Stir-Frying

Stir-frying is an important technique to master for Asian cooking. Achievable at home, it’s a fast, simple way of creating delicious dishes. The wok is the centre point of stir-frying, but don’t worry if you have an electric stove or heat issues; there are ways around this. With a heavy, fiat-bottomed pan on the largest element, you should have enough heat to stir-fry successfully.

There are a few different ways to stir-fry and you’ll see ingredients added in different orders depending on the book. For instance, some will tell you to add the garlic and ginger to the oil at the start — this flavours the oil for you to then add the meat or seafood. This is the way most commercial kitchens would do it. However, I feel that it is always best to add the aromatics to the oil just before making the sauce, and the reason is simple; the garlic, ginger and perhaps spring onion will quite often burn while the meat or seafood is cooking. This, along with not getting the wok hot enough, is the home cook’s biggest problem.