At the behest of my colleague Ross, I’m going to put a couple of recipes up. Here’s a homemade Chinese takeaway curry sauce that tastes pretty much like the real thing. If you are going to take a photo for your Instagram try to do a better job than this:
Ingredients
1 tablespoon coconut oil (but vegetable oil will do).
1 onion.
4 cloves of garlic.
1 inch of ginger.
1 tablespoon of Chinese five-spice powder.
Half tablespoon of hot chilli powder.
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce.
400ml of chicken stock.
Half teaspoon of MSG.
2 tablespoons of flour.
Optionally:
Double all of the above and add 2 chicken breasts.
Method
Cut the onion into large chunks. Finely chop or grate the garlic and ginger. Fry the onion, garlic and ginger on a medium heat for three minutes or so, and then add the five-spice and chilli powder. If using the chicken, add now. Coat the contents of the pan with the powder and let it cook for up to a minute before adding the chicken stock and soy sauce. Don’t worry too much about the chicken being browned before adding the liquid – it’ll poach.
Let the stock come up to a boil before reducing to a simmer. Add in as much flour as you need to thicken it up – one tablespoon is usually enough. A whisk will help you get rid of any lumps. A tiny amount of MSG goes a long way – a half teaspoon is enough for this, even with chicken. Simmer for twenty minutes. If you leave it on for too long it and it gets slightly too thick just stir through a little bit of water.
Serve with egg fried rice and beer.