Two Traditional Chinese Dishes - Chicken/Celery Stir Fry and Baby Bok Choi with Mushrooms

In the United States, "Chinese Food" is the most widespread ethic cuisine.  Unfortunately, most of what these places are cooking is far from what is the actual food being eaten in China by Chinese People.  Of course, "Chinese Food" is a simplification of the hundreds of styles that actually make up cooking from that region, with main styles represented in the US being Sichuan cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, and Huaiyang cuisine. The Chinese food often found in Take Out places, or even in sit down restaurant is composed of the "banquet style" of cooking.  Elaborate, fried, greasy and often far richer than any dish made for an Asian palate.  Even at home, many people muddle their flavors by over seasoning, over cooking, over salting and in various manners ruining what can be a quick, simple and healthy cuisine.

The danger in translating many of the traditional dishes into the American kitchen, or any kitchen for that matter than does not have a wok stove, is that the technique must be adjusted for the heat levels that you have available.

Stir frying with a wok burner is impossible to replicate unless you have a professional stove or a 100,000+ BTU home version.  However, we can recreate this intense heat and cooking style by doing a few things to assist in our success:

1 - Buy a FLAT bottom wok.  The curved bottoms cannot be used successfully on a regular stove.  They will not achieve the same heat.

2 - Season your wok properly.  Wash it when you bring it home with some mild soap (the only time you should be using soap) and rinse well.  Season traditionally with pork lard and Chinese chives, or with high smoke point vegetable oil.  Season by heating to smoke point, reducing to medium heat and adding 1 tablespoon of lard or oil.  Using either the chives or a the paper towel, smear oil around thinly.  Continue to heat for 8-10 minutes.  Wipe out and repeat until no residue is coming off onto the paper towel.

3 - Never, never, never, ever use soap in your wok.  EVER. ever.  Use hot water and the broom type whisk that you can find in most Asian grocery stores.  If you do not have this whisk, you can use hot water and a rough dish towel.  We want to keep that seasoning that it has been so carefully applied.

4 - Prior to cooking heat to smoke point before adding cooking oil.

5 - Perhaps most importantly add ingredients in small amounts.  When you add too many items at once, it will drop the cooking temperature too low to stir fry correctly.

6 - When cooking meat, add slowly and do not stir for about 1 minute if you want it to develop a crust and not stick to the pan.

The recipes below are from Saveur Magazine.. Yes I do take a lot of my recipes from them, but besides the depth of recipes that they supply, they are a great magazine for the story behind the dishes, told often from people that are learning to make them from people that make them every day.  The recipes are found HERE.

The two recipes below take less than 10 minutes to cook, and about 20 minutes for prep, but they have depth of flavor and a lightness that betray their simple ingredient list and mild seasoning.



The first dish, Stir fried chicken with Celery and Leeks, relies on the simple technique of using a corn starch and egg coating for the chicken, and small, quick cooking vegetables.  The chicken is cooked rapidly first and set aside, the vegetables are cooked, and the chicken is added to pan to pick up the flavors from the vegetables.  It is a simple and effectual way to have a balanced dish.









The second dish is even simpler.  It relies on the simple clean nature of the flavors in Bok Choi complemented by the  earthy flavor of the dried mushrooms.