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Hi guys, Jeremy here from School of Wok and Katie from QKatie, not cute Katie, Q Katie.
Although if you think I'm cute that's cool too!
Anyway, we won't go there, welcome to Wok Wednesdays.
This week it's one of our suggestions from loads of our subscribers - American style
Chinese orange chicken/tofu!
So orange chicken, is it a real... is it real food?
It's a thing!
It is a thing.
Yeah, I mean for as long as I can remember going to Chinese restaurants, orange chicken
was usually one of the dishes on the table.
Okay, alright.
It's definitely American-Chinese.
My mind's kinda blown, I didn't know that it was so specifically American.
Yeah, I mean here you've got your sweet and sours.
Right, similar.
Yeah, chilli beef's a big thing here, but I would say that they're very Anglicised Chinese
dishes, they're things that we've almost made up or revamped here.
Sweet and sour's a big flavour in Chinese cooking, which orange chicken essentially
is a sweet and sour chicken, y'know.
Oranges are naturally sweet and sour.
Exactly!
Yeah, it's got the same flavour element.
We're gonna start with the base of our mandarins or orange, so just squeeze - we don't have
anything, any sort of crazy implements here, just use your hands.
I just washed my hands.
Oh good, I didn't.
No no, I did.
Get as much of that juice in there as possible, I would always start with the orange, because
it's a natural fruit, so you want to sort of taste how sweet or sour that juice actually
is before then you actually add in any of the other ingredients.
Y'know the recipe might say 2 to 3 tablespoons of sugar, but that's why it's 2 to 3, because
you may not need that much sugar.
I've got another interesting sort of ingredient here, this is mandarin peel.
Oh!
So it's dried orange or mandarin peel.
Oh I thought they were like mushrooms!
If you smell that, you've got a sort of bitter sweet flavour from them, and you can get these
from Chinese supermarkets.
We're not gonna use all of the peel, but what I've done is I've soaked that in hot water,
and you get that really nice aroma.
For the most part, we'll just use the water, but we'll probably sort of put one of those
pieces into the sauce when we're bubbling it away, and it'll take a lot of flavour from
that.
What you don't want to do is put too much, or put your orange or mandarin peel in for
too long, because you don't want too much bitterness, but you want a depth of flavour.
Again, pretty sure that most take aways won't be using stuff like this.
So we've got your mandarin water that we're gonna add to that, and this will thicken up
later on, and then we're gonna start to compile the rest of the sauce, cool?
Taste that and see how sour we think it is, or how sweet these mandarins are.
Oh they're quite tart!
Yeah they are quite tart, but I can taste the mandarin water.
Yeah, okay, exactly.
Yeah, it's nice.
It's good, it's got a depth of flavour but not too much, alright.
So we've got your BBQ sauce, which again if you sort of dip the end of your spoon and
taste that, it's got a slight smokiness, tomatoey paste almost.
And then that will accentuate the colour as well, so we're gonna pop all of that in I
would say.
And then ketchup, the magic ingredient for most sweet and sour bases, let's go for all
of that ketchup.
Give it a mix and we'll taste it with the sweetness of the ketchup before we then add
the sugar.
Give that a good mix.
Just have a little taste of that.
So again, smokiness from the BBQ sauce, your sweetness from the ketchup.
Now we don't need excessive amounts of sugar.
No not at all!
I would say that we'll probably start with 2 tablespoons of sugar and see how that goes.
Because actually I want to use a little bit of lime juice as well to accentuate the citrus
flavour.
So we've got two tablespoons of sugar in there so far.
Of course it'll take a little bit of melting so give that a little stir for another 30
seconds.
Let that melt through and we'll taste it again.
How's that taste now?
It's really nice, but I see what you mean, I think it could use.
Yeah I think that's sweet enough, don't you think?
Yeah I do.
I think it could use that lime.
Exactly, so a squeeze of maybe half a lime should finish this off, and just lift that
sour flavour.
Yes!
Oh my God, that makes a significant difference!
Yeah, but you don't taste lime, you taste the mandarin or the orange - the real base.
I mean I would even describe the difference that makes as, the difference of oh my God
I want more.
It added the element that just made it addicting.
Exactly, and that is the epitome of Chinese food.
If you get the balance right, you're looking for that perfect balance of flavour, texture
and colour.
And if the perfect balance of flavour is there, then you just wanna keep going.
That's why it's so moorish.
Yeah!
Okay, so that's what we're going for.
Sauce, pretty much there.
We'll pop one of those in there, so that we get a bit more flavour from that, and that's
ready for our stir frying at the end.
So, I've got chicken, you've got tofu, but we're gonna prep a little bit of onion, ginger
and garlic - classic Chinese base.
We want the onion nice and thin, so just take the edges off.
You studied at Le Cordon Bleu?
I did, in Paris, and you did here in London yeah?
I did here so this is a head to head on London verses Paris as to what teaching is actually
better.
No, I hope that Paris - I hope I don't disappoint Paris.
The finer you can get it the better.
Just a quick base of onion, and we're gonna put a bit of ginger and garlic with that,
but what we're gonna do is I'll set up a wok clock, and you can set up a wok clock.
Okay, so onions go at 12 o'clock on your plate, and then we've got a little bit of ginger
and garlic.
The core of Chinese cooking.
With your ginger, we probably only need half of that amount each.
Peel that, and then we're gonna go for nice julienne as the French like to call it, or
the Chinese - 'matchstick'.
So as finer matchstick as you can get.
Woah!
Or just throw your ginger on the floor.
Whichever way you want to do it, up to you.
I've still got my ginger.
I will eat floor ginger.
Nice fine matchsticks of ginger.
Okay, so we've got your ginger, garlic and then actually even with your garlic just sort
of peel it, and then slices is absolutely fine.
You don't want to go too fine on it, so just simple slices.
That can go with your ginger.
Look, tofu is obviously very different to a piece of chicken breast, but what we've
done with your tofu is we've pressed that.
We're going for sort of escalopes of chicken, so we'll go for a similar sort of thing with
the tofu.
With my chicken, of course, I'm just sort of gonna butterfly it out and just open that
up like that.
I think each escalope if I can, get it as thing as possible.
So your tofu, probably go for about half a centimetre, and then nice chunks to that sort
of size.
You might want to cut your tofu in half and then do those slices.
I'm only gonna do one chicken breast here because you get quite a lot out of it.
And then you don't need to do anything else with your tofu, but with the chicken, I'm
gonna bash it out.
Getting rid of some of your aggression there?
Yeah, London transport this morning...
Exactly.
Okay, I'm going for a nice good sized escalopes, but still pick up-able, if that's ever a word.
It is a word now!
Right, I've got a bowl for you, and then we're just gonna pop the protein in.
We're gonna marinade this, but with yours you've got to be quite light with it, because
it's tofu, it can easily break up, so when you're marinading it don't really massage
it too much.
Classic Chinese marinade, yep?
We keep it really simple, light soy sauce, sesame oil and usually a pinch of sugar, but
this sauce has got so much sugar in it, I wouldn't add any more.
So, light soy sauce, we literally just want like a good drizzle over the top of the tofu,
and then I'm gonna use the rest for my chicken.
Right, so this'll give it a base of flavour - that layering of flavour is really important.
Sesame oil, a little bit of sesame oil and then the same again just straight over the
top, okay?
Give that a good mix - for me I'm gonna have to massage this.
For you just gently sort of roll it around without trying to break your tofu too much.
Straight through, and I'm really gonna massage that chicken through so I can get all that
flavour up from the chicken.
So, egg - this is to help stick your cornflour around, so you're just gonna place your egg
over the top and gently run that egg around the edge of your tofu.
You don't have to be too precise with this.
Right, so for you just gently rub it around, and then what we're gonna do is you've got
your cornflour here.
We're gonna season that cornflour with a little bit of salt and pepper.
Okay, so we'll do your tofu first, so when you're doing it, carefully take piece by piece,
and then just cover your tofu in that cornflour, and then you've got a plate there by your
side.
Just give it a little dust, then pop it on the plate.
So your tofu's pretty much there now, I'm gonna do the same with the chicken.
The key to this, is you can see excessive amounts of cornflour here in this bowl.
Now, the reason for that is, especially when we're doing meats and things which I'll put
in next, it's a foolproof way of making sure that you've got a really good coating - dry
coating - around your protein or your meat, yeah?
That's what makes it super crispy.
Okay, I feel like some of these are not gonna get super crispy.
That's fine, if it's broken a little, I don't mind, okay?
You give your hands a clean, I'm gonna do the chicken.
You're looking for a dry, dusty white consistency around your meat, or your tofu or protein,
or whatever you're cooking.
Right, so, dry, dusty white.
Yours, is kinda like that, but it's tofu so it should look slightly different.
We're gonna deep fry your tofu first, and then we'll do the meat, okay?
Now when you're deep frying go piece by piece, go slowly, but what we do, is I've got this
on a high heat already and I'm gonna test the oil first.
So anything wooden is great for that, so if you put your wooden chopsticks in and it fizzes
straight away, then you know that your oil is at 180 degrees celsius.
The key is, if it doesn't fizz immediately, then you know it's too low a heat, but you
don't ever want your oil to be smoking hot, especially when you're deep frying, because
then it can very easily set on fire.
Just lay your tofu pieces one by one into that oil, okay?
Go careful on it.
Oooo, I smell the frying happening.
Now we're smelling like a Chinese takeaway!
Yeah, you can put a few more pieces in there.
You can see how crispy that's getting actually, that's great.
Look at that.
That's it.
Nice.
Looking good, yeah you can put the last couple of pieces in.
They come out nice and crispy.
Yeah, they're coming out really well!
Yeah, it solidifies them a bit being in there I think.
Yeah, exactly, and the cornflour gives it that crust.
You can see with the tofu, or anything really, even with the chicken, as soon as it starts
to float to the top, you know it's well cooked because it's airy in between.
Are you, in terms of colour, what are some cues - like when it starts to get golden brown?
Right, yeah, golden brown like most things, then you're like, okay that's good.
And 'cause it will continue to fry a bit even after you take it out, right?
Yeah, exactly.
And It'll develop a wee bit more.
Actually with tofu, like what we might do is if we want to keep it super crispy, We'll
probably just reduce that sauce down, and then instead of putting the tofu into the
sauce, we'll pour the sauce over the top.
That's your batch of tofu, and then we'll do the same with the chicken.
Chicken pieces.
Again, because they're quite thin, it shouldn't take much longer than the tofu.
I'm just gonna allow that to crisp up for the last 30 seconds, so I'm not gonna double
fry this, but you could if you wish.
But actually what I'm seeing, is that these bits of chicken are actually really crispy
already.
They're looking good, yeah.
Right, so, crispy - that is super crispy right?
So you've got your crispy chicken, and we're just gonna take a few pieces up.
Looks a little bit like homemade KFC right now, which is not a bad thing.
Not a bad thing at all!
And with the chicken, I will quickly wrap it into the sauce at the end, right?
I think, with the tofu, its sauce - pour it over the top.
Right, 'cause we're looking to keep as much texture and crispiness.
Yes, exactly.
So, all we have to do now is finish off your stir fry.
I'd say you've gone a little bit excessive on the oil there, so let me take a little
bit.
I just got happy using that bottle.
Right, so a little bit of oil, and then we're gonna go in with your onions first.
Okay, onions first.
And you can see my wok is really smoking hot right now.
When it's smoking hot, just give it a sort of good fold through, but if there's too much
head, then the tummy and the head would work at this point.
Round and round, back and forwards, round and round, back and forwards.
Lift it up.
Ah!
Onions are going crazy!
Try and keep your spoon downwards.
Ohh, keep it down!
Right, next up, make sure it comes to a good heat first.
That's it, you wanna hear that sizzle.
Never lose your sizzle!
I hear a sizzle.
Right, at this point, when it's smoking hot, your garlic and your ginger okay?
Garlic and ginger.
Continue to fold that through.
You can smell that ginger and garlic cooking nicely.
Just keep moving that 'round a little.
I'm at a stage - you're probably about 30 seconds behind me so keep it on the heat for
a bit, and I'm gonna take a good bit of this sauce, and I'm gonna pour that into my hot
wok.
Leave that on the heat, that's it.
You want your wok to be smoking hot before you pour your sauce in, so you can see now,
your wok's smoking hot.
Now you're gonna pour your sauce in.
And the reason for that, is an immediate bubble up.
Yes!
And you can see my sauce is thickening up.
At the point where it's sort of a nice syrupy consistency, which I'm almost there, that's
when I'm gonna add my chicken.
Got it.
If you wanna do it with your tofu, or some of it, you can.
Just have a little test.
So, my chicken's ready to go in, and watch what happens okay?
Chicken goes in, and at this point, high heat, all I'm gonna do is, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 until it's
all coated and then it's ready.
Wow!
I'm gonna switch that heat off.
So, that quick wok toss is really important if you wanna get this to coat, but not lose
the crisp.
Tofu in, a good handful.
Okay, I'm trying not to break it.
It's okay.
That's the art of the wok toss, we'll see how well you do.
Okay okay.
Good, now go for it.
Oh gosh, Jez. 1 - keep it in the wok!
Hwueeh!
Good!
1 more, that's it!
Wheyyy, done!
Okay, right.
So that's it, you're done!
You wanna switch that off, and serve it up so you don't lose the crisp.
That looks beautiful.
That looks good!
Moment of glory?
I'm so excited!
Dig in.
Alright.
I mean, are you gonna cut yours... no, he's just biting off it.
I was trying to be a lady, but...
It's okay, I'm not actually that much of a lady.
There's no polite way of eating Chinese food.
You just have to dig in and make the guys behind the cameras really jealous.
Oh my.
How is that?
Jez, spot on!
Yeah man!
Does it take you back to your childhood?
Mmmhmm.
Better!
Less gloopy?
Lack of gloop is definitely a good thing.
If you like this recipe, and you want to learn more, thanks to our lovely guest chef today,
Katie from Keeping it Quirky?
Yeah - my YouTube channel's just QKatie.
Cute Katie, Katie, however you wanna say it.
Don't forget to subscribe.