Cookalong thread - Asian weightloss sloppa

[Anonymous No.16524854]

Wasn't in the mood for something super complicated, so join me in cooking my version of asian inspired sloppa.
Not following any recipe, the proper name would be something like "Chicken veggie stir fry with black pepper sauce".
I'm currently losing weight so healthier sloppa is in order.
Pic related are the main ingredients, ingredients for the sauce will follow when we get to it. For the veggies I looked what I had at home.
>Ingredients in this picture
Pak choi 1
Carrots 2
Onion 1
Garlic 3 pcs
Chicken 200g
Spring onion 2
Broccoli 150g
Cucumber 80g
Cilantro, MSG, Ginger Puree, Starch, (sugar will be used in sauce)
Didn't end up using the Bacon/Ham cubes
>Nutritional info/macros for finished sloppa:
513 kcals
56 g of protein
29 g of carbs
18 g of fat

These amounts are just what I happened to want and what looked right. No real planning going on. Feel free to tell me how I am fucking up.
The chicken was chopped into bite sized pieces earlier today and I added 1 tsp salt + 1 tsp baking soda per 200g. Mix well and let rest for at least 30 minutes, here it has been a few hours.

[Anonymous No.16524868]

First step:
Rinse your chicken under water. Baking soda tastes bad, so get that salt and soda off. If the chicken feels slightly slimy and a bit disgusting, you did things right. Don't worry, that will go away.
Wash the bowl you had the chicken in and put the chicken back in it for later.

If you are wondering why we did this in the first place: The baking soda is alcaline which changes the protein of the chicken, making it softer and giving it a velvet like texture later.
Sorry if any pictures from here on out are out of focus, I have never taken pictures of cooking while cooking.

[Anonymous No.16524878]

Cut up your veggies.
Goal is bite sized pieces, roughly. I fucked up and didn't take a picture of the main veggies as I cut them. Just do what feels right. Depending on where you got your veggies from and where you live, make sure to clean them the appropriate way.
Then cut up your aromatics. Seperate the white and green of the spring onions, they take different times to cook. I chose to cut the onion into big wedges and pressed the garlic in a garlic press.
In the pic you also see the cucumber, I cut that a little smaller than I probably should have.

[Anonymous No.16524888]

Forgot the cilantro.
Chop roughly, I tend to get finer the closer I get to the stems. I like a lot of cilantro, you decide what amount is right for you.
If you are one of those genetic freaks who taste it as soapy, get fucked. Or use something else. Your choice really.

[Anonymous No.16524901]

Add a slurry of ~1tsp starch + 2 tsp water/liaojiu (I chose the latter) to the chicken. Let any excess drain off on a spider. You don't want a batter, just a thin layer of starch.
Now we will do something that is called "passing through oil", but this is sloppa and I want to lose weight, so oil is out of the question. So get a pot to an agressive boil with water. A lid really helps. Add your chicken in, give it a quick stir so the pieces are seperated. You don't need the chicken to be cooked quite through, we will finish it in a pan (or wok).
After a few minutes (2 maybe?) take it out, let water drain off and put back aside.
Clean your wok by taking away the water and scum that has collected on the sides.

[Anonymous No.16524907]

Time to prep our black pepper sauce.
>Pic related are the ingredients:
Soy sauce (preferrably naturally brewed) 3 tsp
Rice wine vinegar 2 tsp (I didn't have any left, so this is white wine vinegar)
Sugar (brown) 1 tsp (Didn't have any, but white sugar + molasses is basically the same thing)
Chicken Stock 120 ml (or water)
Black pepper 1.5 tsp (This has to be freshly ground. I used 1 tsp black pepper + 0.5 tsp szechuan pepper)
Starch 1 tsp
Liaojiu (optional) to replace some of the water

[Anonymous No.16524912]

Time to give it a taste. Is it decent? Does it need anything else?
This one lacked in heat, despite the pepper and that needs fixing.

[Anonymous No.16524919]

Time to get some chili from the balcony. I tend to underwater my chili plant which results in hotter peppers and it payed off with this one. They add a nice bit of spice.

[Anonymous No.16524921]

Looking good. I didn't deseed mine, I like the heat. Added the chopped chili + seeds to the sauce now so the heat could distribute a bit. With that, the sauce is prepped.

[Anonymous No.16524930]

Mise en place done.
Here's what we need during cooking (excluding the oil). Chopped the carrots a bit too small too for chopsticks, but that's okay.
That ginger puree is because I am lazy. They also have garlic+ginger puree, but the garlic loses a lot more arome in a jar I feel like than the ginger.
That bottle on the right is the liaojiu.

[Anonymous No.16524934]

>>16524854
way too much vegetables. I hope you're not a male

[Anonymous No.16524936]

Forgot attaching the pic.

[Anonymous No.16524950]

Skipping a few pictures, because people on /ck/ probably know basic wok frying.
Get the wok really hot, add oil.
Add onion + carrot, give the onion a slight char. Then add the white of the spring onion.
>>16524934
I am. I like vegetables and they help me feel full without eating many calories. Helped me stop being a fat fuck, which is a big plus in my book.

[Anonymous No.16524958]

Skipping another picture.
Add your broccoli. I am cursed with an electric stove, so this advice will help more if you have a gas stove, but it applies either way.
Wok getting too hot? Add some liaojiu to the edges of the wok. Smells amazing and brings the temperature of the wok down quickly.
Plus liaojiu tastes good when used in stir frys.

[Anonymous No.16524961]

Add the pak choi, (you should have seperated leaves from the white parts). White parts first to have slightly longer to get soft, then the leaves.

[Anonymous No.16524969]

I added the garlic now. Since it was pressed I was afraid it would burn if added earlier. Added 2/3 of the cilantro.
Now give your sauce another mix, the starch probably settled down and formed a sludge at the bottom of the bowl. Then add the sauce into the wok/pan.
Now is also the time to add the chicken. Remember due to the velveting we don't want any char on the chicken, so the sauce won't be a problem.

[Anonymous No.16524978]

Give the sauce a bit to boil and the starch time to gelatizine.
If the sauce is too thin at this point, make a slurry of 1 tsp starch + 2 tsp water in a bowl and add it into the sauce, bit by bit. Don't add it all at once, because if it suddenly turns and becomes gelatinous you are basically fucked.

[Anonymous No.16524985]

Again, now is the time to give it all a taste.
If you used water instead of stock you may want to add salt and/or msg.
If it's not acidic enough add a bit of more soy sauce or lemon juice.
If it's not sweet enough some sugar or honey may work.
Basically adjust the flavors now.

[Anonymous No.16524999]

Now to something that might be slightly weird to people who never tried it:
Reduce the heat of your wok and add in the cucumber.
We do not want to really cook it, just heat it up and cover it in sauce basically.
Give it one last mix so everything is well mixed.

[Anonymous No.16525007]

And get it out onto a plate or in my case a very big ramen bowl.
Clean your wok and do the usual maintenance including drying and oiling before putting it back in storage. Clean your work surface etc.
If you have used a normal pan, clean that.

[Anonymous No.16525011]

Time for final touches and toppings:
Personally I love toasted sesame oil. Get a decent one, some of these don't have much flavor and a good one will last you a long time.
This stuff is intense, so add a bit over the top.

[Anonymous No.16525026]

Now add the last 1/3rd of the cilantro on top and the white of the spring onion. I also added a bit more freshly ground pepper, because uncooked pepper has a slightly different taste.

And that concludes this cookalong thread, asian sloppa is done.
Overall a 8/10, especially for the macros and volume of food you get. Tasted great, but admittedly I love black pepper sauces. I should have cut the carrot and cucumber into bigger pieces, which would have made for better eating with chopsticks.

[Anonymous No.16525031]

>>16525026
* green of the spring onion obviously.
I also had used about half of the green in the cooking before, which is why there isn't too much of it.

[Anonymous No.16525415]

>>16525026
looks really good op, have a bump.

[Anonymous No.16525431]

>>16525026
nice bowl

idk about rinsing the chicken but gj

[Anonymous No.16525502]

>>16525415
Thanks, it tasted great.
>>16525431
Fair, velveting is probably not for everyone. I really like it though.
If you've never made it, it's worth giving it a try, if only because it's something different for once.

[Anonymous No.16525618]

Looks really nice

[Anonymous No.16525780]

>>16525618
Thanks anon.