From Crazy Rich Asians · 2018 · Reconstructed
Yam Basket with Saucy Chicken
Serve when
Serve it as the table's ridiculous centerpiece — a deep-fried basket woven from mashed taro, filled with saucy chicken, at a lunch billed as 'simple food.'
In the movie
Theatrical
- 00:27:31 Rachel meets Peik Lin's family for a lunch her mother calls 'simple food' — a table piled with a dozen-plus dishes, among them a deep-fried yam basket filled with a saucy chicken-and-vegetable stir-fry, the meal's most visually over-the-top dish.
Peik Lin's mother calls this "simple food, lah" with a completely straight face, which is the joke: a lunch this elaborate, at a house this loud with gold, insisting it's nothing special. The yam basket is the dish built to be seen rather than explained — deep-fried, saucy, and standing in for a family whose money is louder than its manners, in a movie that saves its real affection for the hawker table down the road.
Ingredients
- For the chicken filling:
Method
- Steam the taro until fork-tender, about 20 minutes, then mash while hot with the wheat starch, lard, five-spice, and salt until smooth and pliable.
- While still warm, press and shape the mash around the outside of a heatproof bowl to form a basket, or use a yam-basket mold; freeze 20 minutes to firm up.
- Carefully lower the shaped basket into oil heated to 350°F and fry until deep golden and crisp, basting hot oil over the top as needed, about 5-6 minutes. Drain and unmold.
- For the filling, stir-fry the chicken until browned and cooked through with no pink at the center, then add the vegetables and cashews. Season with dark soy and oyster sauce, and thicken with the cornstarch slurry until glossy.
- Spoon the hot chicken filling into the fried basket just before bringing it to the table, so the basket stays crisp under the sauce.
Beyond the recipe
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