Chicken and cashew nuts

Recipe : Chicken with cashew nuts

Adapted from Chinese Cooking by Caroline Ellwood

3 tbsp dry sherry

1 egg white

1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)

2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks

2 tbsp oil

2 spring onions, scallions, finely sliced

1 bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks

125 (4oz) canned bamboo shoots

1 tbsp soy sauce

125g (4oz) unsalted cashew nuts

To velvet: Mix 2 tbsp of the sherry, the egg white and the cornflour together. Add the chicken and mix together well. 

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan over high heat and add the spring onions. Stir fry for 30 seconds then add the chicken and fry for 3 minutes. (This is when you want your oil to be Chinese restaurant hot, otherwise, the velveting batter won't adhere to the chicken as well as it should and might even form into lumps. Also, the chicken pieces may just stick to each other as one big lump. So, be brave, whack up the heat, open a window, put the extractor fan on and drop the chicken, piece by piece, into the scorching oil, just be very careful of splashing. This will ensure the batter will immediately start to fry as soon as it hits the oil and leaves you with separate, silky chicken pieces). 

Add all the remaining ingredients and fry for a further 2 minutes. Serve. Easy.