Cooking Techniques

While anyone can learn to prepare Chinese food, it helps to master a few basic techniques. Whether you're stir-frying chicken for four or making egg rolls for twenty, here are a few general tips to keep in mind when cooking Chinese food:

• Start small. Try preparing a stir-fry entrée accompanied by steamed rice, or a vegetable side dish to serve with your main meal. Later, you can work up to an entire Chinese meal complete with appetizer, soup, and dessert.
• Try to create meals that provide an interesting variety of textures, colors, and flavors. The goal of Chinese cooking is to strike a pleasing balance, with no one ingredient overpowering the others.
• Use fresh ingredients wherever possible. If a recipe calls for a certain ingredient that is out of season, substitute whatever is available locally.
• Think about texture as well as color when making substitutions. Zucchini stands in nicely for a Chinese gourd, while crisp broccoli makes a good substitute for bok choy.
• Be creative with leftovers. Leftover vegetables can liven up a dish of fried rice, while chicken bones can be used to make chicken stock.
• Leaving the meat partially frozen will make it easier to cut.
• Always marinate fresh meat before cooking. Use the time while the meat is marinating to cut vegetables and mix sauces.
• Keep a supply of paper towels on hand to drain stir-fried and deep-fried food.
• Don't use dark soy sauce unless the recipe specifically calls for it. Light soy sauce has a higher salt content than dark; substituting one for the other will affect the flavor of the dish.
• Never use more cornstarch than the recipe calls for; a little goes a long way.
• Trust your judgment. Something as minor as varying salt levels between different brands of soy sauce can affect the flavor of a dish. Always do a taste test at the end of cooking and adjust the seasonings if you think it is necessary.

Stir-frying

It may look daunting when we watch a television chef skillfully maneuvering food in a wok, but anyone can learn to stir-fry. The key to successful stir-frying is high heat combined with vigorous stirring.

Make sure all your ingredients are prepared ahead of time. The average stir-fry takes less than seven minutes, leaving little time for last minute slicing and dicing. Always leave stir-frying until the end of cooking. Stir-fries are meant to go straight from wok to table.

Cut all the ingredients to a uniform size, to ensure that they cook at the same rate. If you're improvising instead of following a recipe, a good rule of thumb is to cut everything into bite-sized pieces.

If you are using a carbon steel wok, preheat the wok for 1 minute before adding oil. If you are using a wok made out of a different type of material, or a wok or frying pan with a nonstick coating, check the manufacturer's instructions first to ensure that preheating will not cause any damage.