Cookbooks with Authentic Chinese Recipes

Cookbooks with Authentic Chinese Recipes

I am a food lover, and luckily, my husband loves to cook food. He cooked many Chinese dishes at home, even before we moved to China. Now after moving to China, it is quite easier to get cheap Chinese food ingredients. 

We buy many authentic Chinese recipe books, like Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbooks. My husband makes many recipes from Chinese cookbooks. There are many Chinese recipes cookbooks available like “Land of plenty”, “Every Grain of Rice” and Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. With the help of Chinese recipes cookbooks, it is very easy to cook authentic Chinese dishes at home.

Sichuan Cookery is a good Chinese recipe cookbook that has many traditional Chinese recipes. My favorite Chinese recipes from the Sichuan cookbook include boiled aromatic peanuts, pork silver with yellow chives, traditional Sichuan noodles, spicy cold noodles with chicken silvers, and a tofu dish with Sichuan peppercorn. These typical Sichuan dishes are also included in restaurant menus. 

The “Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook” by Fuchsia Dunlop has many traditional recipes from Hunan province. This cookbook includes recipes and dish photos. 

From Hunan traditional dishes I mostly like the farmhouse stir-fried pork with green peppers dish called nong Jia Chao rou and the Peng’s home-style bean curd dish called peng Jia dou fu. 

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking is a brilliantly designed everyday Chinese recipe cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop. This book has many typical Chinese recipes. My sister mostly like fish-fragrant eggplants dish called yú xiāng qié zi. It is tasty and very easy to cook. 

All Chinese recipes we tried from Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbooks are well define and easy to follow. Many recipes are written with variations, for example how to make a typical dish with a different vegetable. However, the spice level of many dishes is quite authentic and evens a bit spicy. It is good to start with ½ or 1/3 of the number of chilies and chili sauce written in the recipe. 

The Food of China by Kay Halsey is another great Chinese cookbook. From this book, we mostly like the mu shu pork recipe. 

If you live far away from a good Asian supermarket, you can order Chinese ingredients online. However, it is very easy to get Chinese ingredients in Asian countries.