A basic Chinese kitchen

A few people have asked why is it I never post any Chinese recipes, when Chinese is what I cook predominantly. Well, the main reason is because a lot of Chinese cooking rests on a huge presumption - the presumption that you have all the standard ingredients that it takes to cook a standard chinese meal. And not being one who's ever gone out specifically to buy one or two (make that five or six) ingredients specially to cook Chinese, I'm not sure how it works for other people.

You see, it's not like you buy an entire bottle of soy to cook one meal - one bottle will last you probably several several meals, and if you don't cook Chinese everyday, then the bottle of soy just sits there, like a dark white elephant, gazing eternally at your bottle of Worcester sauce (my own dark white elephant).

But it occured to me that the next best thing is for me to start by listing what I think are the basic essentials of a Chinese kitchen, so that if you ever want to cook Chinese, well, it's there. And these things keep forever anyway. So... hence this post.

P.S. If you want to cook Chinese soups, which I do a lot because I grew up drinking soup and believe it has tangible health properties, that's a whole different kettle of fish for another post, alright?


A BASIC CHINESE KITCHEN

Equipment:

- Wok, with steaming rack (I have a big Proforge anodised carbon wok and a small Professional wok, both by Meyer. You can stir-fry, deep-fry, braise, steam, stew etc with one wok.)
- Wok ladle
- A very good chef's knife (you only need one knife, I promise you)
- Tongs or a pair of long wooden chopsticks (not the short ones used for eating)
- Ramekins (optional - I use these for preparing my mise en place when cooking several dishes, which is the norm for a communal meal.
- May I suggest a rice cooker as well? Zojirushi!

Things I always have in the fridge:

- Garlic (you can buy big tubs of peeled cloves from any grocery store, even Kroger)
- Ginger
- Red chilis
- Scallions
- Coriander
- Chili sauce (The Boy likes Siracha. I call it the American Asian sauce)
- Fresh egg noodles

In my pantry:

- Light soy
- Dark soy
- Light soy for seafood (optional - good for steamed fish)
- Dark soy mushroom flavoured (optional - useful for flavouring)
- Vegetable oil
- Sesame oil
- Chili oil
- Oyster sauce
- Rice wine vinegar
- Shaoxing wine (you can use vermouth, but... well, it's not Chinese)
- Worcester sauce (primarily for sweet and sour anything here, but obviously has other uses)

- Corn starch/flour
- Potato starch/flour
- Rice flour (we use brown rice flour)
- Sugar (ditto brown sugar)

- Dried mushrooms (Japanese mushrooms are the best)
- Dried chilis
- Rice


Ok, now we're ready to cook some Chinese...