World Cuisines – Cooking Methods
The practice of heating food in a pan of boiling water, and then removing the pan from the heat after a minute or two so than the cooking is completed by the retained heat probably originated from China. Crystal Chicken is cooked in this way. For very young and tender chickens the Chinese allow no more than 1 minute of boiling before the pan is removed from the fire. The bird is cooked by the heat retained in the water, in which it stands for a few hours to cook, before it is drained and chopped into pieces of appropriate size. Crystal Chicken is often served with dips based on soya sauce with such additions as vinegar, chopped ginger, garlic, sherry or chili.
If longer cooking is required for westerners, the food is brought to the boil for 1 minute, allowed to cook for 20 minutes, and the process is repeated a couple of times. In the case of pork, to convert the fat to a palatable jelly the period of boiling or simmering have to be much more prolonged, and the whole process really resembles clear simmering.
In any case, meat or poultry which has been boiled this way is seldom over cooked or tough. Moreover, if the meat or bird was well chosen (young, tender, and very fresh, so that a degree of under-cooking does not detract from the dish), the result is richer in natural juices than if it were cooked in any other fashion. The final combination at the table of these juices with the various dips and mixes is a gourmet’s delight. Among the half dozen or so dishes on a well appointed Chinese table there is often a dish prepared in this manner.
Simmering and steaming are also very popular cooking methods in oriental countries. Steaming is also used to give the final seal to many recipes prepared from ingredients which have already been cooked separately. In other words, various precooked items are assembled in the same container and given, as a final process, a short blast of steam (around 10 to 15 minutes) to achieve the necessary unity. For example, one type of Eight Jewel Duck is composed of numerous ingredients, which are variously flavored by simmering in master broth and by deep frying, is finally subjected to prolonged steaming to make the duck meat very tender. Many delicious shrimp recipes have been cooked this way.
Making a mess is one of the pitfalls stir frying, but since steamed dishes are left undisturbed during cooking and do not suffer the final great stir up, they can be attractively arranged and presented more easily.
