Easy Chinese Recipes for Takeout Experts
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After I've spent a long day in the F&W Test Kitchen, a trek down to Chinatown for fresh noodles or special spices just isn't going to happen. But, with some cross-cultural engineering, I've discovered ways to make some of my favorite Chinese recipes totally supermarket-accessible. The key is using a few Western ingredients in clever and unexpected ways. For instance, I steam refrigerator biscuits—the ones in those cardboard cans—to create fluffy bacon buns (sorry, Dave Chang, but these rock!). The cumin and crushed red pepper that power my Sichuan-style lamb are always in my cabinet, so to create that crazy Sichuan-peppercorn mouth-buzz, I use a whopping amount of the pepper. Of course, soy, sesame oil and oyster sauce are irreplaceable, but luckily, they're as easy to find as Greek yogurt, Spanish chorizo and Italian canned tomatoes—a real melting wok.
