Diced chicken and pork

This is a Peking dish. The pork must be the tenderest fillet (called tenderloin in the USA); when cooked, its colour turns to a pale white, almost the same as chicken breast, but with a subtle difference in taste and texture.

1/2 lb (225 g) chicken breast meat
1/2 lb (225 g) pork fillet
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 tsp cornflour blended with 1 tbsp cold water
3 tbsp oil

For the sauce

3 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2-3 spring onion stalks, finely chopped
1 tbsp crushed yellow bean paste
1 tbsp Hoi Sin sauce
1 tbsp rice wine or sherry
2 tsp cornflour blended with 3 tbsp cold water

Dice the chicken and pork into small cubes, then in separate bowls, mix them with salt, egg white and cornflour. In a third bowl, mix the sauce which is called ‘yellow sauce’, and should be of a rather thick consistency.

First stir-fry the diced chicken in a little warm oil for a very short while, and scoop it out with a perforated spoon when it is half done. Do the same with the pork. Then turn up the heat, but before the oil gets too hot, return both the chicken and pork to the pan, followed by the ‘yellow sauce’. Stir, and when the meats are wellcoated by the sauce with hardly any liquid left in the pan, the dish is ready for serving.

© Deh-Ta Hsiung and reproduced with his kind permission.