Home alone

Jac is off to her cousin’s 40th birthday party tonight. The costume theme is “Something you should’ve thrown out years ago”. Jac’s wearing this horrible blue and green track suit (top and bottom) with an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle T-shirt (I confess, the T-shirt is mine!). The party promises to be a big piss-up; she’s going to sleep over. She’s packed sleeping bag, pillow etc into the car. I’m staying home – because I don’t drink alcohol, piss-ups are just not my thing and my patience tends to wear out as quickly as my boredom and shittyness levels skyrocket. Jac didn’t want to be all garlicky for the party, and so she just had some tinned chicken and vegetable soup for dinner (snacks will be served at the party apparently). I, on the other hand was craving garlic and something home cooked, so I rustled up my favourite chicken dish which has no name.

A favourite chicken dish that has no name

There’s no actual recipe – I made this up some time ago and love eating it. I usually use boneless skinless chicken thighs sliced into chunky strips and marinated for at least an hour (more is better) in dark soy, light soy (twice as much dark as light), a pinch of brown sugar (not much sugar at all – the dish should be definitely savoury rather than sweet), white pepper and a little sesame oil. I use my hands to rub the marinade into the chicken. It smells great already, at this early stage. I fry the chicken in the wok with a little garlic (about half a small clove’s worth), and when it is just about done but not quite, I take it out of the wok, add a little more oil and chuck in a chopped brown onion (sometimes it’s just roughly chopped, sometimes it’s rings) and more garlic (some in strips, some finely chopped – let’s say about two cloves’ worth). I add sliced green beans and quartered fresh tomatoes, and splash in some more dark soy. Next goes half a can’s worth of champignons, which I’ve sliced into three or halves, depending on the size of them. I crack some black pepper over the wok, and pour a little water in, which will help make the sauce.

I felt it was time for some sort of break or new paragraph.

Stir, toss, etc. I put the chicken back in the wok and make sure it’s all really well mixed together. Another dash of dark soy. I cook all of this until the tomatoes are visibly soft and have begun to break down (but not completely) – the soft tomato bits add to sauce and make it really tasty. I finish off the dish with a few more drops of sesame oil stirred through. The bits of onion and garlic should be quite caramelised, and the beans and champignons will have sticky brown sauce clinging to them. The chicken should be tender and juicy. I serve this with rice, of course. The original dish did not have the beans in it. The first few times I made the dish I cooked vegetables separately (fried cabbage and egg, or fried bok choy and garlic), but I’ve said before how I’m a big fan of one pot meals. This way I have to wash just one wok instead of two. Of course, if I could be bothered I could have beans in the dish and cook more veg separately. I’m sure you’ve noticed how much I love using dark soy sauce in my cooking. I just love the stuff.

So anyway tonight while Jac is out partying I hope to do some uni work that must be completed by Monday morning. She’ll be home tomorrow sometime late-morning, after the recovery breakfast that her cousin’s hubby has promised to cook. I don’t know how much work I will get done tonight though… I feel really tired and might need to have an early night. The computer is behaving itself, thank goodness.

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