10 Quick Tips For Stir Fry Cooking

How would you like to eat healthy, cook fast on work nights and enjoy restaurant quality meals without the restaurant prices?

Stir fry cooking is the answer, here are a few quick tips to help you get started.

10 Quick Tips For Stir Fry Cooking

1. Stir frying is a fast way to cook but it’s the prep work that can take a lot of time. Solve this problem by prepping what you can the night before. Wash, chop & store food items in airtight containers, meat and vegetables separate, and refrigerate overnight.
2. For best results use fresh vegetables cut in even, uniform pieces. You can use frozen too, but fresh typically gives better results. If the prep work discourages you, don’t feel bad about buying prepackaged bags of cut fresh veggies–you’re preparing good healthy food and if that means paying a bit extra for shortcuts, I say go for it.
3. Cut meats in bite size, uniform sizes or sliced thin. If your meat is cut in chunks that are too big, chances are it will be dry by the time it’s fully cooked.
4. Choose lean cuts of meat and trim fat so that there isn’t much grease added to the dish.
5. Have all your meat and vegetables prepped before you start cooking. Arrange all ingredients in piles on a large cutting board or in individual bowls and placed within reach of the stove. Have your seasonings and sauces at hand too. Successful stir frying relies on fast paced cooking, be ready.
6. Preheat the wok or pan and oil before adding food. If your oil starts to smoke, it’s too hot. Pour out the oil, clean the wok and start again. Heat is very important with stir frying, to retain the most flavor you want the heat high for food to cook quickly rather than simmering slowly over low/medium heat.
7. Since you’ll be cooking on high heat, choose an oil with a high smoking point like peanut oil or safflower oil. These won’t burn or break down and ruin the dish.
8. When adding ingredients to the wok or pan, arrange items evenly across the surface so everything has a chance to cook quickly.
9. Add the ingredients as recipe instructs, meats take longer to cook so they’re started first. Some vegetables take longer to cook than others so they are added first, and so on. If you’re winging a dish on your own, start cooking the vegetables that take the longest to cook then work your way down.
10. Remove food from heat as soon as it’s cooked, this is not a dish to keep warm and serve out of the wok otherwise the dish continues to cook, loses flavor and gets mushy.

For in-depth wok & stir frying tips, here is a collection of links from the blog Tigers And Strawberries, the detailed info here is fantastic:

• Creating Your Own Foolproof Chinese Stir Fry: Introducing Barbara’s Rules of Three
• Creating Your Own Foolproof Chinese Stir-Fry–Step Two: The Aromatics
• Creating Your Own Foolproof Chinese Stir-Fry–Step Three: The Condiments
• Stir Fry Technique: Ten Steps to Better Wok Cookery
• Stir Fry Technique II: Ten Steps to Better Chicken From a Wok

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