It’s true that my kitchen cupboards are quite literally spilling with jars and cans of spices, sauces, dried herbs, oils and vinegars, but as a chef of many years, I’m always looking at recipe development, not to mention the simple fact that I completely lack the ability to leave my local Chinese supermarket or even the world food aisle of one of the big supermarkets carrying just the items on my shopping list! With so much variety of ingredients available in dry and preserved form, I love to keep my supplies well replenished.
Having a vast array of ingredients is not the be-all and end-all of successful cooking though, but I have assumed that you’ll have plentiful supplies of just five essentials that I consider to be absolute ‘must-haves’ sitting in your pantry. These are salt, ground white pepper, light soy sauce, oil (vegetable, groundnut, coconut) and sugar. These basics will be listed under a separate heading, ‘From the store cupboard’, in each recipe so after you’ve stocked up on your essentials, all you’ll need to consider are the main ingredients for each dish.
Quality and authenticity
As with all cooking, better results will always be achieved if you start with the best ingredients you can lay your hands on, not just from the flavour aspect but also for our own personal health benefits of eating produce and meat products that have been raised/ grown in a higher-welfare environment and not pumped full of nasties. Aim to pick up organic and free-range products where possible and consider using seasonal ingredients to make your food that much more flavoursome and nutritious, with the added bonus of being kinder on the wallet!
When shopping for specific Chinese ingredients, I would always encourage you to find and explore your local Asian supermarket. You’ll find a huge variety of ingredients among the aisles, and all at reasonable prices.
Batch cooking
Whether you’re looking for a spot of kitchen therapy, planning for the week/ month ahead, or have simply cooked enough to feed the street, pre-making sauces and storing them in the freezer is a great way to keep your ‘fresh’ ingredients readily available for a quick grab-and-go meal. I like to gather the ingredients for a selection of sauces and then lock myself away in the kitchen with my favourite playlist as I chop, bubble and boil, before allowing the sauces to cool and then decanting into ice-cube trays for freezing. Once frozen, the cubes can be transferred to ziplock freezer bags and stored for up to 3 months – not that they’ll last that long! Oh, and don’t forget to label your bags …
Condiments
I have included recipes for you to have a go at making your own sauces from scratch, as it really is hard to beat that totally fresh taste. But sometimes, when time is of the essence or you just don’t want the faff, a generous dollop of a shop-bought marinade or sauce can be like a gift from the gods! You can buy all of the marinades and sauces that you’ll need to create each of the dishes in this book but, please remember, different spice mixes will be used by each different brand so flavours will vary.
Leftovers
Taste Not Waste, people! So, you made too much filling for your Char Siu Puffs? Stuff it into that leftover tortilla wrap with a handful of salad and, voilà, tomorrow’s lunch is sorted! Failing that, pop it in a sealed tub in the fridge for up to 2 days or the freezer for up to 3 months, ready to haul out and cook into your next batch of egg-fried rice. Not all dishes will lend themselves to freezing but most (shellfish excluded) will be happy to sit in an airtight container in your fridge for a day, ready for second helpings. Please do make sure that everything is thoroughly reheated before eating.
Bulking up the recipes
I’ve planned most of the recipes in this book to feed 2 or 4 people so it’s fairly straightforward to scale up or down; however, if you’re doubling up on a recipe to feed more, always check your seasoning as twice the original quantity of salt will often be too much. When cooking larger portions using a wok, you may need to cook a smaller batch, then transfer to a serving plate while you cook up the next batch, as overloading the wok will cause the ingredients to sweat and you’ll lose that stir-fried flavour you get from cooking over a high heat.