sesamee with Kung Pao Chicken

This is my yin and yang dish. The sexiest way to eat noodles. And it is surreptitously flirtatious too. Quite a mind game this, and you have to be so good at it because it can only be won by surrendering to your senses.
It is the dichotomy of the historical - a cooking style stemmed from the late Qing dynasty emperor, Kung Pao - and the neologism - the word Sesamee. The duality of tempreature - the piping hot chicken and the cold noodles. It is a poetry of textures - the luscious chicken, the crunchy nuts and vegetables, the cold cold noodles. It coats your tongue with the blend of clashing flavours that balance each oone out. And in the end, it leaves your lips stung, tingling for more.
I coined the word Sesamee form the pun of the word mee - Malay for noodles. The noodles are blanched in hot water, quickly washed in cold water and then dressed with sesame, garlic and the green part of spring onions.

The chicken is made with my family's version of Kung Pao chicken recipe. The chicken is marinated to achieve that oh so restaurantlike velvety texture, and then toss in the hot home made Szechuan Chilli oil, and stir fried with some ginger, garlic, the white part of spring onion, carrot and paprika. And then drizzled with that treasured Kung Pao sauce - the perfect concoction of salty, sweet, sour and nutty flavours.

to serve: Place the sesamee in the shape of a chignon on a plate, pile on the chicken and drizzle some cashew oil and roasted cashew nuts.

update: I entered this into the IMBB#18: "Summer's Flying, Let's Get Frying" organised by the fabulous Linda of At Our Table. This is my first entry! Woo hooo!!! I feel so touched by the warmth and enthusiasm of the foodbloggers community. thanks Guys!


The recipe:

Sesamee

Ingredients:

One packet of fresh noodles or dried noodle

One bunch of spring onion - only the green parts - sliced

garlic

sesame seeds - toasted

Method:

1. Add the noodles to a pot of boiling water. Following package instruction for time. Once the noodle is soft, strain and quickly rinse in cold water.

2. Toss the noodles in a bowl with sesame seeds, garlic and sesame seeds.

Kung Pao Chicken

Ingredients:

A - to marinate the chicken

300g of chicken breast - cut into strips

marinated with:

1 TBSP chinese rice wine

1 tsp corn flour

a pinch of salt and white pepper.

B - to make the sauce

3 tsp of chinese black vinegar

3 tsp sugar

1 tsp cornflour

1 tsp of honey

1 TBSP light soy sauce

1 tsp of dark soy sauce

C

1 carrot - sliced

1 bunch of spring onion - only the white part - sliced

1 paprika/capsicum/bell pepper - sliced

100 gram cashew nut

3 dried Szechuan chillies - or more depending on your tolerance (or love) of heat - snipped with scissors or if you only want it for subtle flavour, leave it whole and discard once the chilli oil is made.

3 garlic - crushed and diced

2cm ginger - julianned

sunflower oil

salt and pepper

Method:

1. Marinate the chicken with the rest of ingredient A and leave to chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

2. Mix all of the ingredient B and dip your finger inside to taste for saltiness, sweetness and tartness. Adjust accordingly.

3. Heat up some oil in the wok. Toss the cashew nut in and fried till light brown and remove quickly and leave to dry in some kitchen paper. The cashew nut will continue to cook so don't fry it till it is too brown or you'd end up with black nuts. Remove the oil.

4. Heat up 1 TBSP of oil in a wok. Add the chillies into the oil and remove the chillies immediately and place it in another bowl with kitchen towel.

5. Add the the chicken into the chilli oil and stir fry for about 3 minutes. Add garlic and ginger and toss around in the wok before adding the vegetables. Stir in the Sauce and fry for about 5 minutes.

6. Add about a teaspoon of the cashew nut oil (reserve the rest for you to use in other recipes).

7. Add the cashew nut and the chillies and serve with Sesamee.

Selamat Makan!