The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo

"This is sadly out of print now but you can get it from specialists. It’s by Irene Kuo and this is another Judith Jones book. She demands that you explain what you’re doing. If they’ve understood the basics of it then they’re going to be able to do it. For example, this book tells you how to velvet. Well, you know if you’re making stir-fried chicken or stir-fried fish, you don’t just slap the fish into oil. It will break and it won’t be as good. So what the Chinese do is they take the fish and put a little egg white, put a little cornflour, a little seasoning on it, rub it in and put it away for a while. Then you blanch it in either water or oil, pass it through the oil or water and that readies it for stir-frying. So that’s why if you do a stir fry at home without doing this it doesn’t taste very good. It doesn’t taste like a Chinese restaurant. Well, that’s why. There’s a velvety texture that’s lacking on the meat or the fish and that’s because you haven’t velveted it. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter I think so. And in some cases she’ll pair them with somebody who can write and who watch and describe. For example, swirling something in hot oil. If you describe it properly then someone else can copy it, but not everyone is a writer. Well, in a wok the heat is all around so if you want it to touch heat immediately you have to swirl it around the edges of the wok. The book explains all these techniques. Pea shoots and watercress, when you are cooking them they can easily become stringy with strands that you have to pull through your teeth, so she cuts them, chops them up in a certain way before stir-frying. That’s why you need that kind of background."