Emma Chung: How anyone can make Chinese food easily at home
'It's a fragrant oil that you make by frying spring onions and mixed with noodles, it's really easy! It's five ingredients in the whole dish,' says the now Hong Kong-based chef and content creator. 'I just casually posted, not even telling anyone.'
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Chung, 28, who posts under @iam.chungry, had spent her life in food already though, working as a recipe developer for a food box company and teaching at London's School Of Wok.
With Hong Kong parentage, she moved to Shanghai at the age of five. 'So I actually lived more in Shanghai than I did in Hong Kong, however I've always felt really tied to my Cantonese roots, to my Hong Kong family.'
(Emma Chung/PA)
Her food is heavily influenced by both areas. 'They're really different,' says Chung. 'I would say Shanghainese food is a little bit sweeter overall, we use more dark soy sauce, so dishes tend to have that dark brown colour. Because it gets quite cold in the winter, it's heartier than Cantonese food, it's quite filling, you've got braised meats, delicious noodles and rice dishes.
'In Hong Kong, dishes are lighter in flavour, a lot of seafood, dishes are often steamed.'
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Chung remembers her grandmother ('the best cook I've known') rustling up all her meals on a small electric stove in a tiny kitchen, with tools hung everywhere and meat drying at the windows.
'The dish I miss the most when I'm away from home is her stir-fried greens. I also really remember her doing a whole steamed fish in a massive wok. They'd be 20 of us [eating] in this tiny flat and this boiling hot dish of steamed fish coming out.'
Chung's debut cookbook, Easy Chinese Food Anyone Can Make, aims to prove that forgoing your local takeaway in favour of home cooking is a lot more simple and accessible than you might think. Think easy weeknight dinners like ketchup prawns, to takeaway classics like sweet and sour pork and beef chow fun, and sticky mango rice for pudding.
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So what's her advice for beginners to the cuisine at home?
Get four basics in your pantry
According to Chung, all you need is a light soy sauce, a dark soy sauce, sesame oil and oyster sauce. 'A light soy sauce is going to be very salty, it adds a bit of seasoning. Dark soy sauce gives it that lovely golden brown colour – when we think of a really delicious stir-fry noodle that has a dark brown colour, that's what's giving it its colour. Sesame oil has a really delicious nutty taste.
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'Oyster or mushroom sauce [for a plant-based alternative], they taste really similar, adds a nice salty taste to your food that's different to a light soy sauce.
From those few basic sauces, you can make so many different types of dishes, says Chung. 'When I go to my grandmother's kitchen, when I look at her pantry, she's literally got four large bottles.'
Stop buying packet supermarket stir-fry sauces
'It's just a mixture of sesame oil, light or dark soy, maybe sugar, maybe a few other things to make it taste a little bit better. I would say if you just had those basic ingredients yourself, it's going to taste a lot better, a lot fresher, and probably be a lot healthier than when you buy those packaged ingredients with things that you don't even know what's in it – same as if you were buying like a jar of pasta sauce from the aisles.
'Start with a little bit [of each thing] and you can always add a little bit more.'
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It's likely to work out cheaper in the long-run too.
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Start with fried rice – but don't over-stir
A Chinese fried rice dish is usually made of 'the most basic of ingredients', says Chung, 'some maybe you already have at home – it's an amazing way to transform a very simple ingredient, or leftovers.
'I always have lots of different things lying around the fridge, like a half-chopped courgette, or like the end of a spring onion. It's a great way to use what you already have and transform it into something that tastes really different.
'If you get that technique right (you don't necessarily need a wok), it can go from a kind of average fried rice to really, really good fried rice.'
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Chung, who taught at London's School of Wok for many years, says the pan needs to be very hot – and not to mix it around too much.
'I've taught many fried rice dishes. Almost every class had some kind of fried rice. What I saw all the time were just people constantly mixing it, and when you mix it so much, it's almost like you're breaking the grains of the rice. And so that's why it gets wet and a little bit mushy.'
'With risotto, they encourage you to continually stir it because you want to break up the grains of rice, you want to kind of release some of that starch. But in the fried rice, that's not what you want. So I would say actually the best tip is to actually not do so much and just let it cook in the pan.'
Make your own dumplings – with minimal pleats
Chinese dumplings or wontons are easier to make than we might think, says Chung. 'Making any type of dough, whether you're baking or making pasta, can seem daunting. But I think once you try it a few times, and then you get familiar with how the dough feels – it becomes really easy.'
In Chinese restaurants you'll see wontons with many pleats, she notes, but that's just 'a plus'.
'The most basic dumpling, when you go to dumpling stalls in Shanghai, they're doing the most basic fold because they have to make a hundred a day. They're not going to bother sitting there making 10, 12, 14 pleats on each dumpling, they're just squeezing it, sealing it shut and then moving on to the next one.'
Her best tip for filling dumplings is to cook a little bit to taste it, before putting the rest of the mixture inside. 'Like you would if you were making meatballs at home to make sure the seasoning is right. Just cook off a small bit.'
Chop everything before you start cooking
'With Chinese food, everything happens quite quickly. Often, things are being stir-fried within 10-15 minutes. So I would say, make sure you have everything that you need ready and measured out right by you for the very beginning. And if you need garlic, ginger, spring onions or peppers, have that all already chopped.'
(Ebury/PA)
Easy Chinese Food Anyone Can Make by Emma Chung is published in hardback by Ebury Press. Photography by Ola O.Smit. Available July 24th.
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Happily you can't possibly go wrong, so set sail soonest. Heron It's a brave chef who opens a fine-dining restaurant by the Water of Leith at the Shore, overlooking Restaurant Martin Wishart, the Michelin star holding elder statesman of the Edinburgh restaurant scene, located just up the street. But this delightfully relaxed restaurant is open and bright, and has its own Michelin star. The menu is a roster of good Scottish ingredients: Orkney scallops, Cumbrae oysters and Sika deer, with the occasional exotic, like plum with langoustine or koji bringing a mysterious umami boost to turbot, grape, almond and salsify, but look out for supplements on the tasting menus. Aizle Located in the garden room of the Kimpton Charlotte Square hotel, Stuart Ralston's ethos of ever-changing strictly seasonal ingredients always delights – particularly now you can choose between a tasting menu or three-course à la carte. Despite the reverence afforded the hand-churned butter, Koji fermented rice and all things aged, this is an adventure, not a sermon. Duck with damson, chicory and pistachio is a gloriously skilful melding of flavours, while a pudding of pumpkin, milk sorbet and popcorn custard is a home-run of fun. And don't overlook the cocktail list, which features a formidable sorrel, gooseberry and vodka concoction. Back to index Best for walk ins Skua Under the stairs but definitely not under the radar this tiny, informal Stockbridge restaurant is all about moreish cocktails and mostly small plates; the sort of place you'd come for a drink and find yourself wanting to stay all evening. The menu is short, but the food is punchy – start with an oyster dialled up with blackcurrant leaf vinegar and you may find yourself moving on to fried chicken with fiery choritto hot sauce or dial it down with lamb skewers scented with pine and soothed by labneh. Or just come for a burnt honey and zabaglione doughnut. David Bann This attractive restaurant with its serenely zen-like look is not good-in-spite-of-being-vegetarian; it's just plain good. The menu encompasses a world of different cuisines, from Thai fritters to Moroccan black-eyed bean stew, all fresh, light and bright tasting. The same menu is served from midday until late and though options may not change much from season to season or year to year, this is a reassuringly consistent restaurant. Hendersons Restaurant The original Hendersons café opened in 1962, when people still crossed the street to avoid vegetarians. The city mourned until a new generation opened a stylish vegetarian/vegan restaurant so good you'll probably not notice the absence of meat and fish on the menu. Expect zhuzhed-up old standards like nut roast alongside banana blossom pakoras and cauliflower jerk steak; or crème caramel with sea buckthorn sauce and the original, much loved chocolate mousse. Try lunch, or a nibble and a blackberry and rosemary sling in the afternoon. Or just make an evening of it – you won't go wrong. Mother India's Café Always order too much in Indian restaurants? Then the tapas-style menu at Mother India's Café is your answer. The smaller sizes mean you can try lots of dishes, but be sure to ask your waiter to try to stagger your order if you don't want to run out of room on your table. The food is both authentic and inventive with dishes such as spiced haddock and baby aubergine, as well as the more traditional saag lamb. It's always busy, but it can be easier to get a table for lunch. They also do great takeaways. Café St Honoré The auld alliance is alive and well in this charming little bistro hidden down a lane in the city centre. Dishes such as North Sea coley brandade and Gartmorn Farm confit duck leg show how the restaurant combines French and Scottish cooking (what would a Frenchman would make of an Ecclefechan tart?). The wine list is more widely travelled, with a good selection by the glass. There is an attractively priced 'café classics' menu as well as a daily menu, but be warned - the tables are close together here, as you might expect in a traditional bistro, so leave any arguments outside the door. Holyrood 9A If you're hungry and at the foot of the Royal Mile don't return the same way. Walk up Holyrood Road instead to find this roomy, high-ceilinged bar – all dark wood panelling and dripping candlewax. Beer enthusiasts will be pleased with the local choices on offer, but you're really coming here for the burgers. They don't call them 'two-handed' for nothing as they are more than generous. Try the eponymous 9a (a steak burger with smoked bacon, onion rings, smoked applewood cheese and beer mustard mayo) or The Scotsman – a haggis and whisky peppercorn mayo burger). Good veggie and vegan options too and also a decent breakfast. Back to index How we choose Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller's taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations. Back to index About our expert Linda Macdonald Somewhere between New Town ladette and Old Town doyenne, I have a passion for tunnock's teacakes and a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde personality, making Edinburgh the perfect city for me.
