Please help me with my Chinese pantry?

Question

{ for reference: I live in the northeastern United States }

I am stocking up on the

essentials of Chinese

cuisine...would these things

do?

* soy oil

* ginger / garlic

* soya sauce

* rice wine

* rice vinegar

* sesame oil: plain & toasted

* dry red chillies

* hoisin sauce

* sugar: plain and brown varieties

* cornstarch

and

* scallions

* onions

* coriander greens

* garlic chives

* canned waterchestnuts, bamboo shoots

* gluten of wheat (bottled)

* peanuts and cashews

* red bean paste (canned)

Do you approve?

Is there something I am missing?

Or something I could do without (like plain sesame instead of toasted...... and would you please tell me how to use the plain sesame oil

Is there a red chili paste I should buy ..... or anything else of the sort ? Spices ... condiments?

Thank you very much in advance

I really like Chinese cuisine

x

Lakshmi Parimala

Answer 1

These are good websites to help you get started:

http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/200...

http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/200...

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/resource...

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/resource...

http://www.digsmagazine.com/nourish/nour...

Answer 2

Fish Sauce

Oyster Sauce

Cornstarch

Soy Sauce (or is that what you called "soya?"  I though t*t might be a typo?)

Answer 3

Do not forget the fish sauce. I know it is strong but you only use a small amount.

Answer 4

Other than what you listed, below are some itemsI would have in my kitchen.

Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce

Lee Kum Kee garlic black bean sauce

dark soy sauce (if you meant you got light soy sauce only)

xo sauce

dried shitake mushroom (black mushroom)

dried scallops

dried shrimps

shrimp paste (for frying vegetables or squids) - Cantonese

bean curd (tofu)

green onions

five spices powder

white pepper

peanut oil

century eggs

Chinese sausage

dried dates (for soup)

pine nuts

http://www.lkk.com

Answer 5

soy bean oil

peanut oil

minced garlic

fresh garlic

soy sauce

hoison sauce

siracha sauce

chili sauce

rice vingar

finegar

sesame seeds

rice wine

rice

grass jelly

chilies

red bean paste

brown sugar

wonton wrappers

chives

scallions

green onions

bamboo shoots

rock candy

peanuts

cashews

oyster sauce

fish sauce

eggs

duck eggs

bean curd

tofu

dried mushroom

dried shrimp

chinese sausage

dates

shallots

noddles

plum paste

coconut soda

fresh veggies and fruit

meat

seafood

Answer 6

Sounds like a pretty good list of ingredients. I would add Chinese 5 spice and curry powder.

Answer 7

There yougo

Answer 8

How about chili oil? Do not use too much of both oils for whatever your recipe calls for! Chili oil is hot & sesame oil is strong. Maybe, a tsp. or less mix in reg.veg.oil is good. Don't need toasted...plain will do. Do you like botton mushrooms (can)? Someone said oyster sauce...can't do w/out! Bokchoy for fresh greens (steamed or stir fried with some oyster sauce over it). Try the aisle where they have flavored chille sauce in a jar & other flavored jar spices like kung pao sauce etc. In the back of those jars have recipes. Good eating!

Answer 9

Your list should cover a good selection of common dishes, together with the other suggestions in the answers so far.

For sesame oil, only use a few drops at the end of stir-fries or about 1 teaspoon in marinades. It's not used in large amounts except in dishes like sesame oil chicken. For chili or spicy paste, you can try hot broadbean sauce or the South East Asian sambal chilli.

Some other good to have ingredients:

yellow rock sugar

preserved Szechuan beancurd

salted/preserved vegetables

salted soya beans (tau cheong)

soya bean products eg. dried tofu sticks (fu chok), dried tofu skin (fu pei), soft & firm fresh tofu, egg tofu

shrimp paste powder (for frying shrimp paste chicken)

dried mandarin orange/tangerine peel

dried seafood especially shrimps & scallops

plum paste

different soy sauces (light, dark, sweet & thick dark soy sauce) - there's reduced salt soy sauce available now

dried noodles (yellow, mung bean or cellophane, egg noodles etc)

wonton wrappers

salted plums (great for steamed fish)

rice flour & glutinous rice flour

glutinous rice

shallots

different wines: Shaoxing & Huatiao for general cooking, rose wine for marinades, Japanese mirin is also great

There's hundreds of possible ingredients but it's best to only buy in larger quantity those that are used in many dishes & can be kept a longer time, rather than end up wasting money when you can't finish using them up. In the dishes, you'll also have to learn which are the essential ingredients and what can be left out without impacting the taste.

You can try to grow some stuff like coriander, scallions, chilli for a fresh supply, depending on your available space.

Answer 10

I like having oyster sauce and star anise on hand.  Your list is great.