Cooking Chinese food at home has truly never been easier--all you need is this book, a wok, and a quick trip to the supermarket
Simple Chinese Cooking offers Kylie Kwong’s philosophy of marrying the freshest ingredients and the simplest techniques to create amazing flavor. Kylie grew up devouring the mouthwatering heartiness of her mother’s traditional Cantonese cuisine. Armed with the fundamental techniques, she set out to give ancient tradition a modern twist and bring the joys of Chinese cooking to all. Now, people from all over the globe flock to her popular restaurant in Sydney, billy kwong. But in this book, she brings her delicious recipes to Chinese food lovers everywhere.
Simple Chinese Cooking demystifies the preparation of Chinese cuisine—with ingredients that are readily available in any grocery store, and recipes that are friendly and easy-to-follow. From soy sauce chicken and steamed fish fillets with ginger and spring onions, to prawn wonton soup, this book offers delicious everyday meals, as well as dishes that are perfect for entertaining. With succulent 4-color photographs throughout and step-by-step instructional pictures, Simple Chinese Cooking will guide anyone to create a delectable feast.
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Aptly titled, Simple Chinese Cooking is indeed filled with very simple recipes.
So far, every single dish I have tried have been a hit with my non-Chinese in-laws. I myself am Chinese and have grown up eating home-cooked Chinese food... I must say that most of the recipes are pretty authentic.
Like someone else who'd posted a review before me, I'd made minor adjustments to the recipes, such as cutting out the peanut oil and reducing the amount of other oils.
The ingredients are all very easy to find, which is good because I no longer live close to large Asian supermarkets.
The photos are all very beautiful and colourful.
My only "complaint" is that many of the sauces and ingredients are recycled throughout the book, but it's not a major drawback as it shows how versatile some key ingredients are.
Overall, a great book to boost one's confidence in cooking home-style Chinese food.
I found this book to be very well written indeed. As a Chinese I am pretty fussy about Chinese food and I find myself very happy with Kylie's recipes and approach. The stress on fresh ingredients and fresh preparation is the cornerstone to great tasting Asian food, and Kylie imposes that discipline throughout the book. You might want to experiment with sauce proportions- some might want to tweak degree of saltiness and taste. Remember, Chinese food ingredients do not scale up or down linearly, so you need to experiment when scaling up or down a meal. For American readers, you will notice differences in naming cuts of meats and some ingredients- not a big deal, just look it up on the internet. On the whole, a great book and it will continually be a useful reference for me.
Jan 16 2009 Update: Still using it and loving it! We've tried many recipes and have our favorites.
The three recipes I have made so far have been great hits. Have had to make some minor adjustments ( such as not using heated peanut oil over a finished dish) because of dietary concerns but these adjustments have not made a major change in the over all "deliciousness" of what I have tried.
I have an extensive collection of Chinese cookbooks and this one looks as if it will become a favorite...easy to follow recipes and easy to find ingredients.
Kylie Kwong's "Simple Chinese Cooking" is a must have for those who are interested in Chinese cuisine. As suggested by the title of her cookbook, the recipes are simple and easy to understand. Sometimes, Asian cooking can be quite complicated with incredients that are hard to get or they're just so tedious that it would take an entire afternoon to get the dish ready. Kylie's on the other hand, chooses dishes that simple to make, yet delicious. The photography in this cookbook is exceptional and captivating. It really brought to life Kylie's dishes. I think "Simple Chinese Cooking" is definitely a long-term investment for those who want to learn about authentic Chinese cuisines. Highly recommended.
What more could an aspiring cook of Chinese food desire? This is a beautiful book, complete with glorious photographs, easy to follow recipes and includes a menu planner.
Variety is the essence of Chinese cuisine. Fortunately variety need not mean complexity. Every recipe we've cooked from this book has been a success, and the tips and presentation are superb.
All of Ms Kwong's books are superb, but if you have to choose just one, then this would be my choice.
First, let me tell you about me so that you can understand my perspectives on this book. I'm an international student from Asia. I have had many amazing home-made, authentic Chinese dishes and I have been around the kitchen helping my mom. I have some experiences in the kitchen. I do turn to my mom when asking for a recipe, but sometimes the instructions of these skilled and experienced cooks are quite vague. They don't do cups measurement. They cook and adjust the taste accordingly (yet these dishes always turn out perfect and amazing). I , therefore, also have that style of cooking and adjusting the taste accordingly, so it is quite a new thing for me to use a book in which measurements are in cups, precisely. However, being in the US, not all the ingredients are available, and sometimes it's hard to find substitutes. I bought this book because, being a college student, I truly don't have much time and money to spend on expensive and complicated dishes for everyday meals (occasionally or on weekend, yes, I can spend hours in the kitchen, but weekdays? No thanks), and I don't have close access to Asian oriental stores (the nearest one is 1 hour away from where I live). With that, to me this is truly a book full of simple Chinese dishes with adaption to Western taste and ingredients. Having said that, that doesn't mean all dishes are adapted nor all ingredients can be found in your normal, everyday grocery stores. It helps if you live near an Asian market or oriental stores. But Kylie has made it easier by listing all the "special" ingredients right in the beginning of the book. You will need just one trip to the store to get all those authentic ingredients you need (other "normal" ingredients you can get at your grocery store). The layout of the book is also very helpful.... The book is divided into Soups, Chicken, Duck, Beef, Tofu, etc., which is very helpful if you have something in your refrigerator and want to make something with it. This is easier for me than listing the name of the dishes or categorize the dishes by appetizers, main dishes, etc. because, let's be honest, simple cooking doesn't exactly say "appetizer-main-dessert meals," and who can remember those 1000x names. Kylie has done a great job including and adapting these Chinese dishes to be simple enough for tonight's dinner. The book is clear in explanation, easy to read, straight to the point. I have made many dishes from this book and am quite pleased. My boyfriend, who has a picky tooth, has actually requested many of the dishes I have made. I also have The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough for Tonight's Dinner by Jaden, and I like Kylie's Simple Chinese Cooking more because it's more authentic, covers greater amount of areas on Chinese cooking, and the dishes taste better. For the reviewer who says the recipes in this book are bland, mentioning the tofu recipe, I just want to let you know that tofu is actually kinda bland in nature. That dish's essences are in its simplicity and purity. It's a wonderful starter, kind of a comfort food for many Chinese. When you are full of those high-protein dishes, it's a bliss just to think of such pure and simple dish like this. That being said, this book is not without fault. The degree of authenticity of the dishes in this book may disappoint readers who are looking to make truly authentic dishes (for this, I recommend Henry Chung's Hunan Style Chinese Cooking (Henry Chung's Hunan Style Chinese Cookbook) if you want authentic Chinese food. But to be fair, the purpose of this book, as stated on the title, is to create simple Chinese dishes, written to include also Western readers who do not live in Asian countries and therefore, lack the access to many ingredients. With this in mind, I cannot criticize, instead, I want to applaud Kylie for successfully encouraging many new readers to Chinese cooking, an art that requires practices, time, and experiences to acquire mastery. The book itself is beautiful in presentation. Every dish has picture, some even have pictures to show you the skill and steps that may otherwise confuse you. Another potential weakness of this book is, as other reviews may have pointed out, is that it's big. While that doesn't matter to me because I like to read the recipe first to capture and visualize steps that will take place, then write down the recipe on the notecard to take it with me into the kitchen, I understand it may be a minus point to other readers. But if you want a book that has pictures of the final products, actually shows you steps of how to execute those seemingly difficult skills you see at the restaurants, and won't fall apart within a few years being handled in the kitchen, this is a compromise you will have to make. One personal disappointment though, is that the Mapo Tofu recipe in this book is not authentic :(. Kylie uses tomatoes on the dish, which I have never seen before. All these flaws of this book can be understood, so between 3 and 4 stars, I chose to give this book 4 stars. This is not a perfect Chinese cookbook, but maybe the best out there for good and simple Chinese food. The star off is because of the degree of authenticity of the dishes in this book. With a few potential negative points of the book, this is still a book NOT to be passed by. You have come to find this book, that means you are interested in Chinese cooking. While this book may not make you the best cook on Chinese food or the master of Chinese cooking, it's a wonderful introduction to beginners, nice addition to more experienced cooks, and helpful for experienced cooks who want to adapt Chinese cooking to everyday meals.Read more ›
