Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees

Essential Techniques of Authentic Chinese Cooking

by Kian Lam Kho

The photographs (all 240 of them!) are stunning and it's the first thing that grabs your eye.   Kho reminds people that China has many regional cuisines, not just one and learn a little about the birth of China's vast and rich culinary culture.  He organizes his chapters by cooking methods, rather than region.  The section on frying is divided into light frying, deep frying, oil steeping, pan frying and yin yang frying.  If you're wondering what yin yang frying is, I don't blame you.   It refers to when you fry food in hot oil, then add cold oil to lower the temperature before bringing the temperature back up to finish.

Other chapters cover Boiling, Slow Cooking, Steaming, Smoking, Roasting, Soup Making.  Again, these chapters are divided into sections.   

This book is very comprehensive for lovers of traditional Chinese cuisine.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Lucky Peach, Lucky Me

Lucky Peach, Lucky Me!

I had the Momofuku cookbook and many of the recipes were quite involved, so I never really used it. So I looked forward to this cookbook promising recipes to dishes I might actually have the time to create.   The pantry is useful especially to novices.  For example, Hainan chicken is one of my favorite dishes, so I'm happy to have an easy tasty recipe.   The soy-braised short ribs look sumptuous and do-able, too.  My mother used to make the best lion's head meatballs so naturally I enjoyed reading Peter's version.  All the photos are worth a 1,000 calories (or more), and lucky me, all the recipes are "Chineasy."

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.