TIP: Keep stirring the food when stir frying to cook your food evenly and to avoid burning. Stir frying goes very quickly so if you are overwhelmed, move your wok or frying pan off the heat to give yourself extra time.
Using the wrong type of cooking oil.
These oils will smoke too soon, which breaks down the chemical structure and nutrients in the oil. Follow this tip: Because stir-fry requires high heat, it's important to use a cooking oil with a high smoke point, like canola, peanut, grapeseed, avocado, or rice bran oil.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok, then fry the garlic and ginger for 1 min. Add the veg and toss to coat. Fry for 2-3 mins, then add the soy sauce and chilli sauce, if using, and mix well. Cook for 2-3 mins more until the veg is tender.
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.
The best oils for stir frys are the oils with the higher smoke points. These tend to be the “thinner” oils such as peanut, grapeseed or canola.
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.
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.
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.
Put a small amount of oil (1-2 tablespoons) in your wok. You won't typically need much oil - you're stir frying, not deep frying. At this point, you'll also want to add any seasoning and/or spices you're using in your dish.
Steer clear of olive oil, delicate finishing oils (like nut oils), or butter, which will all burn, smoke, and become rancid quickly. This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous mistake. For perfectly cooked meat, tofu, tempeh, and/or vegetables, you want to make sure that the pan is not crowded.
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.
Regular frying temperature is 350F. Stir frying temperature is at least 450F — it can be higher but that's the minimum. If you stir fry using oil with a smoking point below 450F, not only will the food taste bad, it will also be a health hazard.
Soy sauce, sesame oil, a bit of vinegar, or store-bought stir-fry sauces are easy to add to the dish and most stir-fry recipes will include a suggested mixture of liquid. If you don't really have a sauce planned, a bit of bottled soy sauce and some diced garlic or ginger will make a nice basic stir-fry sauce.
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.
Common aromatics in stir fry are garlic, green onion, ginger, and shallots. My go-to aromatic is chopped garlic. You'll also love chopped green onion in stir fries. You can use chopped garlic and green onion together.
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.
Olive oil isn't high on the list when it comes to stir-frying because of its smoke point, which is about 375 F (compared to peanut oil at 450 F and avocado oil at 520 F). However, you can use it in a pinch if you choose pure or light olive oil over extra-virgin or virgin varieties.
cooking methods are common in Asian cuisines, peanut oil is a popular choice. color, neutral flavor, and is generally used for cooking. Toasted sesame seed oil has a darker color, a stronger aroma, and a distinctively nutty flavor.