Combine the Stir-fry sauce ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
Par-boil the bamboo shoots in boiling water with ½ tbsp of salt for about 3-5 minutes. This blanching step helps to get rid of any bad smells, flavours or impurities. Drain in a colander, running cold water through to cool the bamboo.
In a hot wok, add 2 tbsp of oil. Cook the sliced ginger until turns light brown. Immediately add the garlic puree, dry chili and onions, and stir fry for about a minute or 2.
Add the bamboo shoots and stir through well. Add the stirfry sauce to coat the mixture well. Then add the chicken stock to cover the wok's contents and braise on high heat while covered for about 5 minutes, stirring as needed.
When the liquid has reduced, add the cornstarch solution and stir through briskly to thicken up the remaining liquid for about 30 seconds.
Turn off the heat and mix through the chili oil garnish to finish off the dish.
Mix the pork with the Marinade ingredients and set aside for 10 minutes. Combine the Stir-fry sauce ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
Par-boil the bamboo shoots in boiling water with ½ tbsp of salt for about 3-5 minutes. This blanching step helps to get rid of any bad smells, flavours or impurities. Drain in a colander, running cold water through to cool the bamboo.
In a hot wok, add 2 tbsp of oil and when smoking flash-fry the pork, vigorously stirring about 1 minute until the color turns. Remove Pork to a dish and set aside.
Turn the stove to low heat, add another tbsp of oil. Cook the sliced ginger until turns light brown. Immediately add the garlic puree, chili paste, dry chili & sichuan peppercorns and stir fry for about a minute while gradually raising the heat.
Add the bamboo shoots and stir through well. Add the stirfry sauce to coat the mixture well. Then add the chicken stock to cover the wok's contents and braise on high heat while covered for about 5 minutes, stirring as needed.
When the liquid has reduced, return the pork to the wok and immediately add the cornstarch solution and stir through briskly to thicken up the remaining liquid for only about 15-30 seconds.
Turn off the heat and mix through the chili oil garnish to finish off the dish.
The secret to cooking a wide variety of Indian restaurant-styled dishes easily at home is in cooking how they do, with the use of a previously prepared sauce that forms the base of each dish. This example base can be kept 4-5 days in the fridge, or frozen for up to a month, and once prepared will allow you to make a curry up quickly in only about 5-10 minutes!
Ingredients:
1kg white thinly sliced onions,
1.5 liters water
400g chopped tomatoes, cores discarded
10 dried chilies, chopped in half.
50g finely chopped garlic
50g finely chopped ginger
1-2 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
4 -5 tbsp oil
Pour enough freshly boiled water to cover the chillies in a bowl, set aside 10 minutes to soak.
Pour 4 tbsp oil into deep frypan heat and add ginger & garlic stirring 30 seconds till aromatic before adding the onions. Stir on high heat a couple of minutes, cover and reduce heat to medium. Stir every minute or so for about 10 minutes till browning. Add salt, mixing through well, then reduce heat to lowest setting. Continue cooking another 10 minutes stirring every 2 minutes.
Add all of the 1.5 liters of water to the pan & bring to boil. Reduce heat & simmer covered for an extra 10 minutes. Take off heat and leave to cool a while.
Pour the soaked chillies with their water into a blender. Blend thoroughly till no chunks of chilli remain obvious. Remove chilli mixture to bowl.
Pour in the tomatoes into the blender, blend thoroughly till smoothly processed. Add half of the chilli mixture to blender. Blend through the tomato - chilli mixture until well combined. Remove to large bowl.
Add the cooled onion mixture to the blender (working in half amounts if needed). Blend thoroughly for at least 2 minutes until sure it's done smoothly. Remove to large bowl/s and reserve 4-5 tbsp of the onion mixture for preparing the meat in bulk later.
Add 1 tbsp oil to clean frypan on medium heat, adding the tomato paste paprika and turmeric. Stir briskly 30 seconds before adding the remaining chilli mixture. Stir another 30 seconds before adding the blended tomato mixture to the pan, bringing to boil. Turn heat down and simmer about 10 minutes.
At this stage add the blended onion mixture to the pan, mixing through well and bringing back to boil. Reduce heat again and simmer gently about 15-20 minutes. As it simmers, skim off the froth that rises to the surface as necessary.
Sauce can now be used as needed in recipes as outlined, and can be kept 4-5 days in the fridge, or frozen for up to a month.
Meat preparation for recipes:
1 kg of chicken, diced to desired size (from about half to 1 inch wide cubes)
1 tsp turmeric
5-6 tbsp oil
the 4-5 tbsp of reserved onion mixture from the base sauce recipe
Put the oil in a clean pan on medium heat, adding the turmeric & reserved onion mixture when warmed. Stirring constantly cook till darkens (3-4 min), and add the chicken. Mix through well till covered with the sauce. Turn down the heat, cover, and cook till tender (about 15-20 minutes) while stirring frequently!
When chicken is done and tender, remove to a clean container, leaving sauce behind.
Use immediately as outlined in further recipes, or cool and refrigerate for up to 4 days (freezes for up-to 2 months) while using as needed.
A good way to further save time & energy when making the restaurant-style curries is to have a pre-prepared minced garlic & ginger paste handy. One common way to do this is to blend together garlic & ginger with a touch of water and salt, but this will rapidly start to discolour & only last 1-2 days kept in the fridge.
A better solution is to freeze the paste instead in ready to use portion sizes. Most of the restaurant styled curry recipes call for 2 cloves garlic & a 1 inch piece of ginger, so our mix will reflect this ratio, and be easy & ready to use as needed.
Minced Garlic and Ginger paste.
Ingredients:
2 whole bulbs of garlic, cloves separated & peeled
200g ginger, skin removed & rinsed clean
1-3 tbsp water as needed to blend.
1/2tsp Salt
1 tsp Oil
3 ice cube trays
Roughly chop Garlic and Ginger into thin pieces to assist processing.
Put the chopped garlic and ginger into a food processor or blender.
Add 1 tbsp water, and blend until processed into paste, stopping and adding extra tablespoons of water as necessary (a maximum of 3 in total, less is best for final results) to work the mix to process.
When the paste is processing well, stop the blending and add the salt & Oil and process well a further 2 minutes. A tiny dash of turmeric can also be optionally added as well to give a nice colouring touch but is not necessary if freezing and may limit the paste's use with other cuisine cooking.
When the paste has finished the 2 minute final process, carefully pour it into ice cube trays, using a spoon to spread around filling the cubes evenly. Put the filled trays into the freezer, and the next day the frozen cubes can be removed into a freezer bag for convenient later usage, at a rate of 1 cube per curry.
5 try chilies, chop all head off, and cut by half for each chilies
Sauce:
2 Tbsp. Soy sauce
3 Tbsp. Sweet bean paste
2 Tbsp. Shaoxing Rice wine
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
In a bowl mix all the stir-fry condiments
Method:
Cut pork Tenderloin into thinnish strips.
Marinade Tenderloin strips with corn starch, soy sauce, and Shaoxing rice wine.
Add 1Tbsp. oil to wok on high heat, after the oil heated, add onion for stir-frying in a few minutes until the colour changed to golden, then empty all on to a clean plate. Add 1/2 Tbsp oil on high heat, add garlic and chillies to quickly stir, add pork into the wok by stirring for a few minutes until the pork cooked before sliding the plate's contents back into the wok and tiring to combine with the pork well. The moment of the combination well cooked, immediately add the mixed sweet soy-been sauce, mix together and quick stir. the sauce is too thin add a small splash of water, stir through, and add a corn starch solution (mix a tsp corn starch with a tsp water) to thicken while finishing off.
Enjoy served with hot white rice.
Julienned pork strips served in a sweet, spicy sauce on a bed of scallions. Delectable!
1 bunch of scallions cut to 1 inch lengths (optional)
Sauce:
1 Tbsp. black bean chilli sauce with certain amount of chili oil
1 Tbsp. Chilli paste
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. Shaoxing Rice wine
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. sesame oil
Method:
Cut chicken breast into thinnish strips.
Marinade chicken strips with corn starch, soy sauce, and Shaoxing rice wine.
Add 1Tbsp. oil to wok on high heat, add garlic for 15 seconds before adding onion stirring briskly for a minute before adding capsicum stirring briskly a further minute, and adding the eshallots/spring onions quickly stirring before emptying all on to a clean plate.
Add 1Tbsp. oil to wok on high heat add the sauce mix stir well and add the sliced chicken. Stir-fry well for 1-2 minutes before sliding the plate's contents back into the wok and tiring to combine with the pork well. If the sauce is too thin add a small splash of water, stir through, and add a corn starch solution (mix a tsp corn starch with a tsp water) to thicken while finishing off.
Enjoy served with white rice.
The Chicken should be very juicy and tender, the generous amount of chilli oil that this dish produces will be healthily consumed well with an ample amount of white rice, and actually have a nice warming effect without being too spicy.
