Chinese Food - Recipes and Ingredients

[hk]

DD has expressed an interest in Chinese food several times so I've decided to tackle it at home.  I have no idea where to start, but I picked up a few cookbooks today.  I'm wondering if any of you cook Chinese at home.  Here are a few random questions:

-Would canola oil be a good substitute for sesame oil or is there a better option?

-Are there safe wonton wrappers or is it possible to make my own?  Is that just ridiculous?

-I'm very nervous about any of the Asian noodles (soba, udon, etc.) because sesame is so prevalent in Asian food.  I need to call on some, but I'm wondering if I can use regular spaghetti or rice spaghetti until I figure out a better option.

Also, if you have any recipes you love, I would be thrilled to have them.  Wish me luck!  Thank you!

[twinturbo]

For anything that calls for sesame oil - just omit. It's for fragrance and taste not for actual cooking purposes. As for brands and products safe for sesame, you know what I would *try* to do? Find what you can that's made in Vancouver, B.C. before even trying other Western label brands like Eden. Most of that is foreign made with an English label slapped on. When they give you facility info it's likely they don't remotely have first hand knowledge plus who knows when the info is dated and how successfully it made it through translation. Of the brands of products I use off the top of my mind I could feel comfortable recommending Kikkoman soy sauce (USA product) and some brands of tofu.

Prior to my second child's wheat anaphylaxis I always made my own wrappers from scratch for dumplings. It's a "cold water" dough of about 3 cups AP flour to 1 cup water. I'll find you some youtubed instructional video later but for now you might want to look in to getting the smaller rolling pin we use for dumpling dough. It looks like a 5 inch long stick maybe one inch in diameter.

Yes, we cook a lot of what would be considered "Asian" food but it's just regular home cooking to us. We regularly cook top 8 free. Ironically I got a kid that wants only pizza and hot dogs right now. Switch for a while?

But back to cooking. If you don't mind veering from the path a bit I would love to give you a wealth of new dishes.

For noodles you could substitute about any other wheat noodle for another noodle if you feel safer that way. Udon is for soup, soba is for a variety of dry noodle or soup noodle, somen is yet another for soup, it's not terribly important if you're not out to absolutely recreate the ramen shop experience. Say you wanted Japanese pub food/standard fare you could more easily do something called donburi which is literally rice bowl.

Have to have an involuntary chuckle at someone with "hk" asking about Chinese food. When you say Chinese food do you really mean Chinese or you mean Chinese-American, Japanese, and others? If Chinese then what style? (if you know)

Also, how do you feel about curry, daikon, taro, duck? No pressure just askin'.

[hk]

Thank you so much. You have been so helpful already.  I'm thinking basic Chinese-American to start with.  I love to make everything from scratch so that's not an issue. Chinese cooking has just rather  daunting to me.  No idea why other than the lengthy list of allergens I'm dealing with.  I don't think dd or DH would go for duck. I'm thinking chicken, vegetables and maybe beef.  She definitely wants pots tickers or dumplings of some sort.

Love curry and do a fair amount of Indian cooking.

Willing to try daikon and taro.

Thank you!

[twinturbo]

We'll grow this like a garden.

Let's start with rice. That might sound strange but it's a staple and type of rice matters especially since we're avoiding so many other major specific ingredients. USA produces most of the medium grain rice so that's good we have choices for US products made for export. Which leads us to my recommendation for Nishki brand medium grain rice. Not only is it "good" rice and a US product but it's something termed "musenmai" -- all that literally means is that it needn't be washed beforehand. Yes, some brands would otherwise need washing. Both my bags of Nishiki rice (brown and white rice) read Product of USA. Although I buy mine at an Asian grocery I've seen small bags of Nishiki at Shaw's, the regular grocery store.

For the sake of setting the stage I'd try to go all out on rice, get a quality brand that is the grain type standard for East Asian food. It will also work for sushi, too.

If you don't have one I would suggest maybe getting a small
cheap rice cooker. Don't get me wrong I cooked rice on the stove in a pot plenty of times in my youth but the rice cooker you can forget about and not overcook, burn, undercook, it just does its job while you have other burners in use.

[GoingNuts]

Watching this thread closely; thanks for all the advice Twinturbo!

[twinturbo]

Now I'm going to have performance anxiety (joking).

Next foundation ingredient US sourced that would be my go-to brand is Argo cornstarch. Again, I buy at Asian grocery a box labeled for foodservice but I think any box of Argo would do. Cornstarch is important as a thickener for sauces and also to crispy coat meats. The heat transforms the cornstarch coating into a shell that preserves moisture inside the piece of meat. It's also
important if you want to get some crispiness without using wheat. While it isn't an even swap there are a lot of basic cooking methods using cornstarch coatings. It does
work better with eggwhite but I just skip the egg.

Here's a Taiwanese cafe snack. You can use the coating on pork
chops to if you beat the heck out of them first to thin out and break up the connective tissue.

Salt & Pepper chicken

chicken thighs
five spice powder
salt
black pepper
cornstarch
fresh garlic
fresh basil
canola or other neutral high heat oil for frying
small cocktail forks for serving


Cut skinless boneless chicken thighs into bite-sized cubes. Blot with towels if necessary but let it dry a bit while you prepare coating, garnish and heat oil.

Deep fry fresh basil until crispy. This will be quick. Drain and set aside.

Mince *fresh* garlic. Don't use canned. Set aside for garnish.

Mix base of cornstarch with pinch of Five Spice powder, then salt and pepper to taste. Should look sandy and smell very fragrant.

At this point it's like regular fried chicken. Dredge dry chicken thigh chunks in cornstarch mixture to coat well. Fry until it looks done. I am terrible at deep frying so you'll have to experiment here.

Drain fried chicken chunks on paper towels. When cool enough to serve garnish with minced fresh garlic and crispy fried basil.

For spices I generally trust McCormick for their labeling policy.

[hk]

I seriously can't thank you enough!  Have you considered writing a cookbook?!  I'm going to make this for dinner tomorrow night. 

I have a rice cooker, but it always leaves a brown-ish crust on the bottom.  It that normal or should I get a new one.  I'm in the Bay Area with plenty of Asian markets so I should be able to find the rice easily.

Thank you!!!  DD thanks you too!

[twinturbo]

Ooh, the brown crust is a treat, we used to fight over it in my house. It just needs to cook the rice it'll be fine but follow the water ratio directions.

I know you can't have dairy but if you can at least physically work with it you could really make a bubble tea cafe experience for family and friends by making milk tea with tapioca or Thai style iced tea with condensed milk.

Next foundation ingredient is rice wine. If you're going to go without soy sauce or fish sauce of any type then you can get some flavor with wine. Wine and ginger also reduce gaminess while imparting flavor. I buy and use just about any brand of rice wine. You could use actual drinking sake or cooking wines if you're more comfortable with that. The rice wine I use is super cheap and probably strips paint.

Along with wine I'd keep on hand a bottle of vinegar, some ketchup, white pepper, red pepper flake and when it comes time to cook fresh mushrooms, an entire bag of fresh green onions.


I've tried to keep most, if not all, of these ingredients standard items you'd find while buying OJ and bacon, no special stores, low risk (as opposed to risk free), simple but still nutritious. The concept is to take what you normally buy and "freak it" a bit through technique.

1. Good quality, plain, steamed white or brown medium grain rice (we use half brown rice with half quinoa often).
2. All veggies fresh. We don't use a lot of meat and even if we have a stir fry dish with veggies we always serve with at least one other separate side of fresh sauteed veg, and maybe some freshly pickled item like cabbage or cucumber.
3. Main dishes flavored well enough to balance out plain steam rice. If serving fried rice tone back on the salt in the mains.
4. Serve family style with chopsticks if it helps set the mood for restaurant at home. That's how we normally eat but I can see how it might contribute to feeling an experience if you usually use forks and knives.
5. When slicing meats do it when they are half frozen and cut across the grain with a sharp knife. You want to shear off a thin wafer across the muscle strands. My crude illustration is below.

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6. Use a pan with a large amount of surface area that can get HOT and stay hot. Keep in mind that no matter how much you prep at home you can't match the BTUs a commercial kitchen has so adjust expectation. I don't use special woks I use a really wide bottomed heavy stainless steel pan.

General advice for stir frying which is what I think OP is after.

*Slice meats thinly half frozen across the grain or if chicken thigh in smallish chunks.
*Moisture is your enemy in a stir fry so keep ingredients dryer when practical.
*Wide bottom pan with good surface area that can get good and hot.
*High smoke point neutral oil like canola, safflower, etc.
*Chop all your veg in uniform pieces. I like to not pre-mix the veg instead adding each according to how long it needs to cook.

Instead of reinventing the wheel I'm going to link to what's already well written.

Super Easy Stir Fry Article allrecipes.com

Pay attention to marinating the meat separately from the veg. Then cook the meat fast, in halves if you must to keep it frying instead of boiling. Same for the veg, make sure it's sizzling and moving. Don't add any sauce until the end when you return the precooked meat and veg back to the pan. THEN add you liquids with slurry (premixed cornstarch with water to thicken.)

It's mostly method that makes the dish when it comes to everyday cooking.

[hk]

Thank you again!  This is such fun!  DD is so excited to have her first Chinese food tomorrow night.  I should mention that we can ignore the things I'm avoiding.  I cook dinner for DD and DH these days and I just have one of the few things I can eat.  SO we have a little more flexibility.  Looking forward to some shopping and cooking tomorrow!  Thank you.

[Linden]

This is awesome!!! Thank you, Twinturbo!

 
 

[SilverLining]

Thanks TT.   

Years ago, we got a cheap (inexpensive) microwave rice cooker.  It was the greatest thing ever.  My rice always turned out great.  Then, one day, someone put it on a stove element, and then someone else turned the stove on.  Flames to the ceiling, and house full of black smoke. 

Anyway, managed to find another one.  Might be by Starfrit, I don't remember.  But, it makes perfect rice.

[SilverLining]

Oh ya, wanted to mention, for the cooking challenged  Wong Wing has some safe North American style Chinese Food.  In the freezer section.  Not a cheap meal though.  And some have sesame seeds, some are may contain, and some are safe.  Read the label.

[GoingNuts]

TT, you rock!

[twinturbo]

Well, let's see if I made any sense first. I put up some links to allrecipes.com because it has a great step-by-step with better formatting on stir fry method. I'll put up some links later to some of the faves modded for FA use. Once you get the gist of it my hope is that everyone will look fearlessly at ingredients and think, "Hot dogs and carrots? I can stir fry that." "Road kill and onions? I can stir fry that, too."

Are there other things like dim sum treats, banquet foods, regional specialties, that would be FA friendly as well? Of course but for starters and good nutrition everyday foods are a good start. One last word, nearly all of our side veg is lightly sautéed in canola oil with either ginger or garlic and little salt. Have fun!

[becca]

Okay, I am starving after reading this!  I do some chinese style cooking.  we have a large chinese population in town and some friends have taught me things along the way.  That is my favorite way to learn how to cook.  Friends who share their secrets, lol.  Some stuff you just cannot get from a book. 

I want to make dumplings now.  And you did not even give a recipe.