Stir-Frying with the Five Senses

Whether gas or electric, a round-bottomed wok or a flat Western pan, I hold staunchly to the opinion that stir-frying is primarily a matter of using one’s senses—hearing, sight, smell, touch, and taste—and that it is the tuning into and exploitation of these senses that makes for successful stir-frying (and a lot of other things, as well). One stir-fries with one’s eyes—judging the precise moment when a slivered vegetable is glossed evenly with oil, seared a deeper color, and ready to receive a sprinkling of salt or sugar. One stir-fries with one’s nose—sensing through smell when scallion and ginger have “exploded into fragrance” (bao-syang, in Chinese), releasing their essences into the oil, and thereby transforming the oil into a flavor medium as well as a cooking medium for what next goes into the pot. One stir-fries with one’s sense of touch and texture—touching oil-glossed walnuts with a hand to see if they are hot enough to caramelize the sugar waiting to be sprinkled over them, or sampling a noodle with your tongue and teeth to see if it has become soft enough to be served. One stir-fries with one’s sense of taste—tasting whatever is being cooked at all possible junctures to gauge the balance of flavors in the pot and achieve exactly the taste you’re after. Most important, one stir-fries with the ears—for it is the ears that know best the heat of the pot! The ears hear the sizzle of water on properly heated metal and then can correctly judge the pot ready to receive the oil. The ears hear the searing sizzle of one sliver of meat in the oil and then know with surety that the oil is hot enough to begin cooking. And, it is the ears that know when a higher heat is required because they hear a silence instead of a sizzle. In becoming an accomplished stir-fry cook, one becomes a veritable Pavlovian dog. Responding to that auditory sizzle and learning to manipulate the heat and the pot to its rhythm is the essence of the stir-fry dance.