The Chinese Way: Classic Techniques, Fresh Flavors

What if you take the insights of generations of Chinese home cooks and apply them to ingredients they never knew?

Betty Liu, whose previous book was an exploration of the food of Shanghai, demonstrates here how Chinese techniques and Chinese ingredients can bring something important and interesting to dishes from other cuisines. Or borrow something in return

Her approach is not radical. Instead, it’s thoughtful enough that you may pause to wonder if a dish is one of the foundational recipes Liu includes to demonstrate a key aspect of Chinese cuisine, or something she developed on her own.

A beef and onion stir-fry, for instance, is followed a few pages later by a garlicky radicchio and pork stir-fry, which “is more about the radicchio than the pork, which is just there to contribute savory umami. The bit of spicy honey butter added at the end counters the lovely bitterness of the leaf, highlighting rather than diminishing it.”

Among the other noteworthy dishes we saw:

• Stir-fried potato slivers with lemongrass and jalapeno

• Buttery corn-braised tofu

• Green peppercorn-marinated green lentils and mushrooms

• Pan-fried za’atar flower buns

• Sticky rice risotto with kabocha and crispy roasted brussel sprouts

Well suited to thoughtful cooks.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.