What is dry sherry or chines sweet wine?

[sohailgagai]

hello , i want to use , the dry sherry or chines sweet wine , are these halal ???
or can i use any other sausce for the smell i need , in chinese chow mein and fried rice .......
the chef told me its the fragrance of open cooking of vegetables , is it true ??
bye

[Raine]

Are you allowed alcohol products?

[Zereh]

Are you allowed alcohol products?

...

I am not a fan of the dry sherry that they sell in grocery stores so I went to a regular liquor store to buy a small bottle which I use for cooking.

I do have and use mirin, which is sweet rice wine (i.e. sweet sake) which I'm sure gives a more authentic flavor than the sherry.

I don't recall seeing sake at the normal everyday grocery stores here (but to be honest I've never looked for it) but the store which has an on-site sushi master does sell it.


Z

[kitchenelf]

I definately would never use anything labeled cooking sherry or anything labeled cooking wine. Our grocery stores sell dry sherry and saki - both of these are great to cook with.

I did find dry sherry in Halal recipes so I assume it is ok.

[Lugaru]

I worked in a cajun kitchen ran by chinese chefs and they used cooking sherry which is a very cheap fortified wine. Think of it as a floral, fruity wine with extra alcohol so it will produce flames. Also alcohol can be used to distil aromas (such as in perfumes) and flavor agents so it takes the things that are hidden inside the food and brings them to the surface.

In traditional chinese cooking there is a slightly salted and spiced cooking wine with a very floral aroma... I've got a bottle (I buy several at a time since I use it in my cooking) but all the label is in chinese except for a part that says

Mei kuei lu chiew (its a type of fortified chinese wine liqour according to my internet searches) and under it "a product of the poeples republic of China"

Last but not least anything Kosher is likely to be up to your standards but you wont see that on a chinese bottle. Either way by definition it really should be.

[kitchenelf]

Lugaru - I always found cooking wines/sherry to be far too salty and it masks the flavor of the product. JMHO anyway. But regular sherry is very inexpensive to use - maybe we're thinking the same product - just using different terms.

In the grocery stores I go to you can find cooking sherry, cooking wine, in the vinegar section - I bought a cooking once, and once only. It is highly salty - sickening salty - icky - so I think you might be talking about the cooking sherry I'm talking about, which is a fortified wine. I add the salt as needed.

Cajun kitchen with Chinese cooks? Wow, that had to be interesting.

Remember when adding wines/sherries/ANY alcohol to skillets - it will all flambe (flame) - watch those blouses with long sleeves (especially the poet sleeves), etc.

[sohailgagai]

hi , thankyou every one for the replies, i want to know the fragrance i get when i eat at chinese restuarants........what is that , why i cant get at home.....when i cook......i mean in chinese chow mein and fired rice ......how can they get that ...whats the secret ????

[Lugaru]

Kitchenelf: Yeah, when I first got to boston I applied for a food court at the mall job. Actually the chefs where hispanic, but the owner and the manager where chinese. Su Ming (my manager) was one of the best I've had... very strict yet she had a great sense of humor. Either way I just applied there because my mother was born and raised In Louisiana which means I grew up with authentic cajun cooking but she almost never made it. I figured it would get me closer to that side of my heritage...

Then I realize that "burbon chicken" marinade for example needed: a jug of sherry.... half a jug of oyster sauce, half a jug of soysauce...

Edit: Just wanted to add I had my best job interview ever at that place... "wow... you speak better english than I do! You make one more dollar!"

sohailgagai: Im going to throw at you every ingredient I can think of which might be producing that aromatic experience...

Star anis, cloves, ginger root, tung hing cinamon, szcheswan pepper, sodium monoglutamate... could be dozens of things that we dont normally see in western cooking. What part are you from btw?

[auntdot]

Hi Sohailgagai, welcome aboard.

I am not Muslim but I know the following about halal foods.

No alcohol is halal, and most products made with alcohol, even if it is distilled out or otherwise removed, are forbidden (exceptions are made for bread leavened with yeast and vinegars that are distilled).

Because of the alcohol, even soy sauce is questionable. If it is made by fermentation, e.g. Kikkoman, it is not halal (there apparently is a percent or two of alcohol in the product even though it is not listed as an ingredient). If it is made without brewing, e.g. La Choy, it is.

But I don't believe most Chinese restaurants use wines/fortified wines in making their sauces for chow mein. Just chicken stock and and corn starch.

But hang in here, there are a lot of people who know more about this stuff than I.

Once again, glad you are here and God bless.

Edited for spelling and capitalization. I hate when I have to do that.

[sohailgagai]

thankyou soo much for all the help , well what i think the fragrance i am getting is of stir fry...... thats the difference what i think .......????
bye and thanks again !!!