Chinese Soul Food

November 20, 2017
In her first book, Chou, a food writer and cooking instructor, provides 80 sturdy recipes for dishes that have stood the test of time, along with tips and brief lessons on topics such as “understanding soy sauce.” The daughter of immigrants, Chou was raised in Columbia, Mo., where her parents ran a Chinese restaurant. Many of the dishes in the book could be on the menu at any Chinese eatery in the American heartland: the book includes recipes for fried rice, Kung Pao chicken, orange beef, and hot and sour soup. There are five dumpling choices, along with instructions on how to boil, steam, or panfry them. Soup dumplings get an entry of their own. Chou thickens her fillings not with gelatin but with the natural collagen from simmered pork skin. A chapter on Chinese New Year entrées includes lively options such as saucy Dungeness crab and fragrant crispy duck breast. In a nod to Chou’s Midwestern childhood there is cauliflower stir-fried with country ham, while a chapter titled “Guilty Pleasures” celebrates non-Chinese classics such as General Tso’s chicken. Photographer Barboza showcases the cuisine, often with bright green vegetables offset by the warm, brown tones of meats, sauces, and noodles. This is a fun guide to creating favorite restaurant recipes at home.

December 15, 2017
Devotees of Chinese food weary of having to turn to carryout and delivery to satisfy their cravings will find plenty here. Some dishes will be familiar to anyone who grew up on the products of old-time Chinese American restaurant kitchens. Chou's several dumpling choices let the cook mount a dim sum banquet at home. Chou keeps recipes as genuine and unadulterated as possible. Her ma po tofu retains the original's pork and doesn't pour in so much soy sauce that its chili base turns brown. Fried rice and all sorts of noodle dishes offer much appeal. Sweet-sour favorites have been downsized to just one version with pork ribs. Really ambitious cooks will find instructions for making the currently faddish soup dumplings with their surprise of steaming broth inside tender spheres of dough. Even the old standby of carryout Chinese eats, egg rolls, sneaks in, although crispy, lighter spring rolls have eclipsed this favorite.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)