Need a quick, healthy, tasty dinner? Stir-frying can definitely fill the bill. The beauty of stir-frying is that it takes just a short time to cook — plus, you can use meats and veggies you already have on-hand. The idea is to quickly fry the meat and vegetables in a large pan over high heat while constantly stirring them to retain the flavor, color and crispness of the vegetables.
Step 1:
The Preparation
When stir-frying, you cut all the ingredients into bite-size pieces before you start cooking. Once your wok or pan is hot, you don’t want to waste time stopping to cut up a veggie or dice more chicken.
- Wok or Frying Pan: Although a large skillet works fine for stir-frying, a wok allows you to avoid overcooking by pushing the quickly cooked ingredients up the cooler, curved sides. Because a typical frying pan doesn’t allow you to push the foods aside, your veggies may become overcooked.
- Marinate Meats: Whether you use beef, poultry or pork — marinating the meat after cutting it up adds flavor and protects the meat from overcooking.
- Organize Your Veggies: Cut up vegetables — including garlic, scallions or shallots — and group according to their cooking times. Add slower-cooking vegetables like asparagus and green beans before faster cooking ones like snow pea pods and tomatoes.
Tip: Have herbs, such as red pepper flakes, ready to add at the same time you add the vegetables.
- Oils and Preheating: Stir-frying is done at very high heat, so be sure to use oils with a high smoke point like peanut, safflower, corn or canola. Preheat the wok on medium-high to high heat for at least 1 minute before adding the oil. Once the wok is preheated, drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons of the oil so that it coats both the sides and the bottom. The oil heats faster this way.
Tip: Before you add the other ingredients, reduce the heat a bit and season the oil by cooking a few pieces of garlic and ginger.
Step 2:
The Process
There is a definite order in which you will stir-fry the meat and vegetables:
- Meat: Add meat a cup at a time to the pan. Cook on high heat, stirring constantly, to seal in the juices. Remove the meat as soon as it changes color; it will be about 80 percent cooked. Return the meat to the wok to finish cooking when the vegetables are almost done. Cooking the meat this way ensures that the meat and veggies keep their unique flavors.
- Vegetables: Cook the heaviest vegetables — broccoli, carrots and eggplant — first and longest. Add lighter vegetables, such as bok choy, later because they cook so quickly.
Tip: Unsure which veggies to cook first? Stir-fry them separately, one group at a time.
Sauces
Popular stir-fry sauces usually found in the specialty food aisle or at Asian markets include hoisin, teriyaki and plum sauce:
- Hoisin sauce is made from fermented soybeans, garlic, vinegar, sweetener and chiles. You can dilute its strong, salty-sweet flavor with a little water or oil.
- Teriyaki sauce is made from soy, sugar and mirin (a Japanese sweet cooking wine)
- Plum sauce, also known as duck sauce, usually contains Chinese preserved plums, sugar, cider vinegar, lemon juice, ginger, onion, garlic and minced or chopped hot peppers
- Chili sauce is made from fermented soybeans and hot chiles
Before adding your favorite sauce, form a “well” in the middle of the meat and vegetables by pushing them up the sides of the wok. Add the sauce in the middle and stir to thicken before mixing it with the other ingredients.
When all the ingredients are cooked, taste and adjust your seasonings. Then serve immediately.
Save Time With Packaged Stir-Fries
You’ll find all kinds of stir-fry vegetables — some complete with sauces — in the frozen-food aisle. Because they’re already cut up, you’ll save prep time and have your family’s favorite stir-fries on the table in a jiffy.
