Quick and Easy Chinese

by: Nancie McDermott

San Francisco CA: Chronicle Books 2008, Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-8118-5930-1

Reviewed by: Jacqueline M. Newman
Summer Volume: 2009 Issue: 16(2) page(s): 20 and 21

The book is about cooking delicious Chinese dishes using ingredients easily found. After the introduction, a six-page glossary of twenty-two common ingredients are detailed.

Not all recipes are simplistic, though some are. We loved the Meatball Soup, Mongolian Beef, Soy Sauce Chicken Wings, and Five-spice Poached Pears. One recipe, borrowed from Sara Perry in Holiday Baking, is for fortune cookies and not so simple. Why not, because the suggestion to use a twelve-cup muffin tin for shaping offers no clarity as to how. The taste of the baked batter is good, but knowing what they look like did not help. We could not figure out how the author meant the reader to fold and fill the dough. A void found in a few other places.

Soy Sauce Chicken Wings
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups soy sauce
1/4 cup light or dark brown sugar
3 Tablespoons molasses or honey
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup very coarsely chopped fresh ginger
8 slices fresh ginger
3 scallions, cut crosswise into two-inch lengths
1 and 1/2 pounds chicken wings
Preparation:
1. In a large saucepan, add soy sauce, three-quarters of a cup of water, the brown sugar, molasses, salt, ginger, and scallions. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat.
2. Carefully add the chicken wings; they should be covered with the sauce, and return the sauce to the boiling and then reduce it to maintain a lively visible simmer for twelve minutes, stirring once or twice.
3. Remove from the heat and let rest for about thirty minutes before removing the wings to a serving platter and discarding the ginger and scallion pieces.
Note: This recipe can be served hot, warm, or at room temperature; or as a snack or dim sum dish.

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