Ken Hom webchat Thursday 30 January 2-3pm

Hello Ken! What's your favourite Chinese dish to cook? And your favourite non-Asian dish?

I love your liver recipe and also your lemon chicken. My book falls open (when it's not stuck together) on those pages! I really must buy a new copy.
Would the liver one work with chicken livers do you think?

How do you get those tasty sauces as in beef dishes is it black bean sauce????

I've read you use to teach Italian cooking - what's your favourite dish? Do you still cook it often?

I've binned a couple of woks now where am I going wrong?

Hi Ken
Remember the good old days?Spencer Wilcox my hubby worked with you and have good memories of you!
We have a number of books,we love Chinese and follow you!
Even though Spencer has Alhizemeres he has lots of good memories.

They needed to be oiled at a right heat and not washed

Dear Ken
Every year my husband and I hold a Chinese New Year party for 40 friends and neighbours. I usually cook English food, i.e. cold salmon and new potatoes with quiches & salads etc. Now he would like me to produce a Chinese buffet!!! I am wondering how to manage this as I do not have outside help. Can you suggest dishes that can be cooked in advance in large quantities? I am thinking of chicken with cashew nuts, Sweet and sour prawns, mixed vegetable chow mien. I found a recipe where you make sweet and sour sauce from orange marmalade, ginger marmalade and cider vinegar. What dishes would you suggest I make and are there any short cuts like this that you think would work?

I would love some ideas on how to make Chinese food healthy - I am dieting so have stopped our regular takeaways but missing it so much. Hoping I can recreate some of our favourites but without too much oil etc - hope you can help

Hello Ken. I would like advice about cooking beef. When we go to our local Chinese restaurant that's what I always order. But when I try making dishes at home it always goes rubbery. Am I using the wrong cut? Cutting it up wrong? Or cooking it wrong? How can I keep it tender? (sorry that's a lot of questions)

Following on from zeeza - my two favourite dishes are lemon chicken and sweet and sour. I have also tried making both these at home but the chicken comes out greasy rather than crispy and the sauce just isn't the same. How can I make my dishes taste authentic (I suspect that what we get in our local restaurant may not be actually authentic but it tastes good and I would like to recreate!)

Egg fried rice. Have tried so many ways to make it (egg on its own, egg onto rice etc) and it always comes out as a greasy lump. Please please can I have a foolproof recipe?!

Hi Ken. When I look for recipes online, they always say add rice vinegar or cook with peanut oil. I have a Chinese friend and her mother has said don't bother with all that - it's expensive and it tastes just the same cooking with sunflower or vegetable oil, and you don't need rice vinegar at all! What do you think?

What's the difference between dark and light soy sauce? In terms of what they're used for etc.

HI KEn my worry is also authenticity. how different is what you'd find at a Chinese take-away restaurant to the food you'd actually come across in China? Unfortunately I've never been able to go but at least I can try some authentic cooking instead!

Please could you let me know your favourite vegetarian dish? I haven't done much Chinese cooking before but Ive recently become a vegetarian and i'm hoping it will be a way tp explore different vegetables than i am used to - and more exotic ones I hope!

Crispy shredded chilli beef is may absolute favourite - is it easy to make? And is it as unhealthy as I think?!

is there a way I could make crispy duck gluten free? thank you

Do you have any recipes for dim sum? It always seems very fiddly and a lot of effort for small plates!

Hi Ken
We are having a Chinese New Year party and whilst I can manage to make a couple of dishes I wondered if you could recommend some extra dishes from your Tesco range that would be best for Chinese New Year
many thanks
Gill

Hi Ken, There is always an image of traditional Chinese cookery requiring no more equipment than a wok, steamer, cleaver and chopsticks. Now that western consumer goods are making their way into the Chinese economy, which kitchen gadgets do you think will be the most popular and will recipes need to be adapted to their use?

Hi Ken, it saddens me when people think their local Chinese take-away is a good representation of Chinese food! How can we dispel the the myth that Chinese food is just greasy, oily and unhealthy junk food?

Hi Ken

Not that I'm much of a cook but I do quite like a stirfry which is quick and easy. But my woks don't last very long? The coating starts coming off early on. Am I doing something wrong? Or what should I be looking for when I buy one?

Thanks

Ah, I see someone's already asked that! If I may ask another question, when - if ever! - do you think you'll retire? What drives you to keep working so hard?