Online recipes are mostly crap. It can be easy or it can be good. The best book I've read is this one That author also has a very good blog. Another blog I found useful being new at wok and rolling - http://thewoksoflife.com/
Stock up on these things and you are well on your way:
Definitely get corn starch and rice flour. I've been using potato starch lately with success too.
Water blanching and oil blanching, steaming, frying, stir frying. They are techniques you probably don't use as much in other cuisines. Learn the basics and when to use them.
Most home stoves don't have the heat output needed so you have to cook in small batches. That's one of the most common problems.
The second problem is not doing the mise en place. Have everything cut, measured, marinated and ready to go.
You should add oyster sauce to your condiment list as well.
Most chinese restaurants in the US cook an Americanized style of cuisine that is much heavier on the sauces as well as sugar and salt compared to how the food is more traditionally cooked. MillionsKnives mentioned oil and water blanching. Most everything in the chinese restaurant will have been par cooked to some degree. The brocolli will have been water blanched. Most protiens will have been passed through oil--that's what it's called. This is a low temp deep fry, about 250 degrees temp. Take a look at http://www.cheftalk.com/t/72818/wonderful-technique-videos-thread/60#post_488718 for an example of how a pro kitchen can sneak in the passing through oil step.
And the other thing people never think about when trying to cook Chinese food at home is that you don't have the kitchen to pull off multiple simultaneous stir fried dishes. A home cooked Chinese menu will need to combine multiple methods of cooking to bring the dishes to table at the same time. A soup, a cold dish, a steamed dish, a braised dish, and a stir fried dish... And do make soup. It's a very traditional part of the Chinese meal.
"Chinese food" is a pretty broad term,. Most restaurants I have experienced in the last decade or so on the west coast, tend to serve somewhat Americanized versions of the same dishes. I prefer the flavors and dishes of Mandarin cuisine. You might seek out cookbooks that focus on authentic dishes you want to replicate from a specific region.
ETA - I was waiting for my to-go moo shoo dish at a local "Chinese" restaurant. The kitchen door was open, and I saw them open a package of Mexican tortillas.
If you have a 99 ranch market nearby, or are close to ethnic markets, shop for ingredients there.
Like said above, American restaurant Chinese food is a beast all until itself. The equipment and techniques used are very adapted to it and it is hard to duplicate in a home kitchen.
I am friends with a family here in Sweden that is from China and I can honestly say that every thing I have ever eaten at their home has tasted and looked nothing like any restaurant Chinese food I have eaten. I even got a WTF look and chuckle from them when I did general tso's chicken for my 17 year old daughter's birthday last year ( tradition now) and they came for the party.
I used to do Hot Wok demo stir-fry in my dining room for lunch ounce a week. I did from 80 to 100 orders over a 2 hr period working 3 woks at a time. The customers loved it,but, I really never thought it was as good as in Chinese restaurants. I'm really don't think recipes do justice to real Chinese ways of cooking. It's the same with Indian cooking, when cooks from India combine spices it's different than we would do at home. I think we maybe able to come close, I don't think we can hit it out of the park. I think if you really want the right way of doing things you need to be trained by people who know.
I used to do Hot Wok demo stir-fry in my dining room for lunch ounce a week. I did from 80 to 100 orders over a 2 hr period working 3 woks at a time. The customers loved it,but, I really never thought it was as good as in Chinese restaurants. I'm really don't think recipes do justice to real Chinese ways of cooking. It's the same with Indian cooking, when cooks from India combine spices it's different than we would do at home. I think we maybe able to come close, I don't think we can hit it out of the park. I think if you really want the right way of doing things you need to be trained by people who know.
Aside from dishes that require really obscure ingredients that even specialty stores don't carry, I think that it is possible to "hit it out of the park" if enough attention, repetition, and recipe tweaking is involved. I am almost always able to near exact duplicate anything I have eaten. Some take me longer to master than others, but I am very stubborn and cheap. Those two attributes go a long way in recreating an item. I like to eat top quality, but have a fast casual budget. Bonus, I get to have an extra cocktail or two with supper and don't have to worry about driving home
lately every time I have had Chinese food is been pretty bad, not like it used to be. Only thing I miss is you can't buy a good egg roll out side if a Asian restaurant, all store brands have some kind of bad tasting sauce in them.
Yeah Americanized chinese food is a different thing for sure. I recently saw this documentary "The Search for General Tso" and that chicken dish is like kind of Hunan province but with more sugar. Every americanized dish has way too much sugar.
Interesting tangent: here in Boston, the Joyce Chen empire had a huge effect. Pretty much every restaurant has exactly 10 appetizers and #4 is always peking ravioli (what we call the pan fried dumpling in boston).
Yeah Americanized chinese food is a different thing for sure. I recently saw this documentary "The Search for General Tso" and that chicken dish is like kind of Hunan province but with more sugar.
I watched and enjoyed that documentary very much. It is always been a hobby of mine to make authentic and americanized versions side by side and compare. There are definitely things that make it "Americanized" (read sugar) but harder to agree on authentic
Almost every Chinese restaurant (Americanized) I've been to has been overpoweringly over-salted/over-soy sauced, too.
I'd also add white pepper powder, scallion, and possibly star anise to the list of 'should-haves' as well. And I'll echo the wok and high heat too. That's one thing that is commonly lacking in home kitchens. And just in case it's in the recipes for some reason, I'd stay away from using olive oil for stir fry. Seems like the smoke point is a bit on the low side.
So True! When I first joined this site, I started a thread about MSG and at the time believed it to be a horrible product and very bad for us. After reading through the material presented to me from other posters on the site, I came to the conclusion that it is not only not that bad, but does help to create a pretty flavorful dish. I don't use it all the time, but I no longer avoid it like the plague.
I was waiting for someone to say it and finally... So true... It's MSG. And maybe a well seasoned wok. You just cannot develop that kind deep flavor in such short time span without relying on a short cut.
I was waiting for someone to say it and finally... So true... It's MSG. And maybe a well seasoned wok. You just cannot develop that kind deep flavor in such short time span without relying on a short cut.
I rather disagree. If there's a secret it relies on the power of fermented flavorings. Most of the seasonings like rice wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, bean paste, leverage time and microbes for flavor. Rather than time in the pan, they build on time in fermenting.
How I learned was I ate at many authentic Chinese places with Chinese friends. This way, you learn what you like. Secondly, I had a Chinese give me a tour of the Asian markets so I began to know the basic ingredients.
The chef's above have given some great advice. More than one person mentioned high heat. I have a super stove with a 34,000 BTU burner, which is better than most homes have. The restaurant has a 100,000 BTU or even hotter. Food can become fragrant when cooked at such heat. You cannot duplicate that exactly with better equipment. Millionsknives above mentioned outdoor wok -at home, that is the way to go. The smoke created by proper wok'ing it too much for a flimsy indoor hood.
The cheftalk site has recomendations for cookbooks. Grace Young's books are popular. The Food of China is good starter book.
Here is my mise en place for stir fry tonight - shrimp marinated in ginger, garlic, pepper flake, oyster sauce, dark sesame oil, white pepper, anchovy paste and corn starch. The plate contains clockwise from 1-o'clock - ginger, garlic, red bell pepper, shaved celery, seasoned tomato, pineapple, in the center is cilantro. These are laid out in order of operations. The pot has steamed broccoli and the little bowl has raw peanuts. The sauce is oyster sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, tamarind sauce, low sodium soy sauce, fish sauce, peanut butter, coconut milk and corn starch. I'm using virgin coconut oil and sesame oil and I'm probably leaving something out, but you get the idea. This is not a "challenge" dish for this month - /img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif
Not counting the meat, fowl, fish or shell fish, I like to have most of these ingredients ON HAND. I tend to cook extemporaneously so I may not have everything planned but with these ingredients I can coble together fairly good flavors. I do keep a supply of Thai and Chinese noodles as well.
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Chinese Essentials
Comments
Brand(s)
1
Jamine Rice
Fragrant Long Grain aka Hom Mali - "good smelling"
Elephant Brand
Golden Phoenix
2
Soy Sauce
Kikkoman
Pearl River Bridge
San-J Organic Tamari
3
Soy, Black
Thai brand with molasses (add flavor and some sweetness.)
Healthy Boy (Thai)
4
Soy, Mushroom
dark syrupy
Lee Kum Kee or
Pearl River Bridge
5
Sa Cha Sauce
Chinese Sauce made from shrimp, brill fish and a mixture of spices, has an aromatic seafood flavor
Lee Kum Kee
6
Char Siu Sauce
Chinese BBQ sauce wt honey and Maltose
Lee Kum Kee
7
Mirin
Rice Wine, sweet (actually Japanese)
Kikkoman Aji-Mirin
8
Oil, peanut
9
Oil, Toasted hot sesame
toasted sesame oil seeped with red chilles
Look at ingredients
10
Fish Sauce
made from anchovies and water
Tiparos
11
Shaoxing cooking wine
fermented from rice from Shaoxing
many
12
Vinegar, black
stronger smoky woodsy flavor than rice vinegar.
Chinkiang
13
Vinegar, seasoned rice wine
aka sushi vinegar
Marukan
14
Corn starch
Thickener and sauces
15
white pepper
16
Chinese (tianjin) chilies
(both crushed and whole)
17
Sichuan pepper
18
Garlic
19
Fresh Ginger
20
Dried mushrooms
hot pot, stir fry, soup, spring rolls
21
Fermented Black beans
shell fish, fish, stir fry
22
scallions
23
onion
24
Napa cabbage
25
firm tofu
26
Water Chestnuts
27
snow peas
28
bean sprouts
29
Green bell peppers
30
carrots
I make my own hot sauce from peanut oil in garlic, ginger, red arbor chilles, and fermented black beans.
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