Chinese Cooking for Dummies

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 360 pages
• Published by: For Dummies
• Edition: 1st Edition October 6, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0764552473
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0764552472
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Review
Won Ton Soup, Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork, Fried Rice, Mu Shu Pork--Chinese takeout again? Not with Chinese Cooking for Dummies, which brings the experience of the Chinese restaurant to your home, including everything but the big, exotic fish tank. Author Martin Yan, an award-winning celebrity chef, has put together everyone's favorite Chinese recipes all in the comfortable, familiar Dummies format, including his own signature brand of humor.

To get the full experience, the book requires an up-front time investment of reading before cooking, and includes background on Chinese history and its influence on Chinese cooking. It is long, but if you have the time, it is worth the read. Yan provides a window to the Chinese philosophy on cooking--the delicate balance of complementing flavors, textures, shapes, and cooking techniques--which makes it easier for the Westerner to better understand that what they're doing is more than frying rice.

The book is filled with more than 100 recipes as well as great preparation and handling tips for seafood, poultry, pork, and beef. Much of this information easily transcends cuisine borders to foods of all nationalities. As for presentation, Yan has provided fascinating instructions for easy-to-make garnishes that enhance the appearance of a traditional Chinese meal but don't require an art degree. The Chinese may boast of 3,000 varieties of rice but he recognizes that his reader is probably only going to use a couple of these. Another staple of Chinese cuisine, the sauces, are included, with recipes for sweet and sour sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese mustard, and black bean sauce. He recommends making sauces in batches, and offers storage instructions that make it possible to keep the various concoctions for weeks. This allows for a quick Chinese stir-fry, or other favorite dish, in a matter of minutes.

Practical and easy aren't often associated with Chinese food, but Martin Yan makes it seem so simple you may never order takeout again. --Teresa Simanton

Product Description
Have you ever had a craving for fried dumplings or hot and sour soup at midnight? Ever wonder how your local Chinese takeout makes their food taste so good—and look so easy to make? Still don’t know the difference between Sichuan, Cantonese, and Mandarin cooking? Discovering how to cook the Chinese way will leave you steaming, stir-frying, and food-styling like crazy!

The indescribably delicious cuisine of a fascinating country can finally be yours. And in Chinese Cooking For Dummies, your guide to the wonders and magic of the Chinese kitchen is none other than Martin Yan, host of the award-winning TV show Yan Can Cook. In no time at all, you’ll be up to speed on what cooking tools to use, how to stock your pantry and fridge, and the methods, centuries old, that have made dim sum, Egg Fu Young, Kung Pao Chicken, and fried rice universal favorites. You’ll also be able to:

• Think like a Chinese chef—usin g the Three Tenets of Chinese Cooking
• Choose and season a wok, select a chef’s knife, plus other basic tools of the trade
• Find the essential ingredients—and ask for them in Chinese with a Chinese language (phonetic) version of black bean sauce, hoisin sauce, plum sauce, bamboo shoots, and more
• Cook using a variety of methods—including stir frying, steaming, blanching, braising, and deep frying

And with over 100 recipes, arranged conveniently like a Chinese menu, Chinese Cooking For Dummies lets you select from any column in the comfort of your own kitchenwhich is when the fun really begins. Imagine putting together your ideal meal from the book’s rich offering of recipes:

• Delectable morsels—including Baked Pork Buns, Spring Rolls, Potstickers, Steamed Dumplings, and Shrimp Toast
• seafood dishes—including Sweet and Sour Shrimp, and Oysters in Black Bean Sauce
• poultry dishes—including Moo Goo Gai Pan, Kung Pao Chicken, and Honey Garlic Chicken
• Pork, beef, and lamb dishes—including Sichuan Spareribs, Tangerine Beef, and Mongolian Lamb

With sixteen pages of tempting, full-color photographs, several black-and white illustrations, and humorous cartoons, Chinese Cooking For Dummies gives you all of the basics you’ll need, letting you experience the rich culinary landscape of China, one delicious dish at a time—and all, without leaving a tip!

Reader Reviews
Martin Yan...funny guy, and king of PBS cooking shows, is a definite draw for getting this book. Who better to write and explain what is one of the world's most complex and rich cuisines for those of us who have never even touched a wok? This book helps shatter the image that Asian/Oriental cuisine is one huge homogenous mass of countries wound together. For people first learning about Chinese cooking, and the food culture, this book helps to get you into the sea and your feet wet. As mentioned before, the advanced chef would likely find this repetitive. There is lots of useful, practical advice as well. The sections on shopping in Chinese or Asian grocery stores is helpful, as is the history lesson in the beginning. One of the things which I loved, was that for his common ingredients list, he said how long things will last in your home under storage. Since some of them to the every-day American cook border upon the mystical and arcane and likely won't be used up quickly, this is invaluable for the person wishing to experiment once a week or less infrequently and doesn't want to waste money on food and spices that won't be used. This is to say, nothing of Martin Yan's personality, which was also mentioned before, is great! He makes the book worth reading even if you're never going to cook. with it. Out of his 20+ cookbooks, this is one I'm glad I picked up first.