Cooking skills

Marinating meat is an essential technique in Chinese cooking. It is used in stir fries, deep fried dishes, steamed dishes, and braised recipes. The marinade is usually simple, but it plays an important role in both flavor and texture. Unlike many Western marinades that rely heavily on acidic ingredients, Chinese marinades focus on seasoning the …

In this guide, I will share with you why most professional chefs always blanch the vegetables first. Blanching vegetables is an important cooking technique I learned while working in a restaurant. Blanching is a simple yet essential cooking technique that helps preserve fresh vegetables’ vibrant colors, texture, and freshness. The blanching process ensures your vegetables …

Have you ever wondered how to tenderize a tough cut of beef? Let me present a scenario. Suppose you want to prepare a stir-fried dish but don’t have high-quality beef in your refrigerator. Instead, you find a tough cut of beef shank left over from making your curry. Is there a way to transform it …

Having recently purchased an air fryer, I’m eager to explore how to put it to full use. One particular recipe that caught my eye is the air fryer fried rice.  Can the air fryer effectively replace my trusty cast iron wok when frying rice? It will be fascinating to compare the results and see how …

My family devours my reverse sear chicken breast in record time! This recipe is a keeper, and I am happy to share it with you. I understand that chicken breasts tend to become tough if overcooked. Therefore, I’ve experimented with various methods to make them tender and succulent, including coating them with flour and breadcrumbs …

Do you want to create a new recipe?  We all have moments of running out of ideas on what to cook. Although most of us would prefer preparing dishes that we are familiar with, we often repeatedly serving the same dishes at home. After cooking for more than a decade in the restaurant and being …

My cast-iron wok has served our family for over five decades.  It’s more than a wok. It is our diary. It reminds me of my childhood years, frying noodles before going to school. It’s like a film roll, flashing out endless footage, depicting moments in different phases of our life. It’s more than 50 years …

You may think it is easy to cook hard boiled eggs. I can only agree with you if you can tolerate the hard-boiled eggs that are hard to peel, with over-cooked egg whites, crumbly egg yolks that lined with a greenish ring. Unfortunately, many restaurants, street vendors, and specialty eateries serve such low-quality eggs. I …

Chili is used in Asian cooking more than any western cuisines. I cut, dice, mince and blend them daily, and below is the collective experience I want to share with you. There are three types of chili regularly used for cooking in Asia (where I live)- the red chili, green chili, and the bird’s eye …

My recent trip to Hong Kong for an authentic wonton soup recipe was fruitful. I have the advantage of having my siblings stay in Hong Kong and savoring some of the best wontons in town. They also brought me to places only known to the locals to hunt for the exotic ingredients the top wonton …