Healthy Chinese Recipes - Cooking With Rice

Okay, let's start off with some simple healthy Chinese recipes, boiled rice and fried rice. One is the quintessential accompaniment to a Chinese dinner, while the other is your classic takeaway dish from the local Chinese restaurant.

But, with just a little tweaking we can make the former have a bit of life and color, and the latter an easy to knock up dish after a long day at work.

Now, these are both suitable for beginners and vegetarians.

Boiled Rice... with a difference

Right, this is using a rice cooker. All cup measurements refer to the rice cooker cup, which is about 3/4 size of a US measuring cup.


Measure the rice. 1 1/2 cups is enough for two people.
Wash the rice until the water runs clear.
Put the rice in the pot and add water. 2 cups of water per cup of rice is enough.
Add some extras - sweet corn, peas, sun-dried tomatoes, diced carrots, pineapple chunks. These will add flavor, color and nutrition to the rice!
Put the pot back in the cooker, close the lid and switch on the cooker.
Don't open the lid until the cooker switches itself off. That's right, it will do the rest of the work for you.
Dish up.
Please remember, if the cooker doesn't keep the rice warm, to refrigerate all uneaten rice ASAP.

Do you like your rice hard or soft? I'm a hard man myself, but enough boasting, ha-ha! Basically, if you like your rice soft then add more water, and vice versa.

Fried Rice

Right, this is great for using leftover rice. You can add loads of stuff. This recipe will be a simple, egg fried rice. For you meaties you can add pre-cooked shrimps or meat strips to the wok in step 5.


Prepare your ingredients - beat one egg per person, chop up some spring onions, dice up some veggies (or use canned or frozen ones).
Add a little oil to the wok (or large frying pan). Heat up high and when the oil is hot, add the eggs. Cook until set and then remove from wok and put to the side.
Add some more oil and let it get hot. Fry your onions until they just start to turn golden. Remove from wok and set aside.
Add more oil if needed and keep the heat medium-high. Put in your veggies and cook until tender, but not too long. We don't want to lose all their goodness!
Add a bit more oil. Throw in the rice, eggs and onions. Add a teaspoon of soy sauce (or more if you like it). Cook through, and make sure to keep an eye on the rice to stop it burning. You'll need to do lots of tossing and flipping with the rice to make sure everything is getting cooked through. It's sweaty work!
Serve.

Please note, many Chinese people like to add a teaspoon of crushed red chillies at step 5. If you're feeling adventurous or you've got a cold, I suggest you do the same!

What, no meat?

Now the beauty of rice is that apart from being a gorgeously healthy Chinese food, simple to cook, and cleverly versatile, it is also a perfect vegetarian food. So, the recipes above are all Chinese vegetarian recipes, too, though they can be easily adapted to include meat if that's your cup of... um... gravy?

So, there you go two healthy Chinese recipes that you can go and make straightaway!

The author has lived in China since 2004, which means in the last 6 years at an average of a couple of meals a day (excluding holidays and sick days) he has eaten about 4,000 Chinese meals/dishes/snacks. He thinks he can share some of that experience with you by introducing you to the incredible variety inherent in Chinese cuisine and also to show you how you these can be made. Read more to see how he's doing:

http://healthychineserecipes.org/
http://healthychineserecipes.org/healthy-chinese-recipes/healthy-chinese-recipes-1-cooking-%C2%A0with-rice

Chinese Food Recipes - Cooking Techniques

While Chinese food recipes may be specific to a certain region of China, cooking techniques often cross provincial boundaries. In a country the size of China, that's a lot of travelling.

Stir Frying

Stir frying is one of the favourite cooking methods. The actual cooking is very quick indeed so all the ingredients need to be prepared in advance. Many Chinese food recipes involve meat and vegetables being sliced into evenly sized pieces, so that they will cook at the same speed. Things like carrots, spring onions and courgettes look nicer if they're cut on an angle, giving an interesting shape.

All the spices and sauce ingredients need to be measured out and mixed before cooking starts.

The wok should be heated until it is almost smoking before the oil is added. The ingredients which take the longest to cook should be added first then the others progressively, stirring and tossing continuously, followed by the sauce which should be simmered for a minute before serving.

Stewing

Stewing is a bit more leisurely than stir frying. Chicken or meat can be used, together with vegetables, water, stock, beer or wine (or a mixture any of them) and spices depending on the individual recipe. For the method known as "red cooking", a lot of soy sauce is added which permeates all the ingredients. The whole lot is then simmered gently until cooked. The traditional utensils would be a clay pot over a charcoal fire but a saucepan or wok on a gas or electric cooker will produce much the same result. The sauce can then be thickened with a little corn flour mixed with some of the stewing liquid.

Alternatively, the meat and vegetables can be extracted to form the main course to be followed by the broth served over rice as a filler.

Roasting

Just as with our own "roast dinners" in the West, the Chinese marinade and roast large pieces of meat either in an oven or over a barbeque. These Chinese food recipes are often produced in restaurants and the marinade is key to the flavour, often containing five spice powder, star anise, chillies, garlic and ginger or a selection of these.

Whichever cooking method is used, preparation and presentation are the keys to a successful dish, as in Chinese cookery, aroma and visual pleasure are just as important as taste.

Quick Easy Chinese Vegetarian Cooking

Easy, Healthy, And Delicious Chinese Vegetarian Cookbook Package. Complete Chinese Vegetarian Guide With 400 Pages.

Check it out!

Secrets of Chinese Cooking

Good selling ebook for last 5 years, recently added to market place 65% commission. Not just recipes but how to prepare for and serve a traditional Chinese meal including the history of Chinese meals.

Check it out!