Cooking Chinese food is not difficult. I was doing it when I was 4 years old. My parents told me how good it was; my sister told me it was terrible.
I have learned a lot since then.
I want to show you how a typical Chinese mother cooks a meal for her family.
There are two main things you have to know before you begin. The first is that Chinese food does take a lot of preparation and the second is that it takes a lot of cooking utensils. The food is good, with rich variety, but the washing up is ‘terrible’, as my sister would say. My sister was six years older than me, so often when we were sent to do the washing up, it was I who had to do it all.
The photos are of meals I prepared at home for my family, taken just before they were served and eaten. They were taken with our little travel camera to show you that they really are the meals we eat at home. I want you to be able to do the same.
If you have any questions please send me an email or post a comment.
Remember that Chinese food is served in dishes and placed in the center of the table. Everyone then uses chop-sticks to pick up the food and either eat it directly or put it into a small bowl. So meat and vegetables are usually cut into bite sized pieces.
Each individual dish is not all that troublesome to prepare, however most family meals would have 4 dishes and a large family meal between 8 – 12 dishes.
After a meal, particularly a large family meal, the women usually do the clearing away and washing up while the men drink tea. My husband really enjoys drinking tea and says that he does not want to get in the way of 5,000 years of tradition. Hmmmm ...
The photo is of a lunch which we shared with four friends.
Tang Yuan
Cooking Tang Yuan at the Yuan Xiao Festival - China Daily Video
In Chinese New Year the last day (15 days from New Year's Day), we call is Yuan Xiao Festival, family come together. Have a meal and after meal, we eat some sweet Tang Yuan. Tan Yuan mean to have a reunion.
Ingredients: 1 cup of glutinous rice flour
Seasoning: 1 tablespoon of ground sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon of ground nuts (peanut or walnut or pecan), 1 tablespoon of Sugar.
Preparation: Mix the ground sesame, ground nuts and sugar together.
Then, using a lager bowl, put the flour in, add cold water to make the flour become paste.
Then shape into a long roll, cut the roll into 2cm rounds, flatten the pieces, put on your hand and add a teaspoon of the mixed jam. Form into a ball
Cooking: Put water into a big sauce-pan, bring the water to a vigorous boil, put the ball in, wait for the ball to float on top of the water. Put some brown sugar into the water, cook 2 minutes, take out , eat, Hao Chi
Zhou Xiaosui
Post a Comment
Golden Roll
Ingredients: 0.3kg of pork meat, 4 eggs.
Seasoning: 2 tablespoon of oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, some ginger (to taste), 2 spring onions,
a little pepper (to taste), 1 teaspoon of potato flour.
Preparation: Combine the following ingredients: 1 tablespoon of oil , half a teaspoon of salt, ginger(chopped into small pieces), the spring onions (chopped into small pieces), pepper, one egg white, meat.
Put the remaining 3 eggs into a bowl, put in half teaspoon salt, spinkle in the potato flour until it is a smooth mixture.
Cooking: Using a fry-pan, heat the pan , put some oil in, put the egg mix in, allow to spread out, fry until bottom is cooked then turn over. Take out an put on a tray. Spread the meat onto the egg pancake and then make into an egg roll ( see the photo). Wrap the egg roll in tinfoil. Place in a steamer and steam for 20 minutes. Take out, take off the tinfoil, cut the egg roll into 2 cm sections, (see picture), put on a serving plate. Ok can eat now, Hao chi
Hong Shao Shi Zi Tuo
Ingredients: 0.5kg of mince meat (white meat is best), 2 carrots, some green vegetables to garnish(see picture). One cup of water.
Seasoning: 1 tablespoon of oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, some ginger (to taste), 2 spring onions, 2 tablespoons of soya sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar
Preparation: Chop the carrot and ginger into very small pieces. Mix the meat with the carrot, oil, salt, ginger. Roll into a big ball.
Chop some ginger into larger pieces, chop the onion into 3cm lengths.
Cooking: Heat the wok, put the oil in, wait for the oil to come to the simmer. Deep fry the meat balls for 5 minutes and then take out. Remove the oil, leaving a small amount in the wok. Put larger cuts of ginger and onion in and stir-fry for two minutes. Put the meat ball back in, put the soya sauce and sugar in, put the cup of water in. Simmer until the water has gone. Remove and put onto a plate.
Put water in the sauce-pan, wait for the water boil, put the green vegetables in. Cook to taste. Take out and put around the meat balls. Now can serve. Hao Chi!
