Name some essential Chinese ingredients...
 

Not the ones that you will hardly use except for certain dishes, but the most common...


Here is what I currently have in my arsenal...



Ground and fresh ginger

Sesame seed oil

General Tso type base with sesame oil, crushed red pepper & shrimp paste

rice wine vinegar (for sushi)

seasoned rice wine vinegar (haven't used yet)

several different types of soy sauce

Garlic of different varieties

Wasabi

shrimp boulion

green onions

crushed red pepper

white pepper

(That's all that I currently use that I can think of)


How important is Hossin sauce and Oyster sauce in dishes...

Fairly basic ingredient. I'd add it to your above list.

MSG?

hoisin and oyster sauce are key. so is corn and rice starch. Mirin, a cheap rice wine. dont get confused. japan and china both have mirin. japan's is sweet. you need the chinese one for everyday cooking. peanut oil for very hot wok work?

black vinegar

hot chili paste, hot chili sauce

sugar

obviously salt and black pepper

Yep I use MSG and I use corn starch... I have been experimenting with recipes here lately and I came up with a dish everyone really loved....


I put some thin angel hair rice sticks on to boil...
browned some ground beef
drained the beef and noodles
mixed both together in hot skillet with peanut oil
added 3 shrimp boulion cubes
crushed red pepper
soy sauce
and about a tablespoon of sugar
mixed in one bunch of chopped fresh green onions and 3 scrambled eggs
also put in about a tablespoon of Mae Ploy tai chili paste (think i forgot to add that to abovel ist)

served this with stir fried veggies on the side...

was really good, gotta be careful with that tai chili paste though, it packs a whollup..

Fish sauce.
Fermented black beans, with and without chili.
Chili oil.
Dried shrimp.
Sesame seeds.
Lemon grass.
Sriracha hot sauce.
Dried mushrooms.
Canned mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots.
Sprouts.
Tofu.
Dried noodles, various kinds.
Dried chilis.
A decent sherry. Not from a grocery store.
White onions.
Shallots.
Curry pastes, various.
Coconut milk, cream, etc.

JR

I equate hoisin as the "Asian ketchup or BBQ sauce";)

Oh yeah, you need some 5 spice as well

I'd love to tell you, but it's an ancient Chinese secret.

Roux you beat me to it.....Chinese 5 Spice oh yea baby!

And some green Wasabi paste, that'll clear you right up.

There's also a lot of stuff that gets used frequently, but a non-Chinese person would probably think is inedible. They also would have difficulty purchasing it, unless there's an Asian grocery store around. I think of the various stockpiles my relatives have in their spare refrigerators and pantries. Stuff like dried mini shrimp, dried scallops, about 15 types of dried fungus and mushrooms, various seeds/nuts, etc. There are also some bottled BBQ and chili sauces that get used in marinade recipes.

I am addicted to Guilin Chili Sauce. It is the greatest red chili sauce ever, in my opinion. It has replaced sriracha in everything I make except spicy mayo for sushi. It has a deep, smoky, tangy flavor that I just love. Lee Kum Kee makes it, and there are generic brands available also.
It might be hard to find unless you have a good asian market nearby, but you can find it online at a-m-a-z-o-n.

Hoisin
garlic
ginger
soy sauce
few drops orange oil
orange marmelaide
brown sugar
chicken tenderloins.

combine ingredients, let tenderloins marinate overnight. throw them on a grill with lots of sauce on them, 1 minute, turn, 30 seconds, pull, eat.

black vinegar, what is that used for? also, what is the hossin sauce and oyster sauce for?


I have this problem with watching No reservations and Bizarre foods and trying to replicate what I see them eating he he...

Srircha makes the perfect steak sauce imho....

I am seeing many ingredients that I need to purchase and experiment with...


lemon grass
black vinegar
hossin sauce
oyster sauce
chili oil
guilin chili sauce
5 spice

Just went through a bottle of fish sauce... wish I could find a supplier for those little 2 inch long spring rolls that you deep fry... mmm mmm goodness....

I like that stuff too.

But Extra Hot Lee Kum Kee "XO Sauce" is what really makes my motor run. Now that's like crack.

Minced Garlic
Salt
Sugar
Fine ground white pepper
Soy sauce
Sasame see oil
Dried Chili peppers
Rice wine
Corn Starch
Oyster Sauce

That is about all you need to make most stuff and pretty much all i had by my side when i chef'ed in a Chinese kitchen. As my teacher said, there are only 5 basic flavors, it is how you mix them up to create an infinite blend of tastes.

5 spice works great as a rub for BBQ and roasting meat, which is mostly what i use it for.

I miss cooking.

Added:
Cooking in a pro Chinese kitchen is very minimilist.
1 Wok
1 Wok Ladle
1 pair of long chopsticks/thongs for frying
1 Chinese Chef Knife (looks like a cleaver but thinner and lighter)
1 Small paring knife optional (to take care of small stuff, most guys i worked with just had the big chef knife)

that is about it for hardware, i could not help but wonder everytime i see my friends that like to cook buy all sorts of gadgets that get in the way of actually cooking.

bok choy

chinese brocolli

mustard greens

****aki mushrooms

celophane noodles

pack of Chinese sausages (great to add with rice or sticky rice)

black fungus

scallions

char siu (sp) marinade

pack of haw flakes ( I am addicted to these)

pack of "farmer" brand peanuts (they are very tiny but have an awesome flavor)


I'm sure there is more but I cant think of anything else right now.

Pelican doesn't like my "S" word aki mushrooms.

Sounds like you had a smart/wise teacher...

One of the things I really enjoy with my kids is hanging out in the foreign foods section of the grocery store... we end up buying canned coffee drinks or coconut drinks from Thailand for the drive home, one purchase we made that my younger daughter really fell in love with was a dried squid product (basically squid jerky) I used to have to buy her bags of that stuff to keep her satisfied, sadly the store doesn't carry it anymore...

Either that, or said teacher once worked at Taco Bell. The same 5 ingredients, mixed in various combinations, seem to make up every item on the menu.


Now we know what to get you for the Pelican Christmas exchange: squid jerky.

Hey, not my thing, but my daughter would love it!!! The type we purchased was sweet like they had cured it in a sugar/salt brine (heavy on the sugar) I would probably like it more if it was done in salt only... I have been thinking of making a ground shrimp jerky for some time now, would grind it up like hamburger, add spices, put into strips and then dehydrate... sounds yummy...

Essential? A good fish store. Good ventilation.

And for frying tempura and such - safflower oil. "Benibana" in Japanese.

Cwanchy wegtaybols.

You guys left out the most important one - hua jiao, aka Sichuan peppercorns. They give the super spicy dishes their novicane effect on your lips.

More garlic, ginger and green onions than you ever thought was reasonable (if you were a good midwestern USA kid).

With the szechuan(?) peppercorns -- we've tried, but we can't get them to make anything but poison. The foodie geek in me says they must be good, but damn...

Five spice and fatty pieces of pork. Obviously much time to cook. In a few weeks in Beijing and Nanjing - more "O-faces" than any other food.

Mike

Currently, I have one of those ceramic flat top ranges and can't use my nice wok that I bought (it weighs about ten pounds) so I am having to use a large skillet.. I have one of those turkey fryer deals and have been contemplating using that on the porch with my wok.. would probably be a pia though... can't wait till I get my gas range purchased and put in...

Nuprin?

Cream of sum yong guy

Rice, you idiots :D

I was wondering if anybody had discovered XO sauce. 2nd to Dottore's recommendation, this is great in fried rice.

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You all left out the most important Chinese ingrediant of all...


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Believe it not, I got this one in Houston. They ground up the chili peppers and hua jiao just right too.

http://www.fototime.com/642290828FDCAFB/standard.jpg

Gotta have that pork cured the old fashioned way.

http://www.fototime.com/E9C9ED269BBB224/standard.jpg

This one was lunch in Chongqing. Man, it doesn't get any better than this.

http://www.fototime.com/878A7592DAA87AE/standard.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/9E3A9BFC60E6DFE/standard.jpg

This was breakfast on the street in Nanjing. Pretty run of the mill ingredients too - pickled seaweed, chili paste, bean sprouts, an egg.

http://www.fototime.com/401B3953C69DBF7/standard.jpg

To quote Dudley Moore:

" Sex and Chinese food are the only two things in life worth living for."

Tastes just like chicken............



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Lol, Dang Rick, that lunch in Chongqing looks HOT!!!

One more ingredient, perhaps the most important...


HEAT



You want all you can get. 100-125,000 btus. This will be as much as ten times what a residential stove can do. Start working on the turkey fryer idea. Some companies make a similar thing designed for a wok.

JR

What he said !!