Thai Stir Fry Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Gai Pad Med Ma Muang

Bahan-bahan

Chicken or beef, cut in small pieces, 1 cup (Use tofu if you are Vegetarian or Vegan)

Cashew nuts 3/4 – 1 cup

Onion, 1 whole onion peeled and cut up into 16 sections

Dried red chili, as much as you want

Scallions or green onions 3 – 4 whole stem (stalk?) cut to 2 inches long

Chopped garlic 1- 2 teaspoons

(Optional) All purpose flour or tempura flour as needed

Sweet soy sauce 1 tablespoon

Sugar 2 tablespoons

Sesame oil 1 teaspoon (approximately)

White pepper 1/2 teaspoon (approximately)

Petunjuk

1) Mix all the sauce, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, light soy sauce and sugar together.

2) Add a pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper to the meat, then dust them with flour, if you chose to pre-fry them.

3) Add oil to the wok and set the heat to medium high. Once the oil reaches the medium high heat, add the raw cashew nuts first, then lower the heat to medium and fry them until brown.

It will take a while, be patient and don’t rush it, stir often. If you use the big whole cashew (I use medium size), you can drop the heat even lower than medium. I use medium heat so the cashew nuts are cooked all the way to the inside. If you are using roasted cashews, you don’t need to fry them.

Once the cashew nuts are golden, take them out of the wok and lay them on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil and let the nuts cool. They will be crunchy once they’ve cooled down.

4) Next is to fry the chilies, making sure that they are all a deep red, fragrant and crunchy. Once they touch the heat, they will expand to full round pods, keep the heat at medium or lower and be very careful, the chili pod can burst.

I like Puya chilies the most for this, but you can try Thai chilies if you want it spicier. Take them out and put them on a paper towel to drain some oil out and cool them down. If the chili pods are too big, once they cooled down, you will need to cut them. Also remove some seeds if you don’t want extra spicy.

5) Increase the heat up to high and fry the floured meat.

Fry quickly, only until the flour is golden on the outside. You don’t need to cook them through at this stage.

6) Take oil out of the wok, leaving only 2 tablespoons. Add chopped garlic and toss it around the pan for 30 seconds with the heat still on high.

7) Then add the cut onions.

This is my favorite part of the dish. Yes, you heard right. I LOVE the sweetness of the cooked onion. How much you should cook them? Until they are slightly translucent but not soft. Think of the texture of the onion inside onion rings (I would say Fleming’s onion rings are the best example). This will take only a minute or two.

8) Add the fried meat, fried chilies and fried cashew nuts to the wok. Pour the mixed sauce over them and stir fry until the sauce coats all of the meat. With chicken, continue to stir fry until the meat is cooked through, but with beef you can stop as soon as you see the sauce coats the meat all over.

9) Turn off the heat. Add green onions and fold them in a few times. The left over heat will take care of cooking them further. Drizzle with some sesame oil and shake the white pepper on top. Serve with jasmine rice or, in the case of my husband, just a fork.