Cook Like A Chef

How to

Cook Like A Chef In Just One Day

Learning the 16 fundamental cooking techniques to

quickly improve your culinary skills with Jim

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Cook Like A Chef

How To Cook Like A Chef In Just One Day

is © 2002 Cooking With Jim TM

All rights reserved worldwide.

First edition 2002.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, transmitted in any way or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording or otherwise, including but not limited to

digital copying and printing without the prior agreement and written

permission of the copyright holder.

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The author Jim Yang and ‘Quick and Easy Chinese Vegetarian

Cooking With Jim’ made their best efforts to produce a high

quality, informative, and helpful e-book. However, they make no

warranties or representations of any kind with regard to the

completeness or accuracy of the contents of this book. They

accept no liability of any kind for any losses or damages caused or

alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, from using the

information contained in this book.

Cook Like A Chef

"I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each

time with a variation."

~ Madame Benoit

"Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather

than exact measurements."

~ Marcel Boulestin

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Contents

FOREWORD......................................................................................................................6

BASTING............................................................................................................................7

BLANCHING.....................................................................................................................8 HOW TO BLANCHE VEGETABLES .......................................................................................8

BRAISING & STEWING ...............................................................................................10

CUTTING.........................................................................................................................12 BUYING A KNIFE.............................................................................................................12 GRIPPING THE KNIFE.......................................................................................................13 GENERAL CUTTING.........................................................................................................13 SLICING...........................................................................................................................14 JULIENNE AND SHREDDING .............................................................................................15 CHOPPING (GREEN ONIONS) ............................................................................................15 PARALLEL CUTTING........................................................................................................15 DICING............................................................................................................................16 MINCING.........................................................................................................................16 CRUSHING.......................................................................................................................17 ROLL-CUT .......................................................................................................................17

KNEADING DOUGH .....................................................................................................19 KNEADING THE DOUGH ..................................................................................................19

DEEP-FRYING................................................................................................................21

DETERMINING OIL TEMPERATURE..................................................................................21 DEEP-FRYING TIPS ..........................................................................................................22

GARLIC - HANDLING ..................................................................................................23

PARBOIL .........................................................................................................................24

POACHING......................................................................................................................25

RICE – COOKING..........................................................................................................26 PREPARING RICE – WASHING AND SOAKING ...................................................................26 COOKING THE RICE.........................................................................................................27 COOKING THE RICE – MEASURING THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF WATER ............................28 COOKING THE RICE – THE OLD FASHIONED WAY.............................................................29 COOKING THE RICE – WITH A RICE COOKER....................................................................30

SAUTÉ ..............................................................................................................................31

SKINNING TOMATOES AND PEPPERS...................................................................32 HOW TO EASILY SKIN TOMATOES: ...................................................................................32 HOW TO EASILY SKIN PEPPERS: .......................................................................................32

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SOUP STOCK – MAKING ............................................................................................33 MAKING VEGETABLE SOUP STOCK ..................................................................................34 MAKING POULTRY STOCK ...............................................................................................35 MAKING MEAT STOCK.....................................................................................................36

STIR-FRYING .................................................................................................................37 THE WOK ........................................................................................................................37 THE FIRE .........................................................................................................................38 THE SMOKING POINT .......................................................................................................38 THE BIG SPLASH ..............................................................................................................39 STIR-FRY LIKE A REAL CHEF............................................................................................40 STIR-FRYING TIPS............................................................................................................41

STEAMING......................................................................................................................43 STEAMING TIPS ...............................................................................................................44

THICKENING SAUCES ................................................................................................45 TIPS FOR USING STARCH WATER......................................................................................46

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Foreword

Learning to cook is easy. It doesn’t have to be complicated. All those fancy cooking styles and techniques you see on television really aren’t that difficult. Learn the basics, and you can easily master any and all of the following 16 fundamental cooking techniques. Are you always wondering what so many of the terms and jargon they use on cooking shows mean? You don’t have to be intimidated by all their fancy terms anymore, because I explain each one of them in this cooking techniques book. It’s arranged alphabetically so you can easily and quickly find what you’re looking for. Each cooking method starts with a brief explanation and descriptions. Key points will be highlighted, and many tips are provided to make cooking quick and easy for you. Enjoy cooking.

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Basting

Basting is a technique used to moisten food (usually meat) while cooking with a liquid. The liquid could be melted fat, some type of sauce, and pan dripping, or any other type of liquid. For example, say you’re grilling a few beef patties on a grill. You add some barbeque sauce on, and use a brush to smear it around – you are basting. Basting is easily done. You can use a brush of some sort and simply use it to brush on sauces to whatever you are cooking. A bulb baster can also be used to drizzle the liquid over the food. A bulb baster has a 5 to 7 inch long tube-like section with a pointy tip. At the end, there’s a round ball made of plastic where you store the liquid. You can baste when you’re barbequing, roasting, grilling, or baking.

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Blanching

Blanching is an excellent way to preserve the color, texture and flavor of your vegetables. You’re ‘pre-cooking’ your vegetables before cooking them. Blanching is used primarily for vegetables. It serves several purposes. Before freezing vegetables, it’s best to blanche first to capture their peak color, flavor and texture. Blanching slows the actions of the enzymes that cause the vegetables to ripen. This also helps to preserve the vitamins and minerals of the vegetables. A side benefit of blanching is the effect of killing off bacteria that the vegetables may have.

How to blanche vegetables When blanching vegetables, immerse the vegetables in boiling water briefly.

• Fill a pot about 2/3 full of water. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of salt, and bring the water to a boil.

• Add your vegetables into the boiling water. Do not cover with lid. Depending on what type of vegetables you’re blanching the amount of time will differ. For easy to cook vegetables such as lettuce, blanch for only a few seconds. For more difficult to cook veggies such as broccoli, blanch for 30 – 60 seconds. Also, the size of the individual vegetable pieces also becomes a factor. The larger the piece, the longer you should blanche.

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In my Chinese Vegetarian Cooking book, blanching is used mainly to preserve vegetable colors, and also to soften the vegetables somewhat before stir-frying. For example, in my Oyster Broccoli and Stir-fry Gai Lan recipes, blanching is recommended to pre-cook the vegetables.

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• When finished blanching, strain the vegetables from the hot water.

• Immediately run the vegetables through cold water. Tip: When you plan on blanching vegetables, make sure to cut the vegetables in to evenly sized pieces. This way, you ensure that all the pieces get blanched evenly. Some people recommend blanching your vegetables for several minutes. In my opinion, that’s way too long. I usually blanche my vegetables for stir-frying purposes, so I prefer to have my veggies to have a little crunchy texture. I don’t enjoy eating very soft vegetables. However, it’s really up to you how long you want to blanche for. If you like your vegetables to be soft, blanche it longer. Blanche your vegetables quickly if you like them to be more crunchy. Some vegetables you could blanche include, broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese broccoli (Gai Lan), cabbage, and many more. Remember that blanching is not meant to cook the vegetables, so speed is very important.

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Braising & Stewing

When you braise or stew something, you ‘wet-cook’ it. Braising is a cooking method where you first brown meats and vegetables in a little fat (or oil), and then let it slowly cook in a pot with some liquid for a long period of time. Braising is a technique used usually on tough cuts of meat – the long cooking process softens the tough meat. At the same time, the braised/stewed ingredients really absorb the flavors during the long cooking process. Tip: To prevent burning your meats while braising and stewing, you can dice up carrots, celery, and onions to place at the bottom of your pot so the meat doesn’t come in direct contact with the pot. This also adds some extra flavor and aroma.

How long do you think it takes to cook vegetables? Not very long. So even though I titled that section braising and stewing, the recipes really don’t take very long. However, the essence of braising and stewing is captured in the recipes. Here’s how I braise my tough cut meats:

• Cut the meat chunk into 1 to 2 inch sections • Instead of the normal method of browning meats in fat, I

like to marinate it first with either soy sauce or teriyaki sauce, and a little cornstarch.

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In my Chinese Vegetarian cookbook, you maybe mislead to think that most of the braised/stewed recipes take a long time to cook. You couldn’t be more wrong. ☺ The truth is, there are no meats at all in my vegetarian book, and in all the recipes there are only vegetables.

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• I then quickly stir-fry the meat on very high heat. This is where I add in all the spices and seasonings. (Salt, hot sauce, MSG, sugar etc…)

• After stir-frying on high heat for 30 to 60 seconds (after all the meat is no longer pink) I then add in water, and let it stew for a long period of time.

I find that marinating and stir-frying the tough meats on high heat really packs the flavors into the meat when it’s finished cooking. You can also add in garlic and ginger at the start to add more flavor to the meat.

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Cutting

Cutting and slicing up food is probably one of the most important skills to master in Chinese cooking. Cutting your food into uniform pieces to make the dish present nicely is half the battle. Unlike knives used anywhere else in the world, Chinese chefs use a cleaver as the knife of choice. In western cooking, a cleaver is usually used primarily to chop up large bones (because of the weight and size of the knife). In Chinese cooking, chefs almost always use the cleaver exclusively to cut everything from meat and bones to tomatoes and mushrooms.

Buying a Knife There are two main types of cleavers that you can buy. You can easily find the traditional carbon steel knives in Chinese hardware stores, and you can find the stainless steel type wherever knives are sold. The carbon steel knives easily sharpen, however, they tend to rust easily. The stainless steel cleavers don’t rust, but they are difficult to sharpen. So, if you want a sharp knife, and you can take good care of your knife, then the carbon steel cleavers are for you. You need to keep them clean, and always dry after washing. Stainless steel cleavers would be good for you, if you don’t want the hassle of maintaining and sharpening your knife. One summer back in university, I got a knife sales job with Cutco. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of them, but they do make good

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knives – that cost you an arm and a leg. I had to buy a display set for demonstration for $80, which was cheap considering that a small French Chef Knife costs around $80!

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A French Chef Knife, my preferred knife. referred knife.

They were not cheap knives. You could easily run into the thousands. But the knives sure worked great. In fact, after many years, I still use the French Chef Knife that came with my set. When you’re purchasing a Chinese cleaver, test its balance. The knife should have a nice feel, too. It should have a good weight, but not so heavy that you have a tough time handling it.

Gripping the Knife To properly hold a chef’s knife, place your index finger and thumb on opposing sides of the blade, and grasp the handle with your other three fingers. Curl you index finger slightly. You’ll find that holding a knife this way gives you much more control when cutting ingredients.

General Cutting When you are ready to cut some ingredients, hold the food in place with your free hand. To properly hold the food, you should curl your fingertips in toward your palm. So when cutting, use the first knuckles of your

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free hand to guide the cut, and never raise the blade higher than your first knuckles. This not only prevents your free hand from getting cut, it also acts as a guide for your knife as you cut along the food. The motion of the knife very much depends on what type of knife you use. For a Chinese cleaver, your cutting motion should be steady downward motion moving slightly forward as you cut, and moving back slightly as you raise the knife. If you were using a knife with a curved blade like a French Chef Knife, you should have the knife always touching the chopping board. So when you cut with a French Chef Knife, you follow a rocking motion. When you cut downward, the heavy part of the knife touches the chopping board, and the knife’s tip leaves the chopping board. When you finish the cut, the heavy part is lifted, and the weight of the knife shifts to the front.

Slicing Slicing is one of the most basic forms of cutting. Hold the knife properly, and using your knuckles as a guide, cut straight down. When I slice, I usually use a slightly ‘sawing’ motion. Slide the knife forward a little as you cut down, and bring it back toward you as you go back up. I find this helps to cut faster than just cutting straight down.

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Julienne and Shredding If you ever wonder what the chefs on television are talking about when they mention ‘Julienne’, now you’ll know. After you slice up something, stack a few, and cut straight through to cut them into matchstick like pieces. So, you’re just cutting it into strips. You can shred the ingredient into all different sizes. For a very thin strip, cut the slices very thin, and then cut the slices into thin strips.

Chopping (green onions) Chopping is exactly what it says it is – cutting food into smaller pieces.

When I chop my green onions, I first cut them in ½ and then into ¼ sections. Then I pile them up together, and chop at once. This is much more efficient. Done properly, you can quickly and easily chop up green onions.

Parallel Cutting When you want to make large, thin slices of meat or vegetable, then you need to parallel cut. It’s rather simple. Place the food near the edge of the chopping board, and hold it firmly in place with your free hand.

I my Chinese Vegetarian cookbook, many recipes make use of chopped green onions. So I thought it was important enough to have a little section about chopping onions, and also have a picture for you to see.

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With the knife almost parallel with the chopping board, make an incision at the thickness you desire. Then take your knife, and slide it across.

Dicing When dicing, you usually cut the meat or vegetable into small cubes. First slice the ingredient, and cut into strips, then cut once more into cubes.

Mincing Mincing is similar to dicing, except you cut the ingredient into much finer sizes. Usually you would mince garlic and ginger. In the picture to the right, I am mincing some garlic. First slice up the garlic, and the cut into strips. This speeds up the mincing. Now, hold the knife properly, and place the palm of your freehand on the back of the knife, and rock the knife back and forth to mince the garlic. Scoop up the ingredients and flip them over to ensure even mincing. This is especially important if you were mincing some meat.

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Crushing A common way to prepare ginger and garlic in Chinese cooking is to crush them. Place the knife flat over the ginger or garlic, and hold the knife steady. With the palm of your free hand, smash the knife to crush the garlic or ginger.

You could also make a fist, and smash the knife with the bottom of your fist.

Roll-cut

Roll-cut is usually used for cutting carrots and other long shape vegetables into a trapezoid like shape. Sure, you can just flat-out cut the carrots into 2inch long round sections, but roll-cutting the carrots gives it a much better look. Here’s how you roll-cut a carrot - very simple. Hold the carrot firm on the chopping board. Place your knife diagonally on the carrot to start. Then cut. After your first diagonal cut, you have a carrot with a ‘shaved’ edge that’s facing away from you. See the second image. Notice the diagonal cut.

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Now roll the carrot 45 degrees toward you – so the slanted edge is facing straight up. Place your knife at where the last cut left off, and make another diagonal cut. By doing this, you make a carrot chunk that has two slant edges that are about 45 degrees from each other. Just do this for all your carrots. It’s not very hard to do. I’m sure you’ll pick it up in no time!

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After the first diagonal cut, roll the carrot 45degrees toward you, so the slanted side is facing up. Then make another diagonal cut.

fter the first diagonal cut, roll the carrot 45degrees toward you, so the slanted side is facing up. Then make another diagonal cut.

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Kneading Dough

You can use dough in many different ways after kneading, and there are several methods you can use to knead dough. In North America, kneading dough is usually for baking needs. However, in my vegetarian cookbook, kneading dough is primarily used to make vegetarian meat. You can knead dough in a mixer, with a dough hook, or by hand, which is my preferred method. The first step is to mix some water into the flour. Don’t add too much water at first. After you’ve mixed the flour with water, it becomes clumpy and somewhat hard. Now you can start to knead the dough. I recommend kneading on a large flat surface, or in a very large pot.

Kneading the Dough When you’re ready to knead the dough, lightly spread some flour on the flat surface.

• Grab the dough in your hands, using your palms and the heel of your hands, push down and forward on the dough

• Now fold the dough onto itself, and push down and away again.

• Rotate the dough about 45degrees, and push down and away again.

• Repeat this push and fold process over and over until the dough is the right texture.

• The kneading process takes 10 to 15 minutes. As you’re kneading the dough, add a little more water whenever necessary. If you find the dough is extremely difficult to knead, then add a little more water to soften it up. Or if you find that

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you’ve added too much water, and the dough is too soft, you can add a little more flour. Stop knead when the dough reaches the consistency you desire. Here are some common characteristics to help you determine whether your dough is well kneaded:

• The dough is soft and smooth, and it holds together in a nice ball.

• It’s no longer sticky like it was • It springs back when you lightly press it and it retracts back

if you pull on it lightly When you’ve finished kneading the dough, round it up – make it into a ball shape, and you’re done!

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Deep-frying

To do this right, put enough oil in a small pot, and turn the heat to your desired temperature. For different foods, you will deep-fry at different temperatures. When deep-frying, do not fry too many items in the oil at once, since it causes the oil temperature to drop. It’s best to just fry a few pieces at a time, so that the oil temperature remain constant throughout the whole process.

Determining Oil Temperature Here is the technique I used to determine the temperature of my deep-frying oil. To determine whether the oil is hot enough, put a pair of wooden chopsticks into the oil. When you see bubbles coming quickly from the chopsticks, then the oil is hot enough. I use this method exclusively to determine the temperature of the oil. Test this yourself. When you first put the chopsticks into the oil, no bubbles will form because the oil is not hot enough. Let it heat for a while, and put in the chopsticks again, you may see it start bubbling. At this point, the oil is at about a medium temperature. Wait a little longer, and insert the chopsticks again, you will see the bubbles forming a lot faster. Now the oil is at medium-high temperature. If you wait even a little longer, and insert the chopsticks, the bubbles will form very quickly. The heat at this point is just a little below the smoking point for the oil. So it’s at high heat already.

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Deep-frying Tips 1. Always deep-fry your food in small amounts to keep the oil

temperature consistent. 2. Always coat your food with some type of batter or coating

before deep-frying. This seals in the flavors, and also prevents burning the skin of the food.

3. Test the temperature of the oil first before frying. I do this with wooden chopsticks.

4. Avoid getting water into the oil. Otherwise, it will splash all over.

5. When you finish deep-frying always place the deep-fried item on some paper towel. The towels soak up the excess oil.

6. You can use the deep-frying oil several times before throwing it out. Discard the oil when it becomes too dark and dirty from frying too many times. Store in tightly sealed container and refrigerate.

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Garlic - Handling

The biggest fuss with garlic is that you have to peel it. The easiest way to do this is to crush it with the flat of a large knife. See the picture in the cutting section. Once you crush the garlic, the skin easily peels off. All you need to do is then cut off the end stub. If you prefer not to crush the garlic, another method is to cut off the end stub. This allows you to get a hold of the skin from the bottom, and peel it. There are several ways to prepare garlic, and it depends on what you plan on using the garlic for. You can slice, dice, mince, and even grate the garlic.

• Sliced or whole garlic is used mainly for braising fish • Diced garlic is used primarily added into very hot oil to

flavor stir-fry dishes • Minced and grated garlic are used mainly for marinating or

for making different sauces

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Garlic is an important ingredient in Chinese cooking. So here’s a little section on how to prepare garlic quickly and easily.

Here’s some common ways garlic is used in Chinese cooking:

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Parboil

Parboiling is a technique of boiling your food that’s very similar to blanching. Like blanching, you boil your food to partially cook it. The main difference is that parboiling food takes longer than blanching. Parboiling is used for dense food such as broccoli, especially if you were planning to cook broccoli with some easily cooked ingredient, such as chicken and fish. Parboiling is useful for foods such as potatoes and carrots. After cutting your potatoes and carrots, parboil them for 5 to 7 minutes. This will soften them up for you.

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Poaching

Poaching is a very simple way to prepare food. Poaching minimizes nutrient loss and preserves flavor, color and texture. You submerge food in liquid and simmer just below the boiling point until its cooked. Poaching is ideal for preparing fragile foods such as fish, poultry and fruits that easily fall apart. Cooked by poaching, the fragile foods can preserve their shape. The temperature of the liquid is most important. It must be maintained at just below the boiling point, allowing a slow simmer to cook the food. If the liquid boiled or simmered vigorously, the fragile foods may fall apart. The easiest way is to start with medium heat, and adjust your heat to get the desired simmer. It’s much better than starting at high heat, bring the liquid to a boil, and then turning the heat down to get the simmer. You can use many types of liquid for poaching. You can use water, court bouillon (highly seasoned liquid), flavored stock, or even oil. Different foods require different poaching liquid. Herbs and spices such as garlic, ginger, and lemon can be added for extra flavor.

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Rice – Cooking

Rice is the staple food for Asian people. It’s served almost everyday for dinner. You may shy away from making rice for dinner because you’re worried about making it either too dry or too wet. I can tell you that it’s not hard to cook near ‘perfect’ rice every time! I’m going to show you a little trick that I use when cooking rice. There are many different types of rice on the market. For example, long grain rice, wild rice, Japanese rice, and sweet rice just to name a few. Which type should you buy? For serving rice during regular meals, I always buy regular long grain rice. Now, when it comes to long grain rice (or any type of rice) you’re going to find so many different brands. More decisions to make! The truth is, even though I’m no rice expert (but I have been eating all my life), I couldn’t really tell the difference between most of the brands. That’s a little over statement though. There is some very high quality rice, that when you taste it, you can taste the difference right away. However, for regular rice purchasing, I don’t think it matters too much which brand you buy. I usually buy Rooster brand or Flying Horse brand.

Preparing Rice – washing and soaking Before you cook rice, you need to wash it, and/or soak it in water for a while. It’s not completely necessary that you wash the rice, since most of the rice you buy these days is clean, but it’s still a good idea to give it a quick rinse through to get rid of any dust or dirt. I always wash my rice before cooking it. This is how to do it:

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• Fill the pot half full with water, and gently massage the rice with you hands

• When the water becomes murky, replace it with fresh water, and massage one more time

• Finally, I replace the water, and the rice is ready to cook. You can repeat the above steps as many times as you want. But if you wash the rice too thoroughly you will wash away some of the nutrients. Whether you soak the rice in water or not is totally up to you. The one reason to soak rice is to shorten the cooking time, and to allow for maximum growth for the rice.

Cooking the Rice How much should you cook? If you not sure, follow these guidelines:

• 1 cup of rice makes 2 – 2½ small bowls of cooked rice • Usually 2 – 2½ cups of uncooked rice will make enough

to serve a family of 3 to 4 I always buy 40lb bags of rice, so it lasts me for several months. For the three of us in my family, I cook usually 1½ to 2 cups of rice. Sometimes I cook a little extra for snacking on it. There are many different ways which you can cook rice. Note: I’m referring only to long grain rice. You can use a pot to cook rice on a stove, microwave cook the rice, steam the rice, make congee with the rice, or use a rice cooker. We’ll take a look at cooking rice the old fashioned way with a pot and a stove, and also using rice cookers. I used to cook rice in a pot on a stove. Now I only use rice cooker now. It’s so much easier, and I never have to worry about my rice getting burnt.

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Cooking the Rice – measuring the correct amount of water The first thing you need to do is measure the right amount of water after you wash the rice. It always puzzles people how much water they should use. Every time someone in my family makes rice, they always ask me “is this enough water?” I can usually tell just by looking at it, but of course, there’s a much better way to determine how much water you should use. There’s a ‘rule of thumb’ that I follow, and that is: the water height above the rice should be about the height of the first section of your index finger.’ Confused? That was a bit long. Take a look at the picture to the right. (Hope you enjoy my little sketch.) The amount of water above the rice is about the same height as the first section of your index finger. I hope that clears it up. This rule works especially well when you cook about 2 cups of rice in a medium sized pot. You should use this rule of thumb to guide you whenever you cook rice. Of course, you can’t follow this rule strictly. For example, if you cook less than 2 cups, then the water level should be less than your index finger. If you cook more rice, then the water should be a little higher than the first section of your index finger.

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Cooking the Rice – the old fashioned way Before I ever knew the rice cooker existed, I cooked rice the old fashioned way. When I was still a kid in China, my mom cooked rice in a tin pot on a clay stove using charcoal. Then it was cooking rice on a stovetop. Finally, I decided to buy a rice cooker one day, and did I fall in love with it! But there’s nothing wrong with cooking rice the old fashioned way. Here’s how to cook rice the old fashioned way without ever burning it. Note: this method requires you to pay close attention to the rice as it cooks.

• After washing and adding water to the rice, put on a stovetop element, and turn heat to high

• Wait until the water is boiling • Let it boil for about 30 – 60 seconds (keep the lid a little

open to prevent overflow) • Then turn the heat down to medium/medium high • Let the rice cook on this temperature until most of the

water is absorbed and evaporated (make sure not to cook too long at this temperature, unless you like very dry rice)

• Now turn the heat down to low, and let it slowly cook the rice to perfection

• Once you have the rice the way you like it, turn the heat to lowest possible to keep it warm until serving

Remember to always have to the lid covering the pot. If you follow the above instructions, you’re almost guaranteed perfect rice every time. But it’s difficult to make perfect rice all the time. You might forget about it, or added too much water or not enough water etc… Here’s what to do: Problem: The rice is too dry.

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Solution: Add a little more water, and stir. Add no more than ¼ cup of water. (You can always add more if necessary.) Close the lid, and let this cook on medium temperature until the rice is how you want it. Then turn heat down to low. Problem: The rice is too wet or soft. Solution: With the heat on medium, open the lid, and keep it off. Use a spoon and stir up the rice to let the excess moisture escape. Keep on doing this until the rice is dry enough for you. Problem: You forgot about the rice, and the rice is completely burnt at the bottom! (I do this all the time!) Solution: Run cold water to the bottom of the pot to prevent the burnt taste and smell penetrating the rest of the rice. Dish out the edible rice as much as you could.

Cooking the Rice – with a rice cooker This is so easy. There are no tricks to it. All you need to do is wash the rice, measure the right amount of water, put it into the rice cooker, and put it on cook. In about 15minutes or so, your rice will be done to perfection. You won’t have to worry about burnt rice. If you find the rice is too wet or dry, just follow the same methods outlined above.

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Sauté

Basically, sautéing is cooking food quickly in some oil or fat over high heat. This is a very basic technique that once you learn it, you can easily and quickly whip up something – sautéing chicken, beef, pork, fish, or vegetables. Sautéing seals in the flavors and minimizes the cook time. It’s best used to cook fish and thin cuts of meat because of the short amount of time sautéing takes. If you cooked thicker slices of meat, they wouldn’t be cooked throughout. You can use a sauté pan, a wok, or pretty much any type of pan. Preheat the oil in the pan on high heat because you want the food to cook quickly. Note: you can use either oil or butter. Butter gives food a better taste and browns it easier than oil does. You should use about 1 – 2 tablespoon of butter/oil for 2 pieces of chicken cutlets or fish. How do you know when it’s hot enough? When the butter begins to turn pale brown, you should add in the ingredients. Place the ingredient in to the pan, and let that side brown. After the first side has browned, turn it over and brown the other side. You should only flip the food over once or twice at most when sautéing. You should avoid the 1 most common mistake people make when sautéing - do not use a fork to pierce the meat when you flip it, or the juices will escape from the meat. I recommend using a spatula of some sort, or use chopsticks. Cooking time will also depend on the ingredient. If you were cooking chicken or fish, it should take about 2 to 4 minutes. If you were sautéing vegetables, it would take much less time – about 1 to 2 minutes.

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Skinning Tomatoes and Peppers

I’m including this little bit of info on skinning tomatoes and peppers in case you ever need to skin some.

How to easily skin tomatoes: It’s really very simple. All you need to do is soak the tomatoes in boiling water (or just hot water) for 2 to 4 minutes. Take them out, and the peels will come off easily.

How to easily skin peppers: The easiest way to get rid of peels on peppers is to grill it. You can either do it on an open fire, or just use a stovetop element. Skew the pepper, and grill over fire or heat until most of the skin is blistered. Then run under cold water, and at the same time rub the pepper with your hands. The skin will rub off easily. Also, you could just microwave the pepper for 3 to 5 minutes. Take it out and let it cool, and the skin should peel off easily.

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Soup Stock – Making

I use pre-made soup stock powder mix from Knorr. I admit, it’s not as nice tasting as your own soup stock, but it SAVES me so much time, and it really tastes good. But, I do make my own soup stock at times, although not too often. So for those of you who are not as lazy as I am, I have a nice section here on how to make your own stock. Soup stock making isn’t too difficult, unless you want it to be. You can make great use of leftovers and scraps in your fridge to make it, or use fresh ingredients (recommended, of course). Using scraps and leftovers is very economical, where the ingredients would probably have been thrown out. However, you do miss out on the freshness of using fresh ingredients. Sometimes I make stock just to get rid of scraps and leftovers, and sometimes, I make stock because I want nice tasting and high quality soup base. There are four main types of soup stock: 1) vegetable, 2) poultry, 3) red meats, and 4) seafood. Making seafood stock can get very expensive, so I won’t talk about that here. The first three types of stocks will be used most often – especially vegetable stock, since you’re cooking from my vegetarian recipe book.

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Soup stock is often used in all styles of cooking, and that’s true for Chinese cooking as well. In my Chinese Vegetarian cookbook, many of the dishes use soup stock to add flavor. However, you’ve probably noticed that I don’t very often make my own soup stock.

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Making vegetable soup stock I strongly recommend using fresh vegetables for making vegetable stock. You want to avoid using week old, or rotting vegetables. That’s not going to do much for the flavor. ☺ Some of the most common vegetables you can use to make stock include: carrots, onions, bean sprouts, turnips, lotus roots, water chestnuts, etc… You can also use tomatoes, however I recommend not using too much tomatoes since they tend to overpower the rest of the ingredients. Use tomatoes sparingly. The flavor of your vegetable soup stock will always be slightly different depending on the type and the amount of vegetables you use. Garlic, ginger, potatoes, yams, squash, celery, mushrooms, peppers, green onions, and cilantro are also good for making stock. Of course, I can’t possibly name all types of veggies that you can use to make soup stock. If you’re unsure of how much ingredients and water to use, follow this rule of thumb: the amount of water should be about the same as the amount of ingredients. Depending on how strong you like your soup stock, you can use a little more water to make it lighter flavored, or use less water to make it more flavored. I also recommend adding a little salt, some black pepper, or any other type of spice you like. This adds some extra flavoring. Cook your soup stock on high until it’s boiling. Then turn down the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for about one hour. When done, remove all the vegetables and ingredients, and you have your vegetable soup stock.

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Making poultry stock Poultry stock is my preferred soup stock to make. I really like the taste of chicken. You can use either chicken or turkey parts, and if you want to get adventurous, you can use duck parts as well. I usually just use chicken, since it’s the cheapest to buy. When you buy chicken for soup stock making, buy the cheapest kind. I usually buy the neck, feet, and backbones. One pound of chicken backbones usually sells for less than a dollar. Got a lot of turkey leftover from thanksgiving? No problem! Use that to make turkey soup stock. When making poultry soup stock, you should use some vegetables to enhance the flavor. Some of the ideal vegetables to use are onions, carrots, and celery. Here’s a basic chicken stock mixture:

• 4 – 6 pounds of chicken bones and parts • 1 chopped white onion • 2 – 4 sticks of celery • 2 – 4 carrots • Some ginger and/or garlic • Salt and black pepper

Add these ingredients into a large pot, and add just enough water to cover to the top of the ingredients. Bring this to a boil, and then turn the heat down to medium-low and let it simmer for 1 to 2 hours. Every once awhile take a spoon and skim the dirty foam from the soup stock. When finished cooking, discard all the ingredients and your chicken stock is ready for use.

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Making meat stock You can use several different types of meat to make meat soup stock: pork, beef, and lamb are the main ones. When I buy pork, I usually buy a large chunk of pork (usually pork butt or pork shoulder). It usually weighs 20 to 30 pounds, and lasts me for a long time. When I get the meat home, I de-bone the pork, and I use parts of the skin and all the bones to make soup stock. Nothing goes to waste. Here’s how I make my soup stock:

• 4 – 6 pounds of pork bones, skin, and parts • 1 large white onion • 2 – 4 celery stalks • 2 – 4 carrots • Ginger and garlic • Some salt and black pepper

Like the chicken stock, fill water just high enough to cover all the ingredients. Bring this to a boil, and turn the heat down to medium-low, and let simmer for 2 – 3 hours. You can add more water during the cooking process if you feel there isn’t enough soup stock. You should skim the dirty foam from the soup every once awhile. After it’s done cooking, strain the soup from the ingredients, and its ready for use.

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Stir-frying

Stir-frying is the most commonly used method to cook food in Chinese cuisine. When stir-frying, you cook the food at very high temperatures, and the food cooks very quickly. Most stir-fry dishes cooks within 1 or 2 minutes. Some takes even less than 30 seconds.

The wok Here’s what you need for proper stir-frying, a round bottom wok, a spatula, and oil. There are many types of woks, which you can use. Some include carbon steel woks, stainless steel woks, Teflon coated woks, flat bottom and round bottom woks. My wok of choice is a round bottom carbon steel wok. Even though the carbon steel type required more care than the other woks, it stir-fries much better than the other types. The drawback of using a carbon steel wok is that it rusts easily, so you have to always dry it well. If you use a Teflon wok, you don’t need to use as much oil. When stir-frying, the oil has two main functions. The first is to quickly cook the food and preserve its flavors and texture, and second is to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the wok. I find that Teflon wok cooked food isn’t as good as food cooked with a carbon steel wok. Worst of all, I have to use a plastic or wooden spatula instead of my steel one.

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The fire I should really have titled this sub section ‘the temperature’. There is one thing, and only one thing you need to know about stir-frying temperature – always stir-fry on the highest heat possible. Aside from the wok, the fire (or temperature) you use to stir-fry is the most important element. Always, always, always have it at the highest temperature possible. Never mind what any other chef’s told you. You must stir-fry at the highest temperature possible. The whole point of stir-frying is to cook food as fast as possible to seal in its flavors and textures. I also recommend gas stoves over electric. You have much better control with a gas stove, and you can heat your wok hotter and much faster.

The smoking point What is the smoking point? I bet you’ve never heard of the smoking point – it’s a term I use for stir-frying. ☺ The smoking point is the ‘perfect’ time to add in your ingredients for stir-frying – it is when the oil is at the optimal temperature. You will see throughout my recipe book that I make reference to the ‘smoking point’. This is a very important point about stir-frying. How to determine when the oil is hot enough and when is the right time to add in the ingredients? It’s rather simple to determine the smoking point. When you heat the oil on high, the oil eventually gets hot enough that it begins to smoke a little. This is the smoking point.

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The temperature of smoking point for vegetable oil ranges from 450°F (corn) to 510°F (safflower). When you see smoke coming from the oil, you should add in your ingredients. Often when I cook, I like to wait even a little longer after the oil gets to the smoking point. I do this to cook something really fast. However, if you do decide to wait even a little long beyond the smoking point, do not wait too long. Otherwise, you risk burning the oil, and your food will have a slight burnt flavor.

The big splash The big oil splash is unavoidable when stir-frying – it’s a part of stir-frying. Every time you add your ingredients to the hot oil in the wok, oil splashes. You can’t really avoid this. However, you can reduce the amount of oil splashing following these few simple guidelines:

• When stir-frying meat, make sure the meat is well marinated, and there’s no excess water

• When stir-frying vegetables, letting the veggies dry beforehand will reduce the amount of oil splash

• Always make sure the wok is dry before you add oil to it You could also wear long sleeves if you’re really worried about the oil splashing. After many years of stir-frying and oil splashing, I’ve gotten used to the oil splashing on my hands and arms.

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Stir-fry like a real chef It’s not very difficult to stir-fry something, and become good at stir-frying. Just keep one thing in mind – speed is of the essence. When you stir-fry, work as fast as you can. While you stir-fry, use the spatula to stir and flip the food constantly. This ensures the food is cooked evenly, quickly, and prevents the food from getting burnt. Although most stir-fry dishes cook quickly, some do require slightly longer cook time. For example, lotus roots and Chinese broccoli require longer time to stir-fry than most vegetables. In this case, you add a dash of water into the wok, and cover with a lid. As the steam begins to come out from the lid, the ingredients are pretty much cooked. Here’s how to stir-fry:

• Heat oil on highest temperature until smoking point • Quickly add in your ingredients • With your writing hand holding the spatula, and the other

hand holding the wok, stir, toss, and flip your ingredients quickly

• Add in you spices and seasonings • Keep on stirring until the food is cooked

It’s very simple. All you need to do is practice at stir-frying quickly, and adding in seasoning and spices quickly. This is how I stir-fry my chicken:

• Marinate the chicken • Heat oil to smoking point • Quickly add in the chicken • Use the spatula to stir, toss and separate the chicken to

ensure even cooking (~10 – 15 seconds) • Quickly add in the spices: i.e. salt, hot sauce, etc… (~5

seconds)

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• Mix the spices with the chicken (~5 – 10 seconds) • Add in other ingredients such as tofu, veggies, etc… • Stir and mix quickly until the added ingredient is cooked

(~15 – 30 seconds or longer depending on the ingredients) • Dish up and serve hot

Now you see why you need to work quickly when stir-frying? Many western cook shows demonstrate stir-frying on low heat, and in a slow motion. This is not the real way to stir-fry (if you can even call it stir-frying). You will never get the flavors, colors, and textures stir-frying like this.

Stir-frying tips 1. 2. 3.

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Prepare everything ahead of time. Cut the ingredients into uniform sizes to ensure even cooking. Never try to prepare your ingredients while you stir-fry – you just can’t. Make sure the wok is dry before adding oil. It’s a good idea to preheat the wok to medium temperature before adding in oil. If you’re not using a non-stick wok, add a decent amount of oil (3 – 5 tablespoons). This not only prevents food from sticking, it also helps to cook food faster. If a recipe calls for ginger and garlic, add these first before the ingredients. The oil extracts the flavor from the garlic and ginger, and enhances the flavor of your dish. Cut meat in to thin slices for stir-frying, and always stir-fry the meat first. You can take the meat out after it’s no longer pink and then cook the vegetables. You don’t overcook the meat this way, but it’s not necessary. I find that I can keep the meat in the whole time, and it will still be very tender. Stir-fry your ingredients according to density. Add in the more difficult ingredients first, so it gets longer cooking time. Add

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the easy to cook ingredients last such as green onions, lettuce, etc…

11.

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The less water your ingredient has when stir-frying the less the oil will splash. It’s a good idea to wash your vegetables ahead of time to let some of the water dry. Constantly stir and toss the ingredients when stir-frying. When adding starch water to thicken the sauce, put the ingredients to the side. Thicken the sauce before mixing with the ingredients. Add the starch water slowly so you don’t add too much. Serve the dishes hot.

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Steaming

Steaming is simple and straightforward. Place your ingredients in an enclosed environment and fill it with steam. There are varieties of steamers you can use: pasta cookers, bamboo steamers, stackable steamers, or you can simply improvise with whatever you have. I prefer to use bamboo steamers, and occasionally, pasta cookers. Bamboo steamers are excellent for steaming food. The construction of the bamboo steamer allows for maximum steam to circulate throughout. If you were steaming multiple items, you can even stack several bamboo steamers. If you don’t have a steamer, you can make one easily. All you need is a pot or wok (that can be covered with a lid), and some kind of rack. If you don’t even have a rack, use a few chopsticks. Place them crossing each other, and just place your plate on top of the chopsticks. Steamers are also inexpensive. I bought my bamboo steamer for around $10 dollars. Some of the best ingredients for steaming are carrots, broccoli, asparagus, potatoes, cauliflower, Chinese broccoli, fish, and eggs. Steaming is one of my favorite ways of cooking fish. It not only seals in the flavor and juices of the fish, it also makes the fish very tender. Here are the simple steps to steaming:

• Fill your pot or wok about ¼ to 1/3 full of water • Turn heat on high • Place the steamer on the stove • Place your food inside the steamer, and cover with lid • Steam until the food is cooked

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Steaming tips 1.

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Bring water to a boil with the steamer in place. Only put the food into the steamer when the water is boiling. If you are steaming fish, cut a few slits in the meat, and rub on some salt, spices, garlic etc… This adds a lot of flavor to the fish. When steaming, try not to open the lid too often to check on the food. Otherwise you’re letting all the steam out. When steaming vegetables such as eggplants, place directly into the steamer without a plate. This ensures the top and bottom parts are cooked evenly. Depending on what you’re steaming, the time required will vary. For fish it takes about 10 – 15 minutes. For vegetables 3 to 5 minutes is plenty of time, unless you like your vegetables very soft. For extra flavoring, twist on some lemon juice, salt, and peppers. Add a little soy sauce, sesame oil, and green onion strips to fish near the end will enhance the flavor and aroma of the fish. Placing green leaf vegetable under sticky foods will prevent it from sticking to the steamer. This will save you a lot of clean up time.

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Thickening Sauces

Sauces are an important part of Chinese cooking. For many dishes, creating the right thickness for the sauce is very important. This all depends on how well you use starch water. In case you didn’t know, starch water is used to thicken all types of sauces. Starch water is just a combination of cornstarch and water. As a rule of thumb, mix 2 – 4 teaspoons of starch with about ¼ cup of water. When you make the starch water, I suggest using your fingers to mix it. Since starch likes to clump together, you can use your fingers to feel if there are any clumps. Make sure to mix the starch water well. You will see that many recipes in my cookbook use starch water to thicken the sauce. Even some soups use starch water to thicken it. For example: Mushroom Egg Drop Soup and Hot and Sour Soup. When you thicken soups with starch water, you will need more starch water than normal. I usually prepare ½ - ¾ cup of starch water before hand, and remix before adding into the soup.

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Tips for using starch water 1. 2.

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Always use your fingers to mix the starch water. Always remix the starch water before adding to your food. The starch settles and separates from the water after a few minutes. So make sure to mix it well before using. Add starch water to your food slowly. This allows you to control the thickness of the sauce. When stir-frying, put the ingredients to the side and mix the starch water with the sauce. Then mix with the ingredients. If you find that you made the sauce too thick, you can slowly add a little more water to reduce the thickness. Add more starch water if you want your sauce to be thicker.

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