Chicken with shredded mango

As meals go, this one went rather well. There was an array of stir-fried Chinese dishes in front of me, and the repast was as colourful as it was lip-smacking. And wonder of wonders, the food was light on the stomach as well.

When the weather’s hot and muggy you want to eat something that’s delicious yet gentle. And in this, chef Rajesh Dubey had excelled himself. Chinese cuisine, despite the sauces, can be as light as you want it to be. And the chef, who heads the food division of the Speciality Group of Restaurants, which includes the multi-branched Mainland China, had presented us with all kinds of stir-fried food that thumbed its nose at the weather.

This, as we know, is a method of quick frying over high heat. In flash-frying, which is a form of stir-frying, the heat is higher, and the cooking even faster. For a good stir-fried, you need a thick pan which retains the heat. In a bit of oil — remember it’s not deep-fried — you stir your veggies and your meat. The pan retains the heat when you add your ingredients, which helps to seal the juices and keeps your vegetables and meat crunchy. The outcome is not just food that’s great to eat, but beautiful to look at as well.

Flash-fried assorted vegetables with scallion

The quick methods of frying capture the colour and the shape of a vegetable without distorting them. So the carrots, capsicum, zucchini, broccoli and asparagus in chef Dubey’s flash-fried assorted vegetables with scallions are attractive and delicious at the same time.

The chef tells me that there are ways of making food more appetising in this weather. The meats, he says, should be marinated longer so that while the flavours seep in, the food doesn’t take long to cook. Vegetables that hold their juices well — such as zucchini, fresh mushrooms, celery and cucumber — or are crunchy like carrots, asparagus, the lower part of pak choi and snow peas — work out well in stir-fries.

Even the cutting of the vegetables for stir-fried food is an art — one that the chef picked up during his many sojourns in China and south-east Asia. The veggies are cut in such a manner that they look good, and keep their crunchy taste.

Then, for the stir fries, the sauces are important. Chef Dubey prepares shrimps with corn and sambal sauce — and here the sauce, a south-east Asian chilli-based paste — gives the dish its piquant flavour. The chillies in the sambal are good for the season, because they make you sweat and are cooling. Some of the other sauces that work well with stir fries are yellow bean sauce and a light mustard sauce.

Light soy sauce and oyster sauce flavour a stir-fried chicken and pepper dish which is cooked without a fuss. All that you have to do is sauté some diced chicken and boiled potatoes. Add crushed black pepper, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, white pepper powder and stir fry. Cook for a few minutes with chicken stock, and when it’s done, finish with sesame oil.

My trusted Chinese cookbook (getting more and more dog-eared by the day) gives details about the different kinds of batters that work out well in stir-fried food. One is the simple water and cornstarch batter. The other two are made with egg white, starch and salt, or a whole egg, starch and salt. Or you could try a mix of egg white, starch, baking soda, salt, sugar, ajinomoto and water which gives a reddish tint to the batter. Coat your meat or fish — or even veggies — in the batter and then quickly fry them over high heat.

Stir-fried shrimps with corn in sambal sauce

Fruits work out well with stir-fried food too. Chef Dubey likes to experiment with meat in a spicy and tangy orange sauce flavoured with star anise. Chicken with lemon sauce has a sweet taste. And mango, of course, goes well with chicken. (Heat a wok, add oil, sauté shredded ginger add blanched shredded chicken. Stir fry. Add seasoning and shredded mango. Mix well and finish with white vinegar.)

Clearly, this is the time for stir fries. You can have your martinis shaken and not stirred, but when it comes to Chinese food, stirred is the name of the game.

Stir-fried chicken with almond and celery

Ingredients

• 200g boneless chicken breast •10g almond flakes • 20g diced celery (1/2-inch pieces) • 5g salt •2g white pepper powder • 2g sugar • 2ml vegetable oil • 2g chopped ginger • 2g chopped garlic • 2ml sesame oil • 50ml chicken stock • 10g diced red capsicum

Method

Dice the chicken breast into ½-in pieces. Heat a wok, add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the chicken and when the stock starts to boil, strain and keep the chicken aside. Clean the wok, heat vegetable oil and add chopped ginger, garlic, diced celery and blanched chicken. Stir-fry well. Add seasoning. Mix and add the red capsicum. Finish with sesame oil and almond flakes. Serve hot.