At first glance, the typical Chinese recipe can seem a little overwhelming. Chinese recipes are not known for having a short ingredient list. The typical dish may require anywhere from ten to fifteen ingredients - more for festive specialties such as Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. Beginning Chinese cooks can be forgiven for concluding that a long ingredient list equals a recipe that a) takes too much time to make, and b) is beyond their skill level.Â
That's unfortunate, because the average stir-fry can be whipped up quite quickly. The following tips will help you quickly read through a recipe to determine how much work is actually involved and whether you can adapt it to meet your needs:Â
Make sure you understand the ingredient listÂ
Most Chinese cookbook recipes tend to follow a few general conventions:
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"soy sauce" refers to light soy sauce. A recipe will state if dark soy sauce is required.Â
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Rice vinegar refers to white rice vinegar. The recipe will specify if black or red rice vinegar are to be used instead. Occasionally, a recipe may use the term "brown" in place of "black" rice vinegar.Â
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Since pale dry sherry is the common substitute for Chinese rice wine, recipes will sometimes list only sherry without mentioning rice wine as a possibility. If a recipe calls for pale, dry sherry and you have a good Chinese rice wine on hand, feel free to substitute.Â
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If cooking oil is on the ingredient list, it's probably for stir-frying or deep-frying. Use either peanut oil or vegetable oils such as canola.Â
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British cookbooks sometimes use British terms for ingredients: for example, groundnut oil instead of peanut oil, and cornflour in place of cornstarch. Make sure you know which ingredient is being called for before starting to cook.Â
Figure out which ingredients are used in a marinade and/or sauce.Â
The Chinese almost never fry meat without marinating it first. At the other end, it's common to add a sauce to fried food in the final stages of cooking, often thickened with a cornstarch and water mixture.Â
Figure out the secondary ingredients.Â
This is the name I give to ingredients that are found in most Chinese stir-fries but aren't essential to a specific recipe. For example, garlic and ginger is used to season cooking oil before stir-frying, and green onion is often stirred in near the end or added as a garnish. While it would be rare to find a stir-fry recipe lacking any of these ingredients, it's usually a small matter to alter the amount or leave one out altogether.
Look for a Cornstarch and Water "Slurry"
Whenever you see cornstarch followed by water, there is a good chance the two will be combined and added near the end as a thickener. Sometimes the mix is called a "slurry." Don't add the two ingredients straight into the wok, but combine and then add to the dish, stirring quickly to thicken.Â
Separating out the marinade, sauce, secondary ingredients, and thickener will make it easier to organize the recipe.Â
Now, let's try deconstructing the following recipe for Oyster Sauce Chicken:
Oyster Sauce Chicken
Ingredients:
1-1/2 tablespoons oil (cooking oil)
8 chicken drumsticks, thighs, or a mixture of both
1/3 cup chicken broth (feel free to use stock if you have it)
3 tablespoons soy sauce (light)
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry (author mentions both options)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cloves garlic, peeled and flattened
2 slices fresh ginger, flattened
1 teaspoon cornstarch (will be mixed with the 1 teaspoon water)
1 teaspoon water
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
minced scallions (green or spring onions) or cilantro (garnish)
Directions:
Heat oil in a wok or large skillet. Add chicken (in batches if necessary) and brown well on all sides. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in a Dutch oven or flameproof casserole and bring to a boil over high heat.
Transfer chicken to the casserole with a slotted spoon, draining excess oil. Turn to coat with sauce. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, about 45 minutes until chicken is tender and cooked through. Remove and discard garlic and ginger pieces.
Dissolve cornstarch in water and add to the sauce. Cook, stirring, until slightly thickened. Stir in sesame oil just before removing from heat. Serve garnished with minced scallions or cilantro. (This recipe is reprinted with permission from the newsletter GourMAsia).
Comments: No major problems here, but the lengthy ingredient list can hide the fact that this is really an easy to make casserole dish. Ingredients three through nine are simply combined to make a sauce - you don't even need to mince the garlic and ginger. The oil is for stir-frying the chicken, which is added to the sauce in a casserole dish and heated through. All that remains is to add the cornstarch/water mixture and drizzle in a bit of sesame oil at the end - the garnish is optional. Simple!
One Final Tip: Visualize the Recipe as a Complete Meal
Instead of preparing other dishes, it's often possible to rework a recipe, adding meat or vegetables as necessary, and serving with rice or noodles. For example, adapt the Oyster Sauce Chicken recipe by adding favorite vegetables to the casserole, increasing the liquid as needed, and serving over rice.
~Rhonda Parkinson
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