30 DAYS OPEN PURCHASEEvery Grain of Rice is the Chinese cookbook people actually cook from, and the reason is that it is about everyday food and nothing else.
The title comes from the Chinese saying about not wasting a single grain of rice, and that attitude runs through the whole book. This is the food cooked at home in southern China on an ordinary evening, not the food served in restaurants and not the food ordered in.
The biggest surprise for most people is how vegetable driven the cuisine is. Meat and fish are used sparingly and often as seasoning rather than as the main event, while vegetables carry the dish. This is not a modern health trend but the way people have always eaten, largely for economic reasons, and the result happens to suit the way many people want to eat today.
Fuchsia Dunlop was the first Westerner to train at the culinary school in Chengdu, and her strength here is that she knows what is essential and what is decoration. Most recipes use only a handful of ingredients and are ready in minutes, because that is how a Chinese home kitchen actually works. A wok, a cleaver and a chopping board.
The technique that changes the most is proper wok cooking. Everything has to be prepared before the pan gets hot, because the entire cooking process takes seconds rather than minutes. That insight alone makes a difference in any kitchen.
The book also includes a thorough guide to the pantry, including the difference between light and dark soy sauce, what Shaoxing wine does, why Chinkiang vinegar cannot simply be substituted, and how chilli bean paste is used.
Classics such as smashed cucumber, tiger salad, dry fried green beans and mapo tofu are all here in versions that work at home.
Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 9781408802526
Language: English
First published: 2012
