Easy Chinese Cooking Methods

If you are like most families, life has a tendency to become hectic. Between work, household chores, and the kids’ activities the entire day is gone.

One of the chores that seem to take up a lot of time is coming up with ideas for dinner. I try to plan ahead so that that the whole process doesn’t require a lot of thought and I don’t have to make an unscheduled trip to the supermarket.  This doesn’t always work, so we end up ordering takeaway or delivery fairly often.

Chinese is our ‘go-to’ takeaway food. (I use the Hungry House app, which makes it easy to look at menus, order and pay directly from the app.)  The fact that it is family favourite led me to learn more about Chinese cooking.  Not only did I find out that Chinese food is really healthy, but incredibly fast and easy. I also learned some tricks that make my home-cooked meals as good as the takeaway dishes.

Fried Rice 

chinese-fried-rice

Fried rice is one of the kids’ favourites and is incredibly easy to make. However mine always fell short when compared to what we got at a restaurant or with takeaway.  I learned some of the really simple secrets to making great fried rice.

  1. First; use day-old rice. This keeps the rice from clumping together, not to mention saving a ton of time in preparation.
  2. Second, velvet the chicken (or other meat). Velveting sounds like some exotic, complex procedure but it is really easy. Here’s how to velvet chicken.
  • Mix 10ml of Saki or rice vinegar, 15ml of corn flour, 15 ml of peanut oil (or any other vegetable oil), and 1 egg white in a bowl .
  • Cut your chicken into thin strips and add to the mixture until it is coated.
  • Cover and let the chicken marinade in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  • Drain the chicken.
  • Heat a couple of inches of water and 15 ml of oil in your wok until the water boils.
  • Reduce the heat to medium and add the chicken. Once the water begins to boil again cook the chicken for 1 minute.
  • Your chicken is perfectly cooked and ready to add to your favourite fried-rice or stir fry recipe. You will find that the chicken is moist and tender and not overcooked as frequently happens when you are making fried rice or stir-fry.
  • You can velvet beef and pork the same way.

 

Chinese BBQ Pork

chinese-bbq-pork

Another meal that is great for a family dinner and which is especially good for cookouts and entertaining is char siu pork.

Char siu translates as “fork burn” which actually refers to the best cooking method which is over charcoal.

Char siu has a unique taste and colour which is the result of the marinade.  Char siu pork is best when you let it marinate over night, making it ideal for entertaining as the “hard” part is taken care of the night before.

  • For your marinade mix together 75ml each of honey and tomato sauce, 120 ml soy sauce, 60ml of Saki,  70g of brown sugar, 5ml of Chinese 5 spice, and 15ml of hoisin sauce.  In order to get the unique colour of the char siu that you find with Chinese takeaway, some cooks use red food dye; the better and more natural way is to add about 30ml of red plum sauce.
  • Mix the ingredients and then place them in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved and everything is well mixed. Place the pork and sauce in any airtight container and store in the refrigerator overnight.
  • The brown sugar and other ingredients give the pork great flavour and the sugars have a tendency to brown to the point of looking almost burnt on the grill, which adds to the authentic look.

Store likes Iceland, Asda and Marks & Spencer’s will have all of these ingredients. Bare in mind all of these stores will accept vouchers helping you save money. Mamma.com is a voucher site and has lots of Marks & Spencers vouchers on there. click here to see.

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