Chinese Soul Food

About Chinese Soul Food

Chinese soul food is classic comfort food you can’t resist, and in this cookbook you’ll find 80 recipes for favorites you can easily make any night of the week.

Chinese food is more popular than any other cuisine and yet it often intimidates North American home cooks. Chinese Soul Food draws cooks into the kitchen with recipes that include sizzling potstickers, stir-fries that are unbelievably easy to make, saucy braises, and soups that bring comfort with a sip. These are dishes that feed the belly and speak the universal language of “mmm!” You’ll find approachable recipes and plenty of tips for favorite homestyle Chinese dishes, such as red-braised pork belly, dry-fried green beans, braised-beef noodle soup, green onion pancakes, garlic eggplant, and the author’s famous potstickers, which consistently sell out her cooking classes in Seattle. You will also find helpful tips and techniques, such as caring for and using a wok and how to cook rice properly, as well as a basic Chinese pantry list that also includes acceptable substitutions, making it even simpler for the busiest among us to cook their favorite Chinese dishes at home. Recipes are streamlined to minimize the fear factor of unfamiliar ingredients and techniques, and home cooks are gently guided toward becoming comfortable cooking satisfying Chinese meals. Any kitchen can be a Chinese kitchen!

Editorial Reviews

“Hsiao-Ching Chou delves into the heart of Chinese cooking, understanding its power to provide sustenance and comfort. This unique collection of recipes will inspire lovers of Chinese cuisine to fire up their woks. Chou expertly teaches popular classics such as Soup Dumplings and Mu Shu Pork, as well as less familiar dishes, like Beef with Pickled Chinese Mustard Greens and Spicy Clams with Chinese Sausage, showcasing the remarkable range of Chinese home cooking.”
—Grace Young, James Beard Award-winning author of Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge

“I love this book. It’s a warm invitation to home cooks to get comfortable with Chinese home cooking through stir-frying, braising, and steaming–and with easily available Chinese ingredients. The fried egg recipe alone (a wok is by far the best place to fry an egg) makes this an essential book, but there are many more, including Dry-Fried Green Beans, Hot and Sour Soup, Red-Braised Pork Belly, a selection of dim sum dumplings, and that guilty restaurant pleasure, General Tso’s Chicken. They’re all here. No restaurant needed!”
—Naomi Duguid, author of Taste of Persia: A Cook’s Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan and Burma: Rivers of Flavor

“When I first met Hsiao-Ching Chou and she told me about making wontons and dumplings and other dishes, I was startled for I never had thought of these foods being made, and here was someone who actually made them. And that’s just one reason why I’m so glad to see Chinese Soul Food coming into print. Another is Hsiao-Ching’s personal comments about life in her parents’ restaurant that run through the book; they shed light on so many lives. As for the food, when I thumb through this book I want to make everything–it sounds so good and so comforting. Congratulations on a fine book!”
—Deborah Madison, author of In My Kitchen and Vegetable Literacy

“Soulful. Smart. And hunger inducing. This is the sort of food you eat if you’re lucky enough to have a Chinese grandmother cook for you.”
—Steven Raichlen, author of the Barbecue Bible cookbook series and host of Project Smoke on PBS

“I made the mistake of reading Chinese Soul Food before making dinner. I got so hungry reading over such appetite-inducing recipes as Baby Bok Choy with Chicken and Spicy Clams with Chinese Sausage that I simply had to run to the store to buy the ingredients. Dinner was a little later than usual but oh-so satisfying, and the recipes were simple and quick to make.”
—Bruce Aidells, author of The Great Meat Cookbook

2018 Events & Press

March 7 : KATU Afternoon Live (Portland, OR)

March 11: Tom Douglas’ 2nd Annual Dumpling Fest at Palace Ballroom (Seattle, info and tickets)

April 4: Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St., 7:30 p.m., (Portland, OR)

Oct. 23: Lane Community College Harvest Dinner (info)

Dec. 10: 12th Annual Cookbook Social @ Palace Ballroom (tickets)

Featured Recent Press:

KCRW Good Food (listen to podcast)

TODAY.com (read post)

KING-TV “Evening” (watch video)

KING-TV “New Day Northwest” (watch live segment)

Seattle Times (read article)

Seattle Magazine (read article)

Roundhouse Radio (listen to podcast)

KUOW/NPR Seattle (listen to podcast, starts at 12:45)

NEWSPAPERS:

Vancouver Sun (read article at bottom of the page)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (read article)

The Denver Post (read article)

National Post, Canada (read article)

National Post, Canada (cookbook of the week)

Citizen Tribune (read review)

New Jersey Star-Ledger (read article)

BLOGS/WEB SITES

Food52 (read article)

Tasting Table (recipe excerpt)

Family Focus Blog (read post)

Luxe Beat (read post)

The Little Epicurean (read post)

RADIO/PODCASTS

Seattle Kitchen with Chef Tom Douglas and Chef Thierry Rautureau (podcast part 1 and part 2, both starting at 17:30)

Clever Cookstr (listen to podcast)

The Connected Table on iHeart Radio (listen to podcast)