Category: General Food Recipes

Good Chinese Recipes for Beginners

Choosing a good Chinese recipe can be hard if you have never prepared much Chinese food in the past. With ingredients you may not be used to and cooking styles you are unfamiliar with, it might seem a little scary when looking through recipes.

Its best to start with something easy and fun unless you are an experienced cook or you know exactly what you want. If you absolutely love pot stickers, you might try making those.

For most people, the best Chinese recipes to start with are single course dishes. The easiest are usually rice, a few vegetables and one kind of meat.

If you get more complex than that, you might have too much going on at once and it can feel overwhelming. Its very easy to start some rice and cook your meal while the rice is cooking.

Rice usually takes about 20 minutes and it should take about that long to cut some meat and vegetables and get them cooking. Stir fry is the easiest thing to cook. Its basically meat and vegetables seared over high heat while stirring constantly.

When choosing a Chinese recipe, you should keep in mind how many people you are going to feed. If its just a meal for one or two, you can get a little fancier and try a couple different types of sauce.

If you are feeding kids, you cant go wrong with something familiar like sweet and sour chicken. If you try to serve up a bunch of Chinese bean pancakes, the kids might protest.

Its always best to start small and try something familiar.

Fun Chinese Recipes for Kids

There are a lot of Chinese recipes out there that are not only familiar but very fun to make. From egg rolls to won tons, not only are they delicious but you can get the entire family involved in the cooking process.

Kids love to make egg rolls and won tons and enjoy having the freedom to put their own ingredients inside.

A fun way to change around your typical egg roll recipe is to let your family decide what goes into them. You can use anything from cheddar cheese and ham to peanut butter and jelly.

The fun part is the rolling. Its a great family experience to sit together and create something. Even if it doesnt turn out perfect, its the effort that makes it great.

Won tons are basically smaller and differently shaped egg rolls and are a lot of fun to make too. Even a 4 year old can make a won ton so families of all ages can do this together.

Traditionally, won tons have ground pork, onions, and special Chinese vegetables and seasoning but just like egg rolls, you can mix it up a little.

Some cream cheese or frosting inside and some cinnamon and sugar can make for an interesting treat that everyone will like.

For older kids, you can teach them to make almost anything if they are willing. They can help chop vegetables, learn to cook rice, or even make a stir fry with little help.

It can be very rewarding to have your family help in the kitchen and it might even become a hobby or career for them one day.

Chinese Vegetable Recipes

Chinese vegetable recipes are very popular these days because everyone is always on a diet. With the right recipes on hand, you could easily drop a few pounds a month by eating delicious Chinese food a couple times a week.

Many people immediately think of things like bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and bok choy. While these are common Chinese vegetables, not that many recipes use them.

They are just usually prepackaged in the frozen food section with anything that says Chinese on it. There are many more vegetables you can use to give your recipes a distinctly Chinese flavor.

Chinese cabbage is one of the best tasting and useful vegetables you can buy. Its not as tangy or large as normal cabbage and has a great flavor.

You can use this in salads, soups and stir fry to add a more authentic Chinese taste and look to your food or improve any standard Chinese recipe. It doesnt hold up well under high heat so it should always be added last.

A great way to make your Chinese recipe really special is to add a handful of fresh snow pea pods. These are very sweet and are commonly found in soups like won ton. They can really add something special to any stir fry and go great with seafood.

Every grocery store has a section that will have some Chinese vegetables. If you like the taste of ginger, it can be used to spice up almost any recipe you have.

It can be overpowering though. You will also see many things that look like leeks and green onions. If you dont know what they are, it doesnt hurt to buy some, take it home and find a recipe for it. You might find a new favorite vegetable!

Chinese Rice Recipes

Rice has always been a traditional part of Chinese life. Its cheap, filling, tastes great, and can be used in many different ways.

Everyone has had steamed rice and fried rice and those two very simple dishes are a great addition to many different meals. More popular in the warmer Southern China, rice is grown all over the place and it has been for thousands of years.

If you have a Chinese rice recipe that sounds great, just take your time and learn to cook rice first.

Many people think rice is simple to cook and very hard to mess up. That couldnt be farther from the truth. Rice can be completely ruined in many ways.

There could be too much water, too little water, it can be overcooked, undercooked, and burnt. Anyone who has had restaurant quality rice and then tried to recreate it has learned this lesson.

Chinese recipes usually call for a specific type of rice that is cooked a certain way. If you think your jasmine rice will taste just as good a little crunchy, you are very wrong.

Improperly cooked rice can annihilate even the most delicious Chinese recipe and the reaction from friends and family might turn you off from cooking Chinese food for a long time.

The easiest way to cook rice is with a rice cooker. These are fairly cheap and automatically shut off when the rice is finished.

You can never mess your rice up again as long as you follow the directions of the machine and the rice itself.

By adding perfect rice to accompany a great Chinese recipe, you will have a much better reaction from everyone who eats it.

Chinese Recipes

Chinese recipes for cooking are some of the most interesting and delicious types you can find.

From your standard stir fry to more exotic dishes with shrimp or duck, Chinese recipes are sure to be a big hit at your dinner table or any type of get together.

There are thousands of Chinese recipes out there you can find in cookbooks, on television, or on the Internet.

Chinese recipes are often handed down throughout the generations and some have origins that date back thousands of years. Granted, there wasnt near the technology we have today with electric woks, rice cookers, and deep fryers but the recipes remain unchanged.

Chinese recipes have a very rich history and cultural heritage but many were created by the lower class who worked very hard and needed to have a good meal. This is why so many Chinese recipes revolve around Chinas main food staple. Rice.

Rice is a very important part of Chinese recipes. Not just for its filling properties but because the climate in China is perfect for rice.

It grows fairly fast and has a high yield making it the perfect food to accompany a meat or seafood dish. By adding rice, a meal for two can easily become a meal for five. This is accomplished in the same way by using another staple of Chinese food which is noodles.

Chinese recipes vary from being easy to taking hours upon hours to prepare. If you are not used to Chinese cooking, you may need to buy some new cookware that is suitable for what you will be making.

A wok is very handy for stir fry and deep fried dishes and is a lot less messy than your standard frying pan. With a little trial and error, you can make many different Chinese recipes a fun new addition to your menu.