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Cooking and Eating Chinese

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of a Chinese kitchen is its utter simplicity. It's hard to believe that such creative and often sophisticated food is prepared with so few utensils. Even today, most cooks manage with a single coal-fired stove, which in China, is basically a bench top with several holes of differing sizes where woks, claypots and saucepans are placed.

Indispensible Utensils

The most essential ingredient is a wok, a parabolic pan traditionally made of cast iron and used for just about everything except cooking rice: stir-frying, deep-frying, braising, making sauces, holding a steaming basket and so on. The shape of the wok distributes the heat evenly, while its sloping sides ensure that during stir-frying, food falls back into the pan and not out over the edge. It's also practical for deep-frying, requiring less oil than a conventional saucepan or frying pan.

A wok the most essential item in a Chinese kitchen.

A wok should be "seasoned" before its first use so that food will not stick to it. Wash the inside of the wok with warm, soapy water but do not use a scouring pad. Rinse with fresh water and dry thoroughly. Place some oil on a piece of paper towel and wipe the inside of the wok. Repeat two or three times until the paper towel comes away clean after wiping Store the oiled wok until you are ready to use it. Before cooking, Chinese cooks always heat the wok before adding any oil to ensure that it is dry and the oil will not splatter. After cooking, never clean your wok with detergent or harsh abrasives; just rinse with warm water and wipe it dry.

Claypots of various shapes and sizes, with a sandy exterior and a glazed interior, are used for slow cooking and for making soups and stocks. These are attractive and inexpensive, but any type of saucepan could be used instead. Rice is usually cooked in an aluminium or stainless steel saucepan, although more and more affluent homes in the cities boast an electric rice cooker.

Just as indispensable as the wok is a cleaver, which comes with either a heavy rectangular blade about 3 to 4 inches deep, ideal for cutting through bones, or a lighter weight blade for chopping, slicing, bruising garlic cloves and scooping up food on the flat edge to carry it to the pan. One single Chinese cleaver does the work of a whole battery of knives in a Western kitchen.

Partner to the cleaver is a strong chopping board, which in China, is a thick cross section of a tree trunk. Meat is always minced on a board, using two cleavers simultaneously—a food processor achieves similar results without the effort and skill that is required to use two cleavers.

Chinese claypots, used for slow cooking, are attractive and inexpensive.

Steaming is a healthy method of cooking favored by the Chinese, who traditionally use a multi-tiered bamboo steamer with a woven cover that absorbs any moisture, unlike a metal cover where moisture condenses and then falls back onto the food. The steaming basket is placed inside a wok, sitting a few inches above the boiling water Chinese stores also sell perforated metal disks that sit inside a wok above the water level; these are useful for steaming a single plate of food. For steaming in this fashion, you will need to buy a large, dome-shaped lid that will cover your wok.

Other useful utensils include a wire mesh basket on a long handle, good for scooping out deep-fried food or boiled noodles; and a round-edged frying spatula, which is perfect for tossing stir-fried ingredients in the wok. Chinese cooks also prefer long wooden chopsticks for turning food during deep-frying, though this does require a certain dexterity, and you may be happier with tongs.

Simple Cooking Methods

Cooking methods include steaming, stir-frying, braising, deep-frying and slow cooking.

Stir-frying is by far the most commonly used method. Oil is heated in the wok and evenly sliced ingredients tossed about constantly; contact with the heat from the sides as well as the bottom of the wok means that food cooks very rapidly, sealing in the juices and flavor.

A bamboo steamer and long-handled wire mesh scoops

This child seems more concerned with eating than etiquette, but will no doubt pick up the finer points of dining as he grows up.

Timing is absolutely crucial to the success of Chinese dishes. Most food is cooked very briefly (a result of centuries of having to conserve precious fuel), so it is essential to chop all the ingredients, measure all the seasonings, and have the garnishes and serving dishes at hand before starting to cook.

Control of heat is also important, and for this reason, a gas flame is far superior to any other form of heat. The degree of heat required for some dishes, especially for stir-frying, is far greater than that normally used in a Western kitchen.

Timing given in the recipes in this book assumes that very high heat can be used when called for; if you doubt the intensity of your heat source, try cooking the food for just a little longer If you have an electric stove, you might consider investing in a single gas burner capable of producing extremely high heat and of immediate temperature control, otherwise your results will not be the same.

One single wok can be used to cook the entire meal, except for the rice. The first dish is cooked, the wok quickly rinsed with water, dried and the next batch of ingredients added. Naturally, the Chinese cook doesn't have to break off in the middle of cooking to check the recipe. Make sure you prepare and place the ingredients near your stove in order of use so you can work as quickly as possible, and have your serving plates ready And remember, as any Chinese cook would agree, practice makes perfect.

Chinese Dining Etiquette 101

Don't point with your chopsticks, and don't stick your chopsticks into your rice bowl and leave them there standing up. for in this position they resemble incense sticks set before a grave.

Don't use your chopsticks to explore the contents of a dish. Locate the morsel you want—on top of the pile, not buried in the middle of it—with your eyes and go directly for it with your chopsticks without touching any other pieces. A wait-and-see-attitude is recommended if you wish to land the white meat, the wing or the chicken heart.

If you wish to take a drink of wine at a formal dinner, you must first toast another diner, regardless of whether he or she responds by drinking. If you are toasted and don't wish to drink, simply touch your lips to the edge of the wine glass to acknowledge the courtesy.