gai pad khing (ginger chicken)

This is one of a a pair of recipes that I'll post today that cause some 
confusion because of their similar names. 

 gai = chicken 
 pad = stir-fried 
 khing = ginger 

so this dish is chicken stir-fried in ginger. This is a simple, quick 
meal that could equally be made with pork or beef, or even shrimp, or 
for the vegetarians, tofu marinated in a mixture of dark soy and fish 
sauce for flavor. 

It is cooked in a hot wok - the peanut oil used for cooking should be at 
the smoking point. However if this makes you a little nervous it doesn't 
suffer from being cooked a little cooler. If you do use a lower 
temperature, then the garlic should be sauteed in the oil before the 
chicken is added, to bring out the flavour. At high temperature this 
would result in burnt (and very unpalatable) garlic flakes in the food, 
so you add the garlic with the chicken, not before it. 

Because of the high temperatures you will need to move swiftly from step 
to step. Therefore I strongly recomend that you put the ingredients on 
plates ready to add them - you won't have time to measure ingredients 
once things start to move. 

--Ingredients
-- 

3 tablespoons of peanut oil 

1 tablespoon chopped garlic 

1 cup of chicken, cut into bite sized pieces 
1 cup of mushroom, sliced 

3 tablespoons of grated ginger 

2 tablespoons of fish sauce 
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce 
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce 

a pinch of sugar 
3 tablespoons of chopped onion 
2-3 red chillis (prik ki nu) slivered 
3 tablespoons of scallion/green onion, cut into 1" pieces 

ground prik thai (black pepper) 

optionally you can add a cup of sweet chillis (prik chi fa in Thai - a 
variety of jalapeno) 

The bulbs of 3/4 scallions, and some cilantro/coriander leaves for 
garnish 

--method
-- 

Mix the fish sauce, soy and oyster sauce ready for use, 

Bring the oil to the smoking point in an adequately large wok, and add 
the chicken and garlic, and stir fry until the chicken begins to change 
colour (this is quite quick, so don't overcook). 

Add the sauce and stir until it returns to a bubbling consistency, then 
add the remaining ingredients, and stir until the chicken is cooked. 

Serve with steamed rice, and garnish. 

The recipe for pork is identical, beef if it is used should be marinated 
in a mixture of 2 tablespoons of whiskey and the fish suace, soy sauce 
and oyster suace, which should be retained after marination to be added 
to the cooking.