Helen Chen's Chinese Home Cooking

Easy to understand and use. Taste authentic.

I already have several Chinese cook books but I am still glad that I added this one to my collection. This book covers just what it says, hearty home-style cooking. As another reviewer has already noted, the quick Scallion Pancakes are an especially good discovery. This book has sections based on main ingredients and offers lots of variations on recipes. For example, in the section on beef stir fry, there are half a dozen ways to fix beef with oyster sauce as well as other options. I was particularly glad to find so many recipes using tofu. Another thing I appreciated was the discusion of ingredients and cooking methods at the beginning of the book.My favorite source of ideas for Chinese style dishes is the collection of recipes by Nancy McDermott Quick & Easy Chinese: 70 Everyday Recipes  That book has a different style with less recipes and slightly more elaborate preparation than this one. It's my first choice for a weekend or when having people over. Helen Chen gets me through the weeknights when I have less time and a quicker, but still tasty home-style meal, probably a stir fry, is what I'll be making. Quick & Easy Chinese: 70 Everyday Recipes

This is a great home-style cookbook, obviously a fusion of what Ms Chen learned from her famous mother and more modern takes on old classics. The book is chock full of interesting dishes that have all stood the test of time, and everything I've made so far has turned out well. Her sweet & sour pork is classic Chinese restaurant fare and works beautifully, including a special batter that she has fine tuned to produce a nice crunch that stays on the pork after it is fried and sauced. There is also an interesting recipe for a simplified/quick version of scallion bread that can be put together in just a few minutes and is really good---not exactly like the original that requires a lot of kneading and rolling up and rolling out to create croissant-like layers---rather this is more of a batter with chopped bacon and scallion that is cooked like a crepe. And it works, and is easy enough that it can be thrown together (without making mess of the kitchen!) on the spur of the moment for an evening snack. If you know how to cook and can follow a recipe, and most importantly you don't expect the book to be something it isn't, I think this book fills the bill nicely for relatively quick & easy everyday Chinese family food.

I gave a two-star rating because there are no photographs in this particular cookbook. I have Helen's Easy Chinese Stir-Fries cookbook and it's my favorite Chinese cookbook. Her recipes are easy to follow, with excellent results. The photographs are important to me because I like to see what the dishes look like.

I really enjoy cooking (--a good book) so like to try new ways. This has a lot of good recipies but now my husband is diebetic so don't get a chance to use this book very much.