Chinese Food

Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Is anyone here any good at cooking it?

I'm kind of okay as far as I can get with a few recipes, a basic understanding of how flavours work together, and a bit of soy sauce / tofu / ginger / seitan / whatever, but I'd kind of like to get better.

So can anyone help?

What are the ingredients that you keep around the place? I tend to get the idea that something is really essential and then buy some and discover that I'm stuck with a huge amount of something that I actually only have one recipe for and that goes off in 3 days.

Are there any recipe books worth having? Something with decent amounts of veggie stuff would be a bonus, I'm not 100% bothered about 'authenticity' but I am interested in a decent degree of variety and ideas beyond 'stir fried stuff in soy sauce based goop'.

Any other thoughts on the subject? Ideas, things to try? 99.99% of Chinese restaurant food in the UK seems to be generic and somewhere between awful and mediocre, but the good stuff I've had - home cooked or in better restaurants - has been awesome. Also, I'm aware that 'chinese food' is a slightly silly term given the diversity of culture and styles of cooking that have traditionally existed within china, so feel free to go off on one about regional styles.
 
nomos

nomos

Administrator
i make almost none but i remember white pepper being one of those ones that you really need when you need it. i used to make a good hot and sour soup.
 
owengriffiths

owengriffiths

Owen
I have the same problems with ingredients. Most times I try to improvise I end up with a mediocre wok cooked dish that is too close to student food for comfort. I suspect the only way to learn how to cook properly is through recipe books, but I never really plan for that when I'm doing the shopping. The idea that you can actually make your own cooking sauce is an alien concept to me and presumably lots of other people, and the alternatives of buying a piss poor expensive sauce in a jar or using the likes of soy is unsatisfying. The whole improvising with ingredients thing is really let down by the expense and poor shelf life of stuff, supermarkets really need to offer sensible quantities for small households
 
R

reeltoreel

Well-known member
You could check out Ken Hom's books, this one for example....



As Madhur Jaffrey is to Indian, Ken Hom is to Chinese (or something).
 
D

DannyL

Wild Horses
Do you have a chinese supermarket near you? They're very useful as well as being inspiring and freaky at the same time, and the prices reflect that they are selling to a local/immigrant customer base, rather than the supermarket trying to flog your something exoticised.

Don't know much about chinese, though my Dad used to cook it a lot. I do tend to stock up on ingredients for Thai cooking whenever I go into the Chinese supermarket, stuff like lime leaves and chillis you can freeze and lemongrass isn't that perishable. Same with tinnd coconut milk, obvs.

Pork is the basis for a lot of chinese dishes so maybe you could get experimenting with crispy pork?
 
D

DannyL

Wild Horses
Five spice is a nice ingredient as well, for livening up any dish.

I also think most of us don't do stir fry properly. The idea behind authentic stir-frying is that the hob is radioactively, smoke-alarm ringing hot, and you only cook one portion at a time so as not to reduce the temperature too much. Most people's idea of a stir fry is much more akin to steaming the food. This has got to make a much difference to flavour, I think.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
this week i'm completely crazy about this jar of black bean sauce in chili oil. i just put it on rice but you can't lose with black bean fish or tofu or veggies or anything!

i keep thinking i should get a book but where is the time?
 
nochexxx

nochexxx

harco pronting
Canton Street Style Chicken Porridge.

When I lived in the Far East I used to eat this dish at least once a week. After much experimentation I finally cracked the recipe. After a few failed attempts I was shocked that I managed to replicate this dish to almost exacting standards. It’s a piece of piss really. The secret would you believe is white pepper.


Ingredients:
White rice, chicken breast, chicken stock, ginger, soya sauce, spring onions, shallots, salt, white pepper (do not use black pepper), sesame oil, white wine vinegar or any vinegar really.

In a large plate add some salt, white pepper, finely chopped ginger, a glug of the best soya sauce, a smaller glug of sesame seed oil, a couple of tablespoons of vinegar.

Cut chicken breast into bite size chunks or thin slices (what ever you prefer) and transfer onto the same plate and marinate all the ingredients together. Ensuring the chicken is rubbed into the sauce vigourously.


In a rice cooker or pan add the rice, congealed chicken stock, add four times more cold water than you would normally use to steam rice (this equates to roughly four inches of water above the rice). You can also use cold chicken stock if you so desire.

Switch on the rice cooker or use a saucepan on a very low heat (making sure you have a lid on). After the rice is 3/4 of the way cooked (5 minutes from the end) stir in the chicken and cover with lid

use finely chopped spring onions and fried shallots to garnish the porridge once it is on the plate. add a drizzle of soya sauce and serve.

Traditionally you will find in any chicken porridge stall a bowl of dried shallots, which would have been shallow fried and strained onto a napkin to absorb the oil. This is frankly a pain the arse, however you can buy a jar of these dried shallots from most Chinese supermarkets.

What you should end up with his a watery consistency of soft chicken breast, fresh spring onions and dried crispy shallots on top.
 
nochexxx

nochexxx

harco pronting
ingredients to always have around are

soya sauce light
soya sauce dark
oyster sauce
sesame seed oil
sugar
cornflour
vinegar
white pepper
dried chilli


ginger
garlic
fresh chilli
corriander
spring onions
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
DannyL said:
Five spice is a nice ingredient as well, for livening up any dish.
Click to expand...
I kind of always feel like I'm boshing it in as 'chinese in a jar', though, rather than really grokking what it works with as a flavour.

owengriffiths said:
I have the same problems with ingredients. Most times I try to improvise I end up with a mediocre wok cooked dish that is too close to student food for comfort.
Click to expand...
I find sticking to a couple of flavours or ingredients and thinking about how they'll work together helps a lot... if you want a lot of different stuff, do a lot of seperate dishes.

But I'm still kind of stuck at the stir frying level, and sure I'm only scratching the surface...

I suspect the only way to learn how to cook properly is through recipe books, but I never really plan for that when I'm doing the shopping.
Click to expand...
Recipe books can definitely expand your idea of what you're capable of or what might be worth a try.
 
D

DannyL

Wild Horses
Slothrop said:
I kind of always feel like I'm boshing it in as 'chinese in a jar', though, rather than really grokking what it works with as a flavour.
Click to expand...

Yeah, fair point.


But I'm still kind of stuck at the stir frying level, and sure I'm only scratching the surface...


I think you should start with duck or pork to expand the repotoire.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I swear by Fuchsia Dunlop

http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/

Her 'Sichuan Cookery' book is amazing, at the beginning she goes through all the ingredients you need, including English names or equivalents and where to buy them - London-centric, but not totally. She totally changed my way of thinking about Chinese cooking and I can now knock off three dishes at once (limited repertoire, mind) without thinking, whereas previously thought it was too much hassle. Really recommended. She has a mainland bent rather than Cantonese which makes for fun too, as I'm never quite sure how things are meant to taste, not having had some of them before.

There's a few veg dishes, she also supplements ingredients so you can turn some dishes veggie, though it isn't a vast range. Amazing tofu stuff.

I get all my stuff now from Seewoo in Greenwich, but they have one in Soho and Glasgow.

http://www.seewoo.com/x/stores.html

The one in Greenwich is a huge huge hypermarket and is well worth a day out, one aisle is just live fish and stuff, another warehouse just rice and pans and bowls etc. Cheap as chips but you might wanna take a car. I did a total Supermarket Sweep when I first went. Cash only too.

http://www.seewoo.com/x/stores.html
 
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