Wok this Way! (Part 1 of 5)

By Helen Fan

Introduction

Woks have been synonymous with Chinese cooking since the emergence of Chinese cuisine. They have been used for some 3000 years in China for a variety of cooking methods, including stir frying, boiling, and steaming. A wok is a large, thin-walled, round-bottomed, metal cooking pan, and shaped like a shallow bowl with handles. The addition of a wooden rack and cover transforms the wok into a steamer. Although woks come in sizes ranging from 10 to 32 inches in diameter, a wok that's 11 to 14 inches should suffice for use in a household kitchen.

With the increasing popularity of Chinese cuisine, there are now many “Westernized” versions of the wok. There is the addition of a metal ring, which is set on top of a gas or electric stove to hold the wok to prevent tipping. Some have a small flat bottom instead of the traditional round bottom, for the same reason. The new versions will get the job done, but thetraditionalal" large round-bottomed woks are still, by far, the preferred wok of choice.

Since the essence of Chinese cuisine is to achieve food tenderness through quick cooking to retain the natural taste, flavor, and color of the ingredients, the wok's ingenious unique design makes it a perfect fit in Chinese cooking.

Its bottom concentrates heat to achieve 2 objectives: 1) to direct the heat at the food, while sealing in the flavors and allowing food to be cooked evenly, and 2) to allow cooking food quickly with very little oil. The stir fry cooking technique shifts food around the wok quickly, coating it with oil during cooking, as opposed to using a flat frying pan where a lot more oil is required. Consequently, cooking with a wok is essential for a healthy diet. It also has curved sides to keep in food that is being tossed and flipped during stir frying. Food, when cooked, may be moved up the sloping side of the wok to stay warm without cooking further, while other food is cooked at the bottom. It is also ideal for deep frying as it requires less oil than any other kitchen cookware to do the job.

Next, in Part 2 of Wok this way!, we'll go over selecting a wok.

Helen Fan grew up in a family that has owned various Asian restaurants all over North America, from Vancouver (Canada), Houston (Texas), Decatur (Illinois), to Chicago (Illinois). She, and the rest of the Fan family are now sharing their decades of knowledge on the art of Chinese cuisine at http://www.chinesehomecooking.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Helen_Fan

Chinese Food - Anhui Cuisine

By Ada Cao

Auhui province is located in east China. Anhui cuisine, one of the eight major cuisines in China, features the local culinary arts of Huizhou, a city close to Huangshan Mountain, which is not only the most beautiful mountain in china, but also provides abundant products for dish cooking. The major ingredients in Anhui cuisine, such as stone frog, mushroom, bayberry, tea leaves, bamboo shoot, dates, pangolin, etc., are from mountain area.

One distinctive characteristic of Anhui cuisine is the elaborate choices of cooking materials. The chef uses fresh and high quality material to prepare dishes. Anhui dishes preserve most of the original taste and nutrition of the materials. Some of the Anhui dishes actually are also medicine cuisine, which it good to health. For example, Chukka has tender flesh and a sweet taste. It can be boiled in clear soup or braised in soy sauce. The dishes help relieve internal fever and build up vital energy. Huangshan bamboo shoots are tender and delicious; it can be made into very delicious food. Shitake is also very tasty, and it helps prevent cancer.

Anhui Cuisine chef were trained to master the art of the strict control of the temperature and the cooking process, which is the key to good taste and color of dishes.

Anhui Cuisine chefs are good at braising and stewing. They are experts especially in cooking delicacies from mountains and sea. Generally the food here is slightly spicy and salty. Some master dishes are usually stewed in brown sauce with stress on heavy oil and sauce. Chinese Ham is often added to improve the taste and sugar candy added to gain freshness.

My favorite Anhui dish is the Taros with Honey Juice, and it is really easy to make. Here is the recipe:

Materials:
1,000g red taros
200g honey
125g crystal sugar

1. Choose some orange-colored taros which have "sweated", wash, peel, chop into pieces which have two pointed ends.

2. Put a bamboo steamer in a casserole, add water and crystal sugar, when the sugar melts, put in the taros and honey and simmer for one hour.

3. When the juice has boiled down, transfer the taros to a plate and pour on the juice.

Ada Cao is the editor of http://www.orientalshoppingmall.com/, the portal for the best Asian and oriental goods such as Asian Food grocery, oriental rugs, oriental furnishing, and many other Asian style home decor items. She also writes articles for http://www.jewelrywise.com/, a website that helps consumers to save money on jewelry.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ada_Cao