Stir Fry

What is stir frying?

Stir frying is a Chinese cooking technique where ingredients are fried in a small amount of very hot oil while being stirred in a wok. It is a quick method of cooking only taking around 30 minutes – including chopping ingredients.

What is a Wok?

A wok is a deep round-bottomed cooking pot that when heated, becomes very hot and cooks food quickly. A wok uses less oil and its high, sloping sides help contain most of the oil splatter. Using a wok, and this method of cooking and you end up with very delicious meals. If you require a wok to take travelling, check out these beauties available from Amazon.

What if you don’t have a Wok?

If you don’t have a wok, don’t worry, a sauté pan is a good substitute. Just heat, add oil in the pan and stir fry as usual.

Are stir frying vegetables and other ingredients healthy?

As mentioned, stir frying is a quick and easy way to cook food, and it is also healthy. As it is a quick way to cook you end up with tender and crips vegetables that retain more nutrients than if they were boiled. Also, stir frying requires only a small amount of oil, so the fat content is low.

Best stir fry ingredients

The luxury with a stir fry meal is that you can put many ingredients into it, really, the combinations of ingredients are endless. They can include, but not limited to:

• Vegetables: mushrooms, carrots, celery, peppers (capsicums), baby corn, broccoli, cauliflower, onion, garlic, snow peas
• Meats: beef, pork, chicken, seafood, tofu
• Nuts: almonds, cashews, water chestnuts.
• Sauces: soy sauce, sesame oil, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, miso paste, Tamari.
• Noodles (Saba, Japanese Udon, Egg, rice noodles), rice (plain white rice, fried rice).
• Garnish: chopped green onions, sesame seeds, parsley.

Best oil for your stir fry

Not all oils are suitable for stir frying. For wok cooking, use oils with a high smoke point and low polyunsaturated fat content. So oils like canola, peanut and grapeseed are the best oils for stir frying. Olive oil isn’t recommended as it has a very low smoke point and has a strong flavour that doesn’t blend well with the ingredients.

10 Tips for Making the Perfect Stir-Fry

1. Cut up all ingredients first, keeping them of similar sized pieces so they cook at the same rate.
2. Make sure your veggies are washed and completely dry so they don’t ‘spit’ when water meets hot oil.
3. Your Wok Should Be hot before adding oil.
4. Pour oil around sides of the wok so they are oiled also.
5. Do Not Cook Ice-Cold Meat. Defrost it first. Cook the Meat in Batches first, remove them from the wok and keep in a bowl.
6. Cook the Vegetables Next. Stir-fry onions first, then add hard vegetables such as carrot and broccoli before adding quick-cooking vegetables, such as snow peas, leafy greens and bean sprouts.
7. Add the Cooked Meat at the End and stir for a minute or so to heat up.
8. Pour over your choice of sauce and cook until thickened.
9. Serve and enjoy
10. Stir fry leftovers should keep in a fridge for a couple of days.

Fast and Fabulous Stir Fry Dishes