MASTER CHINESE

CRUNCH TIME: Crispy fried prawns by Song Yao Su and William Hongchoy at The Star Gold Coast’s Imperial restaurant. Picture: ADAM HEAD heat and deep, rich flavours.

“I’ve been told by my elders that they need to sweat a little bit, and the spiciness assists them to get the body moisture out,” William says.

Key produce:

Beef, fish, prawns, tofu, pork and chicken are the main proteins used, along with aromats like ginger and garlic, and vegetables such as bok choi, onions and eggplant.

Chilli, garlic and Sichuan peppercorns are the base for almost all Sichuan dishes, alongside chilli oils.

Key seasoning: Cooking techniques: Hero dishes: SHANGHAI COOKING

Braising, stir-frying and deep-frying.

“In Sichuan they use a lot of oil, so it’s more of a wet style of cooking with ingredients submerged in oil, and with a heavy sauce or liquid,” William says. Mapo tofu, kung pao chicken and Sichuan hot pot. This cuisine is dominated largely by the produce found in the rivers that run through the region – think eels and freshwater prawns.

“In the Shanghai region, the palate is a little on the sweet side so they do have a little bit of sweetness in their food,” William says.

Key produce:

Eel, prawns, pork and poultry are quite common, while tofu is particularly popular in the region. Peanuts, mushrooms, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots are also used. Hoi sin, Shaoxing wine, rice vinegar, soy sauce and sugar. Stir-frying, deep-frying

Key seasonings: Cooking techniques:

and braising.

Hero dishes:

Green tea prawns, braised spare ribs and eight hidden treasures.

HUNAN STYLE

Hunan cooking is recognised for its dry, spicy nature, with sizzle plates commonly used.

Key produce:

Beef, poultry, pork, tofu, fish, offal, alongside onion, red and green capsicum, and fermented black beans. Chilli, Sichuan peppers, garlic, shallots, chilli sauce and five spice. Stir-frying, steaming, potroasting, braising and smoking. Steamed fish with chilli sauce, stinky tofu and sizzle plates.

Key seasonings: Cooking techniques: Hero dishes: MUST-HAVE EQUIPMENT

● Wok ● Ladle ● Chinese cleaver ● Tongs ● Spider strainer

UNDERSTANDING THE WOK

The wok is adored in Chinese cooking for the unique quality it brings to the food.

“A lot of times we talk about getting the wok flavour. It’s the toastiness of the wok itself,” Song explains.

“It’s like the caramelisation. It’s the dryness of the heat that creates its own flavour – like smoking or grilling does – and that’s captured inside the ingredients.”

The wok is used for pan-frying, shallow-frying, deep-frying and stir-frying, and can also be used for cooking dim sum by placing bamboo steamers over woks filled with boiling water.

Many Chinese dishes require the wok to be used in multiple ways, such as deep-frying ingredients before returning them to a clean wok and stirfrying them to finish.

William says chefs must learn to read a wok and tailor it to suit the cooking style – a skill that takes years to perfect.

“It’s one thing that is very hard to master because you can burn (the food),” he says.

For those keen to try it at home, he recommends heating the wok as hot as possible, adding only a small amount of oil, and cooking food in batches.

“With home cooking, you cannot keep the heat in the wok (like we can in the restaurant), so you need to cook in smaller batches,” he says.

“It might be good to try two, maybe three, serves at a time and see how far that heat can maintain.”

Keeping the food constantly moving is the other tip.

“You try to get a constant movement so all the moisture escapes from the ingredients – it’s actually frying and deglazing constantly,” William says.

“Whatever liquid is in the food gets onto the pan and continues to deglaze the pan and create that wok flavour.”

The other trick, William says, especially when stir-frying, is to have all your ingredients prepped and at the ready so you’re not fumbling around allowing ingredients to potentially burn.

OILS AND STARCHES

Heat-resistant oils are essential for wok cooking. The Chinese love peanut oil, but if you have peanut allergies, Song recommends using corn, vegetable or grapeseed oil. As for the well-known sesame oil, William says it is not for cooking.

“We call that a flavour oil, so sesame oil, chilli oil and eschalot oil, these are all a dash on top when the product has finished cooking,” he says.

The other trick to finishing most Chinese dishes, whether they be a stir-fry, soup or anything in between, is to add starch.

Chinese cooks will use potato starch – not corn starch – to thicken dishes as it’s more stable and doesn’t turn sauces or soups cloudy.

“There are different categories of viscosity of a dish – they can be runny, they can be medium gravy, or they can be very thickened. They all have a bit of starch to finish,” William says.

“We do it so all the juices are not runny, they coat every single piece of ingredient evenly.”