# Easy Chinese?



## Mr_Dove (Jun 9, 2009)

I've been trying for years to make restaurant style chinese food with little success.  I've just about given up on it.  I have a question though.

Are there any particular recipes that are easier to pull off than others?  I recently found an orange chicken recipe on the "chicken forums" here that looks promising.


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## Andy M. (Jun 9, 2009)

It's difficult to find a recipe that tastes like the dish you are accustomed to in your local restaurant because every restaurant makes it a little different AND Chinese restaurants in different parts of the country can be very different from what you are used to.  

Your best bet is to find a recipe that is close and experiment with it until you hit the jackpot.  I have been doing the same thing and it's sometimes disconcerting that you cannot hit it just right.


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## BreezyCooking (Jun 9, 2009)

Another thing you have to keep in mind is that the vast majority of Chinese restaurants in the U.S. buy their ingredients - including ready-made "sauces" - in bulk from commercial sources. Thus, they're always going to taste different from something you make wholly from scratch with 100% fresh ingredients.

The upside of this is, of course, that your meal, while it may taste a bit different, is going to be better, more authentic, & healthier.


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## JohnL (Jun 9, 2009)

Hi Mr Dove,
I don't know if I would consider it restraunt quality, but I think fried rice is about the easiest chinese style food to make at home.


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## CharlieD (Jun 9, 2009)

I keep kosher, and love chineese which is not available where I live. I make it my self it is really not bad, you just have to work on it. It's not exactly what it was in the restaurant, but it really is not bad. Try for example simple sweet and sour chicken recipe offered by La Choy brand. It is as good as any sweet and sour I've had. let me know if you found the link and what you think about it.


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## letscook (Jun 9, 2009)

I don't have exact measurments but this one always turns out great and can be Beef and broccoli or can be pepper steak

Take beef slice fairly thin 
put in bowl with some cornstarch, soy sauce, set aside
In a wok or a large frying pan - slice up an onion, chopped some garlic, lil ginger or a pinch of ginger powder sliced green peppers or broccoli, saute that till veggies almost soften , add the beef saute till done -- add in can of beef broth mixed with lil more cornstarch and stir into mixture until thickens add more soy sauce if needed.  serve with rice


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## shalinee (Jul 10, 2009)

Chinese cooking can be quite confusing. I'm a Malaysian Chinese and even I often find it difficult. Every restaurant has its own way and style of cooking. The strength of fire, the ingredients and the brands you use can make or break a recipe. My suggestion is to get a very good Chinese recipe book and try the recipe that you like. Make adjustments to it along the way. That's what I always do. Let me know if you need any further help.


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## yoddy (Jul 10, 2009)

We love both Indian and Chinese food, however made-up dishes do not always freeze well and it is a lot of work for a meal for just two people. The sauces and additions to make everything tasty usually come in large containers. Here in Israel the humid and hot weather turns opened things iffy quickly and one's fridge is always full to overflowing storing flour, herbs pulses & spices. Suggestings please for dishes which will freeze well. Thanks. Yoddy


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## tropical cooker (Jul 10, 2009)

*How about a Chinese cookbook?*

Check this out: http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f87/authentic-chinese-cookbook-27108.html


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## shalinee (Jul 10, 2009)

Yoddy, a lot of the Chinese or Malaysian dishes can freeze well. It depends on the types of dishes. In fact some dishes taste better after freezing. I often freeze mine. I have some Chinese recipes on my blog that can freeze well, for eg, the Chinese dumplings which is very easy to make. I learned from my Chinese friends to make and freeze them to save work. Anytime when you feel like eating, you just take out some and cook from frozen. Let me know if you need further help.


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## yoddy (Jul 12, 2009)

Shalinee, Help!! If you sprout your own Mung Beans could you advise how to easily remove the green seed coverings after the sprouts are ready.  It's a lot of work to remove each tiny shell by hand.


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## shalinee (Jul 12, 2009)

Hi Yoddy, if you sprout the mung beans well, then the green skin should be easy to remove. Just put them in a basin of water. It will come loose and float to the surface. The you can scoop it off. Hope this helps.


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## yoddy (Jul 12, 2009)

Tried that one yesterday but it didn't work well. The entire sprouts floated to the top, so I ended up removing them by hand.  Will try it next time again.  Thanks,  Yoddy (ex.Irish now living in Israel).


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## shalinee (Jul 12, 2009)

Hi Yoddy, just wonder how you do the sprouting.  I remembered many years ago I had to teach my students sprouting. We used guni sacks which was really excellent. The roots went through the guni sacks. The beans on top split as they germinate. When it's ready for harvesting, we opened up the guni sack and pull off the sprouts with our hands. The roots will break off. We then put them into a basin of water, gently stir it and the skin will come off. very little left that need to be hand picked. Using a sprouter is different. I can only guess that your sprouts did not germinate fully.


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## yoddy (Jul 12, 2009)

Thank you for the info.  I learned to sprout from a Philipino girl.  They soak the beans in hot water for 60seconds.  Rinse off and put on a wetted dishcloth and cover with another wetted dishcloth.  Keep well moist, most of the sprouts were ready in 3days in this hot and humid atmosphere, but perhaps I didn't leave them long enough. Only my first try, so a little experimentation indicated.  Rose.


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## ellakav (Jul 12, 2009)

shalinee said:


> Yoddy, a lot of the Chinese or Malaysian dishes can freeze well. It depends on the types of dishes. In fact some dishes taste better after freezing. I often freeze mine. I have some Chinese recipes on my blog that can freeze well, for eg, the Chinese dumplings which is very easy to make. I learned from my Chinese friends to make and freeze them to save work. Anytime when you feel like eating, you just take out some and cook from frozen. Let me know if you need further help.


 

hey there.  I just noticed this thread and reading your posts I thought
that maybe you could give me a pointer or two if you don't mind.  
I love chicken with cashew nuts, but as you said every restaurant does
it differently and I've been trying to perfect my recipe to match the dish
a certain way.  virtually every restaurant serves this dish in a heavy
soy sauce (thick, a bit too heavy-handed with the soy sauce) with
cooked chicken and a pile of carrots and celery in it.  but the way I
first had it and used to eat it until about 5 years ago it was a totally
different style, with lightly breaded chicken pieces, a lighter sauce 
and a garnish of cashew nuts and green onion.  I have yet to even
come close to that and I have yet to find another restaurant that 
serves it in this way.  I MUST HAVE IT!!!!!  any tips?  also a
tip for chinese dumplings would be awesome.
thanks!


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## shalinee (Jul 12, 2009)

If you can let me know of the name of the dish, maybe I can help. There are a lot if vegetable cooked in soya sauce so I am not too sure which one you are talking about. There are 2 types of Chinese cooking...one from Hong Kong and one from China. So you will expect quite a big different in the style and the taste. You asked for tips about dumplings....to make or ways of cooking and eating them? My suggestion is still to get a good Chinese cookbook and try from there and make adjustments along the way. That's how I learn.


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## Scotch (Jul 12, 2009)

I'm not so sure that what you find in most Chinese restaurants in the U.S. really qualifies as "authentic." Many restaurants take great liberties with recipes, eliminating or substituting ingredients for the sake of efficiency and cost. Some seem to operate on the theory that Americans won't know the difference anyway, which results in many dishes that are practically indistinguishable one from the other. Moreover, what you now find in many of the popular chains, such as Panda Express, are overly sweet to appeal to the American palate. 

If you want to make truly authentic Chinese recipes, you need to find a good English-language cookbook and have access to the proper ingredients. I suggest a small volume called _The Good Food of Szechwan_ by Robert Delfs (long out of print but may be available through Amazon sellers or other good used book dealers) or either of the volumes by Fuchsia Dunlop, _"Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province,"_ or _"__Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking_" (both available from Amazon).


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## shalinee (Jul 12, 2009)

My suggestion is to really go for the real Chinese cookbooks which are quite easily available and written both in mandarin and English. I find Wei-Chuang's cookbook very good. You can get them at Amazon.com. Do check that it's bilingual. I have been using them myself if I want to cook real Chinese dishes.


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## ellakav (Jul 12, 2009)

shalinee said:


> If you can let me know of the name of the dish, maybe I can help. There are a lot if vegetable cooked in soya sauce so I am not too sure which one you are talking about. There are 2 types of Chinese cooking...one from Hong Kong and one from China. So you will expect quite a big different in the style and the taste. You asked for tips about dumplings....to make or ways of cooking and eating them? My suggestion is still to get a good Chinese cookbook and try from there and make adjustments along the way. That's how I learn.


 

it's called cashew nut chicken or chicken with cashew nuts.
the primary ingredient in the sauce is soy and it is thick, like it
has a bit of cornstarch in it.  I don't have a clue what else it
has - it is a bit salty.
and I was wondering about actually making the dumplings.


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## Scotch (Jul 12, 2009)

Google Chinese Cashew Chicken.

This one looks good:

Cashew Chicken


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## ellakav (Jul 13, 2009)

Scotch said:


> Google Chinese Cashew Chicken.
> 
> This one looks good:
> 
> Cashew Chicken


 

thanks!  this just MIGHT work...I'm gonna try it next weekend when
I have more time...I'll let you know how it turns out.


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## shalinee (Jul 14, 2009)

Great. Hope it turns out nice. I'm interested to try too.


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## sassezz (Jul 14, 2009)

*I am new here... n glad to have found this*

I am new here and I am glad to have found this. Am a Malaysian Chinese and hope that I can give some insights on Chinese cooking here, the Malaysian way.


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## sassezz (Jul 14, 2009)

I cook a lot for my family during weekends including making soup (the Chinese way of course). The Cashew Nut Chicken recipe looks nice and it looks like just how I would prepare it. The hoisin sauce and the dark soya sauce can always be replaced with oyster sauce and light soya sauce if you do not want your dish to look too dark.

I do have some other easy to cook recipes in my blog too..


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## shalinee (Jul 14, 2009)

Ellakav, making dumplings is actually very easy. The best would be to show you hands on but if that can't be done, the second best is to show you step by step in pictures. Please check it out at the 3 parts articles at Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Simple, Easy Chinese Dumplings To Make At Home (Part 1) My friends have tried it out and were able to follow through easily and liked the dumplings. Give a try. Let me know if you need further help.


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## BreezyCooking (Jul 14, 2009)

sassezz said:


> The hoisin sauce and the dark soya sauce can always be replaced with oyster sauce and light soya sauce if you do not want your dish to look too dark.


 
But wouldn't this completely change the taste of the dish?  Hoisin sauce tastes absolutely nothing like oyster sauce.  And their colors are identical.  Hoisin = thick & sweet; Oyster = thick & salty.  Also "dark" & "light" don't have anything to do with the color of the soy sauce.  Depending on the brand(s) that determination has to do with the amount of fermentation (& sometimes the sodium content).  The colors of both are identical.


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## bigdaddy3k (Jul 14, 2009)

shalinee said:


> Ellakav, making dumplings is actually very easy. The best would be to show you hands on but if that can't be done, the second best is to show you step by step in pictures. Please check it out at the 3 parts articles at Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Simple, Easy Chinese Dumplings To Make At Home (Part 1) My friends have tried it out and were able to follow through easily and liked the dumplings. Give a try. Let me know if you need further help.


 
I am all over this!!


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## Jiayan Wu (Jul 14, 2009)

I have some experience about cooking chinese, if you are interested in how to cook chinese food, you can leave message with me, we can discuss about it.


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## sassezz (Jul 14, 2009)

Hoisin sauce vs Oyster sauce...

For me, I would prefer to use oyster sauce. Hoisin sauce is too sweet for my taste. But then if I use hoisin sauce, I will then tweak the quantity used(put in less) and then put in some light soya sauce so that it is less sweet and more salty.

And I think there is a "miscommunication" about the soya sauce. Generally in Malaysia, for us Chinese, there are 2 kinds of soya sauce. 1 is the light one which is not thick and hence we name it "light soya sauce". The other one is the thick one and the colour is darker. Also, when you use the thick one in cooking, it will make the colour of your dish very dark... hence we normally call it the "dark soya sauce".. The taste of the light soya sauce is saltier and the dark soya sauce is not so salty.

Hmmm... maybe if I take a picture of both the soya sauce and post it in my blog for everyone to see, then it will be clearer?


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## CMLee08 (Jul 15, 2009)

*How to Make Restaurant Style Stir Fry*

My family owned Chinese restaurants and I watched the chefs cook for years and experimented at home to get that "restaurant style" taste.

One thing the cookbooks don't tell you is that restaurants DEEP FRY their meats and vegetables in A LOT of oil in the bottom of the wok first, meat in one batch, vegetables in another.  Then they scoop out the meat and veggies to strain on a strainer they keep on top of the big container of oil that they re-use for this purpose.  

Next the cook makes a sauce in the wok, whatever soy sauce-based brown sauce they use, then add Sa Cha or black bean sauce or whatever flavor they're making.  For white sauce they just start with stock and add garlic and seasonings.  They let the sauce heat to boil, then they dump the meat and veggie in the sauce, flip a few times to incorporate, and that's it.  Some dishes have more sauce, and they thicken with a cornstarch slurry at this stage.  But if you have the right amount of sauce thickening isn't even necessary -  just the right amount sticks to the oil on the meats and veggies.

Frying the meat and veggies first like this gives them a crispy texture that you can't get from "stir frying" with 2 tablespoons of oil.  Home stir fry techniques always end up with a lot of moisture from the meats and veggies in the pan, and the food is more boiled/steamed.

Anyway, I've been able to come close to restaurant style stir fry by frying the meat and veggies in about an inch of oil that I keep in a small sauce pan, then using a wide strainer to scoop them out to drain on a paper towel lined bowl while I make the sauce.  Keep the oil, because it actually picks up the flavor of the foods you fry in it, and adds to your dish.  Just keep adding fresh oil as needed and straining it through paper towels or a coffee filter once in a while.

As for the sauce, that's easy, and don't be afraid to experiment.  I usually just make it on the fly in the pan (I use a chef's pan or sauce pan, but a flat bottom wok is fine too).  Try some of these combinations:

1.  Low sodium soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, cooking wine, Mirin (or sugar) for a brown sauce that's like the one restaurants use on green bean dishes.  Add red pepper flakes if you like spicy.  Great with Japanese eggplants too.

2.  Low sodium soy sauce, wine, oyster sauce.  Like restaurant beef and broccoli.

3.  Chicken stock or water, chopped garlic and/or ginger and/or scallions, thickened with cornstarch slurry for white sauce.  For white sauce chicken or seafood dishes.  Add a beaten egg right before removing from pan, let sit for a few seconds before stirring, and you have Lobster Sauce.  (If you want to make old school traditional Lobster Sauce, you'll also need to add some ground pork when starting the sauce.  I've used country sausage with ok results.)

4.  Low sodium soy sauce, cooking wine, Sa Cha sauce or Black Bean sauce (you can buy prepared mixtures) for whatever spicy brown sauce you like from the restaurants.

But the key to all this is the deep frying.  Try it with green beans and you can really tell the difference.  They get that chewy caramelized taste and texture that I love but was never able to get with any other method.

Good luck.


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## blissful (Jul 17, 2009)

The last two nights we made chinese dumplings inspired by this thread.
I had some radishes and garlic from the garden and 2 onions and I chopped them in the food processor, then saute them in oil to carmelize them and removed pan from the heat, added a lb of ground beef (would have used pork but had none), and added a can of sliced mushrooms.
I rinsed out the food processor, added 1 egg, salt and 2 cups flour and then added water until it formed a ball. Processed it for 3 minutes.
We rolled out smallish balls into flat round shapes, stuffed them with the meat filling and sealed with water on the edges....like little purses.
Boiled for 20 minutes or so.
We made a dipping sauce of honey, soy sauce, white wine, garlic, ginger, shook it up in a resealable jar. It was good.
Everyone was happy with dinner and we spent less than an hour in the kitchen. YUM! ~Bliss


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## msmofet (Jul 17, 2009)

shalinee said:


> Ellakav, making dumplings is actually very easy. The best would be to show you hands on but if that can't be done, the second best is to show you step by step in pictures. Please check it out at the 3 parts articles at Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Simple, Easy Chinese Dumplings To Make At Home (Part 1) My friends have tried it out and were able to follow through easily and liked the dumplings. Give a try. Let me know if you need further help.


 in step 3 it doesn't tell you HOW to fill and crimp the dumplings!!


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## shalinee (Jul 18, 2009)

Here's an easy fried noodles the Chinese way. Good enough for 2 person. You need

600g noodles
2 shallots 
2 pips garlic
Oil
Some leafy vegetables 
3 eggs
2 T oyster sauce
2 T sweet chili sauce
2 T light soya sauce

   First of all, make the omelet. Stir it before it sets to break it up into small pieces. Remove. Put a few tablespoons oil into the hot pan, add in the shallots and garlic. Once it’s golden, add in the noodles and fry well. The fire must be very hot. Add in the 3 sauces, stir well. Then add in the vegetables and omelet. Mix well and dish up. Enjoy.


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## shalinee (Aug 6, 2009)

I have an easy Chinese dish here, the popular Restaurant Style Sweet and Sour Pork. It's great for family or friends. Shared with my friends & they really liked it. Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Restaurant Style Sweet And Sour Pork


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## msmofet (Aug 6, 2009)

shalinee said:


> I have an easy Chinese dish here, the popular Restaurant Style Sweet and Sour Pork. It's great for family or friends. Shared with my friends & they really liked it. Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Restaurant Style Sweet And Sour Pork


 
in our resturants this dish is brighter in color and has pickles, carrots and pineapple also with the chicken or pork. i don't eat it because it is to sweet for me.


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## shalinee (Aug 7, 2009)

My fabulous Peking Chicken, a twist to Peking Duck. It's great for any time, especially for an easy, lazy weekend. More at Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Best Peking Chicken For Dinner


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## lifesaver (Aug 7, 2009)

*Yum! Looks good!*


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