Amidst the worldly pandemic, when you are locked inside the 4 walls, you have all the time in the world to learn cooking or level-up your cooking skills. It can be a long-lost hobby or it can be your sheer love towards food that compels you to finally knock your kitchen doors. Irrespective of the reason, successful cooking is sure to bring you joy. Among the plethora of food choices and cuisines in front of you, today we will discuss flavorful; Chinese cuisine.

After all, who wouldn’t love the extraordinary combination of Manchurian, fried rice, and noodles. And ofcourse, how can we forget the delectable Hakka Noodles! Besides all of that Chinese cuisine is a good place to start for its easy-to-make recipes. Today, we will detail you about the different methods of cooking Chinese food.

  1. Stir-Frying

If you are a cooking-enthusiast, you must be already aware of this concept. However, this still doesn’t naturalize the fact that this process can be extremely challenging. There are basic guidelines that you must follow to successfully stir-fry your ingredients.

Firstly, a wok isn’t a necessity; a frying pan can also serve the purpose. To begin with, the oil in the frying pan must be properly heated on high flame. If your dish involves meat, it’s best to pre cook until it turns brown in colour. But, remember there are no one-size-fits-all in cooking, so while cooking vegetables, the same concept doesn’t apply. Some ingredients take long to cook while a few others are quick. For instance, in Asparagus chicken stir fry, chicken comparatively takes a longer time to cook.  

  1. Deep frying

This is fondly used in the making of spring rolls and we all love spring rolls, don’t we? Remember, for deep frying a normal saucepan is not enough. You must use a deep saucepan so that oil is not spilled out of the container. Also, never overcrowd your pan, for example, while making spring rolls, it’s best to drop rolls one by one. Lastly, while sliding spring rolls into the saucepan slide them slowly and gently from the side, rather than dropping them. You don’t want the oil to splatter.

  1. Steaming

This is also a very widely used concept in cooking and an important element in a healthy Chinese takeout. For steaming, water is continuously boiled at high temperatures to produce steam which further cooks the food. The water does not come in contact with the food and instead rises above it.

To carry out steaming at your home, you will need a metal steaming rack, which is easily available. However, is not a part of many households. You should also have a metal clipper handy to hold the yok and get the food on the plate because you don’t want to burn yourself.

  1. Braising

Slightly uncommon yet very useful to cook Chinese food, braising is very different from the rest of the methods. It requires you to lightly fry the food and then stew the food in a pot. Dishes like braised pork rib with potato and squash are usually made with this cooking style. The idea behind this cooking style is to make ingredients like meat more tender and bring more flavors out of them.

  1. Boiling

Back in China, boiling is just not about heating but is also about cooking dishes with this unique cooking style. In this method also, you must boil all your ingredients and then drain them before you serve. You can also keep them in the broth while serving – this is often of a soupy texture.

It all depends on the dish or the kind of flavours you and your family prefer. Dishes like instant noodles without MSG powder, vegetable broth soup, sweet corn soup require boiling and are really worth the drill. Remember, you need to time your boiling because you don’t want to over boil your dishes.

Beginning with Chinese food can be fun, but at the same time disastrous. You don’t want to do anything wrong and be disappointed with a bowl full of burnt rice after an hour-long cooking spree. If you are a beginner, my recommendation is that you must begin from stir-frying and deep-frying, before you look upon the other methods.