momrecipeideas.com

Being raised in a Chinese family, Chinese food is very much a part of me. Chinese cooking uses various methods, such as stir-fry, deep-fry, simmer, boil, steam and so on, with no less than twenty ways. The most commonly used method is still stir fry or ‘chao’ in mandarin.

Stir fry is not limited by any quantity and types of ingredients, anything can be mixed and stir fried in the same dish which creates for a good basis of “color”. Finely cut ingredients are cooked under high heat for a short period of time. The taste seeps into the food quite easily, emanating wonderful aroma. Since stir fries are made usually very quickly, it prevents the loss of nutritional content from food.

Tips on stir fry recipe:

(1) Ensure all ingredients are ready and close at hand. Cube, slice, mince lean meat finely, cutting against the grain. Deep fry marinated meat a few seconds before beginning the main stir fry. Cut vegetable according to their shape. Blanch first the very hard ones.

(2) My mother used to tell me that a Chinese wok is good for stir frying as compared to a non stick ones because it can produce ‘wok hei’ in Cantonese meaning ‘wok’s aroma’ when being heated at a high temperature. Good stir frying needs to have concentrated fire and heat. Non stick pan cannot be heated at high heat as it can damage the coating easily.

(3) After pouring a little oil, swirl it around to coat most of the surface and heat it over medium high heat about 1 minute.

(4) When it is almost smoking, add in ground garlic or scallion sections and stir fry for few seconds. Then scatter vegetable or meat in the wok. When ground garlic or scallion sections are cooked as flavoring, the aroma is overwhelmingly strong but satisfying.

(5) Turn and flip food in generous sweeping motions to prevent burning and ensure even cooking.

(6) Add all seasoning and flavoring after few seconds.

(7) Bring back to the boil then turn the heat down and cover for few seconds to reduce liquid in the wok.

(8) Decorate stir fried with chopped coriander leaves, sliced cucumber or finely sliced spring onions and chopped chillies.

(9) Serve piping hot as soon as possible.