To Cook Vegetables

Both French and Chinese cuisines treat vegetables with the reverence they deserve, cooking them in a little butter or oil, with just enough water, stock, wine or even steam to bring out their delicate flavours and textures.

The Chinese, particularly, are masters of the art of vegetable cookery. Serve your vegetables slightly crisp as they do, and not reduced to a pulpy, colourless mass. And follow their method of cutting vegetables across the grain into small uniform pieces, so that they will cook evenly and quickly when simmered in liquid or “stir-fried” in vegetable oil.