Thursday, 15 April 2010

Top Ten Chinese Recipes

Chinese food is a delicious way to expand your personal recipe book, particularly if you love to use simple, fresh ingredients with short cooking time. These top ten dishes are famous all over the world, and are must-haves in your collection of Chinese recipes.

Fried Rice - A popular item in Chinese restaurants, fried rice is the ultimate Chinese food, and can be one of the most flexible in your cookbook because you can use leftover rice and ingredients to make it. Of course, you can use fresh ingredients but it's recommended to use rice that has been kept in the fridge overnight for best results. Ingredients usually involved in making fried rice are eggs, spring onions, diced meat of either beef, chicken or pork, ham, prawns and vegetables such as bean sprouts, peas, celery, corn and carrots. There are many types of fried rice but the more famous ones are the Yong Chow and Fukien fried rice.

Kung Pao Chicken - Kung Pao chicken or Kung Po chicken is a Chinese dish from Szechuan cuisine and is considered to be a delicacy. The recipe for this savory dish commonly calls for diced chicken that is pre-marinated and quickly stir-fried with unsalted roasted peanuts, red bell peppers, sherry or rice wine, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, and chili peppers. Alternatively, you can use shrimp, scallops, beef or pork in place of the chicken.

Moo Shu Pork - This is a dish of northern Chinese origin and a favorite of many. Ingredients in a Mushu pork recipe usually involve green cabbage, carrots, wood ear mushrooms, bean sprouts, scallions, scrambled eggs and day lily buds. Bell peppers, snow pea pods, celery, onions, Shiitake mushrooms and bok choy are sometimes used. The vegetables are cut into long and thin strips before cooking, with the exception for bean sprouts and day lily buds. Fried Mushu pork is then wrapped in moo shu pancakes that is brushed with hoisin sauce and eaten by hand. Moo shu pancakes are thin wrappers made of flour that is easily available in supermarkets and steamed right before eating.

General Tso's Chicken - General Tso's chicken is a Hunan cuisine that tastes spicy and sweet and very popular in Chinese restaurants in Canada and America where it's often marked as a "chef's specialty". General Tso's Chicken recipe commonly calls for battered chicken deep-fried and marinated with ginger, garlic, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine or sherry, sugar, scallions, and hot chili peppers.

Spring Rolls - Spring rolls make fabulous snacks and appetizers. They are similar to egg rolls, but are slightly different to its cousin. Springs rolls are have less filling than egg rolls, is smaller in size and its skin is thinner. To make a spring roll, minced meat and thinly cut strips of vegetables are rolled and sealed in a square or circular rice paper. It is then deep fried till crispy and golden brown. Serve this crowd pleaser piping hot.

Chinese Dumplings - Chinese dumplings are a fabulous addition to your home cooked foods, and can be made simply and quickly using just a couple of ingredients. The key to making an excellent dumpling is to ensure that all of your ingredients are finely minced, so that each of the dumplings are steamed in the same amount of time.

Beef and Broccoli - The key to cooking up a delicious Beef and Broccoli dish at home is to make an excellent sauce made up of oyster sauce, light soy sauce, thick soy sauce and cornstarch solution. Marinade the beef before stir frying with sugar, rice vinegar, cornstarch solution, soy sauce and sugar.

Sweet and Sour Pork - This savory-sweet highly popular Chinese dish is of Cantonese origin. It is a good dish to prepare when you are planning on having guests, who will be wildly impressed with your cooking skill. As with other Chinese food recipes, the key to making a great Sweet and Sour Pork dish is in the sauce made of sugar, ketchup, white vinegar, and soy sauce. Its ingredients include pork, pineapple, bell pepper and onion cut into bite size pieces.

Chow Mein - In American Chinese cuisine, Chow Mein is a stir-fried dish consisting of noodles, meat such usually chicken, shrimp, beef and pork, cabbage and other vegetables.

Chop Suey - Chop suey or "za sui" or "shap sui" literally means 'mixed pieces' is an American-Chinese dish usually made up of leftover meats and vegetables stir fried quickly in a sauce thickened with starch. It is a great dish when you need to use up the last of yesterday's chicken or pork roast and can incorporate meats of any kind such as fish, chicken, shrimp, pork or beef and various vegetables from celery to bean sprouts and cabbage. Chop Suey is often eaten with rice.

Chinese Food Recipes is an online recipe and cooking website offering plenty of free Chinese recipes and Asian recipes.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sylvia_Blach

Make Chinese Food - Easy Delicious Chinese Cooking at Home

Chinese food is one of the most delicious types of cuisine available to enjoy today. The wonderful thing about this food is that it tastes so good and is very easy to make. Chinese cuisine is a great addition to include to any family's homemade meals. Chinese cooking is actually super easy to learn with the right recipes and knowledge. Many of us love to visit our favorite Chinese restaurants or Chinese buffets and enjoy this mouth-watering cuisine. Just think of the great Chinese dishes many of us are so used to enjoying.

I know as a kid we always went to our favorite Chinese restaurant and ordered our favorite selection of items, which often included, wonton soup, egg rolls, shrimp fried rice, steamed white rice, plus two or three other main dishes. Just think of the scrumptious Chinese recipes you've enjoyed in your favorite restaurants in the past. From stir-fried beef with broccoli to sweet and sour pork, from General Tso's Chicken to Moo Goo Gai Pan, the list goes on and on of the great dishes available in Chinese cuisine. There is such a wide variety of options in Chinese cooking - that's what makes it so enjoyable!

Other great aspects about cooking Chinese are the healthy benefits this food offers. Very often vegetables are balanced with entrees and fried dishes come with steamed dishes or soups. The majority of people believe that a Chinese cuisine is healthy and well balanced.

There are also so many interesting methods of cooking great this type of cuisine. The various cooking techniques include boiling, poaching, steaming, deep-frying, roasting, stir-frying, sautéing, braising, flavor-potting and smoking.

The different types of Chinese food that we love to enjoy include the following: crab, cabbage, carrots, duck, tofu, cucumber, bean sprouts, bamboo, eggs, chicken, beef, glutinous rice, mushrooms, ginger, watercress and sesame oil.

There are also several different styles within this cuisine. They include Mandarin cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Szechwan cuisine and Hunan cuisine. Each of these cuisines has its own unique style and come from the four major regions of China. For instance, Cantonese is more mild and the most popular type of Chinese cuisine in the United States, while Szechwan is much spicier in taste. Mandarin food consists of many breads and noodles and Hunan food has more oil in it and is often richer in taste than Szechwan food, but may also be spicy or sweet and sour in flavor.

As you can see Chinese food is a delicious and healthy cuisine to enjoy throughout the year! You'll also find that with the right Chinese recipes and instructions that Chinese cooking is very easy to learn.

You can Cook Delicious Chinese Food at Home starting tonight! Click the following link to find out how: http://www.FoodRecipeResources.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_Kratsas