Chinese Cooking Techniques - Combination

Combination

Several techniques in Chinese involve more than one stage of cooking and have their own terms to describe the process. They include:

  • Dòng (凍): The technique is used for making aspic but also used to describe making of various gelatin desserts
    1. Simmering meat for a prolonged period in a broth (Lu, 滷) or (Dun, 炖)
    2. Chilling the resulting meat and broth until the mixture gels
  • Hùi (燴): The dishes made using this technique is usually finished by thickening with starch (勾芡)
    1. Quick precooking in hot water (Tang, 燙)
    2. Finished by stir-frying (爆, 炒) or Shao (燒)
  • Liū (溜): This technique is commonly used for meat and fish. Pre-fried tofu is made expressly for this purpose.
    1. Deep frying (Zha, 炸) the ingredients until partially cooked
    2. Finishing the ingredients lightly braising (Shao, 燒) it to acquired a soft "skin"
  • Mēn (燜):
    1. Stir-frying (爆, 炒) the ingredients until partially cooked
    2. Cover and simmer (Shao, 燒) with broth until broth is fully reduced and ingredients are fully cooked.

Read more about this topic:  Chinese Cooking Techniques

Famous quotes containing the word combination:

    “[The pleasures of writing] correspond exactly to the pleasures of reading, the bliss, the felicity of a phrase is shared by writer and reader: by the satisfied writer and the grateful reader, or—which is the same thing—by the artist grateful to the unknown force in his mind that has suggested a combination of images and by the artistic reader whom his combination satisfies.”
    —Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)

    “Let him [the President] once win the admiration and confidence of the country, and no other single force can withstand him, no combination of forces will easily overpower him.... If he rightly interpret the national thought and boldly insist upon it, he is irresistible; and the country never feels the zest of action so much as when the President is of such insight and caliber.”
    —Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)

    “Hats have never at all been one of the vexing problems of my life, but, indifferent as I am, these render me speechless. I should think a well-taught and tasteful American milliner would go mad in England, and eventually hang herself with bolts of green and scarlet ribbon—the favorite colour combination in Liverpool.”
    —Willa Cather (1876–1947)