Customer Rating: 
Summary: Best Chinese Cookbook Ever
Comment: I purchased this book a couple months ago- and it is amazing! The recipes are great and the instructions are given in great detail. I strongly recommend this cookbook to anyone interested in Chinese cooking.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Chinese Cookbook- by a cook from one of the oldest families in China
Comment: As her bio states:"Irene Kuo was born into one of the oldest families in China." Elsewhere in the book you learn that in the 1800's the Emperor stayed at her family's house for two weeks, one summer. Ms Kuo includes one his favorite dishes... but the dishes are notinaccessible, as you might expect given this heritage. Quite the contrary. Simply put, Ms Kuo reveals the secrets of simple techniques and tastes that make this food so special...Velveting of chicken, cuts of chicken, flavor-potting, clear simmering, light-footing, and so much more that I have never heard of. And she does it simply. What a shame this is out of print.... This was a gift from her to the world... Thank you, Ms Kuo.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not just the best Chinese cookbook. One of the best cookbooks ever.
Comment: I've had The Key to Chinese Cooking for 27 years; it was one of the first 5 cookbooks in my collection. I now own somewhere around 300 cookbooks, but this is still among the best.
Kuo got everything right. In an era when no one had heard of dim sum or regional Chinese cuisine, she included long sections about ingredients, techniques (including improvisations when you lack authentic equipment), and cooking styles. Every technique introduced includes introductory recipes, such as steamed lemon chicken in the steaming section. There are also lots and LOTS of recipes for every conceivable category, and it probably goes without saying that they're uniformly excellent. The book falls open to spicy pork with peanuts; hot and sour soup; tangerine peel chicken; shrimp fried rice.
But what sets this apart is the writing and instructional style. Kuo has become my touchstone for friendly, technical writing. She knows the reader hasn't deep-fried a duck before, so she gives careful detailed steps that somehow manage to both reassure you and keep you moving. It's never too much information, making you feel as though a task is daunting. I was lucky to find this book when I still a cooking beginner, because I credit the author with making me unafraid to try new recipes and techniques.
My only criticism is that her estimates of serving portions are unreliable. Sometimes she'll say that a recipe serves 4, when served with rice, and we get just a meal for two. That's the case for one of our favorites, chicken in black bean sauce. (I must have a dozen such recipes. This is the one I use.)
Overall though - this is one of my favorite cookbooks. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An outstanding contribution to culinary literature
Comment: This comprehensive work has been considered a classic ever since it was first published nearly three decades ago. Mrs. Kuo, a master chef and veteran restaurateur, clearly explains the basic techniques of Chinese cuisine, enabling her readers to understand how and why they are utilized. The more than 300 recipes, which range from simple everyday dishes to banquet creations, are imbued with the "teaching presence" of the author. Although many volumes on the subject have appeared over the years, "The Key to Chinese Cooking" still remains an essential resource.
Also recommended: "The Complete Asian Cookbook," by Charmaine Solomon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Chinese Cookbooks-get this one!
Comment: My book is from 1977, and I have photocopied recipes to give to others, as it's still out of print.
I like it's treatment of each recipe..A recipes may start with background history, the ingredients are next, and the directions are very clear, telling you how to cook by knowing when a "cooking stage" is met, that is, when something is browned, another is blackened..it isn't just a "2 minutes" and on to the next stage.
Substitutions are listed, and the recipes do not have an excessive number of ingredients, so a trip to a regular grocery store, and an infrequent visit to an Asian store are all that's needed.
Ms Kuo gives many cooking "pearls" among the many recipes...these are helpful in French, or Argentinian cooking for example, not just limited to Chinese/Asian cooking. Even hints on how to reheat leftovers the next day is given...nice!
Get this for a great introduction to ways to cut and prepare foods, and learn in the opening chapters much about cooking in oil, cooking in liquids, and cooking with dry or wet heat.
It has recipes with Szechuan peppercorns...which were "outlawed" until just 2005, so Chinese afficionados will be delighted to have one more "real" ingredient to cook with. Get the "seeded" rather than the "whole" ones, as she points out "the flavor and the aroma come only from the petal-like husks". (The seeds are gritty and undesireable.)
When mincing or chopping, she recommends wetting the cleaver's blade to keep food from sticking...she has a chapter just on the different ways to cut, tenderize, chop...just about any food! Makes one realize why many chefs prefer just a medium weight cleaver for 95% of their work, over an array of varied specialized shaped knives.
This book had over 500 pages of great recipes and wonderful instruction...buy this...this is a keeper!
|
