Secret Ingredient Noodle Stir Fry (after Kung Fu Panda)

This month's Food 'n' Flix is - for a change - a film I'd already seen: Kung Fu Panda. Chosen by Heather at Girlichef, it's a Dreamworks animation with an A-list cast (Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu) providing the voices for a panda called Po who wants to become a kung fu master, and the friends and rivals who help and hinder him along the way. I like it because it has a cute tubby panda doing high kicks but it's also one of those films with a strong message.

Po is an adopted child and his father is a goose who runs a Chinese restaurant (or indeed, a restaurant, as the film is set in China). His speciality is Secret Ingredient Noodle Soup and it is only when Po is training to become a kung fu master that his father deems him worthy of learning the secret ingredient - which turns out to be nothing. The message is that if you believe something is special, it is - which helps Po believe in himself and defeat the baddie.

So when it came to making a dish to best represent this film I knew I had to make a "secret ingredient" noodle dish - but somehow wanted the secret ingredient to be both something and nothing. I hit upon an idea after attending a cookery session with TV chef Phil Vickery and the British Turkey Association. Phil explained a technique called "velveting", which he did to the turkey before cooking it in a stir fry. Velveting is a Chinese technique originally so it also worked really well as the "secret ingredient" for this recipe. Chop your turkey or chicken breast (turkey is less expensive and low in fat, people!) and coat it in a mixture of egg white and cornflour (about 1 tbsp cornflour and one egg white) and leave for up to 30 minutes. This helps keep the poultry moist and gives it a soft, velvety texture.

  

To make this dish I velveted the turkey and stir fried it, then chopped some onion and spring onion and fried those (after removing the turkey from the pan).

I then  added a selection of vegetables to my stir fry, including broccoli, carrot, bean sprouts and alfafa sprouts and some prawns. Serve with noodles.

Finally I added the turkey back to the pan and some sweet chilli sauce.

I'm sending this to Food 'n' Flix, hosted by Heather at Girlichef.