1. The stir frying cooking method
Stir frying is a way of quick cooking foods with a small amount of oil over high heat. This ingenious cooking
method from the east preserves the flavor, freshness and nutrients of a dish’s ingredients. Since cooking goes so
quickly, the main thing to remember when stir frying is to have all your ingredients prepared and close at hand
before you begin cooking. Every week or so, we get a craving for Chinese food. There is something about those
culinary vegetables, tender meats, and incredible flavors that force us to dig out a menu in the kitchen drawer and
order from a local restaurant.
The Chinese have a way of manipulating food that we wanted to learn about so we dug out the wok that we
had inherited when we got married and started reading up and experimenting. What we have learned about ancient
technique of stir fry is you have to be prepared before you start cooking. Often we talk about prepping ingredients
before you start cooking, but this is must when doing stir frying. In fact prepping the ingredients will take longer
than the actual cooking. Once you get your pan hot, you can’t stop until you are done cooking. Stir frying will also
give you some practice with your cutting skills since each ingredient will be bite size.
Have you ever seen a knife in a Chinese restaurant? Once prepped, we like to put the ingredients in individual
bowls separated according to their cooking times. The more dense comes first than the lesser dense ingredients.
The technique is to quickly fry the ingredients in a large pan over high heat while constantly stirring to preserve
flavor, color and texture of the food and keep the vegetables crisp. This is easy enough to follow and quick to learn
too.Typically one uses a wok; a large deep bowl made of thin metal with gentle curved sides. The heat concentrates
at the bottom of the pan and the curved sides allow you to push the ingredients to cooler areas in the pan. You can
use a typical frying pan, but it won’t cook as fast thus keeping your vegetables as crisp as you would want.
Other than a few specialty ingredients, you can use whatever you have on hand to make a stir fry. It is a
great way to clean out the vegetable drawer. Because you will be cooking at very high heat, you want to use high
smoking point oil like peanut, safflower, corn, or canola. Some of h specialty ingredients that you should be able to
find at your local supermarket are soy sauce, hoisin sauce, and chili sauce. The short or medium grained rice is best
for accompanying you stir fry. Prepare an aromatic mixture consisting of finely chopped herbs and spices that will
add flavor and aroma to the stir fry. Typical aromatics include garlic, scallions, red pepper flakes, shallots, and chili
peppers to name a few.
Next prepare your vegetables by cutting them into small pieces and separating according to their cooking times.
Slower cooking vegetables like asparagus and green beans will be added before faster cooking vegetables like pea
pods and tomatoes. Now you are ready to stir fry at home. Happy cooking and please continue cooking.
About the Publisher:
Hi, I'm Sharon Paz I'm an article writer since I was in High School. My favorite topic is about cooking, but when
beef stir fry was become popular, all of my topic now was for stir fry recipe. Sometimes I made my own recipe of stir
fry and I post it in some sites on the web. I hope that you will like my recipe.