Chinese Kitchen - Hardcover

Deh-ta Hsiung

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1856269833 ISBN 13: 9781856269834

Publisher: Kyle Cathie, 2010

Synopsis

Food writer and world authority on Chinese cuisine, Deh-Ta Hsiung, introduces and describes over 100 essential ingredients for Chinese cooking. He provides at least two delicious recipes for each ingredient to demonstrate their versatility, including Steamed Scallops with Black Bean sauce, Stir-fried Chicken with Coriander and Shredded Duck with Mango. Every page is lavishly illustrated with cultural pictures of China as well as stunning recipe photography, which bring to life cooking in China today and tempt the reader with their colour and spice of life. Ken Hom writes: 'Deh-Ta Hsiung demystifies the Chinese culinary art and its traditions. You will find helpful advice on what to look for when shopping for these exotic ingredients, how to use them, as well as which particular brands you should look for and why. This bold and unique cookbook, with its great wealth of information and photographs, will guide you clearly and simply through the thicket of ingredients readily available in supermarkets and Chinese grocers today.'

About this title

Review

The Chinese Kitchen is a magnificent book, like no other on Chinese food. The sheer range of substances--animal, vegetable and occasionally mineral-- that are incorporated into Chinese cooking can be daunting to the Western cook. The underlying philosophy, too, can be elusive. In this engrossing volume, Deh-Ta Hsiung has compiled a survey of the principal characteristic ingredients of this great cuisine, in all its regional variants. This is really an encyclopaedia of Chinese food, a magisterial study of 100 key foodstuffs and their place not so much in cooking as in Chinese life and culture as a whole. Beginning with fan, the rice or wheaten flour breads, noodles and dumplings that form the starch staple, and moving through the main food categories, Deh-Ta Hsiung gives an account of the item's history, varieties, means of production, appearance and taste. He offers invaluable advice on buying and storage, on its role in Chinese and western medicine and health, and, most importantly, outlines its culinary uses. Among the most difficult to assimilate into any Western notions are the "texture" foods: largely tasteless, gelatinous substances such as bird's nest, shark's fin and sea cucumber, these include some of the most sought-after delicacies and can command extraordinary prices. The Chinese Kitchen gives the clearest possible explanation of why these foods are so prized. Some 200 recipes, many of them classics, adorn the book, illuminating the character and versatility of the ingredients. This is a most exciting volume, at once a reference work that deserves to become a standard and an introduction to the intricacies of Chinese food and cooking. --Robin Davidson

Review

'I trust this major culinary work from the masterchef himself will be a proud companion to your Chinese Cookery Books...' -- Ken Hom

He dispels the timidity of an inexperienced cook, yet he offers much to tempt a proficient chef. -- The Independent, 11th September 1999, 'Cook Book of the Week' by Sybil Kapoor

Edition details

• Publisher: Kyle Cathie
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1856269833
• ISBN 13: 9781856269834
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240