THE EVERYTHING® CHINESE COOKBOOK
Page 1
THE EVERYTHING® CHINESE COOKBOOK
From Wonton Soup to Sweet and Sour Chicken — 300 succulent recipes from the Far East
Rhonda Lauret Parkinson
Copyright ©2003, F+W Publications, Inc.
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ISBN 13: 978-1-58062-954-6 (paperback)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lauret Parkinson, Rhonda.
The everything Chinese cookBook / Rhonda Lauret Parkinson.
p. cm.
(An everything series Book)
ISBN 1-58062-954-7
ISBN 13: 978-1-60550-525-1 (EPUB)
1. Cookery, Chinese. I. Title. II. Series: Everything series
TX724.5.C5L3767 2003
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The Chinese Cookbook
Dear Reader,
My introduction to Chinese food came in the 1960s — a time when chop suey and egg rolls were considered exotic. But there was something about Chinese food that transcended the overly sweet sauces found at the town's only Chinese restaurant.
My love affair with Chinese cooking really took off when I had the good fortune to work with a group of women who recently emigrated from Hong Kong. On weekends we toured Asian markets together, and they introduced me to the delights of a dim sum brunch. During this time I became intrigued both with Chinese food and its symbolic importance in Chinese culture.
Today, Chinese cooking has never been more popular. A search local supermarket, often takes you no farther than the for ingredients are readily available, and vegetables paste and hoisin sauce cabbage in where home-cooked chili as amaranth share space with the exotic names such with practice, it's easy to prepare section. With a little healthful. I enjoyed putting the produce and Chinese dishes that are tasty my wok to use preparing the recipes for this Book. I hope they provide you with a helpful introduction to the fascinating world of Chinese cuisine.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 Let's Get Started
CHAPTER 2 Common Dipping Sauces
CHAPTER 1 Asian Appetizers and Dim Sum
CHAPTER 14 Soups and Salads
CHAPTER 5 Rice and Noodles
CHAPTER 6 Beef Dishes
CHAPTER 7 Pork Entrées
CHAPTER 8 Chicken and Other Poultr
CHAPTER 9 Tofu and Eggs
CHAPTER 10 Fish and Other Seafood
CHAPTER 11 Chinese Vegetables
CHAPTER 12 Desserts and Snacks
APPENDIX A Putting It All Together
APPENDIX B Glossary of Asian Ingredients
Dedication
To my parents: a great cook and a great writer.
Introduction
WHAT MAKES CHINESE CUISINE SO APPEALING? Restaurant classics such as Mu Shu Pork and Kung Pao Chicken captivate our senses. Even an order of the ubiquitous Chicken Balls with Sweet-and Sour Sauce from the local Chinese takeout has its own special appeal.
What is it that makes Chinese food so special? It's not the exotic vegetables and seasonings — a skilled chef can prepare a meal that epitomizes the best of Chinese cooking using only native ingredients. It's not the equipment, either. Many tasty stir-fries have been born in a frying pan instead of a wok.
The true secret to Chinese cuisine lies in a harmonious blending of flavors, textures, and colors. Take Basic Sweet-and-Sour Pork (page 139), for example. The sweet and sour flavors balance each other nicely, and the reddish sauce provides a nice contrast to the pineapple and green bell peppers.
This characteristic isn't limited to entrées, either. The same satisfying balance can be found in many Chinese dishes, such as Wonton Soup (page 54), where pork-filled wonton wrappers are swimming in a rich broth.
So, why aren't more people stir-frying noodles and boiling dumplings? A common misconception is that it takes a skilled chef working with state-of-the-art equipment to prepare good Chinese food. Fortunately, that's not true. Stir-frying, steaming, and deep-frying — the three primary Chinese cooking techniques — are all easily mastered with practice.
Another common complaint is that the recipes are too complex, taking too long to make. The sight of a lengthy ingredient list can be a little daunting. But on closer inspection you'll find that many of the ingredients go into preparing a marinade or sauce. Subtract those, and the basic recipe is frequently quite simple.
As for time involved, most of the work lies in preparation. Time spent actually cooking can be mere minutes, especially if you're stir-frying. And once you've cooked a few dishes you'll find yourself falling into a routine — cutting vegetables while the meat is marinating, preparing a sauce while waiting for the oil to reach the required temperature for deep-frying. Other handy time-savers include washing vegetables in the morning — giving them all day to dry — and marinating meat ahead of time and refrigerating it until you're ready to cook.
What are the pluses of cooking Chinese food at home? Besides the obvious advantage to your wallet, it's often healthier than restaurant fare, since you control the fat and calorie count. You can let your own creativity come into play, adjusting a recipe to add favorite foods or seasonal local ingredients. Cooking Chinese food at home also allows you to modify a recipe to suit your family's tastes; substituting parsley for cilantro, for example.
An added bonus is that there is something about cooking Chinese food that brings families together. Many pleasurable evenings can be spent f
illing dumplings or making pancakes. Appetizers such as egg rolls can often be baked as well as deep-fried, making it easier to involve young children.
This Book is designed to help you incorporate home-cooked Chinese meals into your daily life. Tips on purchasing equipment, cooking techniques, and stocking the pantry are all here. Recipes include popular favorites such as Mu Shu Pork, and less well-known dishes such as MaPo Dofu, a tofu dish. Information on cooking with more exotic ingredients such as Szechwan peppercorns and fermented black beans is provided, along with suggestions for substitutes where possible.
1
Let's Get Started
Chinese cuisine can seem very exotic after a dim sum brunch or dinner at a Chinatown restaurant, but it's easy to prepare many Chinese recipes at home. All it takes is a good wok, mastery of a few simple cooking skills, and stocking the pantry with basic ingredients, many of which are available on local supermarket shelves.
At the Asian Market
To supplement your regular shopping, you may want to visit the local Asian grocery store. When you enter, you'll be hit with the pungent aromas of exotic ingredients. Then, you'll note the profusion of unusual sights and sounds. Live lobster and crab swim in tanks, competing for your attention with strange fruits and vegetables. You wander past, taking note of the brightly decorated red lanterns hanging from the ceiling and the pleasant sounds of Oriental music in the background.
To the uninitiated, a visit to the Asian market can seem like a trip to a foreign land, minus a map or guideBook. But structure and organization do exist. Unlike the typical large supermarket, Asian groceries share much in common with the shops of days gone by, when several businesses shared the same general space. Most groceries have a butcher shop, where slabs of glazed barbequed pork hang from hooks. A fishmonger sells the freshest fish possible, preferably caught earlier that day. Most stores have a bakery that offers fresh-baked bread and buns. All of these businesses normally operate independently from the main grocery store.
What about monosodium glutamate (MSG)?
You don't need to add MSG to home-cooked dishes; fresh ingredients will provide plenty of flavor. However, since many restaurants use MSG, you may find it difficult to reproduce the taste of your favorite restaurant dish without it.
As for the main grocery area, the most important thing to remember is that the space allocation for various products is different from that in Western supermarkets. One aisle may be set aside for the myriad sauces and seasonings used in Chinese cooking, while another contains a varied assortment of noodles, flour, and starch. And where else would you find an entire aisle devoted to tea, China's national drink?
Two areas that may prove challenging are spices and fresh vegetables. It is very common for grocers to provide only the Cantonese names for produce. Similarly, bags of spices may have Chinese writing on the label, leaving you unsure of their English equivalent. At this point you may notice another difference in Asian markets; there tends to be fewer staff on the floor to ask for help. Don't worry. The checkout cashier will gladly assist you, even if it means temporarily leaving the till.
An added plus to shopping at the Asian market is that you can stock up on ingredients and purchase the tools you need to begin cooking Chinese food at the same time. While most supermarkets carry a few cooking tools, in Chinese markets it is very common for several aisles to be set aside for everything from woks to harder-to-find accessories such as cooking chopsticks.
In Chinese cooking, the fresher the better! It is quite possible that the fish you see on a slab of ice was killed mere hours before being delivered to the market. Freshness is particularly important in Cantonese cuisine. It is a point of pride with Cantonese cooks to create dishes that retain as much of the natural flavor and texture of the food as possible.
Staple Ingredients
Certain flavors such as ginger and garlic feature prominently in Chinese cooking. While on occasion you may find yourself scouring Chinatown for a seldom-used ingredient such as shark's fin, keeping the pantry stocked with the items below will allow you to whip up a stir-fry any night of the week, using whatever combination of meat and vegetables you have on hand.
In southern China the day begins and ends with a bowl of steaming rice. While noodles are the grain of choice in China's colder northern regions, rice is consumed there as well. Long grain rice is favored for main dishes, but medium grain rice is an acceptable substitute. Short grain rice is used primarily in desserts.
Chinese noodles are not much different from Italian pasta. Most types of noodles are very user-friendly, often requiring only a quick soaking to soften before use. A chart of Chinese noodles and cooking times is included on the following page.
Cooking Chinese Noodles
Noodle TypeCooking MethodCooking Time
Cellophane/Bean Thread Noodles Soak in Hot Water 15 minutes
Egg Noodles, Fresh Boil 3–5 minutes
Egg Noodles, Dried Boil 4–5½ minutes
Rice Paper Soak in Hot Water 1 minute
Wheat Flour, Fresh Boil 3–5 minutes
Wheat Flour, Dried Boil 4–5 minutes
Fresh Is Best
Rice Noodles Soak in Hot Water 15–20 minutes Always use the freshest ingredients possible; nothing can replace the bite of freshly ground white pepper, or ginger that has gone straight from garden to kitchen, bypassing the market.
Ginger: Used for everything from seasoning oil to masking fishy odors in seafood dishes. Be sure to use fresh instead of powdered.
Garlic: The mainstay of northern Chinese dishes, where cooks rely on hardy vegetables that can tolerate cold winters and a short growing season. Like ginger, it is also used to flavor hot oil before stir-frying.
Green onions: Also called spring onions and scallions, these are used in cooked dishes and as a garnish.
Celery: Celery's crisp texture makes a nice contrast with other vegetables in stir-fries.
White pepper: Freshly ground white pepper lends a sharp bite to soups and stir-fries. Use sparingly at first or according to taste.
The Chinese also use hundreds of dried ingredients, from tangerine peel to lily buds. The most commonly used are dried black mushrooms — you'll frequently find these stacked in bins at the entrance to Asian markets. Don't worry about purchasing the most expensive brands, but do look for mushrooms with a nice curl to them.
Sauces and Oils
A good sauce is a key component in Chinese cooking. Savory sauces like oyster and hoisin sauce add their own intriguing blend of flavors to a sauce or marinade, while soy sauce is used both to flavor and color the food. Here are some of the sauces most commonly used in Chinese cooking:
Dark soy sauce: This sauce is used primarily to lend a darker color to marinades, sauces, and heavier dishes. The recipe will state if dark soy sauce is required.
Light soy sauce: Saltier and aged for a shorter period of time, light soy sauce makes a frequent appearance in soups, stir-fries, and deep-fries. When a recipe calls for soy or soya sauce, use light soy sauce.
Oyster sauce: This rich sauce adds a savory flavor to dishes such as Broccoli with Oyster Sauce (page 242).
Hoisin sauce: Made from seasoned soybean paste, the sweet and savory flavor of hoisin sauce is an indispensable tool of northern Chinese cooks.
Chili paste and chili sauce: Fiery Szechuan cuisine wouldn't be the same without hot chilies. Just remember that a little goes a long way!
Versatile cornstarch has many uses, from binding liquid ingredients in meat marinades to coating food during deep-frying. Mixed with water, it's frequently used to thicken sauces during the final stages of cooking.
Both stir-frying and deep-frying require oils with a high smoking point. While Chinese cooks favor peanut oil, it can go rancid if there is too long a period between stir-fries. Vegetable oils such as canola and corn oil are an acceptable substitute. Sesame oil is used to add a unique nutty flavor to soups and fried dishes — just drizzle a few drops into the dish in the final stag
es of cooking.
You will also need to get Chinese rice wine, which is valued for its sweet flavor and ability to mask strong odors in marinades and stir-fries. (Generally, pale dry sherry is an acceptable substitute.) In marinades and special sauces where the flavor of each ingredient counts more, stick with Chinese rice wine or make sure to use a higher quality pale dry sherry.
Cooking Equipment
You don't need to splurge on a bunch of fancy gadgets to cook Chinese food. All it takes is a wok and a few basic utensils. The versatile wok is a steamer, frying pan, deep-fryer, and roasting pan all rolled into one. A good chef's knife can be used instead of a Chinese cleaver, and you don't need a rice cooker to boil rice, but a wok is the one piece of equipment that you should definitely consider purchasing before you begin cooking Chinese food.
It would be stretching the truth to say that you absolutely must have a wok to cook Chinese food. Many satisfactory meals of chop suey and chow mein have been born in a frying pan. The main thing is to use a heavy skillet that can take the high heats required for stir-frying. Cast iron and Calphalon hard anodized pans are both good choices. Still, if it's possible, a wok is preferable. Here are a few tips on choosing a good wok.
Material Matters
Originally, woks were large round vessels made of cast iron, with handles on either side for easy lifting in and out of the conventional Chinese oven. Over the centuries, woks have evolved to meet changing needs. Today, most Asian cooks favor woks made of carbon steel. Inexpensive and easy to handle, carbon steel woks can take the high heat needed for stir-frying and deep-frying. Properly seasoned and cleaned, they will last for years.
Still, modern technology has provided other options. It's now possible to purchase woks made with a nonstick coating. There are several advantages to cooking with a nonstick wok. For one thing, it's healthier since you don't need to use as much oil. For another, there is less cleanup. It can be frustrating to interrupt cooking dinner to wash the remains of a meat marinade from the wok before starting to stir-fry the vegetables. A nonstick coating means less fuss and muss.