Chinese Cooking
Techniques
The
Chinese claim to have evolved some 80-odd techniques of
cooking combining foods.
The
Chinese claim to have evolved some 80-odd techniques of
cooking combining foods. Some of thee, of course, are
the ordinary ones known to every Western cook and
housewife, such as steaming and boiling, and some are
refinements and variations of those methods.
Some of
them are however, unique to Chinese cooking.
'Stir-frying' for instance is a form of swift, light
sautéing where the foods is kept constantly in motion so
that every morsel is evenly and swiftly cooked.
The
ubiquitous wok, a sort of frying-pan with gently sloping
sides, is best for this type of cooking, especially when
used with wooden cooking chopsticks. Red-cooking is also
uniquely Chinese and is not a slang expression denoting
political leanings, but rather a method of cooling a
whole range of meat, poultry, game and fish dishes, in
soy sauce, resulting in a lovely, rich red glaze to the
food.
Meats cooked like this, especially, will keep well
and combine well later--hot or cold with other
ingredients.
Some Final
Thoughts
The
garnishing and presentation of food is as much an art
with the Chinese as the cooking of it. The 'look of it'
is important from a point of view of color, corm and
imagination.
The 'placing' of the dish within the order
of the menu is another grace note, for unlike an Indian
meal where everything is served at once these dishes, to
be appreciated fully, should be served one at a time and
each should act as an appetizer to the next.
The
naming of dishes, too, makes the imagination soar back
into the mists of the romantic past: Gold Coin;
Eight-Jewel Duck; Splashed Shrimps; Red-cooked Lion's
Head. There is always a story.
Like the one about the
Emperor Chien-lung wandering incognito into an inn in
search of a meal. The inn-keeper, clean out of food but
unwilling to disappoint anyone at all, remembers that he
has a piece of crusty, near-burned rice at the bottom of
his empty pot of cooked rice, He fishes it out and
ingeniously uses part of it to make a rice broth and
uses part of the toasty rice as a biscuit to serve with
the broth!
The Emperor was so taken with this unique
dish that he ordered his own chefs to discover how this
was made. Through experiments they produced its
equivalent, the dish which is today known as Gaw Bar and
is a classic part of the Chinese repertoire.
So
now read on, sample and delight in wonders of an
ancient, yet very modern cuisine.
Chinese Cooking Techniques
