By Martin Yan Cutting up food into uniform pieces is one of the most important skills to master in Chinese cooking.

And once you learn to use an all-purpose Chinese chef's knife, it's easier than you think. If Yan can cut, so can you! I like to tell my viewers and students that the Chinese chef's knife is the original Chinese food processor. It can slice, mince, chop, crush, tenderize, and scoop up food - and you can even use the end of the handle to grind spices. Complement it with a smaller paring knife for finer cutting and making garnishes, and you'll be ready for just about anything. --from Martin Yan's Feast, The Best of Yan Can Cook, by Martin Yan, published by Bay Books, 1998.

Shop Till You Chop: Buying a Chinese Chef's Knife

Although the lightweight, all-purpose Chinese chef's knife is sometimes called a cleaver and looks like a Western meat cleaver, it's a different tool altogether (and thus should never be used for hacking bones - for that you'll need a heavier one). A good Chinese chef's knife is well balanced, well constructed, and has a fine blade that holds an edge. Always remember that a sharp knife is a safer knife. Traditional carbon steel Chinese chef's knives are available in Asian hardware stores. They are easy to sharpen, but they rust and will discolor acidic foods like onions and lemons. Ordinary inexpensive stainless steel, on the other hand, can dull quickly and is hard to sharpen. For years, I couldn't find a good, functional all-purpose Chinese kitchen knife. That's why I consulted many professional colleagues and Chinese chefs, and eventually we designed a high-carbon stainless steel blade, Martin Yan's Ultimate Chef's Knife, which I use on the Yan Can cook show. Highcarbon stainless steel won't discolor food and keeps a fine, sharp edge. In some high-quality chef's knifes, the end of the blade, called the tang (no relation to the Chinese dynasty of the same name!), extends all the way to the end of the handle and is held in place by three rivets. You can also find traditional knives with cylindrical wooden handles (which tend to loosen and crack over time). Test the balance of the knife and the comfort of the handle as you hold it. It should feel substantial, yet not so heavy that you have to be a bodybuilder to lift it.

Getting a Grip
Hold the knife in your writing hand (the Chinese call this the "chopstick hand"). Move your hand all the way up the handle so that your thumb is on one side of the blade and your index finger on the other side. Curling your index finger slightly, grasp the blade firmly between your thumb and index finger. This may feel a bit strange at first, but once you get used to it, you'll find that grasping the blade in this way gives you much more control than simply wrapping all your fingers around the handle. Use your free hand to hold the food in place, curling your fingertips under. Use the flat side of the blade alongside the first knuckles of your free hand, and as you slice or chop, slide your free hand along to guide the blade and keep it vertical. To avoid cutting yourself, never uncurl the fingers of your free hand, and never raise the blade higher than the first knuckle. Like I always say, "The idea is to move your fingers, not remove them!" Try not to wiggle the blade while cutting. Use a firm downward and slightly forward motion

Wok On!
Here's my number one tip for keeping your wok happy and perfectly seasoned. Use it! Don't banish it to that extra storage area behind the basement door. Hang it in your kitchen, where you'll reach for it all the time to cook all kinds of food - not just Chinese or Asian dishes.

Short Cuts: Knife Technique Made Simple Slicing

Holding the food and the Chinese chef knife firmly, cut straight down, using the knuckles of your free hand as a guide.

Julienne and shredding

Stack a few slices, and use the slicing technique, cutting straight down through the stack to create sticks. For matchstick julienne, start with 1/8-inch slices, and cut them into 1/8-inch sticks. To shred food into fine slivers, begin by cutting paper-thin slices, then cut across them in the same way to create thin strip.

Dicing
Line sticks up perpendicular to the blade, and slice straight down across them, creating cubes.

Mincing
Start by cutting the ingredient into thin strips, then dice the strips. Hold the knife handle in one hand and, with the other, hold down the tip of the blunt edge of the blade. Using the tip as a pivot, raise and

lower the blade in a chopping motion, moving it from side to side to mince everything evenly. Scoop up minced ingredients occasionally, flip them over, and keep chopping to ensure even mincing.

Roll-Cutting
This technique is used for long vegetables, like carrots or zucchini. It makes attractive chunks and exposes more of the surface area of the vegetable. Hold the blade perpendicular to the board and cut straight down on the diagonal. Then roll the vegetable a quarter-turn, and cut straight down again at the same diagonal angle. Continue rolling and cutting in this way all along the length of the vegetable.

Parallel Cutting
Used to cut broad, thin slices of meat or vegetables. Lay the food close to the edge of the board with the fingers of your free hand flat on top of it. Angle the Chinese chef's knife so that it's almost parallel to the board, slanting slightly downward. Move it slowly and carefully back and forth to slice the food, paying close attention to avoid cutting your fingers.

Crushing
To crush ginger or garlic, place it near the edge of the cutting board, lay the knife blade flat over it with the blade facing away from you, and with the heel of your free hand, give the side of the blade a good whack, being careful to avoid the edge of the blade.

Tenderizing
Use the blunt edge of the Chinese chef's knife to tenderize meat by pounding it in a crisscross pattern. It's even more fun to get out your aggressions by turning the blade on its side and slapping the surface of the meat.

Care and Cleaning: Staying on the Cutting Edge

Wash your chef's knife after each use in warm, soapy water and dry it well. To preserve its handle, never soak a chef's knife in water, and never put it in the dishwater. Store your knife in its own protected place (I use a magnetic knife rack),. not in a drawer where its edge might be dulled by knocking against other tools. To maintain a sharp edge, I recommend using a traditional knife sharpening steel . 1. Hold the steel firmly, placing its tip on a cutting board.

2. Position the knife at a 20-degree angle to the steel with the blade facing down and the handle of the knife just below the handle of the steel. 3. Push the blade downward along the steel, pulling it toward you as you go, until you reach the steel's tip. 4. Move the blade back up and place its other side against the steel: repeat the sharpening action, moving the blade from the steel handle to its tip. 5. Repeat six to eight times on each side of the blade.

The Cutting Board

The cutting is your knife's partner and best friend. Whether you prefer one made of wood or plastic, the key is to use a board that's big enough to hold what you're chopping so things don't go flying all over the place. To keep the board from sliding around, fold a damp kitchen towel in half and lay it under the board. Avoid cutting on hard surfaces such as marble - this is bad for your knife. We have a built-in butcher block surface at home, but I still like to place a smaller wood or plastic board over it to preserve its surface. These smaller boards are also easier to store and clean. That's especially important when you've been cutting meat, poultry, or fish. Some people like to reserve a separate board just for that purpose to avoid cross-contamination of other foods. No matter what you're chopping, it's a good idea to scrub your cutting board with soap and hot water after each use and to clean it occasionally with a mild solution of bleach or baking soda and water. Vinegar or lemon juice can also be used to clean and deodorize a cutting board.-- by Chef Martin Yan

Tips 'n' Tricks Cooking And Baking

To prevent the insides of the cooker from turning black Add a piece of tamarind or lemon peel to the cooker while boiling To preserve the white color in cauliflower and cabbage. Add a teaspoon of milk or milk powder while cooking.To prevent the burn sensation after grinding chilies Dip the hands in cold milk To prevent milk from curdling while boiling Add a pinch pf baking soda to it and it will regain its freshness To save oil while frying Add a pinch of salt to the oil while frying pakodas or koftas and you will use up less oil. Boiling Pasta & Noodles Boil pasta/noodles in plenty of water and remove just before it is fully cooked. They continue to be cooked even after it is removed from flame and drained.French fries First blanch cut potatoes in hot water or medium hot oil till tender, then deep-fry in very hot oil till crisp. Take care not too add too many potatoes at once to the oil. This causes the temperature of the oil to come down and you will end up with fries that are greasy, not crisp! If potatoes or carrots get over-cooked Just mash them well and serve with butter or use it as a batter for preparing cutlets To soften cream cheese quickly remove it from the foil wrapper and microwave it on

medium for 30-40 seconds. When soups and stews get burnt, you can renew its taste By pouring the liquid gently and carefully into a clean pan and flavor with curry powder or mustard or some chutney to camouflage the burnt taste When a recipe calls for instant coffee substitute instant espresso powder for an extra boost To remove bitterness from karela Slit it from the middle and rub a mixture of salt, wheat flour and curd over it. Keep aside for 1/2 an hour, before cooking. To regain freshness in stale chapattis Just wrap them in a clean cloth and pack them in an airtight container that will fit into the pressure cooker and pressure cook for two whistles and serve fresh and hot. To determine if baking powder is still active add 1 teaspoon to 1/3 cup of hot water. If it bubbles vigorously, it's still active and will give good baking resultsSave your margarine or butter wrappers to grease your baking pans, Just fold in half the wrappers and put in refrigerator. Take out and add a little shortening and spread in pan, then throw away Retain the green of vegetablesGreen vegetables lose colour if subjected to continuous heat. So, do not overcook them. Wet the measuring cup It will make removing the sticky ingredients like shortening or peanut butter easier. Put folded paper towel in bottom of salad bowl. Add veggies and greens to a salad bowl containing paper towel . Just before serving remove towel (which has absorbed all the water and adds crunchiness to the dressing). Salad will be snapping crisp. This is great for carrying a salad to work. No more limp lettuce. Tired Of Sticky Measuring Spoons & Cups? Before measuring honey, syrup, or molasses spray the measuring spoon or cup with a coating of nonstick cooking spray. The sticky ingredients slides right out with no mess on the spoon or cup. Use your pizza cutter!! It does a great job cutting rolled out dumplin's into squares. Or use it to cut up the kid's waffles or pancakes To prevent icing from running off your cake dust the surface lightly with cornstarch To keep your bananas from going too ripe too fast keep them in a plastic bag To avoid stickiness in RiceAdd a few drops of lemon juice to the rice while cooking, you will find that the grains of rice will remain separate. For crispy lady fingers Add a few drops of lemon juice while cooking for a crispy taste To remove excess oil in any fried vegetables Sprinkle a little gramflour over the vegetables. Gramflour absorbs the excess oil and makes the vegetable tastier.Serving Boiled Noodles later If noodles/pasta has to be used after some time, then refresh the boiled noodles in cold water and drain. This way they will not stick to each other. Making potato cutlets? When boiling potatoes for cutlets add the salt to the water itself as potatoes absorb salt better this way. Curry turned out a bit oily and pungent ? Take two bread slices and powder them coarsely. Add this to the curry and mix well. Bread absorbs the excess oil and spice Hurry to cook 'dal' ? Add a little oil and turmeric powder to the dal before placing it in the cooker. It will get done in 10 minutes flat. Make a soft fluffy omelet Heat a non-stick pan and add a little more butter than usual. Now beat the egg and stir briskly (even while frying) with a fork. This way more air goes in your omelet, making it light and fluffy. Fry till done and serve hot. Prevent onions from burning, frying Add a little milk to onions while frying, this will help retain a rich colour and prevent them from burning. Soft paneer for children After taking out the butter in the milk cream add a little milk or curd to the remaining buttermilk and boil. Voila! you now have a soft paneer which is specially good for small children and those with weak stomachs. Instant Lemonade Pour lemon juice with sugar and a little salt into ice trays, to make cubes which can be used for instant lemonade.

Freezing Stuff How to Measure Poaching Using Eggs Fruit/Vegie Carving Using Spices Making Perfect Rice Mincing Ginger Making Sticky Rice Making Clarified Butter Making Udon Noodles Tips for Buying Seafood Using Chopsticks

Cooking Styles Chinese/Asian Style

Shallow Frying Roasting Deep Frying Red Cooking Paper-wrapped Frying Stewing Steaming Stir Fry

Shallow frying There are four methods of frying using a shallow amount of fat or oil.

Shallow Fry: cooking of food in a small amount of fat or oil in a frying pan or saute pan. The presentation side of the food should be fried first as this side will have the better appearance because the fat is clean, then turned so that both sides are cooked and coloured. Saute: o cooking tender cuts of meat and poultry in a saute or frying pan. After cooking, the fat is discarded and the pan is deglazed with stock or wine. This forms an important part of the finished sauce. Only tender foods can be used. o also used when cooking, for example, potaoes or onions when they are cut into slices or pieces and tossed in hot shallow fat or oil in a frying pan till golden brown. Griddle: e.g. hamburgers, sausages, sliced onions, are placed on a lightly oiled, pre-heated griddle (solid metal plate), and turned frequently during cooking.

Stir Fry: fast frying in a wok or frying pan in a little fat or oil, e.g. vegetables, strips of beef or chicken

Deep-frying Deep-frying is used to produce crisp- texured food. Often, the food is deep-fried, removed from the oil and drained. the oil is then reheated and the food deepfried again, so that it is exetremely crispy. Paper-Wrapped Deep-Frying (zhibao zha) Small pieces of meat or fish are seasoned, , the food is wrapped in sheets made of glutinous rice flour. Cellophane paper can also be used the food is served in its paper wrapping The paper is thrown away. Steaming Steaming is a traditional Chinese cooking method that is ideal for today's trend towards healthy eating. The technique was developed for when a moist dish was required as an alternative to a roasted one. It's good for vegetables, fish, meat and dumplings. There are 3 methods that can be used for steaming:

1. The traditional one. The Chinese use bamboo steamers that stack on top of each other. Dishes needing the least cooking are placed on the top level, while those requiring the most are placed on the bottom layer, near the boiling water. 2. Food is arranged on a plate or bowl, put inside a steamer on a rack and placed over a large pot of boiling water. Alternatively the plate or bowl can be put inside a wok. 3. The bowl of ingredients in partially immersed in water and the food is cooked partly by the boiling water and partly by the steam it produces. Compared with food cooked by other methods, steamed dishes are more subtle in taste and bring out the taste of the ingredients. So the fresher the ingredients, the better they are for steaming.

Roasting The common denominator of these methods is a moderate oven (325-350 degrees F) and a reasonably long cooking time with or without a flash of high heat at the beginning orf high heat at the beginning or end of the cook cycle. This is the method of roasting most cookbooks, including the historic ones by James Beard,

Julia Child, Alma Lach, and Madeleine Kamman use. Our Guide to Whole Turkeys has detailed foolproof cooking instructions. ADVANTAGES: relatively foolproof, this technique provides a well flavored, moist bird with very little attention or expertise required of the cook. The moderate temperature allows for a reasonable window of time in which the bird is at its peak, letting the cook worry less about pulling the bird out at some absolute moment of perfection. This is the technique for people who have better things to do than hang around an oven all day. If you can read a clock and a thermometer, then you can cook a good turkey this way. DISADVANTAGES: although the flesh is better flavored than a plain slow roasted bird and the skin is crisp, the flavors are subtle, and show themselves best when accompanied by really good gravies, dressings, and sauces. The food safety issues of Slow & Low cooking are not as prominent with this technique, but the process from start to finish is still pretty slow (about 25 minutes per pound), so planning ahead is still very important. time. Red cooking - a process whereby meat is slowly simmered in dark soy sauce, imparting a reddish tinge to the final product - is a popular cooking technique in eastern China. Stewing STEWING is a time-honored moist cooking technique that transforms less tender cuts of meat unsuitable for quick-cooking methods into melt-in-yourmouth meats Stewing allows the cook to assemble the dish and then let it simmer, with little or no attention for an hour or more. Many "crock-pot" dishes are essentially stewed. Vary the flavor profile of the stew dish by experimenting with liquids (wine, broth, beer and vegetable juices) and different herbs and spices. Ideal cuts: shoulder and pork cubes. In China, stews are usually cooked in an clay pot over a charcoal fire. The stew is cooked for a very long time - up to four hours - producing meat almost jelly-like in tenderness. Yum :) Stir Fry If any technique in Chinese cooking demands proper preparation, it is stirfrying. Because the heat has to be high and there is little actual cooking time, it's crucial to have all your ingredients assembled beforehand. The best advice I can give here is to keep your stir-fry ingredients separated in bowls based on how much time they need in your wok. So chop your onions, meat, mushrooms, carrots, and peppers into small pieces and separate them. You want the veggies and meat to be in bite size pieces for two reasons. First, the stir-fry will be

appealing and easy to eat if all of the components are equal in size. Secondly, similar size pieces will insure more uniform cooking time.

How to Measure
Measuring is especially important to beginning cooks. As your proficiency grows, you will find that you're depending less and less on your measuring cups and spoons and more on instinct and eyeballs, but until then, here's all you need to know about measuring ingredients for cooking. The one exception to this rule is baking, which is a science that requires more precise measurements, regardless of your level of expertise. The first step is to get yourself a good selection of measuring cups and spoons:

1 Cup (C) 1/2 C 1/3 C 1/4 C 1/8 C 1 Tablespoon (tbsp or T) 1 Teaspoon (tsp or t) 1/2 tsp 1/4 tsp

A clear glass measuring cup is necessary to get precise liquid measurements. Dry Ingredients - The most important thing to know about measuring dry ingredients is that they should be level with the top of your measuring cup. Dip your cup into the bin, fill to overflowing and level it off by sweeping the edge of a butter knife across the top. Be careful if you are using a cup larger than what is needed (as in a one cup measure to get 1/2 C worth of ingredients). Because of the way certain foods settle, this will only be an approximation. The same leveling technique should be used with measuring spoons. To pack or not to pack? That is the culinary question. Most ingredients don't need to be packed into the measuring cup. Granulated sugar does it for you. Flour should actually be aerated of fluffed up before measuring. Brown sugar is the one exception, this you want to pack down while measuring in order to get the proper amount.

Measure liquids at eye level. In other words, place the cup on a flat surface and crouch down so your at the same level as the cup in order to check the accuracy of the amount in the cup. To measure solid fats (shortening, butter etc.): Most butter has measurements listed on the wrapper, so you can simply cut off the amount you need. Another method that works well for butter and especially shortening is water displacement (this works for any fraction of a cup measurement). For instance, if you need 1/2 C shortening fill a 1 cup measure 1/2 full with water. Carefully add shortening to the cup until the water reaches the top of the cup. Drain the water and use the shortening.
Measurement Equivalents:

4C = 1 quart 2C = 1 pint 2 pints = 1 quart 4 quarts = 1 gallon 8 quarts = 1 peck 4 pecks = 1 bushel 16 ounces (oz) = 1 pound 3 tsp = 1 tbsp 2 tbsp = 1/8 C or 1 ounce 4 tbsp = 1/4C< /LI > One of the simplest ways to boost flavor and improve your cooking is to toss out stale jars of dried ground spices and to buy whole spices to grind yourself. Heating a spice, whether toasting it dry or frying it in a bit of oil, further enhances its flavor, giving the spice a fuller character.
Toasting spices gives them a deeper, nuttier flavor. Cooking them on the stove lets you keep an eye on them and enjoy their fragrance.

Grind whole spices for freshness and flavor. Whole spices have four times the shelf life of ground spices because their seed coatings and barks protect their flavors, which aren't released until they are ground or heated. A coffee grinder devoted to spices makes grinding a snap, though you can also grind spices, especially small quantities, in a mortar and pestle. Try toasting spices for an even deeper flavor. Whole spices work best for toasting because ground spices can burn easily. Some people like to roast their spices in the oven, but I like the control I get by toasting them on the stove where I can see them. Because spices burn easily, it's important to use a heavy-based pan over gentle heat. Shake the pan or stir the spices with a wooden spoon as they heat. They're ready when they become highly aromatic and turn slightly darker, which usually takes just a couple of minutes, but can take as long as five minutes, depending on the spice, the heat, and the pan. Once toasted, immediately pour the spices out of the pan to stop them from cooking further. Let the toasted spices cool, and then grind them. They can be stored tightly covered for a few weeks without losing much of their flavor. You can toast more than one kind of spice at a time. Begin with those that will take longest and add any ground spices at the very end, just before taking the pan off the heat. Hot oil also brings out a spice's flavor. Cooking spices in oil is a method most of us use all the time without recognizing it as anything special. Every time you heat oil in a pan and add some chopped garlic, you're effectively doing the same thing. The flavor of the garlic is intensified and the oil becomes infused with the garlic's flavor to permeate the finished dish. It's messy to try to grind spices after they've been cooked in oil, so use the spices in the form you want them to end up in. I often toss ground spices in warm oil for a moment before adding other ingredients. Ground spices are ready in fewer than 10 seconds; whole spices take about 30 seconds. Some seeds, such as mustard seeds, pop ferociously when they hit the hot oil, so stand back.
--Molly Stevens, a contributing editor for Fine Cooking, is a chef/instructor at the New England Culinary Institute in Essex, Vermont. From FC #14, "Basics"