The best Wok Cookery books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Asian food can really be quite complex and challenging to make as far as I am concerned. The only reason I have succeeded with some recipes was because I found a fantastic cook book with a superb author who knows how to write a recipe.

For Thai food, I can't recommend this one highly enough. Genius author who can make complex food understandable. None of her recipes have let me down and I learn a lot about the ingredients. It was the fist time I understood a recipe, not just followed it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1607745232/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A few years ago I had a similar experience at a local place. I started making Thai food just with going to an Asian grocery store, getting some pastes and coconut milk, and following the recipes on the cans. What I made was okay, but not nearly close.

I did that every so often until a few months ago and I came across this book and followed her guidance (she also has a blog called “shesimmers”): Simple Thai Food: Classic Recipes... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607745232?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share. What I appreciate about the book is it provides alternative ingredients when possible and says when you’re better off leaving the called for ingredient out if you can’t find it. It also gives a few different explanations on methods, equipment, etc.

I also like the Hot Thai Kitchen youtube. I’ve only watched a handful of the videos so she may well also include similar suggestions regarding methods, ingredients, etc.

I think they provide similar knowledge and having made a few of the same dishes from both sources I was pretty happy and you couldn’t go wrong with either. For example, I made the yellow curries from both and both were definitely better than what I had made when simply following the can’s instructions. They were definitely not restaurant quality (because of me) but a noticeable improvement on my previous efforts.

There's really no such thing as a "traditional sichuan sauce" in the sense of a hot sauce since that's not how sichuan peppercorns are typically used in traditional Sichuan cooking. Typically, the peppercorns would be fried in the cooking oil to infuse the flavor and numbing qualities and then the peppercorns would be removed from the oil (though you can find instances that call for them being left in).

You're going to want to stick to cookbooks and/or YouTube (though I've found it can be difficult to find a variety of Sichuan chefs on YouTube). /u/HaggarShoes mentioned Fushia Dunlop, here's a great book of her's on Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.com/Land-Plenty-Treasury-Authentic-Sichuan/dp/0393051773/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544646621&sr=1-1&keywords=Sichuan+cooking

I worked in a very, very good Thai restaurant for a good deal of time, and a chef told me <em>Pok Pok</em> was the best Thai cookbook available in English. Never read it myself, but I had a chance to skim through his copy and it certainly seemed like high-quality, authentic stuff. That said, being authentic, it doesn't shy away from ingredients you'll have trouble finding 10,000 km from Thailand.

If you’re interested in Sichuan cooking, I just came across this cooking book...it’s supposed to be one of the best for Sichuan recipes and it’s much more reasonably priced than a lot of others.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees is a good book about the techniques and fundamentals of Chinese cooking.

Other than that, I think /u/spire88's comment is excellent. I can vouch for Chinese Cooking Demystified, and the author of those videos posts on Reddit from time to time (/u/mthmchris)

Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice is an accessable book for Sichuan cooking. I've learned a lot from it myself.

Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young

Fuchsia Dunlop writes has some of the most startlingly authentic yet approachable English language cookbooks on Chinese food.

I’d highly recommend something like this for your library.

https://www.amazon.com/Every-Grain-Rice-Chinese-Cooking/dp/0393089045/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=272705d7-d756-4a76-b5c7-311ab062abc8

“Wok” by Kenji Lopez Alt is very good and has lots of info and recipes Amazon Book Link

Can't comment on Japanese but I really love Every Grain of Rice for Chinese cooking. Definitely learned a lot from that.

Can you tell the difference between the taste of Rice Bran and Vegetable (Rapeseed) Oil?

I've been following a fantastic Wok cookbook a couple of times a week and I've learnt so much from it, one of the major things I haven't tried yet is he says to cook stir fries with Rice Bran or Peanut oil but they're really expensive, like 5x the price of bog standard veg oil at my local supermarket.

The book "The Wok" by Kenji Lopez-Alt is great for learning some recipes, ingredients to keep on hand, and some wok/frying pan technique. It's a big book, and it's an incredible resource. I checked it out from the library and loved it so much that I bought a copy.

The Kung Pao Chicken recipe at the beginning of the book was a game changer for me.

https://www.amazon.com/Wok-Techniques-J-Kenji-L%C3%B3pez-Alt/dp/0393541215

www.thewoksoflife.com

Chinese Cooking Demystified (YouTube)

The Wok: Recipes and Techniques by J. Kenji López-Alt (Amazon)

If you haven't done tomato & eggs yet, I'd heartily recommend giving that one a try. Stupidly easy to make, but very tasty.
In general, this book is a good resource for both technique and recipes, well worth picking up:
https://www.amazon.com/Wok-Techniques-J-Kenji-López-Alt/dp/0393541215

Have you tried the one at taste of chungdu? Even better in my book. I've cooked the version from Fuchsia Dunlop's sichuan cookbook and was pleased.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Sichuan-Fuchsia-Dunlop/dp/1324004835?ref_=d6k_applink_bb_dls&amp;dplnkId=89f30274-a3a3-4985-ae75-fbb80df85213

I think the ethos of the sub recommends that you buy the book. The Wok.

It's obviously pretty specific in its scope, and I don't think I'd call it "professional leaning", but I think it could scale well as it covers techniques in detail, but The Wok by Kenji. Pretty recent book, too.

How do you use them? so for something like the mala spice mix whole spices are fairly cheap and most sichuan recipes call for whole spices anyways even if you toast them and grind them.

If you want something for lazy cooking you could make a spice blend by toasting then grinding dried chilies and sichuan peppercorn then adding however much salt, msg and whatever other spices you want so you could use it like a taco seasoning pack.

If you're interested in learning to cook sichuan food I would check out The Food of Sichuan

You won't be able to get this one for Valentine's Day, but Kenji Lopez-Alt is releasing a new book soon and it's all about cooking with a wok. He is an insanely good cookbook author/chef. Stash this one away as a future gift idea!

https://www.amazon.com/Wok-Techniques-J-Kenji-L%C3%B3pez-Alt/dp/0393541215

Maybe get her a book focused on a technique or cuisine she is interested in. For example Kenji Lopez has a new book coming out in early March called "The Wok: Recipes and Techniques" that would be a great gift for a cook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393541215/

The best cookbook for you I think is <em>Phoenix claws and Jade Trees</em> by Kian Lam Kho. Almost half the book focuses on proper techniques and even the recipes are organized accordingly as opposed to the traditional, unhelpful, Western "appetizers, mains, etc."

https://www.amazon.com/Wok-Techniques-J-Kenji-L%C3%B3pez-Alt/dp/0393541215/ref=sr_1_4?crid=BJ2R027AM9ZB&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=the+wok%3A+recipes&amp;qid=1635528731&amp;qsid=137-7057026-7533244&amp;sprefix=the+wok+recipes%2Caps%2C108&amp;sr=8-4...

I saw one at Barnes and Noble called Pok Pok that looked amazingly detailed.

https://www.amazon.com/Pok-Stories-Roadside-Restaurants-Thailand/dp/1607742888 , heres the amazon link but probably better to check it out in person first anyways.

What /u/eobanb said.

I'm reading through the updated version of Fuschia Dunlop's (who is sort of like the Julia Child for Chinese and particularly Sichuan food) book now where she talks about the spread of popularity of dishes from Sichuan and a lot of the development of those dishes and flavors that define the culinary style about a century ago, when there was a large population influx into the region.

The book is here if you're interested in the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Food-Sichuan-Fuchsia-Dunlop/dp/1324004835

As a hobby, I like to try to recreate dishes I've had while traveling or from restaurants, and I have been focusing on Sichuan lately.

My understanding is also that most of the people who wound up in America were from those coastal provinces. I had heard (and never confirmed) though that the original owner of Chow Bar was from the northern interior area, and might have been a famous singer/performer back home.

This is a great book but definitely not what OP is looking for. It's one of the most intimidating cookbooks ever written, and missing/less strong on a lot of simple classics.

Hot Thai Kitchen and Simple Thai Food are both excellent books, and are my recommendations.

Pok Pok. I'm crazy about Thai food and most Thai food on the internet is Americanized. This book is a collection of recipes from Andy Ricker who spent years in Thailand sitting down with local chefs, learning great dishes, and copying their recipes and techniques (with their permission). He opened a successful Thai restaurant of the same name in Portland, Pok Pok. You will need a scale, a mortar and pestle, and access to the ingredients. Most asian markets in a decent sized city will have most of it. Amazon is a pricier but serviceable option. Here is his green curry recipe which is extraordinary.

For most other stuff I use google or Seriouseats.com.

I’m Chineses so I’m speaking primarily about Chinese dishes... virtually any dish that doesn’t already have rice or noodles in the dish itself can be paired with rice. I usually start by looking for recipes for a specific dish, something I’ve had at a Chinese restaurant or seen on a menu.

I also love Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. It has a lot of recipes that I grew up with.

I highly recommend you this book if you already have sound basics.

&#x200B;

https://www.amazon.com/Land-Plenty-Treasury-Authentic-Sichuan/dp/0393051773

&#x200B;

Were i for you i would go to Chinese markets and restaurants and talk to the chefs there if i like their food.

My bf is going through the book Land of Plenty. With a few ingredients from Amazon that are a little harder to find if you aren't near a Chinese market, he makes simple hearty meals in 20 minutes. Most of the dishes take about 20 minutes.