The Shun Lee Cookbook - Michael Tong [9]
Some cookbooks suggest substituting a large skillet for a wok. This can be done with recipes that don’t require the meat to be “passed through” oil before the final cooking (see page 16). But recipes with the passing-through step need a pool of oil, which can be obtained with the least amount of oil in a deep wok; the wide, flat surface of a skillet requires a wasteful amount of oil. If absolutely necessary, heat the passing-through oil in a medium-size saucepan, then stir-fry the dish in a large skillet.
No matter what kind of wok you use, the key to wok cooking is high heat. The wok should be thoroughly heated over a high flame before you add oil for deep-frying or stir-frying. This helps the oil heat up more quickly and keeps food from sticking to the wok. And keep the heat on high when cooking, so each morsel will cook quickly and retain its texture and individual flavor.
A FEW UTENSILS WILL HELP you use your wok with ease. A wide wire-mesh strainer, or skimmer, lifts the ingredients from the oil after the passing-through step, effectively draining them. You will find it wherever woks are sold. While you can use a wooden spoon to stir ingredients as they cook, a special wedge-shaped metal scoop is preferable, and will help transfer the food to a platter for serving. Spring-loaded tongs are useful for plucking food from oil or broth. You will also need a fine-mesh strainer to remove bits of deep-fried food from the oil when you need to reuse the oil for another step in a recipe. A deep-frying thermometer is indispensable for gauging the temperature of oil for passing through and deep-frying. Because of the round sides of a wok, the traditional clip-on thermometers won’t work well. Look for digital thermometers with curved probes that can be balanced on the edge of the wok.
Serving Sizes
In most Chinese meals, there are as many main courses as there are diners, but the portions are small.
In this book, most recipes make four small servings for four people, assuming you are cooking four dishes. If, however, you are serving one or two dishes for four people, you should double the recipes. So, in many of the recipes here, we suggest that each dish makes two to four servings, depending on how many other dishes are served.
The cleaver is the primary cutting tool in a Chinese kitchen. Just as the skill of a French chef is measured by how he or she handles a knife, professional Chinese chefs are judged by their work with a cleaver. The chefs at Shun Lee can julienne scallions into gossamer strips without even looking at the chopping board. They possess the artistry of the cleaver that the Chinese have treasured since the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907)
A Chinese cleaver is used to bone fish, slice meat, and chop vegetables. Knives are just as comfortable for some cooks for these jobs. The chefs at Shun Lee peel ginger with a cleaver, but that is an acquired talent—and a marvel to watch. Feel free to peel your ginger with a vegetable peeler.
For steaming, look for a bamboo or aluminum steamer that is large enough to hold a bowl or a plate that will contain the finished dish, like a steamed whole bass or a pound of steamed ribs. The steamer sits in a wok or pot to do its job. Finally, you will want (but probably already have) a broiling rack that can be placed on a metal tray that can be filled with a half inch or so of water, which is used for roasting Barbecued Spareribs.
Cooking Chinese Food at Home
WHEN I ORDER A MENU FOR A CUSTOMER, I choose an array of dishes, each cooked in a different way. I will suggest something stir-fried and crunchy, and something else, a fish perhaps, that is poached and silken. Throughout the meal, there will be a harmony of the five flavors: sweet, salty, hot, sour, and a hint, perhaps, of bitter. In home cooking, especially at multi-course dinner parties, I cook a meal the way my mother did: Rather than tying up the stove with dishes that all required wok cooking, she served a steamed or braised dish alongside. This makes sense—it helps to keep the