Pieces of chicken with vegetables on crab bread – Xia Zhan Yu Xiang Yi Mi

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 180 g chicken breast, skinless and boneless, frozen
• 2 tbsp sauce (bulgogi sauce)
• 10 g papaya pulp, pureed, frozen
• 1 tsp, leveled baking powder
• 3 small onions, red
• 10 g spice lily (aromatic ginger)
• 10 g ginger
• 30 g bell pepper(s), green
• 30 g bell pepper(s), red
• 1 pepper, red, long, mild to medium hot
• 1 spring onion(s), green part only
• 3 medium-sized garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp sweet and sour bean paste
• Marinade, the rest of it (see above)
• 2 tbsp sauce (bulgogi sauce)
• 1 tsp, levelled sugar
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar, dark, spicy
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp sesame oil, light
• 8 slice(s) crab bread (Krupuk Udang), raw (see note)
• 1 ½ liters of frying oil
• n. B. flowers and leaves

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 15 minutes; Total time approx. 45 minutes

A spicy appetizer, street and finger food from the cuisine of Western China.

Cut the thawed chicken breast (best using a bread and sausage slicer) across the grain into 6 mm thick slices. Then shred these crosswise into 1 cm wide strips. Mix the bulgogi sauce with the papaya puree and baking powder until smooth and marinate the meat in it until ready to use. For the vegetables, peel the onions and cut crosswise into approximately 2 mm thick rings. Wash, peel and thinly slice the lily of the valley and ginger. Roughly chop the onions, lily of the valley and ginger. Cut the washed bell peppers lengthwise into approximately 5 mm wide strips, remove the seeds and cut crosswise into 5 mm wide pieces. Remove the stem from the washed chili pepper and cut lengthwise on one side. Open it up, remove the seeds and remove the bright red seeds. Cut lengthwise into thin strands and then crosswise into small cubes. Cut the washed spring onions crosswise into thin rings. Scrape the marinade off the meat strips and use for the sauce. Cut the strips crosswise into approximately 1 cm wide pieces. Heat the frying oil to 190 degrees. For the sauce, squeeze the peeled garlic cloves and mix with the remaining sauce ingredients until smooth. Heat the sunflower oil in a wok until very hot. Add the meat and stir-fry for 1 minute. Remove from the wok with a slotted spoon. Add the sesame oil and let it heat up. Add the vegetables and stir-fry for 1 minute. Deglaze with the sauce and cook for 1 minute. Add the meat and stir-fry for 1 minute. Remove the mixture from the wok and let it cool. Add the shrimp crackers, one at a time, to the hot oil. As soon as they rise, press them briefly into the oil to crisp them all over. Remove from the oil immediately, let them cool slightly, and fill them with the mixture from the wok. Garnish the serving plate as desired, serve as finger food, and enjoy. Note: Krupuk Udang (as it says on the packaging) is, at best, a shrimp cracker, not a bread. When raw, it’s rock-hard; if not, it must be dried thoroughly (in an oven at 60 degrees Celsius). Otherwise, the finished product, baked in hot oil, will be tough as leather. The quality and flavor depend on the shrimp content and the quality of the tapioca flour. When deep-fried in almost smoky-hot oil, the raw cracker expands considerably in a few seconds, turning bright white and floating. Remove from the oil immediately, let cool, and enjoy.