Stir
fry cookery method became a popular technique of cooking because of two main
reasons, it is very quick as well as it is economical. Well guess what? Check
your retirement fund and you will notice that it is high time to brush up on
your stir technique. Aside from being thrifty, a great stir fried dish, is to
me, as good as how home cooking can get.
Stir frying is recognized for its ability
to produce dishes with vivid colors, vibrant flavors, and varied textures, the
technique has been adopted enthusiastically by American home cooks, with only
minor variations, namely, the use of moderate heat, poorly matched ingredients,
and insufficient fat and seasoning, to produce mushy heaps of bland, discolored
slop.
Here then are a few common slop [producing
errors and how to avoid them;
1. Using the wrong equipment: Use a wok right? Well, if you have an indoor wok burner or an outdoor contraption, yes. Otherwise, a frying pan is better. If you do have an indoor wok burner, I am jealous and don't want to hear about it. If you have one of those faucets directly above the stove, can I move in with you? Yes you can use a wok on Western stove, and what we are calling a Western stove is becoming more popular in China. But we have used both woks and skillets extensively for frying, and we think the skillet works better.
1. Using the wrong equipment: Use a wok right? Well, if you have an indoor wok burner or an outdoor contraption, yes. Otherwise, a frying pan is better. If you do have an indoor wok burner, I am jealous and don't want to hear about it. If you have one of those faucets directly above the stove, can I move in with you? Yes you can use a wok on Western stove, and what we are calling a Western stove is becoming more popular in China. But we have used both woks and skillets extensively for frying, and we think the skillet works better.
You can fry in a carbon steel, cast iron,
or non stick skillet. A well seasoned carbon steel pan is best. They tend to be
lighter than cast iron and have longer handles. However, carbon steel pans are
uncommon outside restaurant kitchens and cost more than cast iron. Non stick
pans work quite well for frying, as long as you are comfortable with getting
the pan really hot - and superheating nonstick pans is a safety no-no. Your pan
should be large enough to do the job so large that it hangs over the edge of
your burner. For most stoves, that means a diameter of 12 inches.
2. Crowding the Pan: The first commandment
of stir on a Western stove is: Don't overload the pan. If you are making a meal for one, you might be able to get away with frying all
the ingredients at the same time. But if you are preparing for a dinner party
type, forget it. You have to work in batches, transferring cooked food to a
plate as you go.
What about the infomercial for hand
hammered woks where the English guy shows how the cooked food moves up the
sides of the wok? Actually we love that infomercial, but as Helen Chen's advise
"Put out of your mind any notion that frying involves pushing food up the
sides of the wok while cooking in the center. This is incorrect, and no Chinese
I know cooks this way".
3. Protein Problems: When a stir fry hits a
snag, blame the protein. Meat, poultry, fish, and tofu can stick, turn tough,
or fail to brown. Then you are facing pizza delivery. Avoid Domino's by
checking the protein instructions on preparing and marinating six popular
proteins, found on recipes. These are only a few things to learn
in stir frying. Happy cooking and hoping you continue cooking.
