Classic Chinese Cookbook

yan-kit’s classic chinese cookbook yan-kit’s classic chinese cookbook Yan-Kit So LONDON, NEW YORK, MUNICH, MELBOURNE, DELHI To my son, Hugo E Martin Editor Elizabeth Watson Senior Art Editor Nicola Rodway Executive Managing Editor Adèle Hayward Managing Art Editor Nick Harris DTP Designer Traci Salter New photography art directed for DK by Carole Ash New photography by Martin Brigdale DK DELHI Editorial team Dipali Singh, Shinjini Chatterjee, Glenda Fernandes Design team Kavita Dutta, Romi Chakraborty, Mini Dhawan DTP team Balwant Singh, Pankaj Sharma, Harish Aggarwal First published in the United States in 1984 This edition published in 2006 by Dorling Kindersley Publishing Inc., 375 Hudson St, New York, New York 10014 A Penguin Company 10 Copyright © 1984, 1998, 2006 Dorling Kindersley Limited, London Text copyright © 1984, 1998, 2006 Yan-kit So All rights reserved under International and Pan-American copyright conventions No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner A Cataloging-in-Publication record is available from the Library of Congress ISBN-10: 0-7566-2351-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-7566-2351-7 Reproduced by Colourscan, Singapore Printed by Leo Paper Group, China See our complete catalogue at www.dk.com Contents Foreword by Claudia Roden Introduction Ingredients 12 Equipment 28 Techniques 32 Recipes Hors d’oeuvres 44 Soups and fire pots 64 Fish and seafood 80 Poultry and eggs 102 Meat 124 Vegetables 148 Rice, noodles and dumplings 170 Desserts 188 Regional menus Regional Chinese cooking 194 Northern or Peking menu recipes 196 Eastern or Shanghai menu recipes 206 Western or Szechwan menu recipes 214 Southern or Cantonese menu recipes 224 Mixed regional menu recipes 232 Special recipes 240 Glossary 243 Index 251 Acknowledgments 256 Foreword I first met Yan-kit in the early 1980s when we were both demonstrating cooking at Prue Leith’s school She was elegantly dressed under her starched apron, and tiny behind the demonstrating table She was nervous and talked very fast with a strong Chinese accent We went out for coffee together when we were finished She seemed a very unlikely cook or even cookery writer She was scholarly, with the aristocratic air of the educated Chinese who, although refined gourmets, looked down on cooking as a menial occupation But she showed an amazing determination to transmit the gastronomic traditions and practical culinary techniques of her homeland At that time, although Chinese cuisine was generally considered the second-greatest in the world after French cuisine, the Chinese food familiar to Europeans and Americans was on the level of the debased cheap carry-out Recipe books in Chinese were hopeless, giving little indication of quantities, timings and techniques; and in China, the Cultural Revolution had reviled the grand style as bourgeois and persecuted the great cooks It was after the loss of her American husband, Briton Martin Jr., when she was left alone with a tiny baby, that Yan-kit took up cooking with great passion as a salvation from her enormous grief She wrote several Chinese cookbooks, two of which are among the best on the subject in any language Yan-kit had very high standards for everything in life; she loved music, opera, poetry, art, and fashion, and she put the great force of her intellect and knowledge, her incredible good taste, and her love of good food into her projects :BOLJUT
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$PPLCPPL was her first book It was an early bridge between the East and the West and remains one of the best introductions to Chinese cooking It features recipes from all the regions of China, though it represents more of the delicate cuisines of the east coast, Shanghai, and the area south of her Hong Kong childhood, than the stronger-flavored, cruder cooking of the northern and western regions The recipes are more refined IBVUF
DVJTJOF than basic rural food, but many of the dishes are very easy to prepare Yan-kit was a purist, eager to keep the recipes authentic, but she made them accessible She tested them so scrupulously, and described every step so clearly and meticulously, that even the complex recipes are easy to follow Like many of her friends, I was privileged to eat at her house when she was testing dishes They were all stunning and utterly delicious I am so happy that the book has been reprinted in such a glorious production Now that China has become the biggest economy in the world, a superpower that we will have increasing contact with, we will need to understand Chinese culture Food is an important part of that culture The Chinese are mad about their food The old grand dishes are being revived for banquets and in the new best restaurants With Yan-kit’s book we can make them our own ...yan-kit’s classic chinese cookbook yan-kit’s classic chinese cookbook Yan-Kit So LONDON, NEW YORK, MUNICH, MELBOURNE, DELHI To my son,... arguments about the greatness of Chinese cuisine, it is undeniable that certain features make the food look Chinese, smell Chinese and taste Chinese One feature, unique to Chinese cooking, is the technique... speciality of Chinese cuisine is its use of dried products Before the invention of canning and deep-freezing, drying was the Chinese way of preserving food But even though canning has become a Chinese