The Everything Chinese Cookbook (2 page)

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 filling 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.

Let's Get Started

C
hinese 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
  

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!