Techniques

Part 2 ~ Useful Cooking Techniques

Blanching

You can blanch vegetables hours ahead to help you save time when you start a recipe. Just bring a pot of water to boil, leaving plenty of room for the vegetables. Add the cut-up vegetables and cook for 1 to 5 minutes, depending on the color and the toughness of the vegetables. (Blanch broccoli only until it becomes bright green; carrots and other fibrous or starchy foods take longer to insure they are approximately ‘half cooked.’)  Remove the vegetables from the boiling water and plunge them into a large bowl or sink of cold water. Drain well.

If you need to blanch several different vegetables for different lengths of time, you may prefer to use a wire skimmer or a big slotted spoon to remove ingredients from the boiling water, using the same boiling water to blanch each ingredient separately.

Shallow-Frying

Shallow-frying is usually done in a high-sided frying pan, a wok or a Dutch oven using a couple of inches (about 5 cm) of hot oil to fry whole fish, pieces of marinated meat or for frying fritters and other snack foods. Shallow-frying differs from deep-frying only in the amount of oil that is used and in the fact that the food is rarely fully immersed in the oil. Sometimes shallow-frying can be done in advance, and then the recipe completed at a later time.

Shallow-frying is done at 350°F to 400°F (180°C to 200°C). You can use a thermometer to check your heat, or you can dip a wooden chopstick just under the surface of the oil, watching the speed and volume of air bubbles that come from the chopstick. A moderate flow of bubbles indicates near 350°F (180°C), while a very fast flow indicates the upper limit, close to 400°F (200°C). Exact temperature control is not essential.

Steaming

Steaming is a very efficient and healthful way to cook many different types of food. Caution is required, however, as steam is very hot and can burn you quite badly. Whenever steaming food, turn off the heat and open the steamer to allow built-up steam to disperse before adding or removing food to or from the steamer. Always lift the lid of a steamer away from you, as it is the first blast of steam that is the hottest.

You might wish to purchase a proper steamer – an all-in-one unit with an ample pot for the boiling water, two stacking steamer levels and a domed lid that fits on top. Most are very inexpensive and made of aluminum. (Although we don’t normally recommend cooking with aluminum since it is a reactive metal, when steaming the food rarely comes in direct contact with the metal, so you need not worry about the food changing flavor or discoloring.) You can also buy bamboo steamer baskets in most Asian markets. They are designed to sit over a wok. If you don’t own a steamer, you can use a roasting pan with a lid or a big enamel Dutch oven as the boiler. To support the dish that the food will be steamed in, use a couple of small heat proof bowls or some cans that have had both the top and bottom removed. There are also simple metal trivets and racks available that will hold the plate or bowl you are steaming in.

Some electric rice cookers also have steaming options; use the manufacturer’s directions when steaming, you will need to keep a kettle of boiling water handy to make sure the steamer does not run out of boiling water during the cooking process.

Stir-Frying

Stir-frying is a super way to prepare food, but it requires a different way of thinking. Stir-frying requires big heat, and the best source for modern cooks is a gas stove. In a typical Asian kitchen, the wok burner is much hotter than what you may be used to, and when working with that kind of heat you need to stir often to prevent food from burning.

If you don’t have a gas stove, then don’t use a wok, because a wok is designed to work over a live flame. Instead, use a heavy Dutch oven or a big cast-iron frying pan that has the mass to retain the heat you need. Preheat the pan before you add the oil so you have enough heat to get the job done.

You also want to limit the size of the dish. If you want to feed more than four, prepare additional dishes instead of increasing the amount of ingredients in a given recipe. This will ensure that your stir-fried dishes will not overwhelm the relatively small amount of heat the typical stove will provide. You need to be well organized in advance: you won’t have time for slicing, dicing or measuring while the pan is hot!

Don’t rush when stir-frying meats. If you stir too much, the cold pieces of meat will cool the pan, and instead of frying they will begin to simmer in their own juices. Instead, allow the pieces of meat to sear one side at a time. Then stir carefully to turn the pieces over to color on the uncooked side. Once the meat is mostly seared, you can stir more frequently until the pieces are cooked. This is a really good way to compensate for an ordinary stove’s lack of heat.

Care and Feeding of Your Wok

If you have a stove that can provide enough heat, a wok is a wonderful tool to work with. There are two traditional types of wok that are preferable. One is very common and can be found just about anywhere. It is made of thin steel and has either two small handles, or just one longer wooden handle. The long handle makes it easier to flip the food. The thin metal of these kinds of wok transmit the heat quickly, which is what you want in a good wok.

The other type of wok is made of thin cast iron. These are not too heavy, but they are brittle and can break if accidentally dropped. The cast iron wok can hold heat a little better, and this makes it a great choice for the home cook with an underpowered stove. There is a minor drawback with cast-iron woks:  they come coated in some kind of metal-oxide to prevent rusting, and it is a really messy job scrubbing them clean before the first use. If this is your choice use a heavy-duty scrubbing powder and elbow grease to clean this kind of wok before you start to season it. Of course, once this job is done, you will never have to do it again.

Getting your wok ready for use, a process known as ‘seasoning,’ is straightforward but can take some time. Some woks come with a varnish or coating that must be removed before you can start this process. Use hot soapy water or paint thinner if the coating on the wok seems to be a varnish. Clean the wok a second time with hot soapy water, to be sure there is no residue remaining from the first cleaning.

Next, with the kitchen fan on high, heat the wok over very high heat; don’t worry if it begins to discolour. Take a good bundle of paper towel or scrunch up an old rag and dip it into the cooking oil. Carefully rub a thin coating of oil onto the surface of the wok. This can create quite a bit of smoke, so don’t be surprised if the smoke alarm goes off. Remove the wok from the heat and allow it to cool. Repeat this process again and you should be ready to begin your stir-frying adventures. Now you have a nice, seasoned wok it is important not to over-clean it. After stir-frying, and preferably while the wok is still hot, simply clean it out with hot water and a scrubber of your choice. Use soap only if the food was really greasy and then use only a tiny amount of soap to get the job done.

A well-seasoned, well-used wok is nearly black with use. The built-up layers of oil from frequent use create a non-stick, non-reactive coating that makes stir-frying easier and food taste better. Try to avoid simmering very liquid dishes in your wok until you have a really solid seasoning built up. Even then, try to avoid cooking dishes that take time to simmer as this will compromise the protective coating. A final note:  Don’t leave food in the wok for a long time after it is prepared!  We have seen people bring what must have been a wonderful prawn curry to a pot-luck dinner, still in the wok they prepared it in. It looked good on the buffet, but the dish tasted strongly of the metal the wok was made with. The curry reacted with the poorly seasoned wok, and the dish was ruined, along with the seasoning of the wok.

 

Some of the ingredients mentioned on this website and throughout the videos on the ETA YouTube Channel can be found here.

 E&OE