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Cooking Techniques - How To Cook Like A Chef (Chinese) in Just One Day
Cooking Techniques - How To Cook Like A Chef (Chinese) in Just One Day
How to
Cook Like A Chef
In Just One Day
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Cook Like A Chef
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.
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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
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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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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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).
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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Cook Like A Chef
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!
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.
General Cutting
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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
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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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.
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
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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
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
You could also make a fist, and smash the knife with the bottom
of your fist.
Roll-cut
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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Cook Like A Chef
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.
After
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.
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.
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.
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Cook Like A Chef
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:
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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.
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
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Garlic - Handling
Garlic is an important ingredient in Chinese cooking. So here’s
a little section on how to prepare garlic quickly and easily.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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
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.
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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.’
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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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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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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.
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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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.
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Now you see why you need to work quickly when stir-frying?
Stir-frying tips
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Steaming
Steaming is simple and straightforward. Place your ingredients in
an enclosed environment and fill it with steam.
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.
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Steaming tips
1. Bring water to a boil with the steamer in place. Only put the
food into the steamer when the water is boiling.
2. 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.
3. When steaming, try not to open the lid too often to check on
the food. Otherwise you’re letting all the steam out.
4. When steaming vegetables such as eggplants, place directly
into the steamer without a plate. This ensures the top and
bottom parts are cooked evenly.
5. 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.
6. For extra flavoring, twist on some lemon juice, salt, and
peppers.
7. 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.
8. 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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