Some of the most inviting Chinese foods like dim sum are deep-fried. Deep-frying is used to produce crisp-textured food. There are several types of deep frying. Raw ingredients might be lightly or thickly coated with cornstarch before being deep fried; or not being coated at all. Different methods produce different levels of crispness and tenderness on the inside and outside.
The commonest way of preparing deep-frying dishes is to cut the material into medium-sized pieces (or make slashes in case of fish desired to be served whole), soak in prepared seasoning or batter for a while, and fry in hot deep oil with the ingredient fully submerged. Peanut oil is recommended for its high smoking point or critical point, so are canola and corn oil. They can be reused for a couple of times. Butter and margarine are not suitable for deep-frying because they contain water and burn easily. Discard frying oils that have darkened in color, that flow more slowly than they did originally, or that foam to the top of the pot when you put the food in. Lard has become unpopular due to health reasons although it gives very interesting flavor to the dish. Read the rest of this entry »
The art of Chinese cooking is not, contrary to popular belief, complicated and difficult. Most Chinese dishes do not require a complex processing and equipment in the kitchen as does one of China’s most famous dishes, Peking duck. Simplicity is the key to Chinese cuisine as evidently shown in their various cooking methods. When you have the ingredients, seasonings and marinades ready, you can use one of the following methods to cook in Chinese.
Roasting - Roasting is not family cooking in China, since few Chinese kitchens have facilities for roasting. Only restaurants go much into roasts and Cantonese restaurants excel especially in these. In roasting, raw ingredients are marinated in seasonings before being roasted in an oven or barbecued over direct heat from charcoal fire, with the roast turning slowly round and round. Marinades is added inside and out from time to time so that the skin remains smooth and shiny, instead of rough and flaky, and the meat remains juicy instead of powdery. The Peking duck is one of China’s most famous dishes cooked this way. Families can go to food shops to buy roast meat or poultry and eat it cold. But for the crisp juicy hot roast duck, one has to go to a restaurant. Read the rest of this entry »
