Cooking Chinese - Easy Chinese Food Recipes
January 23rd, 2008
Chinese is most probably the world’s most famous cuisine. Almost one third people across the globe have Chinese food every day, so we can easily dub it the most popular kind of food in the world. Apart from being uniquely tasty, Chinese food is also extremely nutritious and its method of cooking is such that the majority of nutrients are saved in their original form. Even though Chinese cooking is quite easy and simple, most of us still rely on take outs and restaurants when it comes to having Chinese food. If you are one of those people who love Chinese food but do not make it at home, then you can easily start doing so with the easy Chinese food recipes provided here.
To prepare a three course meal with a salad, a chicken dish and noodles, just try out the easy to make recipes given below:
For Chinese Fried Chicken, you will need:
A pound of skinned chicken
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons, tomato ketchup
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon red chilli sauce
1 table spoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 egg
Salt to taste
Method: Mix all ingredients except chicken to create a lump-less paste. Mix in chicken pieces and keep covered in the fridge for 2 to 4 hours. Take out and drain excess liquid, if any. Heat oil in a wok and fry chicken pieces, dropping them one by one in the oil. Drain fried pieces on a kitchen towel and you are ready to serve.
For Chinese Cabbage and Fruit Salad, you will need:
For the Salad-
1 medium sized cabbage, thinly sliced
1 cup pineapple chopped pineapple, fresh or canned
1 cup chopped oranges
1 cup sliced water chestnuts
1/4 cup sliced green onions
For the Dressing-
1/2 cup mayonnaise or dream whip
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp red chilli sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
Method: Mix all ingredients for the dressing and beat lightly with a fork till it gets a creamy texture. Toss chopped fruits and vegetables with the dressing at the time of serving and you are done. Simple, no?
Szechwan Noodles, you will need:
1 12oz packs of noodles
4 tbsps. white vinegar
4 tbsps. oil
¼ cup chili oil
2 tbsps. soy sauce
3 tbsps. szechwan sauce
Salt to taste
Method: Cook the noodles as per instructions. In a Wok, heat oil slightly and add soy sauce, vinegar, szechwan sauce, chili oil and salt. Stir for half a minute and add noodle. Turn the flame to high and mix everything thoroughly. Your noodles are ready to serve.
After having a taste of these simple and easy to make Chinese dishes, both you and your family will be craving for more Chinese food. In order to get more simple Chinese recipes, keep checking this space! Till then, happy cooking!
Wok Cooking - Beginners Guide to Cooking with a Wok
January 23rd, 2008
The Wok, a bowl shaped cooking pan, is instrumental to traditional Chinese cooking. While a wok is not a necessity for everyone, you should definitely go out and buy one if you plan to make Chinese food regularly in your kitchen. The traditional Chinese wok looks like a large metal soup bowl with handles on both sides. If you’ve ever been on the inside of a Chinese kitchen, you might have seen cooks using woks as large as four-seater round tables. Nowadays, flat bottomed woks are also easily available in the market and you also have a large variety of materials and styles to choose from. Some tips that will help you in becoming an expert with the wok are:
Buying a Wok: There are a number of things that you need to consider before buying a wok. For one, the shape of the wok is important because a round bottomed wok might end up harming your cooking range if you use electric burners. On the other hand, a flat bottomed wok can work perfectly well on such a burner. Then comes the material of the wok. You will find woks made of stainless steel, carbon steel, iron and non stick ones. While traditional Chinese cooks swear by carbon woks, if you are a modern cook, you can do just as well with a non –stick one. You will save your self a lot of hassle by buying a heavy non stick wok that allows for equal heating all over. It would give you a similar performance as a carbon steel one but will be rust free and cook food faster.
Seasoning your wok: In case you follow after traditionalists and buy a non stick, iron or carbon steel wok, then you will first have to season it. Seasoning is important because it removes the residual oil left on woks by the manufacturer to prevent rusting. In order to season your wok, first wash it with a fat removing detergent properly and dry it. Then put it on a low flame and let it heat up. Soak a kitchen towel with a little amount of cooking oil and rub it on the inside of the wok. After the wok has been heated for at least ten minutes, rub the towel on the wok again. You will see your kitchen towel turning gray black. Keep repeating the process till your towel comes away clean. Wash it with water, dry it and your wok is ready for use whenever you want it. You will not need to season a non stick wok because it will not rust anyway.
Cooking With a Wok: Keep these tips in mind when cooking with your wok to get the best results—
• Put food in the wok only after it has heated up properly.
• Keep everything prepared because you will find that food cooks very fast in the wok.
• Use the wok for deep frying because it is much more efficient than regular sauce pans and deep fryers.
• When deep frying, put food to be fried into the wok only when the oil is hot enough (it should form little bubbles when you put food in it), otherwise your food will turn out to be full of oil.Â
• Use wooden spoons—slotted spoons for deep frying and spatulas for other purposes even if do not use a non stick wok. It will save a lot of commotion while you keep stirring food around in your wok!
