Chinese Takeout Cookbook: Top 75 Homemade Chinese Takeout Recipes To Enjoy

By Tina Gu

Enjoy Your Favorite Chinese Takeout Recipes In The Comfort Of Your Home!
Chinese food is famous all over the world. Chinese takeout, with their ubiquitous restaurants has been around for centuries! While you can easily order your favorite Chow mein and Dumplings when you desire, you can have more fun cooking Chinese food at home. It is can also be quick, easy, and delightful!
This book has everything you need to get you started. From the basic ingredients, tools, tips and techniques to mouth watering takeout recipes, you can be sure that your Chinese cooking and eating is set to be the best it can be.
Here A Peek Of What's Inside:
• Ingredients used in Chinese cooking
• Cooking methods for Chinese meal preparations
• Cooking tools for Chinese food preparations
• Tasty appetizers like the Creamy Crab Wontons or the Chinese spring rolls
• Traditional Chinese soups like the Wonton soup or the Hot and the Hot and Sour Soup
• Scrumptious chicken and duck recipes like the Kung Pao Chicken
• Favorite noodles and rice dishes like the lo Mein or the Chinese Fried Rice
• Delicious Beef recipes like the Beef and Broccoli or the Chinese Pepper Steak
• Mouth-watering pork recipes like the Shanghai Pork Chops and the Hoisin Pork Stir-fry
• Enjoyable fish and seafood meals like the Cantonese Lobster or the salt and pepper shrimp
• Hearty vegetable recipes like the Stir-Fried Mustard Greens
• Desserts like the classic Chinese Sherbet or the Mango Pudding.
So What Are You Waiting For?
BUY NOW!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mayorline
• Release date: Jul 10, 2017

Book preview

Cake

INTRODUCTION

Chinese takeout has been around forever. To many, ordering Chinese food is a reflex action. The container it is served in— the ingeniously designed easy-to-carry cardboard boxes with their nice little handles— are a regular feature in many American homes. No doubt, Chinese takeout are readily available, reasonably prized and delicious, but did you know that it can be recreated at home easily? It is healthier as well.

Over the years, many Chinese dishes have become westernized. This is why we have authentic Chinese food and the Americanized Chinese food, which is alien to the Chinese. These include crab wanton, sweet and sour pork and fortune cookie. Authentic Chinese foods aren’t really glamorous, they are simple comfort food, constituting lots of veggies, a sprinkle of meat and some fruit. Desserts are not common. Meal time is family time, with everyone at the table; there are no desserts as well.

A Little Background

In the mid-19th century, the first Chinese eateries in America, known as chow chows, sprang up in California, for the primary purpose of serving Cantonese laborers. Chinese restaurants began to spring up in the US to cater for mostly immigrants—the French, African Americans and native Indians inclusive. Americans viewed the Chinese with contempt; they were seen as mere rat eaters and nothing more, the thought of eating Chinese food was revolting!

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred further immigration into the United States, added to the challenges of the growing number of Chinese restaurants. Nevertheless, the innovative Chinese restaurateurs rose against the prejudice, by revising their recipes to suit American taste. Consequently they included recipes like Fine Cut Chicken Chop Suey and Grilled Dinner Steak Hollandaise into their menus. While these menus were not considered entirely authentic, marginalized East European Jews as well as few Americans began to appreciate their innovative style.

However, after the Second World War and The 1965 liberalization of immigration laws, new arrivals and new food from Sichuan, Shanghai and Hunan entered into the country. By the ‘70s, the popularity of fusion soared, so much that even Chinese restaurants in Asia began to modify their recipes to feature non-traditional ingredients.

Today, what began as chow chow in the 1800s has metamorphosed into a huge takeout industry with Chinese restaurants in America thrice outnumbering McDonald’s outlets!

Basic Ingredients

Chinese ingredients are fresh and seasonal. These basic ingredients below are what you need to whip up authentic Chinese takeout on a moment’s notice. Additionally, many of these ingredients are readily available in your local Asian store.

1.  Soy sauce is the foundation of Chinese cooking. It is made from fermented soy beans. Dark soy sauce has a rich caramel color. It is less salty and slightly sweet. Light soy sauce is popularly used in China. It has a lighter color than regular soy sauce but stronger in terms of saltiness. It may be paired with dark soy sauce to make a dish more colorful. Regular soy sauce, though lighter in color, helps to create very authentic tasting Chinese food. It is important to get the right type of soy sauce, so make sure you always read the label before you buy one. The main ingredients should be soybeans, wheat, water and salt.

2. Shaoxing wine, also called rice wine is used in braising and marinating. To cook with Shaoxing wine, pour it around the wok when stir-frying to enable the alcohol disperse fast and to make the dish more flavorful. Another cooking wine closer to Shaoxing wine is dry sherry, although with a slight hint of sweetness. Dry sherry is great in pungent dishes, especially spicy ones. Japanese sake is another great substitute. It is delicate and mild, with s a sweet flavor. It is great for cooking delicate dishes like soup and dumpling filling.

3. Oyster sauce enhances the taste of any dish. For instance, a drop of oyster sauce added to noodle soup or simple fried noodles will intensify the flavor and make the dish taste better instantly. For vegetarian dishes, mushroom oyster sauce is a great alternative. However, there isn’t substitute for oyster sauce.

4. Five-spice Powder. A tiny amount of this very powerful spice goes a long way for depth of flavor. It is made up of peppercorns, fennel, star anise, cloves and cinnamon.

5. Cooking Oil. Peanut oil, toasted sesame oil, Corn and soy oil are some of the cooking oils to use in Chinese cooking. Peanut oil, smells like peanut butter and is used for its added fragrance.  Toasted Sesame Oil, with its transparent reddish brown or amber color is usually drizzled at the end of a stir-fry before serving. Walnut oil is used by pregnant women due to its nourishing properties.

6. Rice Vinegar. This is what is traditionally used in Chinese recipes. It can be either white or black. It adds a distinct flavor to Asian dishes.

7. Chinese Dried Black (Shiitake) Mushrooms. Dried shiitakes add meaty flavor to a dish. To use, soak the mushrooms in warm water to rehydrate before cooking. Additionally, use the leftover soaking liquid in your soups and sauces instead of water or broth.

Cooking Methods

Chinese cuisine is renowned all over the world. There are several cooking methods. But, the aim of every one of them is to preserve the flavor, freshness, texture and nutrients of food. The most common methods however, are stir-frying, deep-frying, steaming, braising, roasting and boiling. Takeout recipes involve more frying because it is quick and easy.

1. Stir-frying, the classic Chinese cooking method, gained popularity in America as a result of its