Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees
Essential Techniques of Authentic Chinese Cooking: A Cookbook
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Create nuanced, complex, authentic Chinese flavors at home by learning the cuisine’s fundamental techniques with more than 150 recipes.
Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees offers a unique introduction to Chinese home cooking, demystifying it by focusing on its basic cooking methods. In outlining the differences among various techniques—such as pan-frying, oil steeping, and yin-yang frying—and instructing which one is best for particular ingredients and end results, culinary expert Kian Lam Kho provides a practical, intuitive window into this unique cuisine. Once you learn how to dry stir-fry chicken, you can then confidently apply the technique to tofu, shrimp, and any number of ingredients.
Accompanied by more than 200 photographs, including helpful step-by-step images, the 158 recipes range from simple, such as Spicy Lotus Root Salad or Red Cooked Pork, to slightly more involved, including authentic General Tso’s Chicken or Pork Shank Soup with Winter Bamboo. But the true brilliance behind this innovative book lies in the way it teaches the soul of Chinese cooking, enabling home cooks to master this diverse, alluring cuisine and then to re-create any tempting dish you encounter or imagine.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kho, a New York City chef, culinary instructor, and James Beard Award winning blogger, parlays his expertise into this superb tutorial on Chinese cooking. Part instruction manual and part cookbook, this collection demystifies Chinese cuisine by focusing on cooking technique. Organizing the book by method or heat source rather than ingredients, Kho includes details of regional cuisine, pantry staples, tools, and specialty ingredients. He offers a terrific chapter on stocks, covering basics such as chicken and beef before moving on to compound and supreme stocks. Kho provides a comprehensive look at wok cooking, with advice on selecting ingredients and managing temperatures. Wok recipes range from simple garlic stir-fried greens to more involved kung pao chicken. He also explains the differences between light and deep frying, oil steeping, and pan frying. He devotes ample attention to red cooking, a braising method with soy sauce, which can be used with most proteins, including tofu. Hearty soups such as crabmeat and white asparagus, and steam-pot chicken, offer flavor and comfort, and roasted options like Peking duck and crispy roast pork belly are simply mouthwatering. Kho rounds out his excellent book with recipes and lessons on smoking as well as cold and sweet dishes. This extraordinary collection is a must-have for anyone interested in Chinese cuisine.
