Chinese Food Recipes - Steamed Fish Cooking Guide

Steaming is one of the favorite ways of cooking fish in china, especially when it is very fresh; and the usual way is to steam it buried under a variety of vegetables, while the inside cavity of the fish is stuffed with dried, smoked, pickled or salted ingredients; these latter ingredients seem to impart an additional dimension to the flavor. Here is one of the common cooked recipe :

Steamed Whole Fish (trout, salmon, bream, haddock, carp, mullet, pike, large herrings)

Ingredients:

6 medium Chinese dried mushrooms
2-3 rashers bacon
3-4 slices root ginger
1.5-2 kg fish (or mixture of fishes)
2-3 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3-4 stalks leek
3-4 large onions
4 tablespoons soya sauce
pepper to taste
2 tablespoons vinegar
4 tablespoons chicken stock
2 tablespoons sherry
2 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter

Preparation

Soak mushrooms in water for 30 minutes. Cut mushrooms and bacon into shreds. Mince ginger. Clean the fish thoroughly, rub both inside and out with salt, ginger and oil and leave to marinate for 1 hour. Stuff the fish with the chopped bacon and mushrooms. Clean the leeks thoroughly then slice both leeks and onions thinly. Mix soya sauce, pepper, vinegar, stock, sherry and sugar until well blended.

Cooking

Heat butter in a saucepan. When melted add onions and leeks and turn them in the butter over medium heat for 1 minute. Pour in the mixed sauce, and stir with the vegetables for 2 minutes over medium heat.
Place a quarter of the vegetable and sauce mixture in the bottom of the large oval-shaped heatproof dish spreading it out evenly. Lay the fish on top of this 'carpet' of onion and leek. Pour the sauce form the saucepan over the length of the fish, and smother the latter with the remaining onion and leek. Place the dish in a steamer, and steam vigorously for 20-35 minutes (depending upon the size, thickness and quantity of the dish).

Serving

Serve in the same dish. (The dish should be excellent for consuming with rice or other bulk foods, supplemented by one or two other savory dishes.)

Chinese Cooking Recipe - The Secret Of The Delicious Delicacy!

Chinese cooking recipes for the American homes are just an adjusted recipe of the original Chinese recipes. They taste good and marvelous. The original recipes are favorites for many across the world as they taste delicious. For example, let's consider the process of making Chinese recipes. They are seasoned with a combo of sugar and chilies to produce a dish with a real flavor. The addition of few more nice spices and the cooking of the recipe over the flame are the specific characteristics of the Chinese cooking recipe and this has brought fame to it thought America. It is very easy to prepare the recipes and they are generally made in pieces as per the Chinese manner of food preparation.

There are various elements or ingredients in the list of the Chinese manner of food preparation. Chinese soups, noodles and rice are the most popular among them. One can easily point out the Singapore Noodles as the most popular of the Chinese cooking recipe when it comes to talking of the famous recipes across the world. It is prepared by roasting shrimps or pork with noodles. Bean sprouts, noodles, steamed rice, garlic, shredded Napa cabbage and Soy sauce are the important contents of the recipes and they can added with ingredients of their choice. The vegetables and the ingredients are cooked in the flame and the noodles are fried deeply in oil. Then they are both mixed in the end. Chinese food lovers throughout America prefer the Szechwan and Shanghai type of noodles.

A Chinese green fried with shrimps is the other popular recipe that is made by the combination of Chinese mushrooms and greens with marinated shrimps. The preparation of the recipe details the deep frying of the fish along with the vegetables to get the particular flavor. When they are served with rice it can be considered as full meals for two persons. The Manchurian recipe is the other well known of the Chinese cooking recipe. A mixture of chicken, noodles and vegetables constitute the Manchurian. Extra care should be taken in adding the correct quantity of vegetable, sauces, spring onions, and spices for the preparation of the Manchurian. The vegetables and the chicken are well mixed and made rolled into small balls which are then fried deeply in oil to get a crunchy product. The fried balls are provided with gravy to get the exact flavor. Spring onions are decorated alongside to make it colorful.

Making of the dish and adding spices alone does not sum up the Chinese cooking recipe. In truth these recipes are nutritional and healthy too. The recipes involve the cooking of both the vegetarian and the non vegetarian items. These recipes have attracted a lot of food lovers because of the addition of various kinds of spices. These recipes are listed in almost all restaurants. The Chinese culture is very well propagated to the foreigner as well.

Cooking Pork Ribs Chinese Style

Cooking Pork Ribs Chinese Style has been going on since 5000 B.C.! That's when the Chinese first domesticated the pig. Pork ribs were certainly utilized extensively by the frugal Chinese.

This particular recipe probably would not be recognized in China but it definitely has a Chinese influence. The soy sauce and garlic and the sweetness of the marmalade is definitely Asian in origin.

The best thing going for this ribs recipe, other than great taste, is its ease of preparation. The short ingredients list can be thrown together quickly and the slow cooker takes over from there.

Cooking Pork Ribs Chinese Style

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 pounds bone-in country style pork ribs

Directions

Combine the minced garlic cloves, orange marmalade, soy sauce and ketchup in a bowl. Pour half of the sauce into your slow cooker. Add the ribs and then pour the remainder of the sauce directly over the ribs.

Set your slow cooker for low and cook for approximately 6 hours or until the ribs are tender.

Remove the ribs and place on a serving platter. Thicken the sauce with the thickener of your choice. I like a cornstarch and water slurry. The sauce is great not only on the ribs but also over cooked rice.

If you are in a hurry you can set your slow cooker on high and cook for about 3 hours. The ribs are still tender and juicy. But I prefer the slower, longer cooking time.

Country Style Ribs

Country style ribs are not actually ribs at all. They are cut from the shoulder section of the animal directly in front of the pork loin.

Sometimes they have bones and sometimes they don't. If you can't find bone in then boneless will do fine. Even though I feel the bone adds to the flavor. Maybe just my imagination!

Other rib cuts will work for the recipe also.

To complete the Chinese theme you must have rice and maybe some steamed Bok Choy. Serve fortune cookies as dessert.

This is a favorite recipe in my recipe file. You might think so to. Give it a try when you are thinking about cooking pork ribs.

The Chili Beef With Chinese Spinach Recipe

Preparation rime: 30 minutes + 20 minutes marinating
Total cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 3 - 4

Ingredients for the chili beef with Chinese spinach recipe:

500 g (I lb) rump or fillet steak
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon cornflour
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons peanut oil
250g (8 oz.) baby Chinese spinach with pink roots (see Note)
2 tablespoons salted black beans (see Note)
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 long green chili, seeded and cut into fine strips
1 long red chili, seeded and cut into fine strips
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons peanut oil, extra
4 cloves garlic, finely sliced

Directions for the chili beef with Chinese spinach recipe:

1. When you want to try the chili beef with Chinese spinach recipe, keep in mind this guidelines. First trim the meat of any excess fat and sinew and slice across the grain into thin strips (see Hint). Combine the rice wine, cornflour and 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce in a bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil. Add the beef and mix well to coat. Cover and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

2. Wash and dry the spinach leave the pink roots on, but trim away the straggle ends. Cut the leaves from the stems, as these will need less cooking. Rinse the black beans under cold running water, then strain and mash with the back of the spoon.

3. Drain the meat and discard the marinade. Heat 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil in a wok and cook the meat quickly over high heat, in two batches, until just browned. Do not overcook. Remove from the wok and set aside.

4. Heat the remaining peanut oil in the wok and stir-fry the ginger, garlic, chilli and black beans for 1-2 minutes. Return the beef to the wok with the sesame oil, sugar and remaining soy sauce. Stir-fry briefly until the beef is heated through. Remove from the wok, cover and set aside. Keep warm.

5. Working quickly, wipe out the wok with paper towels and heat the extra peanut oil. Add the sliced garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, until it is lightly golden.

6. Add the spinach stems and 1 tablespoon of water. Stir-fry for 30 seconds, until the spinach is bright green. Add the spinach leaves and toss until just wilted. Serve immediately with the beef.

Nutritional Value for the chili beef with Chinese spinach recipe:

Protein 35 g;
Fat 25 g;
Carbohydrate 5 g;
Dietary Fibre 3 g;
Cholesterol 85mg:
Energy 1615kJ (385cal)

Note for the chili beef with Chinese spinach recipe:

If Chinese spinach is unavailable, use baby English spinach instead, Salted black beans are available from Asian specialty shops. They will keep, refrigerated, in an airtight container, for up to 12 months.

Hints for the chili beef with Chinese spinach recipe:

To make the beef easier to slice, freeze it until it is just firm and thinly slice while it is still frozen.

Variations for the chili beef with Chinese spinach recipe:

Pork fillet is a great substitute for the beef. Trim any excess fat and sinew and cut across the grain into thin round slices.

Cook Awesome Chinese by Using the iPhone Application - Chinese Food in Minutes

Chinese food is something that almost all of us love but only few of us would go ahead and find a time to learn how to make it. Chinese food in minutes is an iPhone application that can satisfy the urge of both who like to eat and also those who love cooking. Using this iPhone application will help you in making great Chinese food within no time!

Chinese food in minutes is basically a cooking application that contains recipes and instructional videos from a UK television show that is quite popular by the same name. The episodes of the show follow Ching He Huang who coaches to such people in each episode who have never actually cooked Chinese cuisine before.

Features

This iPhone application features some great recipes from selected 13 episodes, instant shopping list so you can buy more recipes, one instant menu to access recipes and video clips that demonstrate cooking techniques for few of the dishes.

Working

As soon as you load the application, it will play a small introductory video which you cannot skip. After the video, you will be presented with two ways in which you can view the recipes -- by episode or by category. It is also possible to search by ingredient or dish name and the application will filter results and present you with those dishes that are already there in the application.

Each recipe in the application includes title and summary, so you can choose your dish accordingly. You can also add your favorite dishes in the list. The application can also help you in suggesting an item that will complement a dish that you have chosen. In each recipe you can also view a summary, ingredient list and step-by-step instructions. For any ingredients that you do not have and would like to purchase them, you can add them in shopping list. The shopping list can sort the item by grocery exile or by recipe.

Pros

Chinese foods in minutes -- iPhone application is a full-featured recipe application and one tap shopping list that is available in each recipe. Be application has an attractive and user-friendly design and you have separate many suggestions from one main dish. There are handfuls of videos which can help you if you have never seen the show on TV. You can make settings according to metric or imperial units, whichever is used in your country. This will make the quantities understandable.

Top Ten Chinese Recipes

Chinese food is a delicious way to expand your personal recipe book, particularly if you love to use simple, fresh ingredients with short cooking time. These top ten dishes are famous all over the world, and are must-haves in your collection of Chinese recipes.

Fried Rice - A popular item in Chinese restaurants, fried rice is the ultimate Chinese food, and can be one of the most flexible in your cookbook because you can use leftover rice and ingredients to make it. Of course, you can use fresh ingredients but it's recommended to use rice that has been kept in the fridge overnight for best results. Ingredients usually involved in making fried rice are eggs, spring onions, diced meat of either beef, chicken or pork, ham, prawns and vegetables such as bean sprouts, peas, celery, corn and carrots. There are many types of fried rice but the more famous ones are the Yong Chow and Fukien fried rice.

Kung Pao Chicken - Kung Pao chicken or Kung Po chicken is a Chinese dish from Szechuan cuisine and is considered to be a delicacy. The recipe for this savory dish commonly calls for diced chicken that is pre-marinated and quickly stir-fried with unsalted roasted peanuts, red bell peppers, sherry or rice wine, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, and chili peppers. Alternatively, you can use shrimp, scallops, beef or pork in place of the chicken.

Moo Shu Pork - This is a dish of northern Chinese origin and a favorite of many. Ingredients in a Mushu pork recipe usually involve green cabbage, carrots, wood ear mushrooms, bean sprouts, scallions, scrambled eggs and day lily buds. Bell peppers, snow pea pods, celery, onions, Shiitake mushrooms and bok choy are sometimes used. The vegetables are cut into long and thin strips before cooking, with the exception for bean sprouts and day lily buds. Fried Mushu pork is then wrapped in moo shu pancakes that is brushed with hoisin sauce and eaten by hand. Moo shu pancakes are thin wrappers made of flour that is easily available in supermarkets and steamed right before eating.

General Tso's Chicken - General Tso's chicken is a Hunan cuisine that tastes spicy and sweet and very popular in Chinese restaurants in Canada and America where it's often marked as a "chef's specialty". General Tso's Chicken recipe commonly calls for battered chicken deep-fried and marinated with ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine or sherry, sugar, scallions, and hot chili peppers.

Spring Rolls - Spring rolls make fabulous snacks and appetizers. They are similar to egg rolls, but are slightly different to its cousin. Springs rolls are have less filling than egg rolls, is smaller in size and its skin is thinner. To make a spring roll, minced meat and thinly cut strips of vegetables are rolled and sealed in a square or circular rice paper. It is then deep fried till crispy and golden brown. Serve this crowd pleaser piping hot.

Chinese Dumplings - Chinese dumplings are a fabulous addition to your home cooked foods, and can be made simply and quickly using just a couple of ingredients. The key to making an excellent dumpling is to ensure that all of your ingredients are finely minced, so that each of the dumplings are steamed in the same amount of time.

Beef and Broccoli - The key to cooking up a delicious Beef and Broccoli dish at home is to make an excellent sauce made up of oyster sauce, light soy sauce, thick soy sauce and cornstarch solution. Marinade the beef before stir frying with sugar, rice vinegar, cornstarch solution, soy sauce and sugar.

Sweet and Sour Pork - This savory-sweet highly popular Chinese dish is of Cantonese origin. It is a good dish to prepare when you are planning on having guests, who will be wildly impressed with your cooking skill. As with other Chinese food recipes, the key to making a great Sweet and Sour Pork dish is in the sauce made of sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, and soy sauce. Its ingredients include pork, pineapple, bell pepper and onion cut into bite size pieces.

Chow Mein - In American Chinese cuisine, Chow Mein is a stir-fried dish consisting of noodles, meat such usually chicken, shrimp, beef and pork, cabbage and other vegetables.

Chop Suey - Chop suey or "za sui" or "shap sui" literally means 'mixed pieces' is an American-Chinese dish usually made up of leftover meats and vegetables stir fried quickly in a sauce thickened with starch. It is a great dish when you need to use up the last of yesterday's chicken or pork roast and can incorporate meats of any kind such as fish, chicken, shrimp, pork or beef and various vegetables from celery to bean sprouts and cabbage. Chop Suey is often eaten with rice.

Chinese Cooking Tips For Chinese Food Recipes

Chinese cooking night is a wonderful tradition that my family has created over the years and one that we have all come to love! On this special night once a month, my aunts, grandmas, parents and even my two brothers and their families clear their hectic schedules and gather around the family kitchen to whip up a savory and delicious meal straight from the Orient. Why Chinese food, you ask? Of all the different cuisines we have tried throughout the years, Chinese recipes are easy to follow, the food is delicious and Chinese cooking sauces have become our favorite. Their adaptability and variety of flavorful spices is loved by the whole family.

One thing we learned very early on is that Chinese food and Chinese cooking are greatly complimented by the key ingredients of the sauces. You can see this very easily in the American Chinese food cooking trends. It is mainly a mixture of vegetables enhanced with Chinese sauces. These cooking sauces are used as garnishes and in preparing many types of delicious authentic recipes. Most of our favorite Chinese dishes, like noodles and fried rice are made with a variety of spices and sauces making them very popular and savory meals.

In America, Chinese food has been used in ways that are non-traditional and has taken on some of its own new traditions. Their sauces have become famous as dipping sauces and cooking sauces that are mainly used for different types of meat dishes like pork or chicken. Sweet and sour sauce was originally used as a simple sauce for fish dishes in different parts of the world but was used to create American-Chinese dishes such as sweet and sour chicken when it was introduced in America. Along with sweet and sour sauce, some other types of sauces used in America to enhance flavor in popular Chinese foods such as noodles, fried rice and other Chinese dishes are chili oil, oyster sauce and garlic sauce.

Chinese cooking with its tasty dipping sauces is also a fun way to liven up a meal and something that my children love! Try serving the dipping sauces in a small bowl along with the meal to accompany Chinese appetizers like pot stickers, spring rolls and egg rolls. Let the kids have their own bowl to dip and watch their faces light up. One of the main reasons my family loves Chinese cuisine is that there are so many different types of flavors that can be easily incorporated into everyday meals. Some of the most famous are chili oil, sweet and sour sauce, hot mustard and garlic sauce. Chili oil is made from chili peppers and is normally used in stir-fry and to enhance the flavor of other dishes such as noodles. Another favorite and one that has been used for many centuries in China is sweet and sour sauce. Its main ingredients of sugar and wedding vinegar make it a very popular choice and one that adds savory flavor to Chinese dishes when combined with tomato sauce. Garlic sauce and hot mustard sauce are great sauces that work well with a variety of Chinese appetizers. Any of these sauces are easy to make and will give your meal that special oriental flavor your family will love!

Because Chinese cooking sauces are an easy way add great flavor to Chinese meals and are so adaptable, they have become very popular in China and around the world...making Chinese food a truly international cuisine. It is easy to experiment with all the many sauces and spices Chinese food has to offer and even come up with your own favorite combinations! From sweet and sour sauce to garlic and hot mustard, Chinese cuisine and its many sauces have proven to be an all time favorite that my family loves. Try it out on your family and I am sure that they too will look forward to your special night of Chinese cooking.

Chinese Cooking With a Wok - Mum's Cooking Secrets That Last a Lifetime

My mother was of the idea that a man's place was never in the kitchen, and this was ingrained into us as she shooed us out of the kitchen every time whenever we tried to get into the kitchen to see what was cooking. It might not have been the best or correct thing to do, and as a result, her children -the sons, including me, grew up not knowing how to cook until we were college going kids and had to live away from home and to start to cook and fend for ourselves.

Disadvantaged as we were in cooking for ourselves, it made us more aware of the beauty in mum's cooking. Mum's prepared food that was absolutely marvellous, both in taste and smell. Meals prepared by her were never ordinary. They were a delight to behold, a pleasure to consume - no matter how simple the dish was.

Now in her twilight years, mum can no longer cook for herself. She has bouts of amnesia, and old age has taken a severe toil on her. Dependent on others to cook and serve her meals, she can sometimes struggle to the kitchen and still manage to prepare a ten minute fast cooking instant noodle, much to our chagrin and anxiety. The doctor orders were not to let her near a stove for fear of a fit or a fall, lest she burn the house down.

Just yesterday, in the quiet of the night, I was able to recall times I had with mum when I was about to go to college. Vivid in my mind, as history started to flash back, I remembered words of wisdom from mum on cooking. We were always profuse in our praise and bountiful in our appreciation for mum's fantastic cooking.And on one occasion, she revealed the secret formula that had always enveloped the food she cooked.

"In Chinese cooking," she said one day," the two most important things are to have a sharp knife and a hot stove. Always sharpen your knife so that you can slice through your veggie and your meat or fish. Cutting them up becomes a pleasure and not a task. Be sure to have everything prepared before you start cooking: the vegetables washed, drained and cut; the meat cut and marinated; the sauces prepared."

"And get yourself a good wok - It is the one piece of cooking equipment you may want to purchase before you start cooking Chinese food. Always heat up the wok. When cooking meat or poultry, make sure that the wok is very hot before adding the food. If you are going to stir-fried meat and vegetables, stir-fry the meat first and set it aside. Then return it to the wok with a sauce during the final stages of cooking. And use a little cornstartch as a binder at the end of your cooking, if it calls for that. Just remember how the dish tastes like, the way I cooked it", she said.

Throughout the years when I had to cook, her words of wisdom flashed back to me whenever I despaired over my cooking. I had seen my cooking improved, and had added more styles and recipes to vary my cooking in the later years.

"And the secret ingredient in all Chinese cooking is to add a little bit of inner joy to your dish as you cook. When you approach your cooking with this little bit of inner joy, you will have a song on your lips as you cook. Something mysteriously will spur you on to do your best and turn on the magic in your cooking," she added.

That day, last week, when I recalled those words of mum when I prepared a meal for her, I could only add not just a little bit of inner joy, I tried my best to give her a physical massive hug of love.

"Vary your ingredients to add textures, colors and flavors.Then it is possible to find harmony and balance in your meals. This is an important principle in Chinese cooking."

Mum may be frail and too old to handle a wok anymore, but her words of wisdom in Chinese cooking has helped us through the many years. Her simple tips for Chinese cooking may help you too.

About Chinese Cooking Utensils

Cooking Chinese food is simple when you have the right cooking utensils. For most Chinese food recipes, you will need at least two basic utensils, the wok and a slatted spoon that is designed specifically for using with a wok. You may also add a bamboo steamer to your utensil for a complete set of Chinese cooking utensils.

A wok looks much like a basic pot, or a large bowl. The shape of the wok allows foods to cook quickly, so make sure that you pay close attention to your foods while they are cooking. Unlike a frying pan or a pot, foods can overcook in a matter of minutes in a wok.

Although the Chinese cooking recipes do give approximate cooking times, you should be careful the first few times that you use your wok. These cooking times are not always accurate, since each heat source can be slightly different than the next. Woks are best used on gas stoves, since the heat is easily adjusted, but you can also used woks on an electric stove if you are know how to adjust the temperature quickly.

Woks can be used for steaming, deep frying or stir frying your foods. For deep frying, it is best to use an oil that can take high heats without burning. Most Chinese recipes will tell you which kind of oil you need for best results.

Bamboo steamers are also a staple in Chinese cooking. Bamboo steamers are excellent for steaming foods, including vegetable and Chinese dumplings. To use the steamer, you need to fill your wok with enough water for the entire cooking process and then allow the water to boil. Once the water is steaming, you add the bamboo steamer, with the food already arranged on the tray, to the wok.

Obviously, the steamer needs to sit above the water while you cook. If you have added too much water, then you will need to remove some of it before you begin using the steamer. Also, you can line the tray of the steamer with cabbage or lettuce leaves to prevent the Chinese food from sticking to the tray.

The type of recipe that you are making can help you decide whether you use cabbage or lettuce leaves. If the taste of cabbage or lettuce is not something that you like, you can also use foil with small holes placed throughout the material.