How to Use a Chinese Wok

When you have decided to learn how to prepare Chinese food, you will learn very quickly that you do not have to have their utensils, but if you can splurge you will be able to use them much better. This is especially when you are a beginner. They are not very expensive at all and they are really very easy to find.

First of all you need to know that the most important object is the Wok, this is because it can be used at a pot or as a cooking pan. Over all the centuries not one person has changed the shape due to how perfect it really is. But there is one feature they have added that can better help it to adapt to the electric stoves, that would be the ring or metal collar.

To many people they believe that the Wok is the have must in all kitchens. They have so many uses for when you are fixing Chinese foods. It heats very evenly and can shorten your cooking times by far, and when you are making Chinese food this is greatly important. It is a very great tool when you want to make stir fry. With the sides being so smooth you can also use it for scrambled eggs and perfect omelets. The shape is what truly matters when you want to cook up some stir fry. With the steeper sides you can spread your oil all around very evenly and easily. You are going to need to remember that the less food you put in the wok the better. You are not going to want to add a huge amount of food at one time.

You can get Woks in many different sizes. They have a 12-14 inch Wok that is meant to be used for regular family cooking. If you have gotten an iron Wok then you must season it before you ever think of using it. If you do not do this then it is more than likely going to rust on you. Make sure before you get to season your new Wok you wash it very evenly. After you have rinsed it, and then carefully wiped off the excess water, place it on the heat to dry it completely. The cover to the Wok will need to be washed and dried the very same way.

Even if you cannot get your hands on a Wok, you will still be able to cook the Chinese foods that you love. All you will need is a very heavy frying pan. But you are going to want to make sure you stir the food very often so you will not be burning the food.

George Lyle Walker has been writing articles for nearly 3 years. He has a passion for Real Estate. Visit his website at [http://www.sharonwalker-realestate.com/] if your looking for one of the best Wichita Falls Realtors [http://www.sharonwalker-realestate.com/]

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Low Calorie Chinese Cooking Methods

It seems that in recent years, everyone is more concerned about their health. As people are becoming more educated about caloric intake, cholesterol, saturated fat, and sugar, they're beginning to shy away from eating some of their favorite foods like Chinese takeout from their local restaurant. Indeed, eating at an Asian restaurant or getting takeout is like navigating a culinary minefield, where every misstep is like stepping on a calorie and fat laden bomb. There is hope, however, for those of you that enjoy Asian cuisine and still want to include it in your diet. A lot of the unhealthy elements of Asian cuisine come from bad cooking methods. By learning to use low calorie Chinese cooking methods, you can recreate your favorite dishes at home that are healthier and tastier than anything you can get at a restaurant.

The first thing that you can do to make healthy Chinese food at home is to avoid deep frying. How many times have you eaten at your favorite establishment only to find that your meat and even vegetables are swimming in pools of fat? Unfortunately, this is the norm rather than the exception when eating out these days. Oil is bad for you because it is high in calories and is in some cases high in cholesterol and saturated fats, both of which contribute to heart disease. One tablespoon of oil contains approximately 120 calories. Whatever you do, avoid deep frying as a cooking method. When food is deep fried or cooked in copious amounts of fat, the grease can soak up into the food, creating high calorie dishes that are high in cholesterol and fat. You can prevent this by cooking at home. There, you can control how much and what kind of oil you use. You can even get rid almost all of the oil all together if you invest in a non-stick skillet and use vegetable cooking spray.

Instead of deep frying, try other cooking methods to control the fat. For example, say you're using a Chinese recipe for sweet and sour chicken. The chicken in sweet and sour chicken is traditionally battered and deep fried where it can soak up a lot of grease. Instead, try breading it in bread crumbs, giving it a light spray with cooking spray, and then baking it in the oven. You'll still get the textural element of crunch that is similar to a deep fried item, but you'll get none of the extra oil and grease.

Another low calorie cooking method that you can use in your Chinese kitchen is steaming. Steaming relies on the heat of water vapor instead of oil to cook your food. By using this technique, you don't have to use any oil at all. On top of that, steaming is also a gentle cooking method that enables you to retain a lot more nutrients and vitamins in your foods than with other techniques.

Finally, you can create great tasting dishes at home that are friendly to the waist by reducing the amount of meat that you use in your dishes. Meat is high in calories, saturated fats, and cholesterol and reducing the amounts that you use in your cooking can really help to make your dishes healthier. Consider the dish called Beef and Broccoli. When trying to make a healthier version at home, it's helpful to think about it as if it were called Broccoli with Beef, where the vegetable component is the main star of the dish. Use smaller amounts of beef as more of a seasoning element and make the vegetable the centerpiece. You can use this philosophy with almost any dish in order to make it low cal.

There are a number of low calorie Chinese cooking methods and techniques that you can use at home to help make your dishes healthier. By cutting down on the meat, avoiding oil, and using techniques like steaming and baking, you can enjoy Chinese food without the negative health impact.

Brandon Woo is an expert in Chinese cooking and cuisine with over 20 years of experience in the field. For more tips, instructional videos, and recipes, visit http://www.takeoutsucks.com today.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Preparing Quick and Easy Recipes, Chinese Style

Imagine this situation, you are at home during the weekends and you suddenly started craving for Chinese food. But then you remember that your favorite Chinese food that delivers is close during the weekends. You thought of going out and getting some Chinese food but the next restaurant is quite far and you just don't want to make that trip for Chinese food. Now all this trouble might have been avoided if you only knew how to cook Chinese food. Knowing some quick and easy Chinese recipes can really make a difference.

Generally, the easiest Chinese food can be cooked in just 10 to 15 minutes. Most of the easy ones involve just stir frying the ingredients and before you know it you're enjoying a hot meal with your chopsticks. What actually takes long is the preparation. Nevertheless, there are several cooking preparation tips that you can apply to make your life a lot easier.

To be able to cook a hot Oriental meal quickly, you should learn to prepare the ingredients before hand. For example, ginger can be peeled, sealed in a jar and place inside the refrigerator until needed and believe me you will need ginger almost all the time. It is one of the most used ingredients in Chinese cooking.

You could also do better if you have prepared the meat and vegetables ahead of time. Basically this means you are anticipating that you will crave for Chinese food anytime. If you like the food, I don't see why this should be any problem. With meat you should cut them in uniform sizes so stir-frying them is a lot easier and they cook faster as well. You can cover the cut meat with a plastic wrap and store them inside your refrigerator. The same goes with vegetables. Wash, cut and store them.

I know that this is not an ideal practice but if you're really out of time or you want that Chinese food really fast, an option for vegetables would be to use frozen and/or canned ones. You can find in your supermarket frozen vegetables that are already prepared for stir-frying. Canned Chinese vegetables such as bamboo shoots and mushrooms are also available in the market. There's no substitute for fresh vegetables though.

Remember your sauce concoctions. You can use the same sauce recipes for other Chinese dishes. This way you save time from experimenting every time you cook. You can do a lot with a few tablespoons of soy sauce, oyster sauce, and even sugar. Or another option would be to settle with ready-made sauce or marinade. There should be several flavors to choose from.

Actually you'll be surprised on what you can find in your supermarket's shelves. There is an assortment of products which can make your cooking a lot simpler and easier. From canned vegetables and meat, to instant broths, marinades and sauces, you can have that Oriental flavor in a flash just by adding water, boiling or including the flavors in your cooking.

But one of the best tricks, if you find yourself in a pinch is learn to simplify the recipe. A quick and easy Chinese recipe involves simplifying your ingredients, preparation and cooking. Although, experimentation can indeed lead to some truly incredible meals, but when your in a rush and someone's already waiting for their meals, it would be best to stick to the tried and tested recipes, at least for the now.

About The Author:
For more tips on quick and easy recipes visit on quick and easy recipes visit http://quickandeasyrecipeidea.blogspot.com/
James I Obidike, Elite Ghostwriters.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

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.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Why Cooking Your Own Healthy Chinese Food at Home Makes Chinese Weight Loss the Right Choice

Does Chinese weight loss or any kind of weight loss program related to following a Chinese diet work at all? Magazines and books around the world are filled with articles and stories about using Chinese tea, herbs and even traditional Chinese medicine to help you lose weight. However, like most weight loss programs out there, there are a few things that you do need to keep in mind. Chinese weight loss is possible by following a traditional Chinese diet, no I am not talking about Chinese buffet food, and this really is the key to how most Chinese people manage to maintain a healthy weight regardless of their age. Eating right is the key to an effective Chinese diet program and you can make your own Chinese diet food easily once you know the basic principles to follow and the kind of food you should be cooking.

Balance is vital. Chinese meals follow this basic principal because it not only works but also makes perfect sense. If you visit any fast food restaurant, what will you see? Most of the time, you'll see people eating meals that are completely out of balance. They have very few vegetables, if any at all, and usually a lot of meat. It makes sense that if you want to lose weight you need to be eating food that is not only healthy but also in the correct proportions. Too many people have grown up eating meals that consist of large chunks of meat and very little of anything else. It is no wonder that many find themselves overweight later on in life. Healthy, traditional Chinese meals have the correct portions of meat, vegetables and everything else that goes into making a proper weight loss diet plan.

Another point worth mentioning about the average Chinese person's diet is that the bulk of the food they eat is not processed or prepared in advance. Everything they cook and eat is as natural as possible. Obviously this doesn't mean they don't splash out on things which aren't exactly great for your body, MSG for example, but on the whole traditional Chinese food is as natural as it can be. It might not sound like much but if you are stuffing processed and prepared food into your body day in and day out, then trying to lose weight will be difficult at best. You are what you eat and the first step to losing weight is making sure you are eating right. Chinese people manage to stay so thin because their meals, on the whole, are as natural as possible.

The good news is that you don't have to be Chinese to enjoy the benefits of Chinese weight loss or diets. You can easily cook healthy and great tasting Chinese food at home that will help you to plan your own diet and meal schedule. Healthy weight loss Chinese diet food doesn't have to cost the Earth once you know how to cook it from your very own kitchen.

Let me show you how easy it is to follow a Chinese weight loss plan. Discover how you can prepare your own Chinese diet food at home that will make losing weight easy.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

What is "Real" Chinese Cooking?

To Americans, the most familiar of Eastern cuisines undoubtedly is the Chinese. Every large U.S. city has its Chinese restaurants, sometimes scores of them, as in New York and San Francisco, and often first-class. In smaller cities, especially in Western states, a Chinese restaurant may well be the best place in town, not only because everyone seems to like chop suey, but because a good Chinese cook can whip up a Yankee steak or a Southern fried chicken as expertly as he stir-fries a lobster.

In the Orient itself, Chinese restaurants dominate the public dining scene from Myanmar (Burma) to the Philippines and on across the Pacific islands to Hawaii. Again, they are apt to be among the best available. Moreover, Chinese cookery methods have invaded other native cuisines to the extent that Indonesian food, for example, could be described as tropical Malay spiced by India and cooked by China-and then served up a la Dutch.

It happens that Guangzhou (Canton) was the first port to be opened to foreign trade by the old Empire, and it became the embarkation point for the great emigrations of Chinese fleeing the famines of the mid-19th century. The restaurants the emigrants established abroad reflected their southern China origin. What most American and European identify as "Chinese food" is more accurately labeled "Cantonese." This has led to arguments.

The Old China Hand who spent years in the international circles of Beijing or Shanghai insists that the southern style is not all there is to Chinese cuisine. Of course, Beijing and Shanghai are about as far and as different from Guangzhou (Canton) as New York from New Orleans. Continental in size, China has as many diverse ways of preparing food as does the continent of Europe. At least five major regional cuisines are recognized by gourmets, plus some subsidiary schools. All are "real," but the north-versus-south dispute implies a class distinction.

The Old China Hand's upper-class Chinese friends in the northern cities naturally served them the specialties of their own region. On the other hand, large numbers of the Chinese who went abroad were coolies. It was easy to jump to the conclusion that northern food must be the cuisine of the elite, southern food fit only for peasants and the poor. This ignored the fact that even the poorest coolie knew how to

enjoy good food, and ate it when they could afford it.

There is a saying in China, "to be born in Suzhou, to eat in Kwangchow (i.e., Canton), to dress in Hangzhou, and to die in Liuzhou." For Suzhou is known for beauty, Guangzhou for food, Hangzhou for silk, and Liuzhou for wood for making coffins.

Besides, the majority of the Chinese restaurants abroad are Cantonese. Though this may be due to the fact that most of the Chinese abroad are Cantonese, I think it is also due to the fact that Cantonese cooking is broader in basis and can be "international" in taste. Canton has also at its disposal a greater variety of seafood and so has the advantage of creating more dishes than any of the other schools. Therefore it is only fair to put the Canton school at the top.

According to experts, the Guangdong (Cantonese) cuisine holds a position akin to the French in Europe-the haute cuisine; others are good, but this one is better. When a Chinese emigre opened a restaurant and called it "Cantonese," he felt he was putting his best foot forward-just as an American opening a restaurant in, say, Brazil might dub it the "New York" or the "New Orleans" but probably not the "Omaha."

Nevertheless, each school of Chinese cookery has its staunch adherents. The above will by no means satisfy the Old China Hand, and the inquisitive modern gourmet will want to try them all. So we will briefly identify the major cuisines and wish you luck in telling them apart.

Notice the conspicuous absence of any "Beijing" school. China's capital, like Washington, D.C., has borrowed its cuisine from neighboring provinces. The so-called Mandarin style is mostly from Shandong.

Priscilla is a cooking lover has been teaching in food industry almost 15 years. She has involved teaching in Chinese Cooking, Japanese food, Thailand food, Eastern Cuisine, Indian Food, Hawaiian Style, Philippines Style, Oriental Food, Asian Cuisine, Western Style, Meals in Minutes and etc. She would like to share with people a broad knowledge of and keen pleasure in the good healthy life style of good eating through her many years of experience.

Please visit our website: http://www.agape-cookingthechineseway.com.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Love Chinese Food? Think Twice Before You Order!

Love eating Chinese food? Most of us do, but don't get fooled into thinking that anything and everything on the Chinese food menu is good for you. In fact, most people look to Chinese cuisine as a healthy alternative to fast food, but the truth is that there are a bunch of pitfalls on the menu, including high sodium and fat contents across several different foods across the typical Chinese menu...

Rice: Almost everyone loves having rice as part of their Chinese menu. The problem is that many people confuse "fried rice" with the much healthier brown rice. "Fried rice" is really white rice that's brown via soy sauce and oil. It's also high in fat and sodium. Stay away from the fried rice!

Noodles: Never, ever, ever a good choice! Did I mention that they're not a good choice? The amounts of oil used to cook this stuff is almost enough for your next oil change!

Sauces: Regardless of where or what you're eating, you should ALWAYS order your sauce on the side. Restaurants almost always pour on much more than you typically would and ordering on the side lets you control your portions. These sauces are also typically high in fat and sodium. Soy sauce for example, a staple of Chinese cuisine, has up to FOUR times the recommended daily allowance of salt in just ONE tablespoon!!!

Meat: If you can't recognize what's on your plate it probably means you should skip it. You're always better off ordering steamed entrees. That way you not only could recognize what you're eating, but you'll be skipping the digestion of meat that's covered in fat-soaked breading (think General Tso's chicken!!!).

Your best bet is to really take advantage of ALL the healthy options and order a little of everything, focusing mostly on vegetables and steamed dishes. You could still enjoy your Chinese food, but don't derail all you hard work by making the wrong choices.

For more information on general health and nutrition, feel free to sign up for our free newsletter!

George Louris is the author of The BusyGuy's-BusyGal's Workout for Fat Loss, is a Certified Trainer with over 20 years of experience & a former multiple fitness studio owner who has taken his life's passion for helping others achieve their fat loss goals online at The BusyGuy Fit Club, a resource for ultra-busy men and women who have little time for exercise but still strive for a fit and healthy lifestyle.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.