Cook Ware for
Cooking Chinese Food
What are some cookwares used in cooking Chinese food? Wok is a traditional cook ware used to cook Chinese food. It can be used for stir-frying, shallow-frying, deep-frying, steaming, blanching, boiling and braising. Traditionally, round-bottom woks are used as the shape enables even heating of the food and make stir frying smoother. The deep side of the wok also prevents food from spilling out during stir frying.
Due to the use of modern gas stoves and electric stoves, flat-bottom woks have been designed to provide stability and safety during cooking. If you prefer to use a round-bottom wok on your modern stove, you can get a wok ring to stabilise the wok on the stove. Woks come in a variety of materials like cast iron, carbon steel, stainless steel or aluminium. Some have non-stick coating to prevent food from sticking. Cooks generally prefer either cast iron wok or carbon steel wok, both of which need to be seasoned before first use. They also need to be cleaned and dried immediately after cooking to prevent rusting.
Use either a soft sponge or a bamboo brush to clean these woks with warm running water. Do not scrub or use detergent as this would damage the precious seasoning. If you do not have a wok and do not intend to buy one, you can use a deep side frying pan instead.
Along with a wok, you will need a wok cover to concentrate the heat in the wok during steaming, braising, boiling and stir frying. If oil splatter uncontrollably when you are frying, you can also use a dry wok cover to cover it up shortly until the splattering reduces, taking care not to burn the food inside.
A Chinese spatula is needed if you are stir-frying or frying big pieces of ingredients like a whole fish. It will help you stir fry, turn and scoop the food and gravy easily.Some cooks prefer to use wok ladles to stir fry and serve food instead.
If you are frying a batch of ingredients like fish fillets, use a pair of long wooden cooking chopsticks as it will help you turn the ingredients in the wok more easily than a spatula. However, if you do not know how to handle chopsticks, use a pair of thongs instead.
A Chinese strainer is useful for scooping a whole batch of deep-fried food out of the hot oil fast to prevent over-cooking. Place the strainer (with fried food) over a stainless steel bowl to allow excess oil to drip from the food before you transfer them to a serving plate. The strainer can also be used to scoop blanched or boiled ingredients like vegetables and macaroni out of the boiling water.
To steam in a wok, you will need a metal or wooden steaming stand/rack to lift your steaming plate above the water. Alternatively, you can use a bamboo steamer. A big bamboo steamer can be used to steam fish or chicken while a small one can be used for dim sums.
If you are steaming many dishes, you can stack a few layers of bamboo steamers over your wok to steam all at one go. Just make sure that the wok is stable.Another Chinese cook ware to enable you to steam many items altogether is the metal steamer which can also be stacked. The bottom layer is for water and the others are for food.
A clay pot is another Chinese cook ware which has been used since ancient days. It helps to bring out the flavour of the ingredients better, especially when burnt over charcoal. Clay pots are used to braise food, brew soup/stock and cook rice. They are available in various sizes, shapes and finishes (glazed/ unglazed) for different purposes. Without a clay pot, you can use any saucepan or soup pot you have at home. If you like to brew soup frequently for long hours, you can consider using an electric slow cooker which does not need frequent monitoring. If you wish to shorten the cooking time for hard ingredients, you can try a pressure cooker.
As for double-boiling of soup, you will need a Chinese cook ware called Dun Chung. Alternatively, use either a stove-top or electric double-boiler. Some electric double-boilers are big enough to contain whole chicken parts in the soup, a benefit if you are cooking for more people.
Another useful cook ware to have is an electric rice cooker. With it, you can free up a stove space to brew a soup or braise some meat while you stir fry in the other.The automated rice cooker also relieves you from having to monitor the cooking. It won't burn your rice and porridge won't spill over. It can keep them warm for many hours too. Multi-functional electric rice cookers can also be used for steaming and slow cooking. Other useful cook wares to have are soup/porridge ladle, colander, sieve, vegetable brush, peeler and a pair of kitchen scissors.
Before cooking, you will need to prepare the ingredients. Traditionally, Chinese use wooden chopping boards and Chinese cleavers to chop and cut ingredients.
Wooden chopping boards are more stable than acrylic ones, especially when chopping through bones. Other than the traditional thick round ones, thinner rectangular wooden chopping boards of various sizes are also available.
Chinese cleaver can be used for many purposes including chop, slice, fillet, dice, pound (using back of blade), crush and lift (both using side of blade) food from the chopping board into the wok or plate.They are available in three basic sizes. The heaviest one is meant mainly for chopping, the lightest one for slicing and the middle one for both. Choose a good stainless steel cleaver of a size and weight suitable for you.
After cooking, if you are bringing your food elsewhere to eat or to deliver to someone else, you can place your dishes in a metal Chinese food container called "Tingkat". The Tingkat can accommodate up to 4 dishes. You can place your soup in the lowest container and stack your rice, meat and vegetables above. The Tingkat can also help to keep your food warm for some time. The duration will depend on the temperature of the food when you place them in and the thermal quality of the set that you buy. Some of these metal containers can be used as cook ware to re-heat your food over a stove, while other cannot. Thus, buy one that meets your requirements.
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