Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-07
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Synopsis
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.

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

Chinese Food Made Easy
God, I love that Chinese girl so much...I watched the first programme in the series and she was so damned hot I immediately ordered a takeaway. Suppose that defeated the object... oh well.

Singapore Style Noodles
We have made a number of dishes from this new publication, however, when it came to cooking the Singapore Style Noodles we found the recipe quantities to be incorrect. Specifically the amount of Tumeric reads as
1-2 Tablespoons and the amount of Vermicelli Noodles ( for 2 people) reads as 250grms/9oz.Having cooked the dish it became very apparent that these quantities are wrong. After research it would appear that the correct quantities should read 1-2 Teaspoons of Turmeric and half the quantity of Vermicelli Noodles. This needs correcting.

On a positive note the other recipes tried to date have been very successful and we have enjoyed them.

Quick and easy
I've been guilty of just slamming anything into the wok and see what it tastes like for quite some time so I thought I'd venture into asian cooking a little more.

First off, there are some tough ingredients to get (without substituting) but since they are used several times throughout it's easy enough to get them from a specialist online - I've used www.theasiancookshop.co.uk

From a cooking point of view, it's dead easy compared to european cooking and often much healthier too. There are recipes to suit 2 and also a few for entertaining guest too so I might have some fun with some friends around soon.