Steaming: An Ancient And Healthy Cooking Technique

Sautéing, also been called stir-frying, is the most dominating cooking technique in Chinese cuisine. This cooking technique is widely used in every branch of Chinese cuisine, especially Szechuan cuisine and Hunan cuisine.

The fundamental principle of sautéing is to cook small-piece ingredients in a period of relatively short time, with high heat. A small amount of oil used during the procedure plays a role of heat-transfer medium, for it has sufficient heat conduction ability.

In terms of the issues on high heat and short time, to make sure all the ingredients are evenly heated is the key essential of sautéing. Additionally, preparation for ingredients in uniform size is a good guarantee for evenly heating and elegant shape of the dish.

Unlike the use of olive oil and butter in Western cuisine, rapeseed oil and lard oil is vastly used in Chinese sautéing. In westerners’ view, sautéing is difficult to distinguish from frying. However, the distinction between the two techniques can be easily judged depending on the amount of oil used and the size of ingredients.

Braising: A Step-By-Step Illustration

Braising in Chinese style is a very significant and prevalent cooking technique in Chinese cuisine.Typical Chinese Method:
- the main ingredients of the recipe must be preprocessed, by frying or boiling, in order to prepare cooked products for next step.
- add suitable amount of liquor and seasoning to the precooked ingredients, using high heat to stimulate the basic color and flavor of the dish.
- use medium or light heat to cook before ending and finish cooking with some special treatments, such as thickening with starchy sauce.

During the braising procedure, water plays a role as heat-transfer medium and the time of cooking depends on the differences of the ingredients and culinary styles.

In Chinese cuisine, soy sauce is the most widely used seasoning in braised dishes, and adding starchy sauce is another distinctive characteristic.