Stir Frying in a Wok Photo by Mats Stafsang Einarsen |
Ever since they have known about each other the French and
the Chinese have had a great rivalry when it comes to cooking. Both sides claim they have the best cooks in
the world but there are great differences of the techniques that they use and
the food they prepare. Stirfry is one of
those differences it is similar to sautéing but the technique is
different. The reason the Chinese
develop stirfry is simple, they don't have much fuel. Because of this lack of fuel they had to
develop a method of cooking that was quick and didn't use much fuel. The answer the Chinese came up with was
stir frying.
In stirfry it is important to prepare all your food first by
cutting it up into bite sized pieces so you can add it to the wok all at once. The wok is already heated over a medium to
high flame and three or four tablespoons full of vegetable oil have been added
after the wok is been heated for about a minute. Be sure to cover both the sides and bottom of
the wok with oil. Traditionally the
Chinese have used peanut oil for this process, but you can substitute other
oils like canola, olive oil, corn oil or other vegetable oils.
For the most part the Chinese cooks didn't work with recipes
as we Westerners are used to doing. The
Chinese idea of food was anything they could lay their hands on that was edible
including some things that we Westerners wouldn't even consider eating. From this they developed one of the great
cuisines of the world, and with that we’re ready to do some cooking.
The first thing you're going to have to do is gather the
ingredients together keeping the meat separate from the vegetables. So that the heat will be evenly distributed
through your meal cut all the pieces approximately the same size so that they
are all bite sized.
Get the cooking utensils together that should include a wok,
a wooden stirfry paddle a large size pair of cooking chopsticks. All of these utensils are available at a
specialty shop that specializes in cooking utensils.
The chopsticks are optional you don't have to use them if
you don't know how.
Heat your wok over at medium to high heat for about one
minute and then drizzle some cooking oil into it so that you cover both the
sides of the bottom of the wok. Season
the cooking oil be for use start cooking and some garlic or ginger root to the
wok just to impair some flavor to the oil.
(You may need to reduce the heat at this point to keep the garlic or
ginger from burning.)
First you cook the meat over a high heat so that you sear
the surface of the meat to keep the natural juices into the meat. After the meat is cooked set it aside, and go
on cooking your vegetables. He should
never add more than a cup of meat to the wok at any time. If your recipe calls for more than a cup of
meat cook them in sections. You should
also lay the meat out in single layers of the wok. Remove the meat from the wok when it changes
color. Most recipes indicate that you
should cook the meat over a high flame but some recipes do vary.
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