Wok Hay

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellow,

Today was a very lazy Sunday. Caro and me watched lots of telly and hung out with the little hairy fellows. 

But in the evening I FINALLY got to do the thing and cooked up the velveted chicken* and the (two) day old rice. 

And - you know - I'm not much of a cook but I was amazed to see that OH MY GOD IT WORKED. The rice was sticky, but not sticking together and the velvet chicken was indeed way more tender than regular chicken breast.

All the same I was concerned. I have a stupid cr*ppy old electric stove top and I didn't think my pan was hot enough for "wok hay". 

Uncle Roger describes "wok hay" as "the breath of the wok". I've watched a few videos from other YouTubers now and it seems like basically they are talking about charring ingredients because your wok is extra hot. 

I did not seem to be achieving wok hay.

Nevertheless, by the time I served it up, I could see a little charring on the rice and the chicken and the ULTIMATE TEST was about to be passed!

PUNKY was sitting waiting for some chicken!

I should explain that Punky - of all the cats - looooooves take out food. He adores it. I do not know what it is. But while the other cats are indifferent, he dances around by the front door whenever I get a delivery. He follows me to the kitchen and purrs at me and then he waits to be given his own little plate. 

His favourites (as you may remember) are chicken tenders and KFC, but he loves chicken fried rice also. 

And he was SO EXCITED. He sat purring next to Caro. "Wok hay!" he said. 

Or it might have been "meow".

Anyway. Mission accomplished. It did indeed taste like chicken fried rice you'd get from a takeaway. Box checked. 

I think I over-salted it. And I didn't have as many veggies in the fridge as I thought. But these are minor things which can be corrected next time. 

FUIYOHHHHHH

S.

* I found out about velveting chicken from "Ziang's Kitchen" but it gets mentioned on lots of YouTube channels about replicating the take-out flavour. In involves tenderising chicken by marinading it in a mix of soy, salt, pepper, MSG, oil and baking soda.