Basic Techniques

Appears in

By Ken Hom

Published 1981

  • About
We begin with the most basic techniques used constantly in Chinese cooking and show you in pictures what words sometimes cannot describe: exactly how food is prepared—how wide to make the slices, how to refresh dried ingredients, how to deep-fry fish or slice meat or butterfly a chicken breast, how much oil to put in a wok to cook vegetables just right, how to score a fish, fry noodles, or stir-fry a simple and perfect meal. Once you learn these, you can tackle any recipe in any Chinese cookbook, confident in your ability to accomplish what you have set out to do. Beyond that, you will gain the confidence to add your own touches, to make each dish your own. You’ll understand the significance of this ability the first time you substitute, say, zucchini for bok choy and realize that the technique that worked for bok choy works for dozens of other vegetables as well. And so it goes with all the basic techniques that follow.