If you're in the mood for Chinese food, don't go out — try cooking it yourself! Cooking Chinese food at home can be quick, easy, and fun. To get started, you need to know the basic ingredients, tools, and techniques to make your Chinese cooking the best it can be.Basic Tools for Chinese CookingIn Chinese cooking (or any other cuisine), you can usually use the kitchen tools you already have.

Knowing some basic Chinese questions, expressions, and emergency phrases will help you interact with people and travel more confidently in a Chinese-speaking country. Learning the days and months of the Chinese calendar, along with Chinese numbers, will make it easier to make plans and keep tabs on your money.

This drunken chicken recipe doesn’t call for chickens who’ve had one too many martinis. It actually gets its name from the step of marinating moist, cooked chicken pieces overnight in Chinese rice wine mixed with sugar, ginger, and other flavorings. Credit: PhotoDisc, Inc. Preparation time: 25 minutesCooking time: 50 minutesYield: 4 servings 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 2 1/4 pounds) 3/4 cup chicken broth 1 cup Chinese rice wine 3 tablespoons brandy 3 tablespoons soy sauce 6 pieces ginger 2 1/2 teaspoons sugar 1/8 teaspoon white pepper Discard any lumps of fat from the chicken.

Removing shells from shrimp is pretty easy, whether they’re cooked or raw. To shell shrimp, you need just your hands. If you want, put on a pair of vinyl gloves to prevent shrimp-scented hands. If you have a fresh lemon, though, you can use some of the juice to wash away the “fragrance.”Hold the shrimp by the tail with one hand, and then use the thumb and forefinger of the other hand to grasp the shrimp’s legs and edge of the shell.

Sweet and sour sauce, a favorite at restaurants, has finally come to your own kitchen. And when you make the sweet and sour sauce yourself, you can control the sweet and sour flavors to the proportion that’s just right for your palate. Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes Yield: 2 cups 3/4 cup water 1/2 cup ketchup 1/3 cup packed brown sugar 1/3 cup orange juice 1/3 cup rice vinegar 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed dried red chiles 2 tablespoons cooking oil 1 piece fresh ginger 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch In a bowl, combine 1/2 cup water, ketchup, brown sugar, orange juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and dried chiles.

This twice-cooked pork recipe first simmers the pork in a fragrant mixture of rice wine, ginger, and green onions tenderizes it and keeps it moist, then finishes the dish by stir-frying the sliced, simmered pork with garlic and a chile-laced sauce to give it a final flavorful punch. Preparation time: 12 minutes Cooking time: About 40 minutes Yield: 4 servings 1 pound boneless pork butt 3 cups water 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine 3 to 4 pieces ginger 2 green onions 1⁄3 cup chicken broth 3 tablespoons oyster-flavored sauce 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon chile garlic sauce 3 tablespoons cooking oil 6 dried or fresh red chiles 2 garlic cloves 1/2 small head of napa cabbage 1 teaspoon cornstarch Thinly slice the ginger.

The Chinese have a long tradition of using herbs and spices to boost a dish’s flavor (and provide nutritional benefits). You can now find many Chinese herbs and spices at supermarkets and specialty food stores. For Chinese culinary creations, you can’t go wrong with these Chinese herbs and spices: Chinese five-spice powder: The Chinese have long believed that the number five has special curative and healing powers, which is why this light cocoa-colored powder originally contained five specific spices.

Potstickers are Chinese dumplings that are steamed and then fried. The combination of steaming and pan-frying the potstickers gives the dumpling wrappers an irresistible balance between smooth and noodlelike on top, and crispy and caramelized on the bottom. Potstickers, despite the name, shouldn’t actually stick to your wok, though.