While there’s no magic dust needed to cook delicious Chinese food, there are some tips and tricks you can use to make the result seem magical. Here are our top ten picks: think of them as rules of thumb that a little Chinese granny would pass down to you, as Mum and Dad did to us.
The secret to creating the melt-in-your-mouth texture of meats in Chinese food is bicarbonate of soda. We almost always include a few pinches in our marinades because it relaxes the tightly wound ropes of protein in tough muscle meat that give your jaw a workout. It transforms even the toughest of meats, which means you can use cheaper cuts.
Slicing meat (especially beef) ‘against the grain’ is a neat trick for tenderising meats even further. Simply have a good look at the meat and figure out what direction the fibres are running in (this is the ‘grain’), and then slice at right angles to, or ‘against’, this grain. You can think of the fibres as a thick bundle of elastic cords – the shorter the cords are, the less work your jaw has to do.
Coating meats in cornflour before cooking locks in the juices and creates a wonderfully waat (silky, velvety) mouthfeel. We add a teaspoon or two to our marinades. Cornflour is also behind those thick, glossy sauces in Chinese food (it’s not oil!). Toward the end of cooking, mix in a slurry of cornflour and water and watch as a lush, glistening and translucent sauce clings to every ingredient as the cornflour cooks through.
Light soy sauce packs a saltier punch than its darker sibling so we use it primarily for flavouring and seasoning. The intense liquorice hue of dark soy sauce, on the other hand, is ideal for adding colour to dishes such as fried rice and noodles. Its syrupy, almost caramel-like quality in both consistency and taste is also great for adding richness and body to braises. Check out the glossary of ingredients on here for how to pick the best dark soy, for they vary greatly in quality.
We can never resist the seductive nutty aroma of toasted sesame oil. To allow its qualities to shine through, we avoid using it as a cooking oil as its delicate fragrance is destroyed by intense heat. Instead, we suggest using it sparingly as a flavour enhancer at the end of cooking.
To create the most pliable, robust and easy to handle dumpling dough, we make ours using hot water rather than cold. This partially cooks the flour and creates resilient dough that can be shaped, rolled out thinly, and manipulated to create beautiful pleats.
The Chinese are well known for adoring pork but sometimes it has an uninviting smell (called boar taint) when cooked, especially when steamed. Our antidote is simple: add garlic – with a slightly heavier hand than usual – and cook like normal.
The awakening zing of ginger does a fabulous job of cutting through fishiness and we use it with even the freshest of fish to enhance its natural sweetness. Consider cutting the ginger into long, thin tendrils that imitate swaying swathes of seagrass.
Steam has a wonderful ability to coax flavours out of the simplest of ingredients. Mum never used a fancy bamboo steamer when we were growing up, and you don’t need to either. Simply choose a steaming dish that fits inside a lidded saucepan or wok, raise the dish above the base of the pan (a steaming rack, or an upright bowl will do), and fill your pan with boiling water to a level just below where the base of the dish will be. It is best to use a steam-proof dish such as enamel, Pyrex or everyday china. When steaming meat, we use about 50 per cent more cornflour (to mop up the juices that are released during steaming) and omit the bicarbonate of soda (as it will froth up).
Let’s start with the cooking vessel. A carbon steel wok is best for home stir-frying, but you can make do with a large frying pan with high sides – just choose something that will give the ingredients plenty of room to move around in as you stir and fry. The beauty of a carbon steel wok (very cheap at Chinese supermarkets) is that its thin walls transfer heat quickly, which is crucial for creating the characteristic heat-kissed smokiness of stir-fried food. For a no-fuss cooking experience, go for a wok with a long wooden handle (rather than two ear-shaped handles at opposite sides) and a flat (as opposed to curved) base that will sit unsupported on home hobs.
Getting the wok ready. New carbon steel woks need to be prepared or ‘seasoned’ for cooking. Begin by scrubbing the wok well with hot soapy water to remove the anti-rust oil coating, then give it a quick wipe. Dry thoroughly over a low heat and then replace the protective coating by smearing the inside surface with a thin film of cooking oil (kitchen paper is handy here).
When you are ready to cook. Have all the ingredients prepped, including the cornflour slurry if using (see above). If you are using a wok, it should be extremely hot before you add the oil, which is immediately followed by your first ingredient (often aromatics like garlic and ginger). When stir-frying, we use a range of motions: stir, turn, flip, toss (!) – using two spatulas if it helps. In restaurants, the food is usually in constant motion because you don’t want it to catch over the intense heat. At home, you will find that you will need to leave the ingredients alone for a while to give them a chance to cook through, or for meats to develop a caramel crust. To ensure thorough cooking, sprinkle in some water and cover with a lid – this will create steam that helps to deliver heat to the core of the ingredients. Alternatively, blanch your vegetables beforehand.
Cleaning? There’s an art to that too. A steel wok loves a bit of TLC so when it’s done its duty, scrub well in hot water, but don’t be tempted to use detergent as this will strip away the protective oil coating. Then dry as above (wipe, then heat), before using kitchen paper to reapply a thin film of oil. Over multiple uses, a well-seasoned wok essentially acts as a non-stick surface so it’s worth doing these extra steps. Think of it as buffing a vintage car or a pair of designer patent heels – it will be a joy to own and use for many years.