Cooking Note: Making ground Sichuan peppercorn

                              image source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper      image source:http://www.zgghmh.com/product/317929.html





You probably have noticed that in many recipes I shared here, I use ground Sichuan peppercorn, instead of the whole Sichuan peppercorn, especially in stir-fried dishes. But I have had quite a few friends asking me about ground Sichuan peppercorn, which is not easy to find in Chinese supermarkets.

I have noticed this long time ago, so whenever I go back home, I would bring some packs back. But, for example, at the moment, I have run out of it -- a few packs cannot last for very long, especially for somebody like me, who uses it almost every day for cooking.

Most Chinese supermarkets (in UK) sell mostly Cantonese products, and in Cantonese food ground Sichuan peppercorn is rarely used. Last time when we were in Spain, I did see it on the shelves of  some Chinese supermarkets --- the sellers of those supermarkets are commonly from mainland China, near Shanghai. ---Don’t laugh at me, yes, I bought some back. :)) Although I am still using it, the taste is not the same -- almost too ‘mild’.

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Cooking note: Corn flour mix for thickening the sauce

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You probably have noticed in many Chinese recipes, especially in stir-fry recipes, it is very common to use corn flour mix (corn flour mix with water or with other seasonings) to thicken the sauce in the wok.

I understand that a similar method is used in many Western food recipes as well, but I want to talk about the differences when using it. Hope it is helpful.

This method is called ‘Gou (1) qian (4)’ in Chinese. It is not only for thickening the sauce and make it evenly wrap the content, but also it is good for giving the food a very ‘shining’ and ‘smooth’ appearance, which is normally one of the presentation requitements  for Chinese food.

Corn flour is commonly used for thickening the sauce in Chinese recipes, however, others like potato flour, or even wheat flour can also do the job. As for the proportions of the amount of the water and the flour, it is normally 1.5 : 1 (it needs a little bit more water for wheat flour).

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Cooking note: always only one or two main ingredients in one dish

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The first time I ever encountered the term ‘mixed’ in the name of a dish, I was in England already. When I browsed through the menu in a Chinese restaurant and saw dishes like ‘mixed vegetables’ or ‘mixed meat’, I was quite surprised.  Such dishes do not exist in traditional Northeastern Chinese cuisine.

I think I do like the idea of ‘mixed’ though, just imagine how many different nutrients you can take in  one dish. :)) However, in Northern Chinese cuisine, you will rarely find this kind of combinations in a single dish. What is much more common is to have one or two "main ingredients" in each dish, possibly accompanied with some other  ‘supporting’ ingredients (especially when the main ingredient is meat, or seafood).

For example, a  lamb dish will not contain other types of meat as main ingredient. The taste of the dish will focus on the lamb, which can be cooked with an adaptable method( for example 'Chinese lamb pieces on toothpicks (Ya qian rou)'). Same with other types of meat or seafood (for example, ‘homemade stir fried squid’ ). In contrast, the taste of "mixed meat" dishes is generally more focused on the sauce, and the mixed meat is only lightly boiled.

Sometimes the main ingredient  is accompanied by one or two types of vegetables, which we normally call  ‘supporting ingredients’, as they usually come in small proportions. Their main purpose is to  ‘help enhancing’ the taste of the main ingredient (meat, fish/seafood). For example, in  stir fried (big) spring onion or leeks with lamb slice, the spring onion can help get rid of the ‘lamb...ish’ smell, and give it a fresh taste; or for getting the taste from the meat (or fish /seafood), so the vegetables themselves become tasty, for example, potato in ‘Hong Shao Rou’ / ‘braised/stewed/red-cooked’ beef. However, again, it is rare to find more than… say three different types vegetables accompanying meat (or fish or seafood) in a single dish.

As for vegetable dishes, combinations are a bit more flexible. We can have just one main vegetable with a couple of ‘supporting’ ingredients, but one can also find combinations of different types of vegetables with equal proportion. From the recipes I have posted, probably you have already noticed that there is no more than three different types of vegetables in one dish, for example, ‘Di San Xian’ / stir fry aubergine, potato and green pepper.

If you read Northern Chinese recipes, you might have noticed that the ingredients section of the recipe is usually split in two parts:  the first part is called ‘main ingredient’, and the second part is called… something like ‘accompanying/supporting ingredients’ and then you will find the necessary seasonings. And the name of the dish then is made up using the main ingredient only.

Cooking note: Which oil ? - for Chinese cooking?

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image source: http://gintoten.en.made-in-china.com/product/ubRngNsVHorT/China-Tea-Seed-Oil.html

Soy Oil in Chinese Cooking

I used to think soy oil was the most popular oil used in Chinese cooking, after all, it was the oil that I grew up with. However, after talking to my friends from different parts of China, I realized how narrow minded I was.

Well, I did know that vegetable oil, groundnuts oil, sunflower oil can all be used for Chinese cooking; however, I grew up in the North East of China, where the land is especially well-suited for growing soy beans, and soy oil is often used in daily cooking. (My mum would say that it is also because of our Hui ethnic group origin that we used so soy oil so often).

It is certainly true that among all these oils, soy oil is the one that probably has the strongest aromatic smell and taste. And I am used to that smell, and I like the food with that taste (of soy oil). It gives the dish -- an enhancement in taste.

But, of course, other oils are also good for stir-frying, and they are probably much cheaper. The only thing I would not recommend is (as I mentioned before) is that pre-prepared so called “stir-fry” oil. Although it is packed with ‘stir-frying seasonings’, it is not suitable for all kinds vegetables or meat (not to mention the price is not really worth it), rather you can adapt different flavors by simply altering the amount of seasonings, or garlic, ginger, etc.

How Oil is Used in Chinese cooking

The way in which oil is used for cooking is also very important. Although most kinds of oil sold in the markets here in England can be used directly into cooking, frying, making salad, and so on, soy oil in northeastern China is normally sold ‘raw’ (at least most of the times).

It may sound strange, but there is a clear difference between ‘raw’ (sheng you) and ‘cooked’ oil (shou you). ‘Raw’ oil normally does not have that rich aromatic taste yet. I remember when my parents used to buy oil back home, they would always ‘heat’ it up first, then use it for daily cooking as usual. It is called “cooked” oil (Shou/Shu You in Chinese, "You" means oil).

Saying ‘heating’ the oil up, actually my dad would fry something, for example, peanuts, instead of just ‘cooking’ them plainly, afterwards, the oil is filtered, and kept for the future cooking. ‘Cooked’ oil then can be used for stir frying, salad, making chilli oil, or improving the ‘appearance’ of the dish.

Talking about the looks of the dishes may sound a bit strange... A dish is normally considered ‘good-looking’ if the surface of the food is a bit "shiny", and the usual way to achieve this is by using oil.

Despite having been in contact with oil during cooking, food normally loses that ‘smooth glow’ after it is done, so the chef would normally dip the cooking turner into the oil, then stir the food, or add a few drops of oil into the wok, right after cooking, and before serving the food on a plate. -- This oil has to be ‘cooked’ oil. -- Well, but normally I don’t want to put extra oil in the dish for home cooking, you can see from my recipes, unless we have guests, and I have to make effort to make a good ‘representation’.

I don’t usually re-use the oil. However, the other day, after making ‘You Tiao’, there was too much oil left in the wok, I did not want to throw it away.

My mother-in-law told me that oil can be ‘re-used’ one more time, so I used the left-over oil for stir frying dishes. Surprisingly, although I didn't vary my cooking methods, the dishes turned out very tasty -- in the end, I realized that it was because of the oil. It was only just vegetable oil, but it had a much richer flavor.

Cooking note: adding water

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I am writing this note because in Western cuisine it is unusual to add water while stir frying. Hope this helps.

Chinese stir-fry: adding water

A few years ago, my husband decided to learn how to stir-fry Chinese way. I was standing by him to give  instructions. After heating up the oil, adding in all of the required seasonings and ingredients, the food was getting dry in the wok. I could almost see the smoke coming out. I said ‘add some water then’, he paused and asked, ‘water? really?’ --- Then I learned that when cooking Spanish food, one would add more oil instead of water.

I do think, however, that adding more oil would probably make the dishes more tasty. My mother-in-law always cooks wonderful Spanish food. Sometimes, she would even save some of my favorite dishes for me for my next meal. I love it -- every single drop, and I ate it Spanish way -- by using bread to wipe up all the tasty sauce in the plate, and that piece of bread.. delicious is not enough to describe it. I knew I was actually having ‘flavored’ oil, but… could not stop.

However, (Northeast) Chinese food is normally very different. Apart from oil frying, the other cooking methods always rely on adding water (or soup) to prevent the saucepan from getting dry...never oil. So, many dishes do not contain much oil at all.

Needless to say, it certainly works out well for soups, but for stir frying, it can be a bit tricky. Plain stir-frying is normally just oil, with ingredients, because it is cooked on strong fire, so you don’t always get the ‘juice’ coming out from the vegetables or meat, thus the wok can get very dry and even burnt. Most of the time, you can rely on cooking wine, soy sauce, or even vinegar to get enough ‘moisture’ to finish the stir fry. However,  there are times (for example, when stir frying aubergine) when you do need to add some extra ‘water’ to finish the cooking.

In this case, when cooking at home, we normally just pour in some water -- not a lot, just enough to prevent from burning, in the end, you still get a ‘dry’ dish. Plain cold water is good enough, but I normally prefer my mum’s spiced water’ --  you can get all the seasonings into the food easily when the liquid is absorbed.

Restaurants normally rely on ‘stock’, (boiled chicken in a big sauce pan with some seasonings and lots of water, sometimes vegetable stock), which is a good, but not very practical for home cooking.

The Chinese Wok

Adding water also sounds like ‘cooling down’ the wok -- I do think it is true, but with strong fire, the temperature will come back quickly, then it is actually helping the food to get cooked quickly. A very obvious example is when we shallow fry dumplings (instead of boiling), spraying some water in can speed up the cooking process (this is different to Japanese way of shallow frying dumplings, where steam raised from the wok is used to get the dumpling cooked).

However, you need to be careful when adding water. If the wok gets very very hot and dry, adding drops of water can cause flame from inside wok -- this is what we normally see in some restaurants, which is a very good ‘direct’ way of cooking -- heat up the food directly from the flame, but cooking at home can be a bit dangerous, I almost set the table cloth on fire once. So -- unless you are very experienced with this flame, I wouldn’t advice --- speaking from the lesson I learned . :))

Cooking Note: Chilli and chilli Oil

辣椒油

I love chilli in  food. Well, I used to love chilli even more.

I guess I have the chilli-loving gene from my grandpa. After grandpa moved from countryside to the city, he realized that there was no good, real ‘spicy’ chilli in the city, so he got a small chilli plant from where he used to live to grow chilli at home.


I remember every time when we had meals, he would pick up one little green chilli to go with his food. In my mind, that plant forever had chilli hanging on the little branches, like a magic tree.:)) I guess it was a very special chilli plant, after grandpa passed away, my uncle took over the plant, and kept on having his chilli meals.

Chilli in China

Chilli in Chinese food has its famous benefits, for example, improving digestion and appetite. I also has its disadvantages: possible diarrhea or stomach pain. 


Oh, one of the famous saying is about some pregnant women, who have strong desire of chilli, which means that they are likely going to have a daughter. :)) And it is not suggested for pregnant women having too much chilli, otherwise the the temper of the unborn will be … not good ... Ha…

In China, most different regions have their different taste of chilli; of course, the most famous one is Sichuan chilli sauce - which is well-known worldwide.


When I was traveling to Sichuan for collecting data for my university graduation work, even me, who could have just chilli and bread for a meal, found difficult to take it -- every single dish had chilli in it, even egg fried rice was not an exception. 


Apparently, it is because of the damp weather in Sichuan that people love to have chilli and have a good sweat to get rid of the dampness in the body. But you would think, somebody having so much chilli would have really bad skin. Quite the opposite, all the sichuan girls I met had the most smooth fine skin I ever came across.

However, the spicy chilli in Sichuan regional food is different to the chilli we normally come across. Their chilli is not only just the red or green chili we normally use, but, and most importantly, it is from ‘Sichuan peppercorn’ -- well, not really the Sichuan peppercorn you can find here. So we always judge if it is real Sichuan food by the taste of chilli.


I have a really good friend, whose husband is from Sichuan, and is a very good chef. He showed me what is the real Sichuan peppercorn they use locally, it is called ‘chuan jiao’, looks very similar the normal ones, but slightly bigger, and has stronger taste. 


This is how Sichuan chilli tastes: at first, it is difficult to tell it is spicy when you put the food in your mouth, but after chewing and before swallowing, a mixed ‘chilli (cold)’ and ‘hot spicy’ starts spreading out to the whole mouth and throat. I know, I am not talking clearly， it is difficult to describe, you have to try it, you will know what I mean.

My mum used to travel to all different regions in China for her work, every time, she would buy me two things, one is the local ethnical bags, and another one is local chilli sauce. I used to be able to distinguish different regional chilli taste. But my mum has forbidden me to take too much chilli for a long long while now, because of the problem of my stomach. -- very unfortunate. :(

When people come to talk about chilli in Chinese food, they often forgot about the chilli in Northeast cuisine, since its chilli is not as famous as in Sichuan or Hunan, but we do have many dishes with chilli, and chilli oil can be seen in almost every restaurant.

I always like to have some chilli oil at home, it is useful for cooking dishes, salad, or eating with dumplings or noodles. And the nice smell from making the chilli oil is just irresistible.

The recipe: Chinese chilli oil

I made some today. There are different kinds of taste of chilli oil, for example, in Wagamama, the chilli oil is not only spicy, but has five spices taste in it. But I made in a simplest way, a Northern way ---  with just oil and chilli.

Here you go.

Ingredients

Soy oil or vegetable oil

Crushed red chilli or whole red chilli (the latter one is more spicy)
(I mainly used crushed red chilli, but sometimes I feel it is not spicy enough, so I put in four pieces of whole red chilli).



Making:

1） Pour 1 cup of oil in a heated wok (depends on how much you want to prepare)
When the oil is hot, put the chilli in the wok. (I used 1/4 cup of crushed chilli)

2）Let the chilli get a little bit burnt, (you can see the change of the colour or can smell it), then turn off the fire, let it cool down, and transfer a bowl or a bottle for later use. If you don’t like the chilli pieces in the oil, you can use a sifter when transferring the oil. 

The smell of chilli oil is a very good seasoning for the dish, you can use less chilli in the oil, just for getting the taste of the nice fragrance, not for the sake of spicy.

For use in the dishes, I prefer to drop some chilli oil after turning off the fire; or if you have noodles, da lu mian for example, you can drop some chilli oil on the top; or leave a few drops in the dumpling dip -- you will know what I mean by the fragrance. :)) 

Cooking Note: Five (or thirteen) spice powder and ‘spice water’

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Chinese spiced water

Chinese five spice powder

I have to say the first time I saw five spice powder in a supermarket here, I was very, very surprised, couldn’t believe my eyes -- it is a ‘too typical’ and ‘traditional’ thing in Chinese cooking. ‘Five spices’ powder is made with anise star, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper, cloves, and fennel seeds.

It goes very well with meat soups and certain stir fried vegetable dishes. It provides a nice fragrance to dishes and a subtle touch to their taste.

Thirteen spice powder

In China, there is another similar powder called ‘ thirteen spice powder’. Apart from the basic five spices, it has another eight more, including sun dried tangerine skin, ground ginger, cardamomum, etc, I couldn’t name them all in English, but it is said that some of them can act as Chinese medicinal herbs.

This way of mixing the spices was adopted in Chinese cuisine more that 2000 years ago.There is a legend saying that there was once a man who sold ‘ thirteen spice powder’. He was blind and he placed thirteen spices in front him in different bags. When people came to buy, he would put them together according a certain proportion, while singing a song he made up.

It is best to be used, for example, with boiling beef or stir frying when you think the taste of the ingredients need to have more flavor. But, it is not good to put in all Chinese stir fry dishes, as its strong taste might mask the original taste of the ingredients.

My mum has her own way of using these spices, which she learned from my grandma. :) and I learned from her.

It is to put a small handful sichuan pepper, couple of cinnamon sticks and a few anise stars in a small bottle, and fill in with water. After, at least a few hours, when the spices sank to the bottom of the bottle, and fragrance goes into the water, it can then be used for cooking the dishes.

The bottle can be refilled, and kept in the fridge. Probably around a week time after soaking the spices, the fragrance is fading, then you can bin it, and prepare another one.

The taste of the spices is lighter than the powder, but it is easy to mix into the dishes, and can be used in most Chinese stir fried dishes.

Chinese sweet and sour (vinegar and sugar)

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Before you completely get bored of me saying ‘add vinegar, then sugar’, I think I’d better talk about it first. :))

Couple of years ago, when I had to go back to Manchester every week, a really nice friend put me up for the night, as return, (and if I wasn’t lazy), I would cook him dinner - that is where crispy beef from, it became one of his favorites. One day, he asked me what I put in every dish, I said, “this one, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, and that one, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar…”, by the third dish, he could already recite “ oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar…”  He laughed, probably thought I was joking, I laughed.. with a bit embarrassment.  Well, it wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t find any other seasonings, so tried to use the mixture of vinegar and sugar to give the dishes some flavor. :)) (Actually, I was wrong, he has lots Chinese seasonings in the kitchen, I did not look for it enough.)

Sugar in Chinese cooking

The first time my friends learnt that there was sugar in most of Chinese recipes, they were very surprised --- because it is difficult to tell only by the taste. The sweetness of sugar normally mixes into the sauce along with the other ingredients to bring out the flavor,  (don't be surprised, sometimes there is also a pinch of salt in cakes). But when sugar mixes with vinegar, the taste is different.

Well, the actual taste of the dish depends on how much of each you put in. For example, in the http://cookingsimplechinesefoodathome.blogspot.com/2011/04/5-guo-bao-rou-our-version-of-sweet-and.html> crispy beef dish , I put quite a lot of vinegar and sugar to get the very ‘obvious’ mixed sweet and sour taste. In some Chinese salads, however, although I put same amount of vinegar and sugar, the sweet taste of sugar and sourness from vinegar do not mix into a single  ‘sweet and sour’ taste and you can taste sweetness and sourness separately. This is because of the  juice coming from the vegetables, and the fact that it is a cold dish,  --- am I talking clearly? Also, you probably already notice, in some stir-fry dishes, only a little vinegar and sugar is needed ---it is hard to tell any ‘sweetness and sourish’ at all, but the taste of the dish is enriched. Don’t even mention by putting more sugar or more vinegar, the taste of the dish will also be changed. --- I like to think it is the magic of ‘vinegar and sugar’. It sounds funny, but it is true.

The Chinese vinegar

The vinegar I normally use is rice vinegar, which I already mentioned in ‘At the beginning’, and sugar is white sugar (for some time, I didn’t like the idea of using normal sugar, so I used fruit sugar instead, it works the same -- I know in the bakery, it is different.) I have mentioned a few time about ‘old vinegar’, I have been asked by friends how it is called on the label ---- lately I found it in Tesco. In Northeast dishes, it normally goes with spinach salad, or stir-fried cabbage, or as dip for dumplings. It doesn’t have to be combined with sugar, if you want to add sugar, only a little bit is enough. It cannot replace rice vinegar in normal dishes, otherwise the taste would be strange.

--- don’t know if it is enough explanation, but you can try different proportions of  sugar and vinegar in the mix, you will know what I mean. :)

cooking note: the Chinese wok

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(This is a typical Chinese kitchen belonging to a rich family 700 years ago. The photo was taken in Zhouzhuan)

The Chinese Wok

Saying about adopting the taste here in England, actually, the first thing I adopted (in terms of cooking) was the wok. After moving out from a host-family, I was almost overwhelmed with the idea of starting cooking Chinese food everyday. When I went shopping for cooking ‘equipment’, I was so surprised to find different kinds of woks in shops - I didn’t know that Chinese food was so popular here, but at the same time, I was also disappointed to see that Chinese food in the UK mainly adopted Cantonese style, which is very different to the kind of food we have back home --- needless to say, homesick, or say ‘foodsick’ followed.

Types of Chinese woks

So the wok I bought was different to the ones I was used to. The traditional Chinese wok for stir frying is not very big, but deep enough, with rounded bottom, (while woks sold in the UK normally come with  flat bottom), and the top edge is a little bit ‘withdrawn’ for holding the heat.  It comes with one long handle without lid, which allows you to lift it up easily for stir frying. In Chinese, it is called ‘Chao Shao’, Chao as in ‘stir fry’, Shao as in spoon, so you can imagine. :)))

And there is another type of Chinese wok, which we call "guo". It is normally used to cook...for example, stews.  It normally doesn’t come with a long handle, but rather with two small ones; it is much bigger, it comes with a lid, can contain more food, and it requires both hands to be lifted; the bottom is rounded, and the top edge is ‘opened up’. The ones in the UK sometimes combine these two types in one, and they are all called ‘wok’. Well, they do the job, but, it is a bit confusing, for example, when I tried to explain to my Chinese friend what do I use, she got so confused for which one I was exactly talking about. :)))

The wok is traditionally made of iron, and not 'non-sticky'. Before cooking, ‘preparing the wok’ is needed -- just heat the wok, and pour oil in, move around the wok, so the oil could touch every part of the inside, then remove the oil from the wok - now you can cook with a ‘non-sticky’ wok. I prefer this one, coz you don’t have to worry if the ‘non-sticky’ surface would come off and cause health concerns. But, if you use this wok, it is not advised to use it for boiling water or soup, it will set back your wok to ‘sticky’, then you have  to prepare again. This kind of wok is sold in Chinese supermarkets, and it is still used in the Chinese restaurants and take-aways.

The iron wok is good for stir-frying -- heats up quickly, not thick enough for not getting food burned easily. We normally say that the food tastes different depending on the material the wok is made of. And now, with globalization, the wok has been changing -- there are different materials, different shapes….There is a new type of wok on the market now, it is ‘double layered’, and there is a little gap between the two layers, good for keeping warm and easy to hand not to burn the food. Anyway, what I would suggest is not to get those very thin layered woks with good material. And try to lift up the wok give it a gooood stir.... feel like a really good chef! :))

Spring onion, ginger and garlic in Chinese cuisine

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Spring onion, ginger and garlic in Chinese cooking

Another common way of stir-frying Northeast Chinese dishes is using the taste of spring onions, ginger and garlic to influence the dishes. If you get into any household in North China, you can easily find these three items on the kitchen shelves. Nowadays, people can buy the fresh vegetables in the market whole year long, but before, twenty years or thirty years ago, in winter, because of the very cold weather in North China (-30˚c the coldest :0), it was difficult to find fresh seasonal vegetables apart from winter grows. So most families would stock up some vegetables including lots of ‘big spring onions’. (They look similar to leeks, but taste is more like spring onions, easy to stock than small spring onions.)

Anyway, with the strong and distinguish taste of these three items, they are the nature ingredients comparing those powders in little jars. :)) Normally, they are well chopped, and put into heated oil, wait until the smell comes out, (at this point, the oil is flavored as well), put the rest of food in for stir-frying.

However, the way they influence the dishes depends on when you put them in. For instance, if you put the spring onion at the very beginning (in heated oil), the flavor would influence the whole dish (in this case, normally it is the part of the white stem being used);  if you put it in when you finish or almost finish the cooking, then the freshness and sharp smell of the spring onion will not be mixed into the dish, but remain ons the top (in this case, it is the green part of the spring onion used). … Am I talking sense?

Almost every dish can have these three items in for enriching the flavor, but personally, I like to have garlic with green vegetables, spring onion with light stir-fried the dish, and ginger with fish and meat dishes. :)

Note- about MSG

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About MSG… I really like it. When I was little, I used to climb up the shelve to grab the little bottle and pour a little bit on my palm, then use my finger tip to get a bit, and put it into my mouth -- my parents never knew. :)))

MSG in Chinese Cuisine

It has been used in Chinese dishes for many years, in soup, stir fry, or cool dishes. It is supposed to increase the flavor of the food, and give it a very fresh touch. Although I really like the taste of MSG in food, I stopped using it once I learnt about its side effects. However, it is still widely used in most restaurants and takeaways in Asia, unless you ask the chef not to put it when you make the order.

In China, the first thing that came out as a substitute for MSG was ‘Chicken essence', then ‘mushroom extract’ or ‘mushroom essence’ (I don’t know which is the best translation) and ‘Vegetable extract’ or ‘vegetable essence’. They claim to be better and healthier than MSG, and can be used to replace MSG. Nowadays, in Chinese supermarkets over here, you can find ‘Chicken essence’, but not ‘Mushroom essence or Vegetable essence’, which I really prefer. So every time I go back to China, I would buy some to bring back, my mum laughed-- the cost is too pricy. :)

Anyway, if you like to use MSG or the replacement, it is probably good idea to put it at the very end of the stir frying or towards to the end, so the freshness can be kept on the top, make different in the taste.

Note: Chinese stir-fry

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Stir frying Chinese food

I have been asked by many friends how to stir-fry Chinese food. I didn’t really know how to describe it, could only just reply ‘easy, very easy’…:)))… but I wasn’t joking, the basic method of Chinese stir-fry is not complicated at all. I know there are lots of packed ready-to-cook ‘Chinese stir fry vegetables’ or stir-fry sauces or even stir-fry oil on the shelves of the supermarket, but not for me -- no.  I agree this might make cooking easy, but  the taste will never be the same (and those mixed vegs- strange combination for me:))). Actually, it doesn't need much more effort to prepare everything yourself, and probably can save some money anyway. When you come back from work, tired, need to quickly fix dinner, stir-fry is really not bad idea.

The stir-fry I understand is to quickly cook the food on strong fire. This way, the very surface of the vegetable (for eg.) will get soft quickly, let the salt etc. go in, but still keep its own juice and taste, not mixed totally with the others. Dishes stir fried this way are generally very light, no thick sauce base, very different from, for instance, the 'Cantonese OK sauce’. Thick sauces will mask the taste of the vegetables.

The basic Chinese stir-fry method

For the basic stir fry, all you need is a wok, oil, salt, and for most of the times, spring onions, ginger and garlic, you can even forget about all the other spices if you don’t have them at home. However, for the spring onions, ginger and garlic, they’d better be the fresh ones, not the powders.

Then it goes like this: place the wok on the fire, (normally a big strong fire), wait until the wok is dry from any water drop, (otherwise it could cause oil spill, you can get hurt), then pour 2-4 table spoons of oil, let oil heat up, then put well chopped spring onions, ginger and garlic in (depends on what you are cooking). When the nice smell of the spring onions, ginger and garlic start coming out, put the things you want to cook in - of course, leave things that get done quickly for the very end. Put salt when you stir fry everything together. (In case of the food gets too dry in the wok, put a few water drops, no need to use oil for that, if you don’t like it too oily)-- That is it. --- It is simple, easy and healthy, no? :))) Saying that, this kind of stir fry only works for easy to ingredients.  Other ingredients (like meat) need to be pre-cooked first, and will only need to be stir fried in the wok only very briefly.