Last night Martin made bang-bang chicken, a Chinese salad made by dressing the poached, shredded meat of two skinned chicken breasts with a tablespoon each of peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil and chilli-bean paste, plus half a tablespoon each of Chinese black vinegar and sugar. You mix all those things together and add enough water to get a thick liquid. Then taste and adjust the sweet/sour/hot/salt balance, if it needs it. Add the cold chicken and toss. Meanwhile tear up a lettuce and mix it with a handful each of chopped coriander and mint. Cover a large plate with these greens and add some cucumber slices (there are versions with shredded carrots on the web too) and pile the chicken on top. Strew a few finely sliced spring onions over the whole thing.
Unusually for Chinese food – or at least the kind of Chinese food we’re used to in the West – a salad like this doesn’t seem to suit steaming-hot rice or noodles, but as they were eating it as a main course, it needed something. “What do you want with your bang-bang chicken?” Martin asked Annie. “Boom-boom chips” she replied. He immediately set to peeling spuds.
M loved the cold salad, hot chips combination, and it reminded him of eating feta cheese salad with curly fries at a pub called Bar Bola he used to frequent when he still had money to eat lunch. Now all his money goes on medication and vet’s bills for two old cats.
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