Product Description

Ching-He Huang is one of the brightest stars in modern Chinese cooking in the UK. Each week in her new BBC2 series she re-invents the nation's favourite Chinese dishes, modernising them with fresh, easy to buy ingredients, and offering simple practical tips and techniques. These are brought together in this beautiful book to accompany the series. Drawing on the experiences of top chefs, her family and friends, growers and producers and celebrity enthusiasts Ching sets out to discover the best Chinese cooking in the UK today, introducing easy-to-make Chinese food to sometimes resistant Brits, and painting a picture of modern Anglo-Chinese life in the UK as she goes. Chinese Food Made Easy begins with some of the most familiar dishes from a Chinese takeaway menu - Sweet & Sour Prawns, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Chop Suey and Cantonese Vegetable Stir Fry, each with Ching's special and imaginative twist. Later we explore spicy Szechuan food: Noodles, Dumplings and Dim sum; Seafood; Fast Food; Desserts and finally Celebratory Food, where Ching presents a complete banquet of dishes to celebrate the Chinese New Year.Ching's knowledge, charm and enthusiasm shine through as she shares the 'basic principles' of Chinese cooking including some of the simple techniques and tips taught by her Grandparents for tasty results. Using ingredients from high-street supermarkets and some imaginative suggestions for alternative ingredients, these classic Chinese dishes are updated, fresh and healthily prepared so that anyone can make and enjoy them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Review
'Packed with delicious, easy-to-make dishes ... Ching-He Huang is the new face of Chinese cooking.' Heat magazine [five star review on 19/7/08]

Interviewed by Geoff Elliss for Radio Times

Is the Typical Chinese Takeaway menu really Chinese?
It’s certainly not Chinese home cooking. Some of these dishes do come from Canton – that’s because of the British connection with Hong Kong – but they’ve been westernised. Wherever Chinese food has gone in the world, it’s been adapted to use healthy dishes at home that are not laden with monosodium glutamate.

So what should I keep in my Chinese store cupboard?
You may already have corn flour and good-quality stocks. Add dark and light soy sauces, five-spice powder, black rice vinegar, a good chilli sauce to get you going and toasted sesame oil for dressing – for cooking I use groundnut oil. Some olive oils are too strongly flavoured and conflict with the Chinese flavours. Then the rest is fresh, including the typical flavourings: ginger, garlic, spring onion, chilli and coriander.

What about Stir-fry sauces that you can buy in jars?
I hate those. The only sauces that are OK in jars, if they are good quality, are oyster sauce and chilli bean sauce. They’re both proper preserved sauces. For sweet and sour sauce, use pineapple juice, brown sugar and ketchup for colour.

Should I be looking for Chinese Supermarkets?
I’m surprised and pleased to see authentic Asian products on some supermarket shelves. In general I’d say you have to experiment. You often find that even good brands do only one excellent product. I can recommend Kikkoman soy sauce, for example. That’s my honest opinion – they don’t pay me!

Can you give an example of the sort of thing you cook?
When I cook dinner at home, I’ll make a one-pot meal, chao mian, meaning "stir noodle" or chow main as you probably call it. Marinate some sliced chicken in five-spice powder and minced garlic for a few minutes. Cook noodles in boiling water – buy dried, long wheat-flour noodles; don’t bother with ready cooked. Drain and put to one side; you can toss in a bit of sesame oil to stop them sticking. Chop red pepper, bok choi and spring onion. Mince some ginger. Get your wok nice and hot. Cook the chicken until it’s fully opaque. Put to one side. Add the other ingredients, stir then and add a splash of water to create steam to help cook the veg. After about 40 seconds return the chicken to the wok, season with soy sauce, sesame oil, and add the noodles. And that’s it a modern, one-pot dish.

From the Inside Flap
Ching-He Huang, the new face of Chinese cooking on TV, re-invents the nation's favourite Chinese dishes, modernising them with fresh, easy to buy ingredients to demonstrate how healthy, light and simple Chinese cooking can be.

The recipes from the TV series are included in eight chapters, ranging from Takeaway Favourites, Spicy Sichuan dishes, and Dumplings, Dim Sum and Noodles to Fish and Seafood dishes, Street Food, Celebration Food, Desserts and Drinks and Side dishes. Throughout the book there are cooking tips and basic techniques, including all you need to know about using a wok, as Ching shares her passion not only for Chinese food but also for Chinese culture. Finally, her handy menu planner will make it easy to put together an authentic Chinese meal.

Ching provides the inspiration to cook delicious Chinese meals with a modern twist. Discover the real food of China and make these authentic, hassle-free dishes easily in your own kitchen.

Customer Reviews

Excellent insight to authentic Chinese and not.
Growing up with a Chinese mother who cooks the best chinese, I have developed a very good palate. I consider myself a foodie and relish in cooking, but always go back to the basics, which is Chinese.

This book is an excellent source of inspiration for people who can cook and also easy enough for beginners. A review here said the food was bland and I beg to differ. Growing up in Hong Kong, the Chinese I know relied on the freshest ingredients to deliver the best flavours. Spices were used minimally. Only when you travel inland to Szechuan do you truly encounter the fiery stuff.

Ching has given us classic recipes and more modern westernised ones. She allows you to use your common sense, you are able to add more or less of what you like. She is playful, personal, light and very likeable.

I didn't give it full marks as I found it lacked in the dessert department. The Chinese do make wonderful desserts and are excellent bakers. Other than that, this cook book is highly recommended.

Not so easy
I entirely agree with the first reviewer, in that these recipes are among the tastiest food I've ever eaten - and I've been cooking for over 30 years, including Chinese food. The only criticism I would make is that in some places the text is somewhat light on detail. Anyone tackling the "Spicy dofu & edamame beans" needs to be aware that you will need a non-stick saucepan to fry the dofu. Since I cook with cast iron saucepans, and stainless steel is widely used, the injunction "careful not to break the bean curd" needs to be supported by this information. There are a number of other lacunae of this sort in the text which give rise to doubts and ambiguities regarding timing and technique. In case anyone thinks that this somewhat petty, I should note that I'm currently using these recipes four days out of seven. More importantly there will be those coming to this kind of cooking for the first time, so that a little extra detail would not go amiss.

Bland and Samey
There must be some easily pleased folks around judging by the reviews. Well, I'm not one of them. I've seen the series and bought my wife the book and we both agree that it's, to say the least uninspired. Most of the recipes use the same basic ingredients regardless of the meat or fish content and generally end up tasting like a rough amalgam of far eastern food. I've travelled extensively woorldwide through my work and there's not a shred of doubt that most of these rather bland same tasting dishes do not do justice to the real thing. I will admit happily that once in while when you fancy a generic Chinese style dish, this book provides something quick and easy. And as the only things required are garlic, ginger, sherry and a bit of soy sauce it doesn't really matter what page you open - they are all the same. So even chosing a meal doesn't require any thought. To round up, bland, uninspired but quick and easy.