Stir-fry onions first, then add hard vegetables such as carrot and broccoli. Quick-cooking vegetables, such as snow peas, leafy greens and bean sprouts, should be added towards the end of cooking.
Start with the hard vegetables like carrots and broccoli. Stir and scoop vegetables to the side to make room for more. Then add the softer vegetables, like sliced mushrooms and zucchini. Pour in some stock or water and always keep the veggies moving in the pan.
Step 1: Prepping the vegetables. The first step is to blanch the vegetables. In this recipe, I am using five common vegetables to prepare the stir-fry- broccoli, cauliflower, capsicum (bell pepper), snow peas, and carrots.
Whenever I remember, I'll grab a bunch of green onions and add the whole bundle chopped up to my stir fry. They are so delicious! You can also use any other type of onion in your stir fry. Garlic and ginger are essential to making your stir fry flavor, as well as your stir fry sauce, pop.
Stir-fry onions first, then add hard vegetables such as carrot and broccoli. Quick-cooking vegetables, such as snow peas, leafy greens and bean sprouts, should be added towards the end of cooking. If using vegies that have a combination of both textures, such as gai laan, add the stems first and the leaves later.
Sear meat first.
If the vegetables in the stir-fry cook fast, you can add the protein after cooking the aromatics (like garlic and ginger) and add the vegetables right after. This can also yield a cleaner dish, since you won't end up with any burned bits in the dish.
If you add too many ingredients at once, they will overlap and steam, rather than sauté, making them rubbery or soggy. "Cook each ingredient separately," advises Martinez. Not only does this ensure that you won't pile too much in the pan at once, but it will also account for different cooking times.
For this reason, onions are the first thing we start cooking whenever they appear in a recipe. (Unless we're cooking meat. Then we sear the meat first, remove it from the pan, and then start cooking the onions and everything else.) To cook them, we put a pan over high heat and add a dribble of olive oil.
All foods give off some steam when cooking, so it's important to leave the lid off the pan during frying so the steam evaporates rather than collecting on the lid and dripping back into the hot oil.
As heat softens the structure of the onions, the fat not only captures the flavors being released, but also contributes to new flavors being formed through the process of browning. Some fat is also absorbed by the onion. So, sautéing adds deeper flavors and richer colors to the finished dish.
Boiling onions will get rid of their bitterness while still retaining a subtle onion flavour. Onions are perfectly safe to boil.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok, then fry the chilli and garlic for 1 min. Add the veg and toss to coat in the oil. Fry for 2-3 mins, then add the soy and chilli sauce, mixing well. Cook for 2-3 mins more until the veg are tender.
A proper sauce for stir-fries combines something salty—soy sauce, usually, though fish sauce also works—with something a little bit sweet. Mirin, sweet Japanese rice wine, contributes a wonderful fermented flavor, but if you don't have any, substitute a teaspoon of honey or sugar combined with two teaspoons of water.
The key to making a really good stir-fry is using a very high cooking temperature so the food will cook quickly. Since stir-frying involves high heat, it's important to choose an oil that has a high smoke point. If you don't, the oil will burn and the whole dish will be ruined.
Blanching means the broccoli is briefly cooked in hot water and then immediately removed and placed into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. This pre-cook method helps preserve the bright green color and it also allows the broccoli to cook faster, which keeps the broccoli crunchy.
Aromatic ingredients like garlic, ginger, green onions, chilies and spices. These ingredients are typically added to the oil first to infuse it with flavor. You won't need much; a few teaspoons to a tablespoon of total aromatic ingredients per person adds a serious amount of flavor.
A great stir-fry typically consists of four important components: protein, vegetables, aromatics, and sauce. Standard stir-fry starts with one pound of protein and two pounds of vegetables, and a basic stir-fry sauce (recipe below). You can add aromatics or herbs to change the flavor profile of your dish.
What are those crunchy things in your stir-fry? They're water chestnuts, and they're surprisingly good for you! You probably already know a few things about water chestnuts. They're white and crunchy, and you'll find them in a ton of Asian-style stir fry dishes.