How to do eastern cooking?

[Tab]

This has always eluded me. I can cook a zillion things western, and am not too bad at middle eastern (Afghanistan, etc) but far eastern stuff just - well, I can't seem to get the hang of it.

There's two kinds - traditional Asian (whether Chinese, Thai, Korean, vietnamese), and then Indian. The technique for Indian I seem to be okay on, but I'm mystified by the ingredients and how they interplay. For the more traditional Asian, the technique itself seems to elude me. I've watched enough people do it, they seem to do the aromatics in oil first, gradually getting to the main ingredients, but I have yet to produce something I could claim to be of that food genre, much less serve. Sauce is also key, but I'm lost there as well.

Any experts out there?

[htuttle]

1. Learning how to make masalas is a bit like learning to play jazz

Indian spice mixtures have a lot of ingredients and a lot of subtleties. The basis of the mixtures is heavily influenced by the principles of ayurvedic medicine. According to ayurveda, there are six different tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Ideally, recipes should have something of a balance of all six. That being said, there are usually one or two spices dominating the theme, such as cumin or ginger (plus the ever-present peppers). To avoid having my saag taste just like my jalfrezi, when I'm first learing to make a dish, I usually stick to a recipe (or meld two or three of them). Then I start improvising a bit on the various proportions after I've made it a few times.

Another important thing is HOW you cook the ingredients, meaning how much heat and for how long each item is in the pot. Seeds like cumin and mustard usually get roasted first in the ghee, then onions cook until thoroughly abused (I like to sear them enough to turn them sweet), garlic, ginger and peppers less so, and meat only lightly seared in the former ingredients then simmered for a longer while. Frying some of the spices directly before deglazing/simmering also seems to be common. Never apply a lot of heat to cilantro or garam masala. They'are supposed to add a fresh high note when added at the end, and cooking them too much will remove that.

Using ghee is hugely important in Indian cooking. Learn to make it. It's pretty easy and cheaper than buying. Same goes for paneer cheese. If you don't have ghee and need to use oil, add some butter right in near the end of simmering.

With Chinese and Thai food, I think it's a lot more about bringing out the flavors of the meat and vegetables than the spices. The temperature and order of cooking is really important. One thing I've learned is that when I stir fry in a wok, the best situation when you first add the ingredients is a hot wok and cold oil. For example, I used to add five-spice powder to my fried rice, but now just work with the meat and vegetable ingredients. First the meat and aromatics, then vegetables, then an egg gets scrambled in, then (cooked but cold) rice and finally some soy sauce.

Anyway, there's a Saturday morning brain dump on Asian food. Now I'm hungry...

[pinto]

3. I "learned" Chinese working in my cousin's restaurant. Here's what I took home:

Most dishes are done quick and *hot*. And turned, turned, turned.

Have *everything* prepped, chopped and sliced before hand, and *at hand* by the wok. Meat, chicken, fish and vegetables, oil, stock, any flavor sauce you want to incorporate, spices, and thickener.

For the basic, well known dishes: Once the oil is hot, you cook the whole dish in one wok without walking away. Essentially you cook each ingredient, one at a time, in the same pot, instead of separately, in a bunch of pots.

Start with the meat, turn, add veggies, turn, add spices, turn, the hot stuff (chilies), turn, then some stock and flavor sauce, turn, and just before serving a thickener (corn starch w/stock), turn, turn, turn.

[Tab]

4. I have to say that this mirrors a lot of what I've seen

Prep everything, toss it in, do it quick, basically.

I've been to some high-end restaurants where I doubt they do it quite like that, but the one's I've been able to watch seem to follow that approach.

[pinto]

5. Yeah, "fusion" stuff is probably done diff, as is duck and banquet fare,

but this seemed the standard for most dishes. And, fwiw, was the same at home (I lived with them for a while).

[yellowdogintexas]

13. I do all my veg first and undecook them a bit, as they continue to steam in

their own juices while the meat is cooking. I find I get away with much less oil this way, it is amazing how little oil is needed to stir fry a pile of pea pods, for example. I also try to cut stuff up according to how it cooks. Carrots I cut up very small and thin because they take longer to cook, but zucchini or squash cook faster for example .

I cook pea pods and bean sprouts by themselves if I am using them because they cook so quickly.

Then I cook the meat and combine all with whatever sauce I am doing.

[Warpy]

2. "The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking" by Barbara Tropp

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Art-Chinese-Cooking-Techniques/dp/0688146112

Explanations are full and techniques are carefully illustrated. This was my introduction to Chinese cooking.

Don't bother with her second, she got restaurantitis in that one.

[kestrel91316]

6. Indian food is easy and tasty. East Asian food escapes me, too.

Ijust go to local restaurants if I want any....

[Stinky The Clown]

7. I share the same problem ...... I was given a copy of "The Breath of a Wok"

It is as much about the zen of Asian cooking as it is about recipes.

I can cook Italian and can cook damned near anything in an Italian style. Or a European style. Or an American style. I **understand** these idioms. I feel them. I breathe them. I can imagine taste by reading ingredient lists. I know the tools and techniques and can improvise easily.

Not so much with Asian food. It is truly foreign to me.

This book helped a great deal.

[pinto]

8. It's in the nose.

There's a Chinese saying that comes close to this, but it's my approximation.

The cooking is done so quickly, and close, many dishes are done by scent, in a way. You can smell the oil, the pepper and such. *And* you can smell when enough is enough.

[Tab]

9. *And* you can smell when enough is enough. Absolutely true.

I know that when I cook with lots of garlic then I start to smell too.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. I'm something of an Indian food expert

(at least judging by the number of Indian cookbooks I have). There are multiple subdivisions of Indian cuisine using different combinations of ingredients and techniques, but I would suggest you get your hands on this cookbook 660 Curries by Raghavan Iver http://www.amazon.com/660-Curries-Raghavan-Iyer/dp/0761148558 if you're really interested in getting into it. This has become my new favorite cookbook not just for the recipes but for the entertaining and educational way in which its written.

I can't help you much on the far Eastern cooking. I can do it, but the Indian is by far my favorite.

One other thing that's VERY important in Indian cooking is to have all your ingredients measured out and ready to go before you start. Some of the spices are only heated for seconds and if you're not ready with the next phase, they can burn and taste terrible.

[Tab]

11. Good to know

Given a choice, I'll take Indian food over far eastern anyway (except maybe for Thai).

I just haven't noodled out the spice combinations.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. This book is the best I've seen for explaining the spices.

Most of the ingredients Iyer uses are fairly common although depending on where you live you might have trouble getting fresh curry (kari) leaves. Fresh or dry were nonexistent up here, so my husband brought me four baby curry trees up from Houston when he was down there (two separate trips; he carried them on), so now I'm growing my own inside under lights. I imagine I probably have the only fresh curry leaves in Anchorage. :) I took some to our local Indian grocer and they traded us for anything we wanted in the store.


ed. Thai is our second favorite Asian food, too. Completely different process than Indian ... more fresh herbs, very little spice.