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Red cooking, also called Chinese stewing, red stewing, red braising, or flavor potting, is a slow braising Chinese cooking technique that imparts a reddish-brown coloration to the prepared food. Red cooking is popular throughout most of northern, eastern, and southeastern China.
There are two types of red cooking:
Soy sauce (usually a mix of light and dark soy sauce), fermented bean paste, red fermented tofuorrock sugar is commonly used to both flavor and impart a reddish brown hue to the items being cooked. Food coloring is sometimes added for a more intense red coloration. Both lu and hongshao are forms of stewingorbraising characterized by usage of soy sauce, Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing wine, huangjiu etc.) and rock sugar. Whole spices (star anise, black cardamom (caoguo), cassiaorfennel seeds) or five-spice powder are crucial elements in these dishes but are used in moderation so that their flavors do not overwhelm the main ingredients.
Red-cooked stews may be heavy in meat content or contain a variety of meats, vegetables, and hard-boiled eggs. Such dishes may be served hot or cold, and the sauceorstock is often reused as master stock.
