Methods and techniques used to prepare Chinese cuisine From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Chinese cooking techniques (Chinese:中餐烹調法) are a set of methods and techniques traditionally used in Chinese cuisine.[1][pageneeded] The cooking techniques can either be grouped into ones that use a single cooking method or a combination of wet and dry cooking methods.
Chinese stir-frying cooking technique at a street food joint in Kerala, India
Single
Summarize
Perspective
Many cooking techniques involve a singular type of heated cooking or action.
Wet-heat, immersion-based cooking methods are the predominant class of cooking techniques in Chinese cuisine and are usually referred to as zhǔ (煮). In fact, this class of techniques is so common and important that the term zhǔ is commonly used to denote cooking in general.[2]
Quick immersion
Quick wet-heat based immersion cooking methods include:
Braising ingredients over medium heat in a small amount of sauce or broth and simmering for a short period of time until completion. Known as hóngshāo (红燒, lit. red cooking) when the sauce or broth is soy sauce based.
Quick boiling
汆 or 煠
Cuān or Zhá
Adding ingredients and seasonings to boiling water or broth and immediately serving the dish with the cooking liquid when everything has come back to a boil.
Par cooking through quick immersion of raw ingredients in boiling water or broth sometimes followed by immersion in cold water.
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Prolonged immersion
Prolonged wet-heat based immersion cooking methods include:
More information English Equivalent, Pinyin ...
English Equivalent
Chinese
Pinyin
Description
Bake stewing
煨
Wēi
Slowly cooking a ceramic vessel of broth and other ingredients by placing it in or close to hot embers.
Steam stewing
焖
Mèn
Cooking with liquid (water or soup), covering in a tight-fitting lid until absorbed
Gradual simmering
炖
Dùn
Adding ingredients to cold water along with seasonings and allowing the contents to slowly come to a prolonged simmering boil. This is known in English as double steaming due to the vessels commonly used for this cooking method. The term is also used in Chinese for the Western cooking technique of stewing and brewing herbal remedies of Traditional Chinese medicine.
Cooking over prolonged and constant heat with the ingredients completely immersed in a strongly flavoured soy sauce based broth. This technique is different from, but in English synonymous with, Hóng shāo (红燒).
Cooking slowly to extract nutrients into the simmering liquid, used to describe the brewing process in Chinese herbology with the intention of using only the decocted brew.
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Steaming
Silkie cooked by steaming using a specialized steam-pot
Steaming food is a wet cooking technique that has a long history in Chinese cuisine dating back to Neolithic times, where additional food was cooked by steaming over a vessel of food being cooked by other wet cooking techniques.[2]
A cooking technique requiring the using of a unique lidded vessel, known as the steam-pot (Chinese:汽鍋) with a chimney rising from inside the bowl that is covered also by lid. Food ingredients are placed without cooking liquid in the vessel and the entire lidded vessel is seated on top of a pot of boiling water. Steam rising from the pot distills as hot water in the lidded vessel and cooks the ingredients while immersing it in soup. Used to prepare "pure" restorative foods such as steam-pot chicken.
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Dry
Air-based
Food preparation in hot dry vessels such as an oven or a heated empty wok include:
Cooking ingredients at hot oil and stirring quickly to completion. This technique, as well as bào chǎo and yóu bào (爆炒 and 油爆), is known in English as stir frying. This technique uses higher heat than that of sautéing.
Cooking with large amounts hot oil, sauces (酱爆; jiàng bào), or broth (汤爆; tāng bào) at very high heat and tossing the ingredients in the wok to completion.
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Stir frying
Kian Lam Kho identifies five distinct techniques of stir frying:[3]
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English Equivalent
Chinese
Pinyin
Description
Plain stir-fry or Simple stir-fry
清炒
qīngchǎo
To stir-fry a single ingredient (with aromatics and sauces). A plain stir-fry using garlic is known as 蒜炒, suànchǎo.[4]
Dry stir-fry or Dry wok stir-fry
煸炒
biānchǎo
To stir-fry a combination of protein and vegetable ingredients (with a small amount of liquid)[5]
Moist stir-fry
滑炒
huáchǎo
To stir-fry a combination of protein and vegetable ingredients (with a gravy-like sauce)[6]
Dry-fry or Extreme-heat stir-fry
干煸
gānbiān
To scorch in oil before stir-frying (with no addition of water)[5]
Scramble stir-fry
软炒
ruǎnchǎo
A technique for making egg custard.
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Without heat
Food preparation techniques not involving the heating of ingredients include:
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Raw methods
English Equivalent
Chinese
Pinyin
Description
Dressing
拌
Bàn
Mixing raw or unflavoured cooked ingredients with seasonings and served immediately. Similar to tossing a dressing into salad.
Marinating or pickling
腌 or 醬
Yān or Jiàng
To pickle or marinade ingredients in salt, soy sauce or soy pastes. Use for making pickles or preparing ingredients for addition cooking.