Day 149: Chicken stir-fry

I’ve come to the realisation that Dear Husband tends to score recipes higher when he is absolutely starving; not that I am suggesting for one minute that I should go out of my way to deprive him of food for any length of time. However, it just so happened that he was late home from work last night and it had been some time since he ate last. We’ve all had days where you’re so busy that having to eat seems to put us under more pressure but I am of the firm belief that you cannot look after others if you don’t look after yourself; therefore, going lengthy periods of time without food is definitely not a good idea. Right, so I had planned to make a Chicken stir-fry for tonight anyway which was going to be quick (!) so here’s how it went…

The recipe said it served four but I just halved all the quantities seeing as only Dear Husband was going to be eating it. Firstly, I sliced a breast of chicken into strips and then put it into a bowl to marinate with soy sauce, wine and sesame oil. The recipe said to use Mirin i.e. Chinese rice wine but I couldn’t get any anywhere nut did manage to find a condiment in Sainsbury’s which is used for cooking Chinese. I figured that it probably was something like Mirin except to get around alcohol-laws, they called it something else just so that they didn’t have to sell it in the off-licence part of the supermarket and can put it on the shelf where it really should be with the other Chinese cooking items. So I just used that instead but my friend Google says that white wine and sugar is a good substitute also. Anyway, in a hot wok, I added rapeseed oil followed by grated ginger and garlic which fried for about 30 seconds. I then added in mushrooms and a diced orange pepper. They fried for about 5 minutes at which point I added in the chicken – liquid and all. That all cooked for about 5 minutes before adding sliced savoy cabbage and toasted and chopped cashew nuts. After a minute or so, I turned off the heat and tumbled in sliced scallions and another teaspoon of soy sauce. I dished up and served the stir-fry with boiled rice.

The verdict…

Dear Husband was exceptionally delighted with this recipe and, wait for it…gave it 10 marks out of 10!!! I repeat – 10 marks out of 10!!! Woo-hoo! It’s not every day that occurs! He then continued to ramble on… “The nicest stir fry I’ve ever had. In fact, one of the nicest dinners you’ve ever made me! Lovely. Nom nom nom”. You know anyway that the ‘nom nom nom’ bit was him still mid-way as he chomped through the food. Normally, he refuses to give any indication of feedback until he has eaten every single bite but not this evening.

Overall, there were quite a few ingredients but it was all relatively easy to make. It definitely took me closer to half an hour to prepare though. I quite enjoyed making it too. With a score like tonight’s, not only has this recipe made The List but it’s going away up to the top of it! I’m telling you though, absence (of food) definitely makes the taste buds grow fonder…