Female chef of Chinese descent promotes healthy Chinese cookery

Well-known female TV chef of Chinese descent Ching-He Huang, star of the BBC series Chinese Food Made Easy, recently arrived in the United States for the shooting of a 13-episode second season of the Easy Chinese food show, during which she will introduce nearly 40 new Chinese dishes, according to a report published on the U.S.-based worldjournal.com.

The first season, Easy Chinese: San Francisco, which was hosted by Huang and aired on the U.S. Cooking Channel last year, was extremely popular among U.S. audiences.

Huang showed how “steamed pearl balls” were made on Today Show on the morning of June 7. During a Cooking Channel interview on the afternoon, she talked about the ways of using two healthy ingredients, vegetable bouillon cubes and miso paste, and the popular documentary about Chinese food, A Bite of China.

Huang, a British television personality who was born in Taiwan and educated in the United Kingdom, has been fascinated with the art of cooking since her childhood. She often reinvents Chinese dishes, cooks them in a healthy style that is in line with the pace of modern life, and advocates the use of fresh ingredients and seasoning.

During the June 7 Today Show, Huang showed how “steamed pearl balls” were made. Although they were just steamed streaky pork meatballs in sticky rice, Huang made sure that all the ingredients were healthy by cutting the skin off the pork and other means. She then added salt, white pepper, garlic, onion, allspice, and vegetable bouillon cubes to the pork to make meatballs.

She stressed that vegetable bouillon cubes could replace unhealthy monosodium glutamate to make the meatballs healthier and taste better. The final steps were wrapping the meatballs with soaked sticky rice, and then steaming the meatballs. She suggested dipping the “pearl balls” in a mixture of soy sauce and black rice vinegar while eating them, and said that the pork could be replaced by chicken or vegetarian meat, and other ingredients such as mushrooms could be added.

Huang also revealed her chicken wing grilling secrets. She always marinates chicken wings with miso paste, a kind of soya bean paste, and soy sauce, ginger, garlic, honey, and sugar, which make the grilled chicken wings smell delicious.

Huang has a very busy schedule. In addition to hosting TV shows in China and the United States, she has been writing books about the art of cooking, in hopes that more people will know that Chinese dishes can be both healthy and creative.

She said that in the summer, people can cut cucumbers into thin slices, and sauté the thin slices with chopped meat. When making salad, people can add a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. Salad seasoning can include freshly squeezed fruit juice, and should not be limited to olive oil or vinegar. “Just play with it,” she said, adding that her favorite food in the summer is cold noodles with sesame paste, capsicum paste, vinegar, and garlic as well as cucumber and bean sprouts, which is delicious and easy to make.

In the second season of Easy Chinese, Huang will introduce a variety of main dishes, including hot and sour noodles, seafood-stuffed dumplings, Dandan noodles, seafood tacos, pork chops, and Chinese-style meatballs, as well as cocktail snacks and Chinese-style sandwiches.

Source：People's Daily Overseas Edition; Author: Liu Shuang
Read Chinese version: 华裔美女大厨　巧手推广中餐