New Year’s Eve Sweet And Sour Chicken Rice

It is the last day of the 2012, a wonderful year and time to ring in the new. We have always made it a point to eat together and go to church for the midnight service and come back and toast the New Year with fruit cake and wine. This year, the special dish of the evening is Sweet and Sour Chicken Rice, a one pot meal and a great way to end the year.

The Recipe:

2 cups cooked basmathi rice, prepare and keep earlier; oil for frying; 1 cup vermicelli, deep fried , drained and kept ready for use..

500 gms boneless chicken, cubed and marinated for 20 minutes in salt and pepper; 1 tbsp rice wine or sherry; 2 tbsp cornflour; 1 tbsp sesame seed oil.

For the sauce: Mix together 225 ml water; 40 ml white vinegar; 180 ml tomato ketchup; 60 ml tomato chilli sauce; 125 ml brown sugar (more or less according to your taste); 60 ml light soy sauce; 20 ml sesame seed oil; 60 ml Worchestershire sauce; and 4 tbsp cornflour. Keep aside.

1 carrot sliced into thick rounds; a few cabbage leaves; 1 large onion quartered and taken apart in layers; 1 tbsp ginger garlic, minced; oil for frying.

Deep fry the chicken in smoking hot oil until golden brown all over. Drain and keep warm.

Heat a wok and add 2 tbsp oil. Stir fry the ginger garlic till fragrant. Add the carrots and stir fry for 2 minutes. Throw in the onions and cabbage leaves and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the chicken and pour in the mixed sauce, lower flame to medium heat and keep stirring till it bubbles. Remove from flame. Now arrange rice and vermicelli in serving dish in layers reserving some vermicelli for the top. Pour the sauce over and serve immediately with love and a grateful heart.

Learn how to cook a traditional Indian meal using recipes that have been inherited from my great-grandmother