Chinese Food Blog

Chinese Cooking Sauces

2008-04-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

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 Chinese vegetarian cuisine recipes.

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.

Buying a Roast

2008-04-04T01:06:00.000-07:00

A teacher was giving her class a test on birds. She decided to test in a different manner. Rather then in text she gave her students pictures of birds, but just with their legs showing. The students had to figure out the name of the birds the legs belong to make meal planning.
A male student took a look at the test, grab the paper, stormed to the teachers desk, threw the paper on her desk and started to leave the room. The teacher stopped him and asked for his name. The student turned, pulled up his pant leg and replied, “you figure it out”.
To Make Soup
When buying a roast from which the bone has been trimmed, remember you pay for the bone. Make sue you ask for it and use it making meat broth or soup stock. When the bone is cooked in water for a long time, a substance inside It changes into gelatine. This dissolves in hot water and so is present in the soup stock.
Soup stock is improved be adding some meat. The toughest cuts-such as the shank-which are rich in extractives are best. Very little nourishment is dissolved out in water, use the soup meat in left-over dishes. To improve flavour add onions or Oxon cubes.
Browning the meat improves the flavour. In making soup, brown one-third of the meat in marrow or fat. Add cold water to cover the bone. Heat to simmering temperature, and cook slowly for about 3 hours. Vegetables may be added in the last hour. Celery leaves for added flavour.

Your Food to a Crisp

2008-02-04T04:37:00.000-08:00

To avoid this and to get the most of your firewood, take your time and start early. Red glowing embers give off tons of heat and don't have big flames. If cooking in a fire pit or large grill, start your fire early and keep adding wood for a while to build up a deep core of hot, glowing red embers at the bottom. Then let the top wood burn down until you barely have any flames left, just a big, deep pile of red embers. These embers give off a lot of heat and because they don't have large flames, they are less likely to char your food to a crisp.

Only then should you lay your grill grate across and add your food. If you are cooking a lot and the heat starts to die down, stirring the embers with a poker helps to get more oxygen to the wood and will increase the heat for a while. If you really need more fuel, you can add firewood to the side and only push it over, under the cooking area, when it has burned down and no longer has large flames.

Also, for these larger roasts, laying them directly over hot embers can burn the surface long before the interior is even warm. Finally, the rotisserie can hold your food a considerable distance above your wood fire so that you can even cook over open flames without your food burning. If high enough, only the rising heat, not the actual flames, reaches your food, which is perfectly rotated in the aromatic smoke. Therefore, prep time is reduced as you don't have to burn your wood down to embers first, although some embers help to supply adequate heat. For grilled leg of lamb and whole chicken and game birds, rotisserie cooking over a fire pit is one of my favorites!

Food Cooking Shows

2007-12-31T05:15:00.000-08:00

Food cooking shows are the "in" thing right now. We love the idea of making food and combine it with reality television and suddenly we come back week after week to see what happens next.
Fox Network has uncovered a phenomenon with the cursing antics of Chef Gordon Ramsey. We cringe at his explosive attitude yet are somehow sympathetic at his attempts to turn would-be chefs into professionals.

We might not want to put ourselves on the line of fire but we love watching other contestants wither under his furious stare and tirades. Our kitchens may not be stocked with fois gras but we still take something away from each episode.

Food Network has a reality show titled "Who Wants to Be the Next Food Network Star" where amateur and professional cooks alike are given tasks to perform that somehow weed out the would-be television chefs from the rest.

We root for our favorite contestants as the season progresses until only one contestant remains. He or she is then given a food cooking show of their very own. What is the fascination with meal preparation shows? Perhaps it is the ease at which dishes are prepared. It might be the professional cookware and charming personality of the hosts.

Some of the most popular meal preparation show hosts is not formally educated at cooking schools. Thus they give us hope that anyone can prepare delectable dishes from the comfort of their own home. Whatever the reason behind our fascination, these shows has become an integral part of television viewing. As great chefs from the past such as Julia Child pass on, a new generation of friendly, knowledgeable faces comes to the forefront of culinary society.

Preliminary Reading of The Cooking Recipe

2007-12-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

After the preliminary reading of the cooking recipe you will have a general idea of how the dish is cooked and what ingredients to buy. Make sure that all the ingredients are ready before you begin your cooking adventure. It is very frustrating to realize that you have run out of the ingredients half-way through your cooking. You will loose all the momentum and enthusiasm once this happen Taste the healthy chinese food.

You will also need to have the right type of ingredients. For example, if the cooking recipe says prepared mustard, do not assume that you can substitute it with dried mustard. They are two completely different ingredients and substituting one for the other will have disastrous effect on your cooking. Another thing worth mentioning is make sure you have enough of the ingredients. Double check to ensure that you have enough of everything before you starts to cook. Imagine what will happen if you don't have enough flour when baking a sponge cake!

Have The Equipment/Utensil Ready

Just as important and often overlooked is to have all the equipment and utensils ready before cooking. If you do not have the equipment or utensil, try borrowing them from your friends. You might only need to use the utensil mentioned in the cooking recipe once and so it is cheaper to borrow. If your friends do not have the items you are looking for or if you foresee that you are going to use it more than once, then buy it. Also, check that the equipment or utensil is in working order before starting your cooking.

Creative Raw Food Recipes

2007-12-18T04:07:00.000-08:00

They lend variety and change and make the food more acceptable, interesting and tasty. Making and testing recipes with raw foods can be a good and creative pastime. Moreover in a combination of a variety of fruits and vegetables in a food recipe, the items complement each other by providing the required nutrients which a single food item may not provide in sufficient measure. Creative raw food recipes satisfy the palate, increase the appetite and provide ample nutrition Chinese recipes chocolate fondue for two.

Vegetable Salad
A vegetable salad consisting of as many items as you like can be made out of all varieties of leafy greens such as romaine, endive, spinach cabbage, shredded mushrooms, sliced carrots, grated or sliced bell peppers, all colors zucchini, grated green beans, finely sliced tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, sliced sprouts, all kinds beets, grated celery and so on.

Non-starchy Vegetable Salad
A non-starchy vegetable salad can be prepared from beets, turnips, carrots, parsnips, summer squash, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, green corn, green peas, string beans, asparagus, onions, egg plant, okra, kohlrabi, endive, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, chard, spinach, dandelion, and all plants used as greens, etc.

A Vegetable Salad

2007-12-17T06:51:00.000-08:00

Food recipes remove the monotony of same food taken day and night. They lend variety and change and make the food more acceptable, interesting and tasty. Making and testing recipes with raw foods can be a good and creative pastime. Moreover in a combination of a variety of fruits and vegetables in a food recipe, the items complement each other by providing the required nutrients which a single food item may not provide in sufficient measure. Creative raw food recipes satisfy the palate, increase the appetite and provide ample nutrition unknown story of chinese cuisines.

Vegetable Salad
A vegetable salad consisting of as many items as you like can be made out of all varieties of leafy greens such as romaine, endive, spinach cabbage, shredded mushrooms, sliced carrots, grated or sliced bell peppers, all colors zucchini, grated green beans, finely sliced tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, sliced sprouts, all kinds beets, grated celery and so on.

Non-starchy Vegetable Salad
A non-starchy vegetable salad can be prepared from beets, turnips, carrots, parsnips, summer squash, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, green corn, green peas, string beans, asparagus, onions, egg plant, okra, kohlrabi, endive, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, chard, spinach, dandelion, and all plants used as greens, etc.

The Secret to Eating Properly

2007-12-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

If you're on an a diet trying to get your six pack abs to pop out, you'll know how tough it is to keep yourself entertained with interesting and exciting food, since there aren't that many dedicated abs diet recipes available. Don't worry though, there is light at the end of the tunnel - just think about how great your flat abs will look if you do stick to your abs diet, is chinese food healthy!

The secret to eating properly so you can maintain or develop six pack abs or a toned stomach, is to eat low fat (5 grams or less per meal), high energy foods. A diet consisting of these types of recipes will keep your body happy, and your abs trim. The hard part is keeping your tastebuds cheerful, because usually it's the foods that are bad for us (and our abs) which taste the best!
Eating a low fat diet shouldn't mean you have to compromise on flavour or texture. So, in the spirit of good abs food, here's some abs diet recipes for low fat, high energy meals which will keep you loaded up with that feel-good factor, without loading up unnecessary calories and fat.

You can usually find these ab diet recipes in cookbooks (either at home or in your local library or bookshop), or I bet you could also find them online by just doing a search for the name. Remember, even though you're on a diet, you don't have to stick to boring recipes. There's loads of ways you can enjoy food and keep your abs flat. Use these as an example, and get creative with what you've got lying around at home.

A Special Cultural Holiday

2007-12-05T23:14:00.000-08:00

Ironically historians have proven the slaves ate a healthier diet than the slave masters judging by today's health standards. The slave masters and overseers stuffed themselves with foods excessively high in fat, calories and washed it down with rich alcohol. This rich diet, considered a rich man's diet, and like today often resulted in heart disease, obesity and diabetes Chinese vegetarian cuisine recipes.

But as irony would have it the slaves had to settle for the food and ingredients the rich slave mater discarded. For example, cheap and often discarded vegetables, fruits, nuts and only had water to wash it down. In fact, the only times the slaves ate meat was usually on special occasions such as Christmas (provided they behaved during the week).

Today African Americans celebrate with soul food, especially during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years holidays. The cooks and wanna-be cooks come out in every Black household during these holidays.

Kwanzaa, a special cultural holiday celebrated by many African Americans, developed in the 1960's as a period for African Americans to reflect on their history and future contributions. The period of Kwanzaa runs from December 26 to January 1.

A traditional Kwanzaa feast held on December 31 and consist of traditional soul food dishes. These soul food dishes include seafood gumbo, black-eye peas, collard greens, buttermilk cornbread, sweet potato pie, peach cobbler, fried okra and more. Some traditions say these ingredients help bring the participants good fortune in the coming year.

Like any valuable idea, soul food has been able to reinvent itself and adapt to changing times and conditions.

Long criticized for it's unhealthy ingredients, such as the excessive use of fats, salt and unhealthy cooking techniques and ingredients.

Help Kids Eat Vegetables

2007-11-09T22:30:00.000-08:00

Cut artichoke hearts into small pieces. Mix all ingredients together. Bake at 350 degrees, about 25 minutes until melted and lightly browned Chinese recipes fried rice.

Another favorite way to help kids eat vegetables is to put the vegetables into a marinara sauce. Cut the vegetables up fairly small. They will add a wonderful flavor to the sauce and the sauce will be nutritious for the kids. The sauce can go over any type of noodle. It can also be poured over cooked fish or chicken.

My final suggestion is to start a vegetable garden. Kids love to eat what they themselves have grown. When the child has helped water, weed and cultivate the garden, it is so much fun for them to pick the vegetables and then eat them. They are so proud to eat their own work.

Cooking Eggplant

2007-10-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

For Crispier Puris Add a teaspoon of Semolina / Rava and 1 teaspoon of Rice flour to the wheat flour while kneading. Quick Tomato Paste Cubes : Spoon tomato paste into ice cube trays. Freeze overnight. Transfer into plastic bags and freeze. Frozen cubes can be dropped right into curries, Chinese recipes fried rice.

Eggplants Retaining Color : When cooking eggplant add a spoon of milk to a bowl of water and add the cut up pieces to that water. The eggplant will retain their color without becoming black. Remedy for Salty Curry : Wash a potato. Cut into two. Place a the two halves of the raw potato in the curry and it will absorb the extra salt.

Ready To Use Masalas Indian cooking requires a lot of pre-preparation. Make wet and or dry the masalas ahead of time making extra portions. Divide the masala into the desired portions according to the recipe. Place the portions in Ziploc Freezer bags and freeze till the next time. A great time saver....for next time you make the same recipe !

Cooking schools

2007-10-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

Cooking schools are a great way to land culinary jobs in the real world. However, more and more students are using culinary programs as a stepping-stone to setting up their own successful businesses. If you've ever wanted to work in the culinary world, but don't fancy the idea of having a boss, working for yourself may be the ideal solution. Culinary education can help you learn the skills you need to get started in your own business, Chinese recipes fried pork with spring onions.

Cooking schools can actually be a great way to start your own business. They teach you all the skills and knowledge you need in order to get started, and the best schools will often have you gain hands-on training experience in restaurants, as well. This can help give you the basis you need to understand how businesses work. Plus, most cooking schools allow you to network with a number of professionals in the business and provide you with resources you may need in order to set up your own business.

If you're looking at cooking schools with the hopes of becoming your own boss someday, choose your programs wisely. Look for programs that offer lots of hands-on training and interaction with instructors.

Living a Healthier Lifestyle

2007-10-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

The extreme examples are more of a light-hearted way of looking at a serious global problem. Whilst it is true that fitness and health are now far higher on the public agenda than 10 years ago, it is also true that poor diet and fitness related illnesses are higher than ever before.

Obesity and heart disease statistics have seen a phenomenal growth in the last 10 years.
We have all seen some of the shock tactics used to educate people into living a healthier lifestyle, but this seems to have bought it's own problems. Fad diets are not new, but the amount of people using them and the extremes of these diets are like never before, fast food yum marks delicious decade. Is there anybody left who simply enjoys life, eats healthily, and builds exercise into his or her daily routine? There is no need to buy fast food every day and there is no need to spend half your life at the gym.

In fact, if you are sensible and think things through there is no need for diet and health to even be an issue!

What do I mean by this? Well, let's look at why we have these health issues today. Most of us lived fast-paced, high-stressed life-styles. We eat what's quick and convenient. We drive because our lifestyles require it. Before the age of all our wonderful technology dawned we didn't have these details getting in the way. Instead there was a massive divide between wealth and poverty but that's another story.

Modern Lifestyle And Food

2007-10-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

Recent studies have suggested that the human body does not react to a diet in the way it was first expected. The body has been designed over a period of hundreds of years and has adapted. The human body can cope with lean periods very easily, and this is exactly how it sees a diet. Our bodies are very complex machines, and you need to trick them into losing weight.

Another reason why it's so easy to gain weight is thanks to the modern lifestyle. Now everyone is rushed off their feet and you'll find junk food everywhere. Fast food is one such culprit, it's a high energy food but it doesn't fill you up. This will cause you to consume many more calories than you need. Cars also mean that we're not walking as much as we used to. Plus most of us work behind a desk rather than hunting, which is another way we used to lose weight (as cavemen).

Snacks are all too easy to get your hands on. They contain too many calories, and they're far too easy to buy. The best thing to eat in between meals is fruit. It might not taste as sweet as what you're used to, however it is pleasant and it's good for you.

Chinese Free Recipes Blog

2007-09-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

Just launched the Chinese free recipes blog here.