The Year of the Rat begins Feb. 19 on the ancient Chinese calendar, and it will be celebrated with ornate banquets and the fanciest of foods. Most of us think that all Chinese cooking is like that. Complicated. Mysterious. Inscrutable.
Think again. Do the words quick and easy have any allure? How about appetizing, nutritious and flexible? Behind the bamboo curtain lies a method of cookery that is all of the above, and anyone can learn it.Learn to stir-fry in a wok and you can have it all. You don't have to go through some complicated course of study, either. All the little pointers, principles and tips have been worked out over, say, the past 5,000 years or so. We're talking scrutable cooking.
In stir-frying, small pieces of food are toss-cooked in a tiny amount of oil in nano-minutes over intense heat in a coolie-hat shaped pan called a wok.
The foods aren't really "fried" but are flash-cooked and seared. With this technique, the colors of vegetables remain bright, their textures crisp, their nutrients intact, and meat, poultry and fish retain unusual succulence. A stir-fried dish is nutritious, looks fresh and tastes superb.
With a few authentic sauces, spices and ingredients, you have a Chinese-style meal. All sorts of alien foods can mix and match, too, because Chinese cooking is not limited to certain ingredients.
Formally, the experts call it fusion cooking, but "overseas Chinese" is probably just as accurate. You can throw a handful of herbs into a dish or add corn, tomatoes, fresh garden vegetables. What matters is organization, recipes or formulas, fresh ingredients and a well-stocked pantry.
Basic to almost all dishes are garlic, fresh ginger, scallions and soy sauce. For authentic flavor and texture, you also need cornstarch, hoisin sauce, various noodles, peanut oil, toasted sesame oil, water chestnuts, five-spice powder, long grain rice, fresh or dried chilies, oyster sauce, cilantro and rice vinegar.
The wok is a versatile piece of equipment. Almost any cooking method can be accomplished in it and any ingredient cooked. You can use it on either an electric or gas range, on the grids of a barbecue grill or on top of a circle of rocks around a fire at a campsite. It can double as a steamer, a skillet or a deep-fryer.
Because of its shape and construction, the wok is ideal for rapid cooking. Its thin metal quickly concentrates the heat while its smooth curving sides conduct the heat evenly throughout its maximumcookng surface.
Woks come in a variety of sizes. For most home cooking, the 14-inch diameter is the most practical, and it's the easiest to store. Hang it from a hook on a wall.
The traditional wok is made from heavy-gauge rolled carbon steel, which conducts heat better than other metals. It will rust if not given proper care.
You don't need a bunch of accessories to guarantee success. Your own kitchen probably already has the necessities. A round cake rack and a dome-shaped lid are necessary for steaming. A long-handled metal flat-nosed spatula with a wide-curved edge called a "shovel" is traditional, but any metal or wooden utensil (not rubber) will do. When stir-frying, nothing will stick if you move the spatula using a figure-eight motion.
The goals are speed and flavor, not turning out a classic Chinese meal. For starters, try one stir-fried entree with steamed rice and salad. Toss pork chops on the grill, and stir-fry a rainbow of fresh vegetables. Pan-fry fish and serve with wok-fried rice.
As you get more ambitious and experienced, make a couple of Chinese-style dishes in one meal. Could you try this menu? Stir-fried beef and peppers. Small portions of salmon steamed in the wok. Some bright vegetables. Heat up previously made fried rice in the microwave.
Dessert should run to plain and refreshing. Vanilla ice cream or sweetened orange sections both work well.
The cardinal rule with Chinese cuisine is to have everything ready to go before you begin cooking; there's no time to assemble ingredients midstream. You begin by cutting each vegetable and meat called for in a recipe into uniform shapes - usually thin slices or shreds - of a size that will cook tender-crisp in 1 to 2 minutes.
A cleaver is traditional, but a good French knife works just fine. This is not "busy work"; ingredients are cut uniformly so that they will cook uniformly. Imagine how a dish would turn out if meat was in hunks, if peppers were in chunks, onions in rings, carrots in strips, tomatoes in wedges and pineapple in dice. The dish wouldn't look authentic, and some ingredients would be overcooked, others undercooked.
Hot, hot, hot is the chant for the wok. When stir-frying on either a gas or electric range, turn the large burner to medium-high or high and keep it there. Place the wok on the hot burner, and let it heat up. When a mixture is cooking too fast, slide the wok back and forth, on and off the burner to regulate the heat, but don't mess with the "fire." Use a one-hand-to-hold-the-wok, one-hand-to-cook approach.
There is no set formula for the Fried Rice. It's a wonderful way to make use of a bit of this and a dab of that. Make the rice up to a day ahead, and the rice grains should be separate, not sticky.
The crisp Cold Cucumber Salad is a good contrast with Oriental dishes. For convenience, use chopped jalapeno peppers from the supermarket produce department.
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Recipes
BELL PEPPER BEEF WITH BASIL
1 pound lean beef steak such as fillet, cut into 1/2-inch strips
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons dry sherry (or rice wine) plus 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 medium onion, sliced top to bottom into half-moon shapes
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 yellow pepper, seeded and cut into strips
2 teaspoons chili bean sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
Large handful medium basil leaves
Place the beef strips in a small bowl. Add the soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of the sherry, sesame oil and cornstarch and mix well.
Heat a wok (or large frying pan) until it is very hot, then pour in 2 tablespoons of the peanut oil. Add the beef and stir fry just until the outside is brown, but the center is still rare to pink, depending how you like it. Remove the beef with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add remaining peanut oil to the wok. Add the garlic, ginger, onions and peppers and stir-fry for a minute or so. Add 2 tablespoons sherry and continue to stir fry, then add the chili bean sauce, sugar and oyster sauce.
Return the beef to the wok, heat through and add the basil leaves. Stir well until the leaves are just wilted, then serve at once. Serves 4.
(Source: "Ken Hom's Quick and Easy Chinese Cooking" by Ken Hom.)
FRIED RICE
3 cups long-grain rice, cooked and cold
1 teaspoon peanut oil, plus 2 tablespoons
1 small onion, thinly sliced into half-moons
1 egg, beaten with a fork
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup water chestnuts, sliced
Bits of chopped, cooked pork or shrimp
Soy sauce to taste
Cook the rice, then chill it until cooking time. Place the oil in a small nonstick skillet and saute the onion until tender-crisp. Set aside on a plate. Add the egg to the skillet and cook it like a pancake. Slide the egg onto a plate, and when it is cool, roll it into a cigar-shape and slice it into strips with a sharp knife.
Heat a wok or large skillet, add peanut oil, then the rice and heat through, turning the rice to coat. Add the egg strips, scallion, water chestnuts and other bits of meat or shrimp you may have. Sprinkle with soy sauce to taste. The rice should be dry and somewhat browned.
Serves 4.
COLD CUCUMBER SALAD
1 pound cucumbers
2 teaspoons salt
Sauce:
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons white rice vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped red chili peppers
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Peel the cucumbers and slice them in half lengthwise. Using a teaspoon, scrape out the seeds. Cut the halves into 3-by-1/2-inch pieces and put them into a colander set inside a bowl. Sprinkle the pieces with the salt, mix well and set aside for 15 minutes to drain.
Combine the sauce ingredients thoroughly in a small bowl and set aside. Rinse the cucumber pieces, pat them dry with paper towels, and mix them with the sauce. Let them marinate for 10 minutes. Serve chilled. Makes 4 servings.
(Source: "Ken Hom's Quick and Easy Chinese Cooking" by Ken Hom.)