Kung Pao Chicken - Further Tweaks

Alas, September was a month of neglect for this blog and you, my dear readers.  Now, having successfully moved into a new house (and a new suburb) I'm sure I'll be able to find the time again to continue my hunt for the best and weirdest eats.

There are many things I like about this new place, and naturally the kitchen is one of them.  Finally I've got a gas hob to cook on again, and its so spacious as well with plenty of benches, shelves, cupboards and all.  Once I've procured a large stock pot I'll easily be able to take on some of the more adventurous cheeses - and I'll be able to resurrect my long abandoned pasta machine too.

But, at first it has all been about finding my feet here.  It takes time to get used to the heat of an oven (note to self: must purchase oven thermometer), the nuances of the gas supply, or just where you stored everything.  Once I had figured the basics out I decided it was time to revisit my work in progress recipe for Kung Pao Chicken.

Let's start with the sauce, I used:

• 1/2 t Shao Xing cooking wine
• 1/4 T Black Vinegar
• 1/2 T Rice Vinegar
• 2 T Light Soy Sauce
• 1 1/2 T Treacle
• 12 Dried Chillis

I mixed all but the chillis together well in advance, in the bowl it looked plenty dark enough and I thought I'd cracked the recipe.  The next steps were easy, as the day before I had portioned up a chicken (I took photos of the process so will try to write a post sharing how to do so) and marinated the diced thigh & tenderloin in some more of the Shao Xing.

All that was required in the next step was to brown the chicken, set it aside and then do the same for the Onions.

Then it all goes back in the pan along with the sauce and Chillis.  Only at this point I remembered that i'd forgotten to toast some peanuts right at the start.  So this recipe left out that ingredient :)

Right at the end I tossed in some of the green end bits of Spring Onion, just for a colour & texture contrast - I think they actually work really well in the recipe though I have no idea if that's really part of the traditional varieties or not.  All up it looked pretty good, even without peanuts.

And it tasted pretty good too.  It was damned hot though, somehow the chillis have grown in power with the move to the 'burbs.  The flavour balance was a little thrown because of it and in hindsight I think i'd have doubled the amount of Treacle.  I'm still a little disappointed in the colour & consistency of the sauce too.  

I'll swap out all of the Rice Vinegar for Black Vinegar and half of the Light Soy for Dark Soy next time I make this which will hopefully take care of the colour and reduce the sauce before adding it to the wok in order to get it thick and syrupy like I want.

But, those points aside, clearly it was a successful dish, and reigns as the best Kung Pao i've had since the last Kung Pao I made.  Wellington has struggled to throw up a quality version so far, but, the hunt continues.

Kung Pao Chicken - Dragons, Tory St, Wellington

I'm beginning to worry that the only place in Wellington that will make Kung Pao Chicken the way I want to eat it is my place.  My latest purchase was another vege heavy option without the sweet, dark sauce I hanker after.

Which isn't to say that Dragons' version was bad, because it wasn't, but as with the other's that have had lots of vegetables the overall flavour was quite watered down.  The other thing lacking was heat - there just wasn't enough chilli for my liking.

Having said all that, the vegetables were cooked really well, just tender and though it might be an odd thing to notice, the way they were cut was pretty cool too.  I always struggle to do anything other than boring julienne or various sized cubes, if i'm feeling real fancy I might try slicing on the diagonal - but the carrots in particular were quite an interesting shape - and as it turned out, pretty easy to pick up with chopsticks.

But, all up, this was another ho-hum version.  I think that means so far none of the versions i've tried in Wellington have been any good - can anyone recommend somewhere that does it well?

Kun Bao Chicken - Ming Du Chinese, Karori

What to do on a cold, rainy, miserable night when you really can't be bothered cooking and equally you can't be bothered going anywhere.  The answer is obviously to get your dinner delivered, but for Wellingtonians I suspect that mostly means fairly average pizza or curry.

So, when I discovered on menulog that a Chinese takeaway would deliver to my location, I was intrigued and had to give it a shot.  Then, after perusing the menu and discovering a far more extensive menu than you average Kiwi takeaway, I saw an item called Kun Bao.

This was the best of the average Kung Pao's I've tried so far, much tastier than either Satay Kingdom or Oriental Kingdom, but still not right.  Too many vegetables again I think, and you might be able to see that the sauce was a little greasy and not as well reduced as it might have been.

Still, at $11 a portion you're not going to be expecting too many taste buds to be blown away, so it was good value.  I can imagine a time in the future with a killer hangover and a mad hankering for a cheeseburger that I'll be getting food from here again. 

Kung Poh Chicken - Oriental Kingdom, Left Bank, Wellington

Hey!  So, just because I haven't posted about it in a while, doesn't mean that I don't still love Kung Pao (or Kung Poh) Chicken.  Here's a quick review of my latest experience of this dish.

I was out and about on Sunday night looking for a cheap feed, and as all of our first choices were closed we ended up at the very cheap, and quite cheerful, Oriental Kingdom down Left Bank.

I think this is a sister restuarant to Satay Kingdom, so its no surprise that their versions of this dish were quite similar.  Vege heavy, no peanuts and the sauce was wrong.  The spice level was pretty low too, even with the dried chillis you can see in the picture.  I wonder if the vegetables water the flavours down a little as each time i've had Kung Pao done this way its never quite been as thick, sweet and hot as i'd like.

Oh well, it filled a hole, but this is not the Kung Pao I am looking for!

 

Kung Pao Chicken - Satay Kingdom, Leftbank

I wasn't intending on eating and talking about Kung Pao Chicken from Satay Kingdom next, as far as I understand its a Chinese dish, so it was a bit of a surprise to see it featured on the menu of one of Wellington's well known Malaysian eateries.

To be honest I usually avoid Satay Kingdom, sure its cheap and the service is fast but the food just isn't as good as other places about town.  Its not as if we are short on options when it comes to Malaysian food either, here's a rough list just off the top of my head of places that i've been to:  Kopi Tiam, Serai Heaven, KK Malaysian, Rasa, Satay Village, Satay Kingdom, Satay Heaven, Satay Kajang, Istana Malaysia, Oriental Kingdom, Pratha 2 Go, Roti Chenai, Kopi.  

For whatever reason Satay Kingdom is where I found myself for dinner, and not really wanting noodles or curry or satay for that matter, I decided what the hell, i'd give their take on Kung Pao Chicken a whirl.  But let it be said at the outset, that this isn't the Kung Pao chicken that i'm used to.

For starters, there are no peanuts!  Oddly, as a bit of a peanut hater, this is the part that I missed the most.  Then the chillis are different, there are loads of different vegetables, and the sauce isn't as dark either.  However, just because something is different, it shouldn't mean that its inferior.

Unfortunately, in this case, it actually does mean its inferior.  I think my own version of this dish surpasses it in many ways.  The chillis used were hot yes, but didn't have the deep earthy flavour of the normal dried red ones other places use.  The sauce was sweet, but it wasn't salty enough for me, I think it needed a lot more soy.

I'm in two minds about the vegetables, I guess they do help round out the dish and make it more of a meal - otherwise it would just have onions, peanuts & chicken.  But I think they were the wrong type of veges.  Carrots would work, as they have a natural sweetness to them, and perhaps bamboo shoots might be a good addition, but the green beans were just additional water & cauliflower with its delicate flavour often comes off on the bland side when competing with other more powerful tastes.

I did really like the crunchy barely cooked onions though.  I'm thinking of adding a sweeter variety, perhaps red or white rather than the usual brown, as an optional garnish the next time I make my version.  I still want a base of deep caramelised onions, but a textural difference might work well.

So, the overall verdict?  Well, i've given it 2/5 mostly because this just isn't what I think of when I read Kung Pao Chicken.  It wasn't executed poorly or anything, its just not quite right.  But let's be honest, if you're going to a place called Satay Kingdom, there's a hint in the name as to what you ought to be ordering instead.