APPETIZERS & SOUPS
The course known to the Western world as horsd'oevre is, on a Chinese menu, called appetizers. Generally, however, two appertizers should be ample although there is no reason why one should not serve more.
The excellent of Chinese soups is due to the clear stock and the fresh flavour of the added ingredients, which is achieved by the speed at which they are cooked. No vegetables in any of the soups in this site's recipes required more than a few minutes cooking. In soups as well as other savoury dishes, the Chinese cook uses Ve-Tsin or monosodium glutamate. This substance, salt-like in appearance, has the virtue of bringing out and accentuating the flavour of any foods with which it is employed.
In Chinese homes, where chickens figures frequently, chicken stock is, logically, used for soups. But thrifty cooks buy giblets, whenever possible, and at the same time, ask for the feet in which there is more goodness than one might think. Chicken gizzards, hearts, skinned feet and necks make beautifully clear stock.. Chicken livers, which are part of the giblets one buys, are never used in the stock but are reserved for inclusion in special dishes. In each case, the giblets are inexpensive. Beef stock is used in other soups ¨C and the Chinese cook does not disdain chicken and beef bouillon cubes. Canned beef consomm¨¦ is excellent. It saves both time and money because these days the raw material for making clear beef stock is expensive.
FISH AND SHELLFISH
The charm of Chinese sea-food is the way in which vegetables are combined with it to make more of the fish itself.Each is independent of the other - yet each depends on the other for the excellence of the dish.
While we rarely, if ever cook, cook fish and vegetables together, the Chinese, for the most part, do just that. There is another very important point : in some Chinese dishes, fresh ginger is cooked for half a minute in the oil in which the fish is to be fried and then discarded. This, in some subtle way, diminishes the fishy flavor and makes the dish more acceptable to those who do not care for seafood.
Shellfish, from shrimps to lobsters, is very important in the Chinese kitchen. Lobster is expensive anyway anywhere in the world but the Chinese cook can make one go very much further than any other chef - and I think, to greater advantage.
POULTRY
Chicken and duck are the principal poultry in the Chinese kitchen and there are innumerable ways in which they can be served, many of them new to Western world. They range from the simple to the exotic. Some of them would be ideal for appetizers.
The boned duck, Cantonese style, is the only poultry recipe where the whole bird is taken to table. It has been stuffed with the most wonderful cooked savory mixture, fried just long enough to color the skin, then steamed until serving portions can be removed with a spoon.
A similar stuffing makes an excellent meat and vegetable dish on its own. It will require a little longer cooking than that given in the recipe to make up for the loss of the cooking time in the duck.
MEAT
The Chinese, when they can afford it, are great meat eaters ¨C great, that is , in the number of meat dishes they have but not great in the amount of meat there is in a dish.
Pork is the favorite meat and some of the most sought after Chinese dishes in the Western world are made of pork.
Such dishes, for instance, as pork meat balls, sweet sour pork, barbecued spare ribs of pork and roast belly of pork, to mention only a few, have become so well known as almost to be considered Western ones.
Pork is succulent meat. Beef, though liked, is not so much used for economic reasons. It is expensive but, here again, ¡°a little goes a long way¡±. But the smaller amounts (to western eyes) used in a dish are satisfactory and satisfying.
In the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant, whose menu contains so many chicken dishes, rich chicken stock is always available. In the home kitchen, however, this is not always possible. As an alternative, I suggest water and chicken cube.
For home made stock, another way is to buy giblets from a shop where cooked chickens are sold. The mixed giblets cost very little.
Reserve the chicken livers to be used by themselves. With the necks, hearts and gizzards make the stock. When cold, turn it into a jar and "bank" it in the refrigerator to be drawn on when needed.
VEGETABLES
If the Chinese had contributed to out Western kitchen nothing further than their way of cooking and presenting vegetables, they would still have done us a great service.
Here, as in all their cooking, speed is essential. Watercress in this country is used , for the most part, as a garnish or an addition to salads. One has only to cook it the Chinese way to realize what a tasty "green" it is.
We are told to cook the outer leaves of lettuce but the long process given to them by Western cooks does nothing for them. The Chinese way gives us almost a new vegetable - certainly lettuce with an infinitely better taste.
And so it is with green beans and green sweet peppers. They need only the quick Chinese method to be cooked to perfection. Other vegetables suck a broccoli, cauliflower and carrots may be blanched ( parboiled ) then finished off in a little oil in the frying pan.
Bean sprouts are typically Chinese and, as such, are "exotic" to us. The beans are very easy to "sprout", provided the directions are followed carefully.
DESSERTS & TEA
There is a great number of teas from China because the shrub is grown in most parts of that vast country. Probably the ones that we know best are Lapsang Souchong ( a superior blend described as having a "smoky flavor"), Formosa Oolong ( which has something of the aroma of ripe peaches ) and Jasmine tea ( perfumed with the fragrance of the Jasmine flowers ). Earl Grey is a delicately scented blend and a great favorite at tea time.
It is difficult to decided between these teas. Jasmine is perhaps the most refreshing.
The Chinese way of making tea in a pot is the same as outs . The pot, always a china one, is scalded and drained. The tea is added to it - 1/2 - 1 teaspoon for each serving, depending on how much water is to be added to dilute it. It is then left to infuse for 5-6 minutes.
This dilution needs to be explained . A little tea is pored into each cup and the cups are then filled up with hot water. The Chinese add neither milk nor sugar to their tea. It may be mentioned here that Chinese tea cups have no handles.
Another way of making Chinese tea is to put a few choice leaves into individual cups, add a little boiling water, cover the cup with a saucer, allow to infuse for a few minutes and then fill up with boiling water.
For the benefit of young housewives, a note on the storage of tea may not be amiss.
China tea, like teas in general, is peculiarly sensitive to other aromas. For this reason, it should be kept in a caddy with a tightly fitting lid. If stored in a loose-lidded caddy along with other things in a cupboard, it will absorb such aromas as they may have so that its own flavor is destroyed.
