Customer Reviews

Helen's Asian Kitchen: Easy Chinese Stir-Fries

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I own Helen Chen's larger cookbook, "Helen Chen's Chinese Home Cooking" and consider it one of the best Chinese cook books a person could have. Many of the recipes in it have been favorites of mine, and some of the easier ones are duplicated in this slender new volume of stir fries. For the beginning cook, this book may be less daunting. From it, I've now cooked "Garlicky Green Beans"-quite tasty, "Shrimp in Tomato Sauce"-delicious, "Kung Pao Chicken"-yummy and fiery, and ""Kan Shao Green Beans"- stellar. Obviously, I am looking forward to woking my way through the remainder of its pages. I own many other books on Chinese food and cooking, but I can think of few of them as uncomplicated as this which manage to produce such deep, rich, tasty sauces.

This is one of the best Chinese cookbooks I have and I have at least thirty. It's simple fare but not boring. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. Very creative meals. Chen really knows how to put a cookbook together.

The chicken with snow peas and the broccoli beef turn out excellent. I own another chinese cookbook and I was always disappointed at the results. The recipes on this cookbook are simple, but very tasty. There is no need to prepare a cornstarch paste in advance. I just need to get a few other ingredients to be able to try the other recipes. I look forward to doing that. My husband and I already think the book was worth buying. The only problem I see is that the book lacks pictures of all the recipes. I'd like to see what the dishes look like so that I can compare them to mine.

You can't go wrong with these recipes - these mostly-cantonese dishes are superb, with accurate full page color photos and clear instructions with ingredients you can find at any asian market. I don't fancy the sweetness of Chinese/American dishes and have improved the recipes by adding less sugar (especially in recipes that already have hoisin or dark soy sauces), but either way the dishes have worked out great. Her attention to generating just the right amount of sauce / gravy for the dishes adds a restaurant touch and improves their display, something that other cookbooks often don't get right.

Nothing fancy in this book, but the ingredients are easily obtainable and there are several recipes I'd make again. I do prefer my old Jean Yueh cookbook, which is out of print (1979).

I bought this as a gift to my grand daughter, she is enjoying it very much as is her Mother. They have used it often.

I have rarely seen a cook book I didn't like to read and this one is no exception.

These recipes seem very authenic but not adaptable to my lifestyle. I like stir-fry because it is fast and delicious and I just see what is in the fridge and start chopping. I am not familiar with some of the ingredients and would have to make a shopping trip to cook most of the recipes.

I would like to try some of these dishes in a nice resturant. Lazy? Little bit!