Chinese sauces - general principles and methods of cooking
Chinese cuisine is very distinctive. As is known, many dishes are eaten with the help of chopsticks - special devices, exciting food pieces, like the bird's beak. One of the basic principles is that the dish should consist of small pieces so as not to require additional efforts. Two principles of Chinese cuisine say - cut and fry properly. That is why an important place in Chinese cuisine is given to sauces. Dipping pieces of meat or vegetables into the sauce with chopsticks is a whole ritual.
Sauces are notable for their richness, wide variety of strong seasonings, spicy and pungent. Just imagine - their number exceeds 300 species. Dark sauces (for example, soy), applicable in diets, perfectly enhance the taste of cereals and soups. Light sauces are more salty and spicy. Philosophically inclined, the Chinese nation believes that sauces are consistent with the male power "Yang", which is combined with the cold light female power Yin of other products, which turns food into perfect and harmonious dishes.
Chinese sauces - food preparation
Sauces are divided into light and dark, often they are used only as part of the marinade, diluted with water, vegetable oil or wine. Vinegar and honey are also added. Both the first and the second are more salty in taste, so the main food and rice, which the Chinese themselves worship more than bread, is tried to be over-salted.
Chinese sauces - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Chinese sweet and sour sauce
For our sauce, we use chopped pickles and a little tomato and brandy as a base.
Ingredients: pickled cucumbers (3 pcs.), vegetable oil (1 spoon), potato starch (2 tablespoons), wine vinegar (half a spoon), brandy (2 hours. spoons), ginger (0E, 5 tsp. spoons), tomato paste (1 tsp.), granulated sugar (2 tsp.).
Cooking method
Vegetable oil is poured into the pan and roasted a little on the fire. Add sliced pickles and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix in a bowl, potato starch, sugar, wine vinegar, tomato paste and the required amount of brandy. Stir well and pour in water. Pour the mixture onto cucumbers, stew for another 5 minutes over low heat. Serve in separate cups so that you can dip the pieces or directly in the plate with the main meal.
Recipe 2: Chinese hot sauce
Despite the fact that the sauce is very rich and has a large number of ingredients, it is much easier to prepare it than, for example, the famous Worcestershire. At its core, it contains soy sauce, which is prepared in the factory.
Ingredients: rice vinegar and soy sauce (2 tablespoons), spicy bean paste (three spoons), sherry or rice wine (2 tablespoons), honey (teaspoon), rapeseed oil (2 spoons), hot chili pepper (2 pods ), corn starch (1 teaspoon), chopped ginger (1 spoon), garlic (about half a head), tofu or finely chopped vegetables (1 cup) onion shallots (separate green and white parts).
Cooking method
We combine the following ingredients: sherry, rice wine, vinegar, soy sauce, honey starch, spicy bean paste. The ingredients are mixed until complete dissolution of the ingredients. Heat oil in a pot and fry dried chillies until golden brown. Pepper pull, and in a pot add tofu and vegetables, fry until crisp. In another bowl, mix all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Put almost all the chopped green shallots, and the remaining greens will decorate the dish. This is the perfect dressing for meat, rice, seafood and famous Chinese noodles.
Sample dishes with Chinese sauces
Recipe 1: Duck in Chinese Sauce
This delicacy is world famous. Even the imperial cooks cooked Peking duck for their rulers. For these purposes, ducklings are specially bred, fattening them with cereals so that they are very fat. The slaughtered bird is plucked and necessarily dried, then baked smeared in melted sugar in the oven. The meat is completely non-greasy, delicate in taste and unusually aromatic.
Ingredients: Duck, big and fresh, can be frozen, onions (2 heads), fresh ginger, lemon (1 pc.), Dark soy sauce (1 spoon), dry sherry (150 grams), strong chicken broth (150 grams).
Cooking method
The duck must be thawed, prepared and dried beforehand. Better blot her with a towel. Onions, ginger, lemon, skinned, cut into thin slices. Fold in a large pot or cauldron. Add water (a little more than a liter) and soy sauce, bring to a boil, and hold for 20-25 minutes. Pour the duck with the mixture and hang it to dry out in the fresh air.
At the bottom to put the pelvis to drain the fat or liquid. She can dry all day or night. Choose a suitable baking sheet and lay a duck on it. Add chicken broth to absorb fat. Warm up the oven to 240 degrees and bake. After 15 minutes, we reduce the temperature and bake for another hour with a little. Leave for 10 minutes to saturate and cool. Serve with tortillas.
Recipe 2: Chinese noodles in soy vegetable sauce
We will get several servings of gorgeous Chinese noodles in a sauce with carrots, germinated sprouts, soy sauces, chili pepper and figs.
Ingredients: pork fillet (1 kg), carrots (2 pcs.), leek (1 stalk), Chinese noodles, soy sauce (20 grams), garlic, figs (100 grams), water (200 grams).
Cooking method
Cut meat into strips and grate grated carrots. Cut the onion into half rings. Fry the meat in butter and add all the seasonings in it along with the soy sauce. Mix with carrots and onions and warm slightly. Dilute with water. Add boiled noodles to the mixture with meat and mix. Hold under the lid for five minutes and serve.
Chinese sauces - tips from experienced chefs
There are many varieties of sweet sauces, for example, plum, although it can rather be classified as sweet-salted. Salt the plum juice, add sugar, vinegar and thickener. It fits perfectly with the bird - the same Peking duck or pork steak. Also rolls and Chinese dim sum dumplings are dipped into it.
