Claudia Roden and Chinese barbecues
YOU LEARN SOMETHING EVERY DAY
There are some days when I find it difficult to think of a suitable subject for this blog, so I devised a method to get over this. When no inspiration strikes I will go to my cookery book collection, close my eyes, pick a book, close my eyes, pick a page and see what comes up. Serendipity. Today was one of those days.
The book I chose was one of my all-time favourites - Picnic by Claudia Roden, one of my favourite cooks and the lady who introduced me to Middle-Eastern food. I do think Picnic is my favourite Claudia Roden book though because it is so full of simple little things and hints at how to vary things. And I always had this desire to produce the perfect picnic. The closest I have come to this is my son's wedding picnic. But that's another story. Picnic is now quite old - it was first published in 1981 I see but still very useful. My copy is falling apart - it has been used so much.
But back to Chinese barbecues because this is the page I inadvertently opened. And as a result of my search for suitable pictures, and through reading her small essay on the subject, I did learn a few things.
"Ritual and ceremony apart, taking out food simply for the pleasure of eating it in the open is not part of Chinese life. It is more usual to purchase it ready cooked in the street."
Which means that barbecued food does exist in China - it's just that, traditionally anyway, you don't cook it for yourself. And another thing I learnt in my search for the above picture was that the Chinese authorities are seriously considering banning street barbecues in the interests of reducing the smog which is such a problem for Chinese cities. Which implies that there is a lot of barbecuing going on. How typically authoritarian a solution to a problem. Well that's one's first reaction, but then I thought, well we have banned smoking in restaurants (and so we should), which is equally authoritarian. Of course the Chinese have not reacted well and say that it is not the problem as they have been doing this since forever. And I think the authorities have not yet quite been game to impose it. Imagine how many people this would put out of work.
When I was looking for pictures of Chinese barbecues I found lots of those glazed ducks you see hanging up in Chinese shops - but I don't know whether these are barbecued or roasted. They are obviously glazed though. The traditional mixture is apparently just honey and water. And the barbecued pork spare ribs that are a traditional dish are obviously glazed - though probably marinated too. It looks like a lot of glaze is used though. It's so shiny!
Marinading your meat or fish or vegetable is obviously the thing that makes barbecued food taste good - that and the smoke. And she has a small section on this which she introduces by saying:
"These more than anything else in Chinese cooking, are a matter of individual inspiration and taste and though the elements do not vary much, the proportions do."
Which was a minor revelation to me, because I think here in the west when we vary things we vary them by trying out different ingredients, whereas she is saying the Chinese just vary the quantities. She suggests that the basic flavourings in a Chinese marinade are soya sauce, sherry, sugar, minced ginger and garlic, vinegar and sugar. And indeed these are the things that you mostly see in Chinese recipes. And yes she is right - if you change the proportions the taste will change drastically. Maybe we should try the same technique with our own cooking.
One wonders whether the Chinese still do not barbecue for themselves out in the country. It seems that even when Claudia Roden wrote her book, in Hong Kong at least times were a-changing.
"With the influence of Western culture, barbecuing has recently become very fashionable in Hong Kong, and not only with the rich. On Sundays there are queues of people, waiting at the bus stop to be taken to the countryside half an hour's ride away, with bundles and bags, hanging on poles balanced on their shoulders. They carry chunks of chicken, pork, steaks and spare ribs marinating in soya mixtures and the soft sweet yellowish bread rolls introduced by White Russian bakers. And they bring charcoal or wood for the stone pits and the brick barbecues that have been built out there especially for them."
And there were the pictures of the stone barbecues in the hinterland of Hong Kong and the Chinese enjoying them. I imagine the Chinese in Australia are just as much into barbecuing as the Australians, and it would be interesting to know whether the custom has migrated to mainland China as well. After all Hong Kong is China proper now. It looks like they have also now got gas (or electric) barbecues like we do here.
So I learnt a few things - even though my heart partly sank when I found what page I had opened. I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food, in spite of it's hundreds of years of refinement, and the ubiquity of the Chinese restaurant. I almost thought to change the page, but decided that would be cheating. If you have made a decision stick to it.
I will finish with her marinade and glaze recipes.
"Mix 6 tablespoons of soya sauce with 4 tablespoons of dry sherry, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 4 tablespoons of sesame or other oil and a 2 1/2 cm piece of fresh root ginger crushed in a garlic press or with the flat of a knife to extract the juice.
You can vary this by adding 4 crushed cloves, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon or 1/2 teaspoon of aniseed, a sprinkling of salt and 1 dried tangerine peel cut into pieces.
For a garlicky flavour add as much as 5 cloves of garlic, crushed.
And if you like the stronger taste of Szechwan, you can have a good pinch of black or chilli pepper."
"Sweet and sour sauce: Mix 3 tablespoons each of soya sauce, tomato ketchup and vinegar with 1 1/2 tablespoons of sherry, 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt."
"For a glaze to paint on the food towards the end of the cooking time, mix 2 tablespoons of honey with 2 tablespoons of water, and if you can get it from a Chinese store, 1 teaspoon of five-fragrance spice."
Times have changed - five-spice powder is available in any supermarket.
