Chinese cuisine has evidently the same age as Chinese civilization as a whole. Ancient Chinese cooking traditions are still actual.
Many China men like to cook and really can do it. While cooking they follow all traditional technological requirements, making familiar products taste quite unusual and anew. One of the main cooking traditions is still hand food processing.
Rich use of spices allows to prepare various tasting dishes of one and the same product. Many spices are applied: pepper (red, black, white), anise seeds, ginger, cinnamon, bay leaf, nutmeg, garlic, wild garlic, spice herbs — basil, tarragon, pepper mint, celery, dill and all sorts of onion.
Practically none of Chinese dishes can be prepared without soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and sugar. For seasoning they also use 3% wine vinegar and Chinese rice vodka — maotay. We can substitute it by cognac or vodka infused adding citrus peel.
Another inevitable China seasoning is monosodium glutamate. This acid has no its own taste, but it can intensify original inner taste of a dish. Glutamate looks like coarse salt. It is added at the end of the cooking, for any seasoning should accentuate inner dish taste and remove unpleasant odors (like that of fish).
China cooking technology could be divided into for trends:
Product Preparation
Preparation of raw products starts with peeling. All spoiled parts are discarded. Vegetables are skinned, pellicles are removed off meats, fish is scaled, poultry is plumed and all the prepared products are rinsed thoroughly. For cooking some dishes products are macerated. Not only water is used fo macerating, but also milk, vodka, vegetable oil, garlic, cinnamon, ginger and other spice infusion. After macerating product looses its natural taste and acquires completely new aroma.
Product Cutting
Cutting is a peculiarity of Chinese culinary art. Products could be cut into chunks, segments, strips, stripes, cubes, diamonds, circles, balls, rings, or just chopped or grated finely. For making ground meat they use big chef’s knife. Rarely products are cooked as a whole.
Thermal Processing
After preparation an cutting products are processed using heat.
Boiling is accomplished in water or over steam. Rice, vegetables, wrapped foods, manti and fish are steamed. They place a pan inside a strainer, set over boiling water (water bath). Special pan — steamer – is often used for this purpose. When cooking in water, products are plunged into hot or cold water (depends upon what particular product is used). Then water brings to a boiling point and the product is simmered, adding water in a pan to maintain its volume.
For frying they use vegetable oil or lard. Products are fried in a thin layer of oil or deep fried (fried in big amount of preheated to 160-180oC (320-355oF) oil or fat). In chinese cuisine products are always fried separately. To prevent products from scorching, they are covered with flour, dried or dissolved starch, egg yolk or batter.
For stewing products are fried first until crisp, then bouillon and spices are added and the product is simmered or boiled until all the liquid evaporates.
Decoration and Serving
When decorating, one should keep in mind that color gamma should be even, without sudden changes. Menu is combined so as to make soft and liquid dishes prevail, while hard dishes constitute a quarter of a whole menu. Unlike in European cuisines, soups and bouillons are served at the end of a meal. Sweets and breads are served in turns with hot dishes.
Eating with Chopsticks
In Chinese cuisine products are always cut finely, thus a knife has no use at a meal. But using only a fork it is hard to take separate pieces, so chopsticks become ideal instrument. It is not so hard to learn to manipulate chopsticks as it may seam.
One chopstick is placed between forefinger and thumb and is hold with a third finger-pad. Thumb fixes the stick in this position. The second stick is operated by thumb and forefinger. Food pieces are hold using lower tip of this chopstick.
For making cold starters raw, boiled or fried products are used. Food is cut just before serving, then it is arranged on platter and garnished with vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, radish, carrot), parsley greens, dill, celery or tarragon.
When decorating salads, main food (fish, seafood, meat, poultry) is placed over other products arranged in heap.
