The Chinese Kitchen - Essential Cooking Equipment Guide

Although special equipment is not critical for cooking Chinese food, certain items can simplify life should we indulge in Chinese cooking on a regular basis.

Rice Cooker

Top of my list is a rice cooker. Chinese food is best eaten with steamed rice. Generally, the proportion is about 10-15% more water than rice (volume). There are other ways of measuring the volume proportion, often involving tips of fingers or other variable measures. I tend to avoid such ambiguous measurements.

Rice can be cooked with a pot over the cooking stove, but that risks burning if not closely monitored. My best friend used to cook her rice in the oven! My essential rice cooker has always been of the electric variety, and programmed to produce perfect rice every time. It switches to "keep warm" mode once the rice is cooked. I suggest choosing a model that has a non-stick pot to allow easier cleaning.

Woks

Although woks are pretty ubiquitous in Chinese kitchens, I actually survived with just a large non-stick frying pan for a couple of years when I was particularly short of storage space.

Cooking Utensils

To preserve the life of your non-stick wok, metal spatulas and forks must be avoided at all cost. For chinese cooking, I like to use a shallow scoop with a long handle.

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Sauces and Seasonings

As far as sauces are concerned, I'd recommend a bare minimum of light soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Most of my recipes require this combination with standard salt, pepper, sugar and tomato ketchup.

I generally use a cornflour (cornstarch) paste to thicken my sauces. Most Chinese sauces are now easily available in a good supermarket. Chinese supermarkets will stock the rest.