Cashew Chicken

Last night, at around midnight (no, 12:35AM to be exact) me and my boyfriend went for chinese food at one of my favorite restaurants. Sure their method of pouring the tea is tipping the whole teapot across the table and hope that some will get into our tea cups. The food makes up for us having no napkins on account of all the tea spilled on the table.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but no matter how much tea ends up spilled around my tea cup, I am always satisfied by the food.

Me, being extremely naive, thought that the place would be virtually empty since this would be a really late time to be eating. But the place was half full. And this restaurant isn’t some little corner place. It has a lot of seating room in it. The table beside us had children! Kids around 4 or 5. WHY ARE YOU NOT SLEEPING LITTLE ONES??

We ordered some spicy cashew chicken. All it was was chicken and some spicy chillies. In some delicious sauce. Whatever they did to it, it tasted SO good.

Which made me want to make some cashew chicken of my own. Even though this version isn’t spicy, it is VERY good. I was quite pleased.

By the way, when we left that restaurant at 1:30ish, the place was packed. AND it had a lineup out the door. I never knew that this was a busy time for chinese restaurants..

What you’ll need:

-1 large boneless chicken breast, cut into cubes
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 tablespoon wine vinegar
-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
-1 tablespoon cornstarch
-2 tablespoons black bean sauce
-2 tablespoons soy sauce
-2 tablespoons water
-1 teaspoon white sugar
-2 tablespoons oil
-1 clove garlic, finely chopped
-1/4 cup cashews
-1 red bell pepper, cut into cubes
-1/2 cup spinach

Directions:

    1.   In a bowl, mix together the salt, wine vinegar, ground ginger and cornstarch with the chicken, and let marinate for around 20 minutes
    2.   In a small bowl, combine the black bean sauce, soy sauce, water and sugar.
    3.   Heat a skillet on medium heat, and roast the cashews, shaking the pan to prevent the cashews from burning. Remove from skillet when the cashews are browned.
    4.   On the same skillet, heat the oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic. Fry for around 1 minute, then add the marinated chicken. Add the red pepper, spinach and black bean mixture. Fry for around 4 minutes, then mix in the cashews. Remove from heat.