It may sound strange, but salt is just as important in Chinese cuisine as it is in any other cuisine in the world. The reason for this is that salt is the main flavor enhancer available. If you’ve ever tasted a dish you made and thought the flavor wasn’t quite right, you probably need to add more salt. Many hobbyists avoid using salt, fearing they will add too much, but aggressive seasoning is needed to make food taste its best. Salt also helps amplify other flavors, which is why some people like to sprinkle salt over fruit. It sounds crazy, but the salt actually helps make the sweetness of the fruit more apparent. Salt can also help suppress flavors like bitter tastes. For example, Asians like to cook a vegetable called bitter melon which is incredibly bitter as the name suggests. Adding a pinch of salt to melon as it cooks greatly reduces its bitterness, making it palatable. When shopping for cooking salt, always look for kosher or sea salts. They are pure salt and do not contain any chemical agents like regular table salt, giving them a clean, salty taste. Website design By BotEap.com2. Soy sauce
Almost all savory Asian recipes call for soy sauce in one form or another. Created thousands of years ago in China, soy sauce has been a staple of the Asian diet ever since. Soy sauce is made by fermenting soybeans and combining them with wheat and strains of bacteria that start the fermentation process. The mixture is combined with water and left to ferment for weeks or months. After fermentation is complete, the liquids are separated from the solids, filtered, and bottled. Soy sauce not only adds salt to a dish, it also adds richness and a meaty flavor. There are two broad categories of soy sauce available on the market. The first type is called light soy sauce, while the second is called dark soy sauce. Light soy sauce is the one most people are familiar with and the one most often used in Chinese recipes. Dark soy sauce is darker, as the name implies, and sweeter because of the caramel flavor added to produce the color. Dark soy sauce is mainly used to color dishes. If you’re on a sodium-restricted diet, you can also buy reduced-sodium soy sauce, which has up to 30% less sodium than regular varieties. Website design By BotEap.com3.Oyster sauce
Leave it to the Chinese to figure out a way to make an oyster sauce, but along with salt and soy sauce, oyster sauce makes up one third of the trinity of seasonings in Chinese cooking. Oyster sauce is a rich, thick, brown sauce made from cooking oysters and their liquid until the mixture becomes thick and syrupy. Like soy sauce, oyster sauce is salty, however it also has a bit of sweetness to it. Oyster sauce is used to give dishes a meaty, rich flavor as it is high in the fifth basic taste of umami. Website design By BotEap.com4. ginger
No Asian chef would dream of having a kitchen without ginger. This root has been cultivated for thousands of years throughout Asia and gives dishes a fragrant and spicy flavor. Ginger can also add a bit of spice, but not in the spicy sense of the word. When buying ginger for Chinese cooking, always choose fresh ginger. Dried ginger won’t work as it has a completely different flavor profile. The freshest ginger will have smooth skin and look plump and juicy. Avoid ginger that has some moisture in it, as this can make shaping easier. Website design By BotEap.com5. cornstarch
While not exactly a flavoring ingredient, cornstarch is used quite often in Asian cooking. First of all, cornstarch is used as a thickening agent for sauces. However, it is also used as an ingredient in marinades. You will see that many recipes call for adding cornstarch to a meat or seafood marinade. The purpose of adding the cornstarch is to create a coating around the meat, which will make it more tender and juicy during the cooking process. Cornstarch is also used in various cakes and dumplings as an ingredient in batters and coatings. Website design By BotEap.comIf you’re serious about Chinese cooking, you need to make sure your pantry is stocked with these five essential Chinese ingredients.