Saturday 6 September 2008

The First Recipe!

This evening I cooked this for dinner.









It's Cashew Chicken with Spiced Chickpeas and it's delicious.
Of course, I make it quite differently from the original recipe, but I'll post the recipe and put my modifications in brackets.

Cashew Chicken with Roasted Spiced Chickpeas
for 4 servings

1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained (I often put 2 tins in and double or more the spices, because we like it HOT!)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1-inch pieces
2 shallots, thinly sliced (I tend to put in at least two if not 3 onions)
1/2 teaspoon sugar (I generally omit this)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce (I leave this out because I don't like fish, and replace it with a couple of tablespoons of hot water)
2 cups baby spinach leaves (we just have a whole packet, and eat as much as we want to!)
1/2 cup roasted, salted cashews, chopped (I use the unsalted ones, and just roast them in the oven for a few minutes while the chickpeas are cooking)
3 cups cooked rice

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the chickpeas on a baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of the oil, salt, curry powder, cumin and cayenne. Roast for 25 minutes.

Heat a non-stick wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil until smoking. Toss in the chicken and cook, stirring, until surfaces are seared, but interior is still pink. Stir in the shallots and cook until softened, 1-2 minutes.

Add the sugar, soy sauce, and fish sauce to the chicken and stir. Cook a few more minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

Stir in the chickpeas, spinach and cashews. Serve in bowls with hot cooked rice.
(We usually don't stir in the spinach, but instead serve it in a big bowl, for people to help themselves to. That way it stays cool and soothing to cool our mouths from the heat of the spices! Most often we don't bother cooking rice to go with it either.)

(Originally found on FamilyStyle Food)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was hot today so the cool spinach is definitely a good thing.

Anonymous said...

This looks SO yummy!

Debbie said...

Aw, I'm glad you like spicy food -- I'll have people to cook spicy mexican food for!!!

Oh, and you can definitely make this for me when I get there. :o)