.
Notes
- This recipe can easily be made vegetarian by swapping the mince for tofu or a plant based mince.
- I used both mince and tofu, to stretch the dish to feed more people.
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