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Stir-Fry Tips




Source of Recipe


In The Kitchen With Heather
# Prepare all the ingredients in advance. Make sure that all ingredients are ready and next to the cooking area.

# For chopping, a Chinese cleaver works best. A sharp knife makes preparing food easier, faster and safer.

# Make sure that your wok is the right size for the amount of food you are cooking. Use a wok that is large enough for ingredients to be tossed and stirred easily. The wok should never be more than 1/3rd full.

# During the cooking process, you want as much of the food surface as possible to come into contact with the cooking surface. Cut the ingredients on a diagonal whenever possible. Make sure ingredients are uniform in size and thickness.

# Cut meat in short thin slices so they will cook as quickly as possible. Red meat should be cooked just until brown and fish and poultry until opaque.

# Heat the wok just until it starts to smoke. Add a small amount – 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil and heat until hot. Keep the pan in motion so that the entire cooking surface is covered in oil. A lukewarm wok will cause vegetables to release moisture and become soggy.

# You can toss the wok ingredients with a large spoon or regular spatula, but the stainless steel spatulas with the wide flat bowl works best.

# Once the cooking begins, add ingredients and stir quickly so that the vegetables remain tender-crisp.

# Stir fry the meat, poultry or fish first and cook 2/3 of the way through. Remove and set aside.

# Add veggies one variety at a time and in the order of the length of time they need to become tender crisp. For example, carrots and broccoli take longer than snow peas and mushrooms.

# Combine the meat or fish and the sauce with the veggies and finish cooking. This way the sauce will “penetrate” the meat or fish and coat the ingredients as well.

# If the dish is to be served with rice or noodles you need to begin cooking these so that they are finished at the same time as the stir-fry.

# Quality of ingredients makes a big difference in the finished product.

Time Saver:

If you don’t have time to chop vegetables for your stir-fry, grocery stores stock pre-cut veggies in produce section or if the store has a salad bar check for assorted chopped veggies.