Takeaway Favourites Chinese Food Made Easy

My name's Ching-He Huang. I've been cooking for my family and friends

since I was five years old, helping my grandmother in the family home.

It was the start of a life-long affair with food - a passion that's become my career,

writing cookery books and running a food business.

It's my mission in life to show people that Chinese food

is not all MSG, orange gloopy sauces, and greasy prawn balls.

In this programme I'll show you some insider tips that'll help you cook fresh, healthy versions

of some of the most popular Chinese takeaway dishes in your own kitchen.

There's my chicken chow mein

cooked for some Beijing-bound Olympic rowers.

If it's as tasty as this, we'll love it!

I'll show you the secrets of my fresh, quick and easy version of beef in oyster sauce.

Garlic, ginger, chillies. The holy trinity of Chinese cooking.

There's my healthy, tasty take on sweet and sour pork with egg fried rice.

Mmm! That's the best egg fried rice I've ever tasted, I have to say.

And demonstrate the importance of a delicate touch in the kitchen.

Give it a good bashing. OK?

I love cooking simple, easy Chinese food.

Especially takeaway favourites reinvented to make them really fresh and delicious. And healthy.

A perfect example is chicken chow mein.

And it's one of my favourite take-outs.

I've got here chicken breast.

Very thinly slice the chicken.

If you slice the chicken really thinly,

then the dish will just cook in a matter of minutes, especially on a high heat.

A good, sharp cleaver is always useful.

Put this into a bowl, and I'm just going to create a delicious marinade for the chicken.

So, in with about a heaped teaspoon of Chinese five-spice powder.

Now that's wonderfully aromatic, and it's got Sichuan peppercorns,

star anise, fennel, cloves and cinnamon, so it's absolutely full of flavour.

To just give it colour, I've got here some dark soy sauce.

As that cooks it's going to look all lovely and smoky and salty at the same time.

In with some hot chilli sauce. That's optional.

If you don't like chilli you don't need to add it.

Now, all we do is just give this a good mix.

I always feel that when you handle your food, it gives it more flavour.

Something my grandmother told me.

Next. I've got a pan there of boiling water.

So I'm just going to add in about a good handful of yellow chi noodles.

Now, these are dry wheatflour noodles.

You can use whatever noodles you like,

but traditionally the Chinese would use a thin noodle, just like this one.

So all this needs is about three minutes in boiling water.

While that's cooking, I'm going to very quickly chop up some vegetables.

Some long thin strips of red pepper, then some sliced spring onion.

And you'll need a handful of beansprouts.

So the noodles just need to check. so...

Best thing is to try and grab a piece, but careful, cos it's hot.

And then just pick it with your finger, and if it's really al dente

you'll still see a slight give in the middle. That's good.

Drain the noodles, rinse under cold water to stop them cooking,

then add few drops of sesame oil to stop them sticking together.

Now the meat has been marinating for a couple of minutes to get all that flavour in.

Next, some corn flour. A heaped teaspoon in with the marinated chicken.

This is going to help seal in the juices of the meat.

When you go to a Chinese restaurant or a takeaway, most people always ask me

"Oh, how do you get the chicken so tender and delicious and succulent?"

And this is why - because as it cooks, cornflour protects all those juices inside.

Now for the fun bit.

We need the wok nice and hot.

So you're probably thinking what kind of wok?

I'm going to tell you how to choose your wok later. So the wok is smoking.

In with a little bit of vegetable oil or groundnut oil or sunflower oil.

I personally like groundnut oil, I think it's wonderful, really fragrant.

At this stage, we can add the chicken.

In with the chicken.

Now as you add the chicken in, it's good

just to let it settle a little bit,

just to seal one side of the meat,

and then we're going to turn it over and seal the other side.

Give it a good stir.

Great.

So it's time to turn.

We've got some gorgeous smoky brown bits on the chicken

and that's from the five spice.

Now, in with all the vegetables, apart from the spring onions.

Chunky peppers. You can add some courgettes, sliced, at this stage,

if you like. In with some bean sprouts.

Now, give that a good stir.

And really, the more delicate vegetables at the end of the stir-fry process.

Now with the yellow chi noodles. Give that a good stir in.

Chow mein comes from the word, the Mandarin word chao mian

and chao just means stir-fry and mian is noodle, so stir-fried noodles.

In with about a tablespoon, I think, of some light soy sauce.

And this is for saltiness.

A little bit of fragrant sesame oil. Just at the end.

Finally the spring onions, just for flavour

and that last-minute freshness before we serve.

And that's it.

The perfect chao mian.

In with the gorgeous, delicious noodle.

A taste.

Mmm!

That's lip-smackingly good.

'To prove that Chinese food can be perfectly balanced, healthy and nutritious,

'I want to try out my dishes on some people who watch what they eat very carefully -

'one of our Beijing-bound Olympic teams.

'I'm in Caversham to meet some of the leading members of the Women's Olympic Rowing squad.'

Be careful, guys.

'They've been on the water for almost four hours so hopefully they'll be hungry.

'The lead boat in the women's squad is a quad scull, and I'll cook my chicken chow mein for the crew.'

A-ha! Hiya, ladies. How are you?

-Hungry athletes.

-Hungry athletes? Good, good stuff.

-I've got chicken chow mein. I hope you like.

-Wahey, smells good.

-Who's going to be the first?

-Debbie. Debbie speaks Chinese.

Oh, really? Wow! Niihau.

CONVERSATION CONTINUES IN CHINESE

Wow, that's brilliant! So does anyone cook Chinese?

-Do you like cooking Chinese?

-Not often.

So tuck in, let me know what you think. It's a bit spicy.

-We like spicy.

-Have a taste.

Wow, thank you. Very tasty.

-Very nice.

-Yeah? Thumbs up.

-Thumbs up.

-Cool.

-Really good.

What do you eat, normally, when you are training?

We have to have a balanced diet but you know,

lots of it, much more than a normal person would eat.

-But...

-So a lot of calories?

-A lot of carbs, a lot of protein.

-So this stuff is perfect.

-Perfect.

It's quick and easy.

It's delicious, more to the point.

So my Chinese food ticks all the boxes

for these rowers who need nutritious, healthy, tasty and filling food.

Katherine Grainger, the senior member of the team,

has volunteered to be shown how to cook it so she can wow her team-mates later.

So first up for Katherine, the essential piece of kit to cook Chinese food at home.

I'm going to arm you with an essential, OK?

-Yes?

-Which is the wok.

-Right.

-There are so many to choose from.

If you don't have gas, you can get electric woks.

For gas hobs there are non-stick varieties

and the sort I'd most recommend - the wooden-handled carbon steel wok.

Long wooden handle that's unseasoned.

And seasoning the wok just means that you want to create a blackened effect on the wok.

-OK.

-It's a coating.

-OK.

And that is going to give it a gorgeous wok flavour.

-You prefer that over these ones?

-I like seasoning a wok.

-OK.

It's very traditional - it takes me back to my grandparents,

and to my mother teaching me how to cook the first time.

But nowadays time is short and I appreciate that, so I have two, I also have a non-stick wok.

To really get the wok to sit on your gas stove, get a wok stand. Because this is going to make sure.

OK. Where do you get wok stands from? I've never seen a wok stand.

Well, they look like this, and you can get them in any cook shop, OK?

And just place this over there - be careful, obviously, of the flames.

-This just helps to sit the wok nicely.

-OK, clever.

Because, look. Otherwise, you know.

-The food could go everywhere. It's a hazard.

-I could do that.

-We want to get some oil in there.

-OK.

-So you could use groundnut oil or vegetable oil.

-OK.

And I'm just going to give that a swirl.

-Can you see how it's automatically changed colour?

-Oh, it's already!

-Yeah.

-And it's that fast, because we've got a good gas burner, just a little bit of kitchen paper.

-OK.

-And some wooden tongs. We don't want to burn your hands.

-No.

And just keep rubbing it like that.

-You see the blackened effect.

-Yeah.

And so one of these woks, when you start seasoning them, they're going to look like this.

That's been done. You see?

And this has got this Wok Hay coating.

Wok Hay this is the smoky, blackened effect. The breath of the wok.

-The chi.

-Ah, I like it.

-So when you cook food, you like barbequed food?

-Yeah.

-It's a lot of smokiness?

-Yeah.

-That's what you want.

-Same thing?

-Wow, I've never heard of that.

-Smoke is good.

-So 10, 15 minutes of doing this and your wok will be ready.

-OK.

-Katherine, I know you're not keen on takeaway food.

-Yes.

-And to be honest, I'm not surprised.

-OK.

Because did you know that the average serving,

for a family of four, of sweet and sour pork in egg fried rice,

contains...

-Ta-da!

-No way!

This amount of fat, 240 grams.

36 grams of salt and 176 grams of sugar.

240 grams of fat.

-That's as much fat in 30 hamburgers.

-30 hamburgers? No way!

-Would you like some?

-No! God, no, thanks!

Now I'm going to show you a healthier version, which is fantastic, much better than that.

I hope it's a lot healthier.

-I'm going to make you my sweet and sour pork. Two pork loins.

-Yup.

-And the first thing we are going to do is get rid of this fat. Because we don't need it.

-No.

Now, I'm going to show you a trick. To help tenderise the meat, just simply give it a good bashing.

OK?

And the other side.

-Now, I need a delicious coating on this.

-OK.

-I'm thinking none of this batter, deep-fried stuff.

-Yeah.

Something healthy. So I have here some dry-roasted soy beans.

-Full of protein.

-OK.

-If you grab a small handful in there, while I wash my hands, and get pounding away.

-I like pounding away.

-Good. Good exercise.

-I've never done this with soy beans, I have to say.

-Have a taste.

-Are you going to taste one first?

Delightfully crunchy, full of flavour.

-If you can't get these...

-Nice!

-Actually let's put a bit more.

If you can't get these, then you can use dry-roasted peanuts,

but the unsalted variety, because we're keeping this healthy.

Yeah! This is good.

And a little bit of some dried chilli flakes.

-OK.

-And a little bit of ground white pepper.

Tiny bit.

Now while you're doing that I'm gong to heat up the wok, get that nice and hot.

All we're going to do is just place some on there.

-Go on, you can do this one.

-I can manage this.

Make sure you really pat it down so the coating sticks to the meat.

The wok is smoking.

I'm going to add a little bit of groundnut oil, and in with the pork.

And we're going to cook that so it's lovely and browned on one side.

About two minutes. I'm going to flip it over and cook it on the other side.

-High heat again?

-Again, high heat, but we don't want anything to burn.

So we need to keep our eye on it.

I'm going to create a delicious sweet and sour sauce.

Pineapples. You can use tinned pineapple, but don't use any of the syrup from the tin.

And then put that in there.

-OK. And some pineapple juice.

-Yep.

About 125ml. And that's the sweet.

We need lime for the sour.

Roll the lime to break the flesh up inside.

Squeeze the juice in.

-You can do that one.

-OK.

-Making you work!

-Yeah, but I've got to get an appetite going!

Testing you, testing your muscles.

-I got more juice out of mine!

-Oi, don't start getting competitive!

-I'll be here all night making sure I get more juice.

-Blend that together.

-That's fine, that's great.

-That's enough.

Perfect. So now the pork is ready.

And you can tell because it really firms up, you know, the meat firms up.

So that's great, so what we need to do now is pop that on the side now,

-let it rest, now we're going to make that natural sweet and sour sauce.

-Yeah.

It's nice and smoking, we're not going to add any oil.

We're just going to simply cook the sauce and let that reduce slightly.

Now while that's going to reduce, I'm going to make you my zhong ji dan.

What was that again?

-Zhong zi is western red...which we say tomatoes.

-Tomatoes.

-OK, which you're going to help me slice, about three of those.

-How do you want them sliced?

And ji dan is egg. Which means I'm going to make you my egg fried rice.

I don't know a lot about Chinese cooking,

but something you often hear about, especially with Chinese takeaways and stuff,

-is the MSG that goes into food.

-Mm-hm.

-And is that something

that you would put in yourself? Or...

No. No MSG. I mean, MSG looks like this.

-I've brought this to show you.

-Really?

-And I know lots of people are concerned about it. It's a flavour enhancer.

-Looks like salt.

Looks like salt, like crystal, but there's no need for it.

MSG is naturally occurring in foods - meats, tomatoes, even in cheese...

-Savoury meatiness.

-Yeah.

You don't need it to create that.

You can get that flavour by using good, fresh ingredients.

'Next ingredient for the egg fried rice is some chopped spring onion.'

So we've got a second wok here and this wok here is non-stick.

In with a little bit of oil, and there are many different ways of making egg fried rice, OK?

I like to cook the egg, almost like scramble it.

-Now, I've got here some jasmine rice.

-Yep.

'I'm using a variety of rice called Jasmine

'because I like the nutty flavour, but any long-grain cooked rice will do.'

Then we just give that a good mix, and now with the tomatoes, all in.

In with some spring onions at this stage.

Nice colour again.

Yeah, lovely colour. And all very healthy.

And in now I think with a little bit of light soy sauce.

If you pass me the toasted sesame oil,

-this is my secret of cooking a good fried rice.

-Ah, I like secrets.

Gives it great fragrance and aroma, just lifts the whole dish.

Maybe a little bit of ground white pepper as well.

A little bit of work for you before we serve up.

I want you to make me a delicious salad.

We've got a selection of red peppers, yellow peppers, sugar snaps,

-carrots, spring onions, all in, and some chopped up pineapple.

-Perfect.

' And to start with, some chopped pak choi.'

-This is like a seven a day. Forget five a day.

-I was going to say!

This is my week all in one day.

-You want to be super healthy and super strong.

-My coach will love you.

Now to finish the salad, I've got here some dressing.

Yep.

So in here there's some pineapple juice, some lime juice,

-flavours of the sweet and sour.

-Lovely.

And some soy and some oil, and just give that a good mix.

I'm going to serve up a bit of the rice.

Some of this delicious sauce.

You know, the success of British sport rests on your shoulders now.

-No pressure.

-I'm nervous now.

Are you? Confident?

I am confident. I think the taste will deliver.

The health aspect for sure.

Mmm! That's the best egg fried rice I've ever tasted, I have to say.

All this fabulous protein in the pork.

It's got everything. We do have a lot of carbs

so it's nice it's got... the protein, too.

Mmm. Balanced.

-Mmm. That is amazing.

-Can you taste the coating?

-Mmm.

Absolutely no need for takeaways, may I say.

That is delicious. I want to try the sauce with this.

It's just lightly dressed. Hopefully.

And try a bit of the pineapple as well, so there's a sort of sweet and savoury element going in there.

This is super healthy. And wins hands down.

-I have to say. The taste is amazing.

-Were you sceptical, though?

I was hoping you could beat a takeaway because a takeaway never looks overly appetising.

So do I win gold silver or medal?

-Oh, absolutely top step of the podium.

-Or bronze.

You're listening to your national anthem and watching the flag go up.

'Katherine's going back to the training lake to try out her new culinary skills.

'I'll catch up with her later to see what her team-mates make of my sweet and sour pork recipe.'

Next time you are on your way home and you want to pick yourself up a Chinese takeaway,

why don't you pick up some fresh ingredients to cook with instead?

I mean, it's going to be healthier, lighter, tastier, fresher, too.

And it's just as quick as ordering from the takeaway.

Now to prove this point, I want to cook you one of the nation's favourites -

my version, though - of beef in oyster sauce.

'While I'm cooking I'll tell you about five special ingredients that are used in most dishes,

'that I think you should keep in your store cupboard ready to create authentic Chinese flavours.'

For my beef in oyster sauce

I need... Good piece of beef fillet or sirloin steak.

And I just want to get the fat off.

And then, just to help tenderise the meat, this is all you do.

You could use a Chinese cleaver, or you could use a rolling pin.

And then all I need is to slice the beef

into nice sort of thin, bite-sized pieces.

'Into a bowl and season with light soy sauce.'

Light soy sauce is my first store cupboard ingredient and in Chinese cooking we use it like you do salt.

Dark soy sauce is really used for colour.

So I just need a teaspoon of this.

Now if you're watching your sodium intake,

there's a variety of low-sodium light soy sauce that you can find.

Now I'm going to add about a tablespoon and a half of a good oyster sauce.

Traditionally, oyster sauce is made from boiling oysters,

so it's really concentrated and it's evaporated and really thick,

and then it's cooked down with a bit of soy sauce and some spices.

And if you can get a good quality oyster sauce, try and find out without any flavour enhancers or MSG.

Now I've got here a vegetarian oyster sauce and this one is made from mushrooms.

A lot of Chinese takeaways would use oyster sauce like a cook-in sauce,

but it's too much, it's too heavy.

I prefer to use it like a condiment, so about a tablespoon or two is enough in any dish.

'Then add a pinch each of salt, ground black pepper and sugar.

'I'm using caster sugar, and leave that to marinade while you prepare some spinach to serve the beef on.'

In with about a tablespoon, for two, of groundnut oil.

And this is my second store cupboard ingredient.

Now, for Chinese cooking I love to use a flavourless oil,

a neutral base, if you like, to create all the different layers of flavours.

Olive oil is just too strong.

'When the oil's smoking, add some chopped garlic and chilli.'

Garlic, ginger, chillies - the holy trinity of Chinese cooking.

Now, to stop the garlic and chilli from burning,

just give that a good toss,

and then in with some washed spinach leaves.

And all we want to do is just cook this for just a few seconds,

just to slightly wilt down the spinach.

And give that a good mix.

And then out onto the plate.

Leave this to one side.

'Now to cook the marinated beef. Wok on, oil in.'

Wok is ready. It's smoking.

In with the beef.

Now, when you put the beef in, just make sure it has time to

just settle a little bit before you start to stir.

And look at that. The gorgeous meat turning brown.

I can smell the smoky, savoury sweetness of the oyster sauce.

Now, this is not going to take very long at all.

While the beef starts to turn brown,

I'm just going to add a splash of shao hsing rice wine.

This is my third store cupboard ingredient.

You can use any other cooking wine, but I love shao hsing,

from the shao hsing region in China.

Just gives this gorgeous, bitter-sweet edge to any dish,

and it just takes the rawness of meat or fish,

and any odours off meat and fish.

If you can't get shao hsing rice wine, I would use dry sherry. That's a great alternative.

Before the beef comes out, I'm going to add a pinch or two of dried chilli flakes,

and these give a gorgeous kick.

Now, I love chillies in all their forms - fresh, dried, you name it.

It's my fourth special store cupboard ingredient.

So that's the beef done.

Out on top of the spinach...

like so.

Finally, a topping of tangy mushrooms.

Into the wok with some oil and add about 200g of oyster mushrooms.

They'll soak up all the juices left from the beef.

And you can add just a tiny bit of water,

just to help them cook and create a bit of steam.

Now, my fifth store cupboard ingredient is Chinkiang black rice vinegar,

and it comes from the Chinkiang region.

It gives dishes a wonderfully smoky, woody, tangy edge,

and so just a splash of this.

If you can't get Chinkiang black rice vinegar, I would suggest you could use a good balsamic vinegar.

That would work just as well. OK, so mushrooms out, and onto the beef, like that.

So there's my version of beef in oyster sauce,

essentially, three stir-frys in one dish.

I'm loving that!

Now, this dish is a good example of an important philosophy used in all traditional Chinese cooking.

It's called balancing yin and yang.

In Chinese philosophy, there are two opposing forces - yin and yang -

and the Chinese try and live by a balance of these forces.

So you think light, dark, male, female, hot and cold.

We are always trying to achieve the perfect balance.

So how does this work in terms of Chinese cooking?

Ingredients have a yin or yang quality.

So yin foods are ingredients such as watermelons or melons or cucumbers.

Radishes, even.

And yang foods are very much meats or ginger, garlic, chillies.

Broadly, yin are cooling while Yang are heating.

And in any dish, we are always trying to create the perfect balance.

When I was growing up in Taiwan, I suffered terribly from nosebleeds

and that was because I was addicted to lychees, which are very, very yang in quality.

So my grandmother would feed me a diet of mainly yin foods, such as cucumber juice.

And, miraculously, my nosebleeds disappeared.

So the idea is, not to have too much of any one thing,

and try and achieve the perfect balance.

'Back at the Olympic rowing squad's training base in Caversham,

'Katherine's preparing another balanced yin and yang dish,

'my healthy sweet and sour pork with egg-fried rice.'

This is the easy bit.

-'

-It's almost ready to try out.'

This is my own work. Can I just remind people?

Excuse me, I've been here, watching over you!

The ones that aren't as good, maybe, are yours.

The pressure mounts as the crew come forward for lunch.

OK, that's enough.

Yeah, if you could pass the rice over, thank you. Yeah, chuck it in.

Perfect.

-OK, who's going to be the first to try?

-Who wants to sample it?

Come on, Helen. Helen's a lightweight.

-Ooh, everyone's gathering around!

-Delicious.

-It smells amazing.

It does smell yummy.

-The rice is really yummy.

-The rice is really good, OK.

So, would you want Katherine to cook for you again?

-Yes, every day, Katherine!

-Yeah!

-So do you think you'll do this again?

-Do this?

-Mmm.

Cook all this.

Do you know, I would.

I... I was a bit...

Cos I don't cook a lot, so I was a little bit unsure at first,

but, actually, I really enjoyed it

and it tastes good, which surprised me, because I'm not very confident in my flavours and things.

Um, probably good getting advice from you, but I would definitely do it again.

-Well, you got a gold medal from me.

-Oh, thank you! Thank you!

So Katherine, a reluctant cook, proves how easy it is for anyone to cook this delicious but simple dish.

For more recipes and masterclasses, go to...

Next week, I'll be cooking classic Chinese street foods,

including a healthy version of crispy duck with a fresh plum sauce

inspired by my birthplace.

This is a Taiwanese delicacy, because in the stores in Taipei,

you have wafts of this in the night market.

There's a simple, tasty vegetarian dish using fresh tofu.

We're going to chant.

Why do we need to chant?

It's tradition. Yorrrrrrr!

And an alternative to eating hamburgers at the races.

It's second! Oh, my God! Come on! Yes!

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