You don't have to take lessons from a professional teacher to learn the art of Chinese cooking if all you want to do is to entertain your friends or cook for your family. Almost without exception, Chinese women learn this skill by watching and working together with their mothers or grandmothers. After they become wives or mothers themselves, the most diligent among them will try to improve their techniques by consulting cook books and exchanging experiences with their neighbors. In this way they eventually become as skilled as the best chefs in established restaurants. It should be noted, of course, that most of the well-known chefs in famous restaurants are men because many men in Chinese homes are just as good at the art of cooking as their wives.
This book in the Learn to Cook Chinese Dishes series have been compiled by master chefs. They have used simple explanations to introduce the ingredients, the ways of cutting, and the cooking procedures for each Chinese recipe. Readers who follow the directions will before long become skilled in the art of Chinese cooking. The entire set consists of nine volumes, covering freshwater and seafood dishes, meat dishes, vegetable dishes, courses made from soy beans, soups, cold dishes, pastries, dishes of eggs and poultry, and recipes for family feasts. This particular volume presents forty different cold dishes.
Cold dishes not only serve as appetizers, they are an important component of a whole dinner because of their unique flavors. In a typical Chinese feast, cold dishes are always the first to be served, thus having the function of giving the diner a first good impression.
The cooking skills for cold dishes vary a great deal from those for preparing warm dishes. Most cold dishes do not require any coating or thickening of the sauce with cornstarch. Some do not even need to be boiled or cooked, but can be made by simply mixing the required ingredients. Cold dishes are characterized by their aroma and tenderness. They do not contain sauce and are never greasy. Unlike many warm dishes that send forth their aroma into the air, cold dishes are usually sensed by taste rather than smell. Cold dishes, therefore, often make use of many kinds of spices and flavorings such as Chinese prickly ash, aniseed, fennel, orange peel, clove, scallions, ginger and sesame paste that are used to make sauces.
There are more than a dozen ways to make cold dishes, including mixing different ingredients, seasoning, marinating in wine, treating with distillers' grain, soaking with flavorings, boiling with and without salt, soaking in thick gravy, pickling with soy sauce, freezing, curing, drying, and smoking.
With cold dishes, the ingredients are processed or cooked before being cut and arranged on plates. Such dishes particularly emphasize the decorative factor when they are prepared. Since the processed ingredients are often quite soft and cannot be altered once cut, the technique of cutting is more important than it is for other types of Chinese cooking. The right strength, depth and speed of cutting must be employed according to the quality and nature of the ingredients.
Color and shape are two other important factors in preparing cold dishes. Simple family dinners can be provided with a four-course cold dish arrangement including previously quick stir-fried shrimps, cucumbers in sauce, beef with orange peel and boiled chicken. This combination offers a balanced fare and a contrast of red, green, black and white colors, which are likely to be very enticing. Harmony must be achieved in arranging the ingredients on a plate. One should pay close attention to the balance of different flavors in an arrangement of more than two kinds of cold dishes, allowing each dish to maintain its unique taste. Coordination between the ingredients and their containers must also he ensured. Often a number of ingredients are used to produce images of flowers and little animals or other beautiful patterns so as to increase the attraction of the dinner table.
* All pages double-side coated for easy removing of any stains (Hardcover)
