Ingredients

350 g (3/4 lb) chicken leg meat
5 ml (1 teaspoon) salt
22 ml (1 1/2 tablespoons) corn flour
1/2 egg
4 large Chinese dried mushrooms
100 g (1/4 lb) fresh mushrooms
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
100 g (1/4 lb) bamboo shoots
6-8 asparagus tips
125-250 ml (1/4-1/2 pint) vegetable oil

Sauce:

1 dried chili pepper
2 slices root ginger
3 cloves garlic
3 stalks spring onion
30 ml (2 tablespoons) lard (use oil if not available)
30 ml (2 tablespoons) soy sauce
30 ml (2 tablespoons) dry sherry
7 ml (1/2 tablespoon) sugar
15 ml (1 tablespoon) corn flour (blended in 75 ml (5 tablespoons stock)
salt and pepper to taste

** Free Chinese Recipes **

Method:

Cut the chicken flesh into medium-sized triple-matchstick-thick slivers. Rub these with the salt and corn flour, and wet them with beaten egg. Soak the dried mushrooms in water for 20 minutes, remove the stalks and cut each cap into 6 strips. Cut the fresh mushrooms and both types of sweet pepper and bamboo shoots into similar-sized slivers to the chicken.

Pare the asparagus tips, removing all the tougher parts. Shred the chili pepper (discard the pips) and the ginger. Crush the garlic and cut the spring onions into 5 cm (2 in) segment.

Heat the oil fiercely in a large frying pan. Add the bamboo shoots, asparagus and mushrooms and stir and turn them over a few times. Next add the chicken and the two sweet peppers. Turn and stir the ingredients in the hot oil, and leave them to cook over a high heat for 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and drain away ail the oil, leaving the chicken and vegetables in the pan. Heat the lard in a smaller pan. Add the chili pepper, ginger and dried mushrooms. Stir-fry over a high heat for 1 minute.

Add the garlic and all the other ingredients for the sauce. Stir until the sauce starts to boil. Pour the contents of the smaller pan into the large frying pan containing the chicken, asparagus, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and peppers.

Reheat the large frying pan over a high flame. Turn and toss the ingredient together for 1 1/2 minute. Serve on a large well-heated dish, to be eaten hot.