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Chinese Cooking Techniques

Updated:: Oct 16, 2009;
by:: China Highlights;
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Chinese cooking is renowned throughout the world. Chinese food has a distinctive culinary style all its own. The emphasis is on fresh, seasonal ingredients, prepared with a minimum of fuss and beautifully balanced as far as color, texture and presentation.

There are several cooking techniques. All seek to preserve flavor and nutrients. Each of the technique is briefly described below.

Stir-Fry

This is the classic Chinese cooking method. The cooking utensils are a wok and spatula. It is typically done on a gas stove, although an electric stove can be used.

Stir-fry typically uses a combination of meat or seafood, vegetables and tofu, etc. All ingredients are thinly sliced or cubed. The meat or seafood is marinated, using soy sauce, salt and other seasonings. All ingredients should be ready prior to heating up the wok. After the wok is hot, a small amount of oil is added. The meat or seafood is quickly stirred and turned until semi-cooked. They are then removed; more oil is added if necessary. The other ingredients are added and quickly stir-fried. The meat or seafood is added back midway through cooking, the seasonings are adjusted if necessary, and the dish is stirred until done. It should be served immediately.

Stir-frying is quick and easy, tasty and flavorful.

Deep-Frying

A deep saucepan with a wire basket or a deep fryer is used to cook a variety of meats and vegetables.

Steaming

The Chinese steam food in bamboo containers that can be stacked one on top of the other, allowing several kinds of foods to be cooked at once, thus saving time and fuel. The most famous examples of steaming are dim sum, dumplings and buns, and steamed fish. The water should be kept at a slow boil until the food is done.

Red Stewing or Red-Cooking

This technique is uniquely Chinese. The food is cooked very slowly over low fire. Meats are usually browned first, then large quantities of soy sauce, sugar, wine or sherry, ginger, five spices, chili powder, cilantro and other seasonings are added, together with water or broth. A tougher cut of meat can be used in red cooking, as it may take up to several hours before the meat is done to the desired tenderness. The finished product can be served hot or cold. The sauce is rich and dark brown; hence the descriptive name “red stewing”.

Boiling

Ingredients are washed and cut first, then plunge into boiling water until just tender. Vegetables can be cooked this way and served with a sauce. One good example is Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce. This method of cooking preserves color, texture, shape and nutrition

Roasting

Famous Chinese roast duck, chicken, or pig is cooked this way. Many delicatessens have large commercial ovens to accommodate large quantities of these popular items. The meats are then chopped, arranged artfully on a platter, and served with a sauce made from the meat drippings.

Poaching

This method is especially good for cooking delicate fish in a clear broth until just done.

Easy Recipe

Many dishes that are part of the daily life of Chinese people are easy to cook. Mapo Tofu, or for example, Egg Fried Rice take only minutes to cook.Others, such as Dumplings (Jiaozi) Stuffed with Leek and Pork, Saozi Noodles and Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs, take longer, but still consist of only a few simple steps. Many of the ingredients are readily available at local supermarkets, while others may require a trip to a Chinese/Asian supermarket or the use of a substitute. Hereare some easy DIY recipe ideas. Even if you are new to Chinese cooking, you can cook fine Chinese food by following the recipes.

Saozi Noodles

Ingredients:

Hand-pulled noodles, carrot, dried bean curd, pork, shallots, garlic, potatoes, green pepper, agarics, mature vinegar, salt, sugar, soy, oil and hot pepper powder. The seasonings: mature vinegar, salt, sugar, soy, oil and hot pepper powder, should be added according to your palate.

Instructions:

There are three main steps to make Saozi Noodles:

First, make hand-pulled noodles. Authentic Saozi Noodles are made of hand-pulled noodles, but it is too hard for people who have never been trained to pull dough into noodles. You can buy noodles at supermarkets.

Second, make the Saozi. This is the most important step.

Chop the pork, garlic and ginger and cut carrot, dried bean curd, shallot, garlic, ginger, potato, green pepper and agarics into small slices. Heat the pan, add some oil, and sauté the chopped pork while stirring continuously.

When the pork is medium rare, add the chopped ginger and the small pieces of carrot, dried bean curd, garlic, potato, green pepper and agarics, and then add a little salt and sugar. Continue to sauté the ingredients while stirring continuously.

When the chopped pork is medium to well-done, add some mature vinegar, and then some soy sauce. Continue to sauté the ingredients while stirring continuously.

When the chopped pork is well-done, add some hot pepper powder, and then add a little water and braise them for few minutes.

Now, the Saozi is well done and ready for the last step.

3) Make the soup.

Clean the pan and add some oil. After the oil has been heated, add some mature vinegar and some salt and water (not too much). After that put the Saozi into it and boil the soup. Meanwhile, cook noodles in another saucepan; after the noodles are cooked, drain the noodles. When the soup is boiled, add some hot pepper powder and small pieces of shallot, and then the soup is done.

Pour the soup on the noodles and mix them well. The Saozi Noodle is done and you can enjoy it.

Mapo Tofu

Ingredients:

Minced beef/pork (65g); Minced onion (4g); Chili oil (10g); Lobster sauce (10g); Sichuan pepper corn; Garlic; Soy sauce; Tofu (200g); Chili powder; Chicken soup (130g); Caltrop starch; Yellow wine.

Directions:

1. Chop every slab of tofu into three slanting pieces, and then cook them in boiling water in order to whip off the smell of plaster and drain the water inside tofu.
2. Heat the pan with pig fat, and then stir-fly minced beef with broad bean paste.
3. Put in pepper powder, soy sauce, lobster sauce, chili oil, yellow wine, salt, minced onion, stir-fry it until the flavors of the ingredients are totally absorbed.
4. Put in tofu and 100g chicken soup, and turn down the heat to cook the soup into thick juice.
5. When it is almost ready, put in caltrop starch, minced onion, Sichuan pepper corn and gourmet powder.

Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

Ingredients:

Spare Ribs (500g); Flour (60g); Shaoxing Rice Wine (60g); Soy Sauce (50g); Sugar (90g); Vinegar (80g); Some onion, Potato starch and fragrant oil.

Directions:

1. Chop the Spare Ribs into pieces of about 1 inch long, and then Mix the steak pieces thoroughly with 20 gram wine and a right amount of salt, potato starch, flour, and water.
2. Mix soy sauce, sugar, vinegar and 35 gram Shaoxing wine, potato starch and water together, and make then into juice for later use.
3. Heat the pan with oil, then put in spare ribs piece by piece, fry them until they become crispy, and pick them.
4. Leave some hot oil in the pan, and put in some onion to fry a few seconds, and put in the ribs, then immediately put in the juice made before. Stir-fry them until the fragrance is fully absorbed. Then put in some balm before it is well-done.

Fried Rice with Egg

Ingredients:

Half bowl of cooked rice, one egg, 1/3 of a carrot, 1/3 of a potato, two small mushrooms, one piece of dried tofu, some minced meat and thick soup

Directions:

1. Chop the carrot, potato, mushrooms, and dried tofu into small pieces.
2. Beat the egg well, and mix in a right amount of salt and gourmet powder.
3. Heat the pan with oil, and then put in the minced meat, wine, and soy sauce to stir-fry. Take it out when it’s ready.
4. Heat the pan with oil again, stir-fry the egg and smash it, then take it out.
5. Heat the pan with oil, stir-fry the carrot, potato, dried tofu, and mushroom for a little while, and put in some salt and gourmet powder. And then put in the cooked rice, minced meat and egg, pour in some thick soup, braised it for two minutes until it is well-done.

Chinese Cooking Art

Chinese cooking embodies the dining culture tradition of Chinese nation. Compared with the cooking of all other nations in the world, it has many distinctive features.

Firstly, it has varied flavor. Since our country has a vast territory and abundant resources with differences in climate, products, customs and habits in all parts, it has developed many flavors in diet over a long period of time. There has been the saying of rice in the south and noodles in the north in our country all the time. The flavor is divided into sweetness in the south, saltiness in the north, sourness in the east and hotness in the west, which can mainly be reduced to the four flavors of Bashu (Sichun), Qilu (Shandong), Huaiyang (Jiangsu) and Yuemin (Guangdong and Fujian).

Secondly, there are differences in four seasons. With four seasons in a year, people take food according the seasons, which is another feature of Chinese cooking. Since antiquity, our country has always seasoned and matched food with the variation of seasons. The flavor is pure and thick in winter while light and cool in summer. The food are mostly braised, stewed, simmered in winter and cold and dressed with sauce and frozen in summer.

Thirdly, it places an emphasis on aesthetic feeling. Chinese cooking has not only superior techniques, but also has the tradtion of placing an emphasis on the aesthetic feeling of dishes and pays attention to the harmony and agreement of food’s color, fragrance, flavor, shape and utensils. The aesthetic feeling of dishes has all around representations. Whether it is a red radish or a green cabbage, all kind of designs can be carved out, which has a unique style, attains the harmony of color, fragrance, flavor, shape and beauty and provides people with highly unified special enjoyment in spirit and material.

Fourthly, it pays attention to temperament and interest. The cooking of our country has placed an emphasis on taste and interest since very early times. It not only has strict requirements on the color, fragrance and flavor of meals and snacks, but also has certain requirements on the naming of dishes, the manner of tasting the flavor, the rhythm of having dinner and the insertion of entertainment, etc. The names of Chinese dishes can be called reaching the aceme of perfection and suiting both refined and popular tastes. The dishes may named realistically according to the main ingredients, supplementary ingredients and seasoning as well as their cooking methods or called in accordance with historical literary quotations, myths, legends, the intereting episodes of celebrities taking food, the image of dishes, such as "family collections (made of all sorts of seafood and riverfood)", "red lion's head (fried meatballs in brown sauce)", "beggar's chicken" (roasted chicken in yellow mud).

Lastly, it combines food with medicine. The cooking technique of our country is closely related with medical treament and health care. There has been the statement that food and medicine have the same origin and action since several thousand years ago. It takes advantage of the medicinal properties of the raw materials of food and makes them into all kinds of cuisine, thereby accomplishing the purpose of preventing and curing certain diseases.

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