I was reading Irene Kuo’s 1977 masterwork: The Key to Chinese Cooking recently, and I came across her three batter recipes for deep fried shrimp.
Irene Kuo was born Irene Hsingnee Yuan in 1919, to a family closely linked to the Qing dynasty. Her childhood exposed her to the finest of Chinese cuisine. During the 1960s and 1970s, she operated two restaurants in New York City, and did much to popularize Chinese cuisines in the United States. She was a guest on national talk shows, including Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show and Joan River’s show.
The Key to Chinese Cooking (1977, Alfred A. Knopf) is as much a textbook as a cookbook, as it teaches the many and varied cooking techniques used in the major cuisines of China. Much more than a stir-frying cookbook, Kuo teaches stewing, steaming, dry heat cooking, deep frying, simmering and roasting in addition to stir-frying. She also teaches the many knife skills used to prepare ingredients, and the effects these techniques have on the results.
Three batter recipes used in Chinese deep-fried shrimp dishes
In her section on various types of fried shrimp, Kuo introduces three batters, and all three have distinct flavor and texture:
- Egg batter (crisp and fluffy)
- Flour and cornstarch batter (crunchy and puffy, less thick than the egg batter)
- Sesame batter (nutty and brittle)
For all three batters, combine the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly. For the sesame batter, add the sesame seeds last, otherwise they go to the bottom. These batters also work for Sweet and Sour Pineapple Pork.
Egg batter
- 1 cup (237 ml) flour
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt
- 1/4 cup (59 ml) oil
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 3/4 cup (177 ml) water
Flour and cornstarch batter
- 6 tablespoons (90 ml) flour
- 6 tablespoons (90 ml) cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt
- 9 tablespoons (135 ml) water
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) oil
Sesame seed batter
- 1 cup (237 ml) flour
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt
- 1 cup (237 ml) water
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) sesame seeds
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