KITCHEN PRACTICE 1 — A Complete Stir-Fry, Start to Finish
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Chapter: Chinese Cookery 5 — Stir-Frying & Wok Hei

TASK
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Assemble a full stir-fry dish, using velveted meat from Chapter 4,
aromatics bloomed per Chapter 3, and a pre-mixed sauce bowl —
following the correct order of ingredients from start to finish,
with every ingredient prepped before the wok goes on the heat.

WHAT TO DO
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1. Before turning on any heat, prep everything: velvet and blanch a
   portion of meat (Chapter 4), mince ginger, garlic, and scallion
   whites (Chapter 3), slice vegetables in order of hardness, slice
   scallion greens separately, and mix a sauce bowl (soy sauce,
   oyster sauce, a little stock or water, and a cornstarch slurry).
2. Arrange every prepped bowl in the order you'll use it, next to
   the stove.
3. Heat the empty wok until genuinely smoking, then add oil and let
   it heat a few seconds.
4. Add the aromatics, stirring constantly for just a few seconds
   until fragrant.
5. Add the velveted meat, tossing to reheat and finish cooking.
6. Add the vegetables in order of hardness, tossing continuously.
7. Pour in the pre-mixed sauce, tossing to coat everything evenly as
   it thickens.
8. Stir in the scallion greens in the final few seconds, then plate
   immediately.

WHAT TO EXPECT
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- If everything was genuinely prepped ahead of time, the actual
  cooking should feel remarkably fast — the whole sequence from
  aromatics to plating can easily be under two or three minutes.
- The meat should taste tender (a direct payoff of Chapter 4's own
  velveting), the vegetables should still have real bite rather than
  going limp, and the scallion greens should still look bright and
  fresh.
- If you find yourself reaching for a knife or an unmixed bottle
  mid-cook, that's a clear sign the mise en place wasn't genuinely
  complete before starting.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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This exercise runs every prior chapter's own technique as one
connected sequence rather than in isolation — the cleaver work, the
aromatics, and the velveting all exist specifically to feed into
this one fast, unforgiving cooking method. Completing the full mise
en place before the wok ever goes on the heat is what makes the
actual cooking possible to execute correctly at the speed this
technique demands.