Chinese takeaways are the ‘fast food’ of Chinese cuisine. A takeaway is where you would go to get your fried spring rolls, fried wontons, special fried rice or beef with greens. It is usually a lot more salty and oily than home-cooked Chinese food, in which dishes are a lot simpler, less rich and better balanced. It is no wonder that Chinese takeaways have created a bad name for themselves with many using high levels of monosodium glutamate to enhance the flavour. Although MSG is a natural substance, found in many foodstuffs, used as an additive it can have adverse effects. I personally have an intolerance to it, suffering from heart palpitations and a dry throat.
To me, if you use the freshest ingredients, you don’t need MSG because the dish will be full of flavour, especially if those ingredients are in season and at their very best. Many manufacturers of Chinese or Asian condiments often add MSG, and I have found that a small amount within a sauce is fine, but commercial sauces can contain quite a bit. Try and find ones that don’t have MSG and contain ingredients that are as natural as possible. Best of all, create your own sauces – in this book I’ll show you how to use store-cupboard ingredients to make your own. It is true of all cuisines that the foods you cook yourself at home will be healthier and lighter than any takeaway food. In fact, a recent report showed that a meal cooked at home contains on average 1,000 fewer calories than its takeaway/restaurant equivalent and considerably less salt. Even though my grandmother was partial to a little ‘gourmet powder’ (MSG) from time to time, she always practised what she preached – to be certain of what you’re eating, it is better to cook the food yourself.
That’s not to say that I’m not partial to a Chinese takeaway myself; indeed, there is a good one near where I live in North West London. I happen to know the owner and have been to the factory where the special 11-spice powder they use for their crispy aromatic duck is lovingly ground, and it’s so good! When I don’t have anything in my fridge or want to give myself time off in the kitchen, I just give them a ring and order number 15. But unless you know the establishment well, it’s like takeaway roulette, and we’ve all had a bad takeaway experience at some time or another. If you have a reliable local takeaway, support the owners and treat them like family!
I actually love Chinese food in all its forms – Americanised, anglicised, even bastardised. I recently had the pleasure of trying Chinese chicken salad American-style and I could see the attraction in the sweet orange sauce coupled with crispy fried wonton skins, crunchy lettuce and chicken strips. Yes, God forbid, I have even had a craving for it since! (I blame it entirely on the sugary sauce.) There is beauty in Chinese takeaway food that is cooked well – even a pretty standard dish like sweet and sour pork balls. I know some expats living Hong Kong who demand to have some of the anglicised takeaway stuff and would import it if they could. It is simply a matter of taste. And what most fascinates me is how thousands of people all over the world are united in their love of Chinese takeaway food, while the forefathers of this invention were completely unaware that they were the pioneers of Chinese fast food and the very best in their field. It is an amazing achievement when you think about it: these days R&D (research and development) chefs get paid six-figure sums to come up with what they did.
In my quest to share my love and appreciation of Chinese food, I myself have been blamed for ‘dumbing down’ Chinese cuisine for the Western palate in my attempt to whet people’s appetite for it. But I much prefer to see it as ‘creative fusion’. If I remained true to the Chinese classics, I would be a copycat cook and not a progressive one. A cook’s job in my opinion is to be creative and push the boundaries of their cuisine and never stop experimenting.
Yes, classics are good, but classics at one point in history came from somewhere too. They were once new – someone invented them, and if they had never experimented, we wouldn’t be enjoying those dishes today.
And are classic dishes the only authentic ones? I prefer the term ‘heritage’. Dishes can have heritage and influence, but they are not necessarily ‘authentic’ because the question would be, authentic to whom? Authenticity is a matter of perspective. Chinese takeaways have become such a staple of so many different countries that you could argue that they are just as authentic within immigrant Chinese cooking as the older, classic dishes.
I am always being asked for takeaway menu recipes, so here is my book on the subject. Don’t accuse me of not knowing my xiao long bao from my char siu bao – because I do and I can make both. I want to share my love of Chinese takeaways and show how, cooked well, they can hold their own with the other great cuisines of the world. People also ask me whether I cook other types of food at home, and I certainly do. In fact, I have a soft spot for Lebanese cuisine, and I love Italian and Indian. But my vocation and career is making Chinese food – and please excuse the generic word ‘Chinese’, for there are over 34 regions in China with over 54 different dialects and each region has a unique way of preparing food. So until I master all the Chinese dishes there are to be mastered and explored, I won’t be able to venture properly into other cuisines. Chinese cooking alone could keep me going for more than a lifetime.
If you are Chinese and, like my father, snobbish about Chinese takeaways, my hope is that, after reading these recipes, you will be cooking and feeding them to your kids instead of the dog and you will feel encouraged to embrace them as part of your culture and be proud of them.
Chinese takeaway cuisine is perfectly acceptable at home too, and I want to prove that, when cooked correctly, it can be the healthiest, most economical and delicious food you have ever eaten. With many low-fat dishes and using plenty of fresh vegetables and lean meat and fish, it’s also good for those who are worried about keeping slim. If you are vegetarian, Chinese food has a huge array of bean curd and ‘mock meat’ recipes made from wheat gluten. Equally, if you are allergic to wheat or gluten or to monosodium glutamate, you can buy soy sauces that are wheat-free and condiments that don’t contain MSG. If you have a nut allergy, use vegetable or sunflower oil instead of groundnut oil, and if you are watching your salt intake you can substitute a low sodium, light soy sauce. I would also advise using organic or free-range eggs and meat wherever possible.
With this book, I want to give you my 21st-century version of the Chinese takeaway, inspired by this favourite fast food. I want to demonstrate how I think Chinese takeaway dishes should be cooked at home. I will look at all the offerings, whether healthy or unhealthy, give my view on them, share tips with you and show you lots of easy recipes that can be cooked far more quickly than it would take you to order your favourite takeaway dish. I will share with you my knowledge of flavour pairings to get the best out of your Chinese store cupboard (see the box above for my top ten ingredients) and introduce some new ways of eating and cooking Chinese food. In addition, I want to show you how Chinese takeaway dishes, when cooked with the freshest ingredients you can lay your hands on (coupled with the right culinary techniques), is a far superior ‘fast food’ than any other cuisine in the world. If I owned a takeaway, the dishes in this book are the ones you’d find on my menu.
Enough said. Less talk and more cooking!
MY TOP TEN ESSENTIAL CHINESE STORE-CUPBOARD INGREDIENTS:
1. Light soy sauce
2. Dark soy sauce
3. Shaohsing rice wine
4. Toasted sesame oil
5. Five-spice powder
6. Sichuan peppercorns
7. Chinkiang black rice vinegar
8. Clear rice