Can anyone recommend a cookbook for the kind of food in a really good Chinese/American restaurant? I don’t mean “authentic” Chinese cuisine.
The best Chinese cookbooks I’ve ever used are Yan Can Cook and The Joy of Wokking, both by Martin Yan. The recipes are somewhat ingredient-heavy, but delicious. They are the only Chinese cookbooks I’ve ever used that IMO produce dishes with the polish, sophistication and finish in terms of taste that you get in food from nice Chinese restaurants. There is some “authentic” stuff, but not much and nothing too gross, and most of the dishes by far are designed to please the American palate.
Oops, I should have linked to Yan’s website rather than his Wiki page. In the recipe section are a couple of entrees that will give you an idea of his recipes, which tend to be ingredient heavy but quick and simple to cook.
I don’t know why everyone’s putting authentic in quotes: authentic is authentic!
Martin Yan makes it all look SO easy! You hardly need his cookbook if you have your veggies and meat already prepped. I’ve learned 1) use the good bottled soy sauce, oyster sauce, etc. and 2) stir-fry stuff for a very short time over very high heat for best results. Otherwise, you get…stew!
I beg to differ.
I have had sweet and sour pork from an “authentic” Chinese restaurant in Jolly Old England, and it was no where near the caliber of the mystery meat hole-in-the-walls here in my home state.
I am not Asian, but I could have cooked a better dish.
I was able to “go backstage” at a Chinese restaurant to see why my food doesn’t taste like “authentic” (read: like someone from that country would cook, not Americanized). You know what the main difference was?
HIGH HEAT. I mean flames so high, Satan said it was too hot. I watched my entree being cooked in less than 5 minutes. The same dish takes me 10-15, because the best gas flame I can muster is an inch high, compared to 6-7 inches in that restaurant.
I understand the OP. I work with a number of Asians, and my hallmark would be if they ate one of my dishes and wanted to take it home to their family.
It’s not just the flames or the heat. The cooking utensil is key. The secret lies in what is called wok hei. This is what wiki says:
“Wok hei (simplified Chinese: 镬气; traditional Chinese: 鑊氣; Jyutping: wok hei; romanization based on Cantonese; the second character is qi in Mandarin, and thus wok hei is sometimes rendered as wok chi in Western cookbooks) is the flavour, tastes, and “essence” imparted by a hot wok on food during stir frying.
To impart wok hei, the food must be cooked in a wok over a high flame while being stirred and tossed quickly. In practical terms, the flavour imparted by chemical compounds results from caramelization, Maillard reactions, and the partial combustion of oil that come from charring and searing of the food at very high heat in excess of 200 °C (392 °F). Aside from flavour there is also the texture of the cooked items and smell involved that describes wok qi.”
I’ve made a few things from Potsticker Chronicles by Stuart Chang Berman, and they’ve tasted pretty close to what you get at a good Chinese restaurant.