Chinese food is one of my favourite types of cuisine, as well as a comfort food for me whenever I am sick. All of this week I found myself craving some of my favourite dishes so instead of trying out a new Chinese Restaurant, I decided to make my own. Two of my favourite dishes are Kung Pao chicken and beef with green beans in black bean sauce.

Out of the two dishes, the kung pao chicken went the best. The recipe says to marinate the chicken for only ten minutes, but I gave it a good half an hour so the flavours would really blend. While the chicken was marinating I made the stir fry sauce. I didn’t have any Chinese black vinegar so like the recipe suggested, I substituted it for balsamic vinegar. I also used homemade chicken stock because store bought broth cannot match the flavour in my opinion. While the recipe says to add 2 tablespoons of oil, I always give a generous pour, but not too much that the chicken is submerged. After about five minutes the chicken was cooked, I think mine took a tad longer because I did bigger pieces then I probably should of. I set the chicken aside and got ready to proceed to the next step. I added the garlic, ginger, chili  peppers and Sichuan peppercorns and panfried them for a couple minutes. I added the sauce and let it come to a boil before the chicken was added. By this time the sauce’s consistency had thickened and coated the chicken quite nicely. Lastly, I added in the sliced peanuts but no sesame oil because I have an allergy. Usually this dish comes with bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and celery but I don’t typically order it with vegetables because I’d rather have more chicken! 

The beef and green beans in black bean sauce was alright, but I undercooked the green beans so they were a tad too crunchy especially for a stir fry. Firstly, I used top sirloin steak rather then flank steak because I just prefer that cut of meat. For this dish I was rushed for time, so I only ended up marinading the meat for 12ish minutes rather than the full 20 minutes. Preparation of both the bean mixture and sauce went well. When it came to cooking the green beans the recipe said to put the green beans in a pot of boiling water, cook 4 minutes, and then drain. Instead I put them directly into the pan and cooked them that way with some oil. Next I cooked the beef in a different pan so there would be no cross contamination. I added the bean mixture and onion to the pan with the green beans and let the ingredients simmer for around two minutes. I did not add bell pepper, but thats just personally preference. Finally, I added in the now cooked beef and poured in the sauce mixture and let it cook over low heat until the consistency of the sauce thickened. I made a pot of steamed rice as well because Chinese food is best served over rice.

The two biggest things I leant from these two recipes was that firstly,  I either need to allow the green beans more time to cook in a pan or just cook them in the pot of boiling water if I am short for time. Secondly, I learned from the kung pao chicken recipe the concept of velveting. Velveting is a way to tenderize meat that is extremely common in Chinese restaurants. Once the meat is marinated, it is quickly submerged in hot oil or water and then drained. After the meat is drained it is ready to be stir fried. The purpose of this technique is to ensure that the chicken is moist and cannot be overcooked. Overall, the kung pao chicken was delicious and I am going to attempt the beef and green beans dish again.