Ching's Chinese Food in Minutes (by Ching-He Huang)

by: Ching-He Huang

London UK: HarperCollins Publishers 2009, $18.98, Hardbound
ISBN: 978-0-00-726500-8

Reviewed by: Jacqueline M. Newmans
Summer Volume: 2015 Issue: 22(2) page(s): 18

This book has ninety-six recipes, all written in standard style. They are in chapters titled: Soups & Starters; Pork; Chicken & Duck; Beef & Lamb; Fish; Shellfish; vegetarian and Side Dishes; Noodles & Rice; Desserts & Drinks; Easy Entertaining.

Before them is a seven-page Introduction, and five other pages titled: Buying & Caring for Your Wok, it is not limited to that one valuable pot and includes other pieces of equipment. After them, Ms. Ching offers six menus and sixteen one-wok healthy meal items along with nine collections of many more dishes.

Her single-page called: The Store Cupboard has many basic items, is followed by a six-page seventy-eight-item Glossary; a four-page cross-referenced Index; and a single-page with six main Acknowledgement sets (their spelling); and a single-page advertisement for a ten-day Wendy Wu Tour for two.

This book has many fine recipes, all indicate the time needed to make them. Most can be made in less time if you lay out and pre-measure your ingredients. We often do that and enjoy beating the author’s clock!

Skewered Pineapple
Ingredients:
1 ripe pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch slices, then into chunks
2 star anise
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 lime, its zest and juice
1 orange, its zest and juice
8 bamboo skewers, soaked in cold water for fifteen minutes
Preparation:
1. Put all the ingredients except the pineapple into a pot, dissolve the sugar, than add the pineapple chunks.
2. Put five pieces of pineapple on each skewer.
3. Broil or grill the skewers with the fruit for four minutes until caramelized, then serve.

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