Hunan Chicken

In the early 2000's, we were in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the golden era of dot com’s, when young and aspiring professionals made millions overnight working in a dot com that went public on NASDAQ or New York Stock Exchange. I was one of the wannabe’s, working in a gaming dot.com pursuing the wild “make-me-a-millionaire” dream.

My office was in downtown San Francisco, in the SOMA (South of Market) area, where old buildings were converted into hip, loft-like dot com’s offices. Prior to San Francisco, we lived in Salt Lake City. San Francisco downtown—during that time—was a heaven on earth for us, so vibrant and cosmopolitan. We were charmed by the energy, lifestyle, food, and the notion that we could be rich carrying a dot com business card.

Office lunches were  so much fun for me. I would always invite a few co-workers and we would walk a few blocks around the SOMA area and enjoy a great lunch meal of various ethnic and regional cuisines: Chinese, Cantonese, American, Thai, Fusion, Indian, French, Californian, and so much more. One of my favorite of them all is this humble Hunan restaurant just a couple of blocks away from my office.

My Asian co-workers and I loved the Hunan Chicken in that restaurant. So simple, yet utterly delicious and mouthwatering. Tender pieces of chicken breast, stir-fried with carrot, broccoli, black fungus, in a light brown sauce that tasted so wonderful. The owners were from Hunan, and the Hunan Chicken was their signature dish. I could go there every day for this dish…

Fast forward many years later, I constantly miss this dish, whenever I reminisce my dot com days. Dot com golden era didn’t make me a millionaire. My company went bust, just like every other dot com in the Bay Area. I kept the job for as long as I could, before the axe came down on me. I had to say that some of the happenings in that company left a pretty bad taste in my mouth, but the good taste of Hunan Chicken, my favorite Chinese lunch dish, lingers and remains flavorful in my memory.

Here is my Hunan Chicken recipe. One day, I will go find this restaurant again in the SOMA area of San Francisco and I hope  it’s still around!

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Spicy Hunan Beef with Cumin

One of the best parts about revisiting recipes from previous years is seeing how little changes can make a big difference. Take, for example, this Spicy Hunan Beef with Cumin dish. The version from June 2010 involved fresh red chilis with crushed red pepper flakes. Over the weekend, I tweaked the recipe with dried red chilis with chili oil and a bit of chili sauce. The result was an even better dish, with a hint of smokiness from the dried red chilis and chili oil that the first version didn’t have. It’ll be my go-to version from now on.

When I moved into my new apartment a few months ago, the first thing I did was take inventory of the cupboards. (The previous tenants had left a decent supply of spices, oils, and condiments.) The second thing I did, even though it was almost 10pm by the time I was done unpacking, was march over the Trader Joe’s and buy ground cumin. I had not planned on cooking that night. It just made me sleep better, knowing my kitchen was no longer egregiously understocked.

Other than sea salt, cumin is the spice that I cannot with without. If I were only allowed two spices on a deserted island (with an otherwise fully-stocked kitchen), and had to choose between cumin and a pepper grinder, the former might win out. Just a whiff of toasted cumin seeds brings back a flood of memories of the best foods I have ever eaten: melty lamb shoulder from a Yemeni restaurant in Brooklyn, late night beef kebabs from a street vendor in Beijing, or pilau from an Afghani restaurant near Boston.

On this blog already I have already made a good number of salads and other vegetarian dishes with cumin, but here’s one for red meat eaters. Cumin is normally used in western Chinese cooking, such as that from Xi’an or the Xinjiang province, but periodically shows up in Hunan and Sichuan cooking as well.

Hunan’s version of stir-fried beef with cumin combines cumin with the fresh and dried chilis the province is known for. My version is pretty spicy, but manageable (maybe 2 out of 3 chili pepper rating.) Buy the tenderest beef you can find and slice it very thin, for quick stir-frying. (Throwing it in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes before preparation firms it up to make slicing easier.) And feel free to add more fresh and dried chilis if you can withstand it.

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Spicy Hunan Beef with Cumin

Serves 4

1 pound flank steak, sliced thinly against the grain (about 1/4-inch thick)
1 tablespoon peanut or vegetable oil
1 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
6 to 8 dried red chilis
2 scallions, green parts thinly sliced

Marinade
1 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Sauce:
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 teaspoons chili oil
1 teaspoon chili sauce
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Marinate the beef: In a large bowl, combine the marinade ingredients. Add the beef and toss well to coat. Let stand for 10 to 15 minutes.In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the sauce.Heat the peanut or vegetable oil in a wok or pan over medium-high heat. Add the beef and spread it out over the bottom of the wok. Let it sear untouched for 1 minute. Stir-fry for another 1 minute. When the beef is still a little pink in the middle, add the ginger, garlic, and dried red chilis. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds, just until fragrant).Add the sauce  and stir to coat. Continue cooking just until the beef is no longer pink, about another 1 minute. Remove from the heat, garnish with scallions, and serve.

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More stir-fried beef recipes to try:

Black Pepper Beef Stir-fry

Cantonese Tomato Beef

Japanese Beef and Rice Bowl

Mongolian Beef

Tagged as: Beef, Chinese, Hunan, Recipes, Spicy

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Snapdragon Hunan Sweet & Sour Rice Pasta Stir-Fry, 7.7-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 6)

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