Fancy a Chindian?
11 Feb, 2010. 17 Comments. Leave a comment
Hakka noodles and chilli chicken – Indian Chinese
I’ve done some stupid things in my time. But this last month has taken the biscuit. I’ve:
Left my makeup bag and spectacles in the back of a black cab
Burnt mini Basu’s creative casserole and other gourmet offerings to crisp
Conducted a branding workshop for 22 senior corporate executives with my fly undone
Now, there’s Chinese food on an Indian cooking blog.
Bear with me. I’m a big fan of Chinese cooking. We eat Dim Sum every weekend. But Chindian is short for Indian Chinese. Originally from the Hakka Chinese community in India, with a bit of masala thrown in for good measure.
It’s all in honour of a dear friend and fellow blogger Ann Mah, whose literary debut Kitchen Chinese launched this week. The Hakka Noodle and Chilli Chicken combo fed my video guru, man and me last night. I can’t wait to get some brain cells back to read about the real thing!
Feeds 4:
Chilli chicken
- 10 small skinless chicken drumsticks
- 75ml dark soy sauce
- 1 large onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 4 green finger chillies
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
Soak the chicken in the soy sauce. Chop the onion into large pieces, the chillies into little ones and slice the garlic.
In a wok or kadai, bring the oil to heat on high. When it’s hot, fry the garlic until golden then add all the other ingredients and stir every few minutes until the chicken is cooked. You’ll know because the chicken will separate from the bone. While it’s cooking make the noodles.
Hakka noodles
- 300gm medium egg noodles
- 1 large tea mug shredded cabbage
- 1 large tea mug shredded carrot
- 1 green pepper
- 5 spring onions
- 1.5 tbsp chilli garlic sauce (any Chinese one will do nicely)
- 1.5 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 garlic clove
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp flavourless white oil
Cook the noodles and set aside. Chop the garlic clove and mix it together with the sauces. Slice the green pepper finely and chop the spring onions.
Next, bring the oil to heat on high in a wok or kadai. When the oil starts sizzling, pour in the sauce mixture and in a few seconds the vegetables, bar one chopped spring onion. Cook for about two minutes until they soften, then mix in the cooked noodles, add salt and pepper to taste.
Sprinkle the noodles with the remaining chopped spring onion and eat straightaway.
If you develop a taste for this, try also Nags’ Gobi Manchurian or Meenal’s Egg-vegetable Fried Rice.
I dig Chindian almost always and this one looks perfectly fantastic.
love the idea of chindian mallika
sounds like you’ve had a tough month.
hope the weekend is lovely for you
Love this!! Adding it to our list of recipes for next week!!!
What a week!!! I’m sorry but I did laugh…
Chindian – that’s a new one, love it! Great photo.
We are huge fans of Indian Chinese or chindian as u so beautifully put it… this looks wonderful…
This sounds fantastic and I love the combination of dishes. Chinese food has also been influenced by Indian cuisine — have you ever had a Chinese curry? Thank you for mentioning my novel, Kitchen Chinese, Mallika!
Happy Chinese New Year to you and your lovely family!
It looks great, as usual!
Never heard of this name but familiar with chilli chicken, my fave, great combo.
You have been busy too, so many mishaps!
Me too, been busy organizing 4 birthdays in 2 months, pretty hectic, it will be over shortly!
and you are back
and if it’s any solace.. a friend of mine walked 3 km to work with a lacy bra attached to her linen pants as her tail.
yummy combo,simple yet delicious,..
I learn from food blogs all the time and ‘Chindean’ is something I have never come across before. I need to broaden my outlook now and try this delicious recipe.
Ive been told I need to eat healthier and to introduce Indian food and spices to my diet.
So after coming across this site and finding this wonderful looking dish I am going to be brave and give it a go. I hope its easy for beginners
Wish me luck
x
I love chindian but I find this recipe lacking in clarity: how can you heat the wok on high, fry the garlic and then the drumsticks still on high (??) until done, without carbonizing the garlic and everything else in the meantime? the drumsticks will take about 30 minutes to get to the level of donenes you indicate, you only stir every few minutes? and you don’t add any liquid? I think everything will be carbon black by the time the chicken is done. This is a bullshit recipe, I won’t even bother to try it.
I suppose it’s great for you that you got a book deal, but the quality of the blog is really suffering lately.
Bye.
The chilly chicken turned out great..Thanks for the recepie. It was soo simple and delicious – a winning combination!!
Hi, I am a big fan of Indian Chinese & love the word Chindian! In my own recipe for Chili chicken, I use all parts of the chicken (cut into bite sized pieces), brown with ginger-garlic paste and after frying, give it a quick pressure cook with lots and lots of green chillies.
Hi Dan – I suggest you try the recipe first before calling it “bullshit”. Nothing carbonises because of the juices from the chicken. It’s not rocket science!!