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The Wonderful Wok: Stir Frying Basics |
by:
Dina Giolitto |
Want to enjoytantalizing taste of Asian food at home? Invest inwok! Stir-frying is one ofeasiest ways to createdelicious, healthy dinner in minutes. Learn to prepare mealsAsian way: light on meat, heavy onvegetables, and quick-cooked on high heat to retain vitamins and flavors. A few basics is all you need to get cooking!
Purchase your wok. You do not need to spend hundreds of dollars on state-of-the-art cookware. A standard, stainless-steel wok, purchased for less than $fivezero, will serve its purpose well. The heavierwok,better it will retain heat. This is important because you must cook athigh temperature to avoid stewing or steaming your ingredients.
Season your wok. Before you use your wok forfirst time, you must season it. Seasoningwok isway to "break it in" to ensure even heat-distribution during stir-frying, and helps lock inflavors offood as it's cooking. When you remove your wok from its packaging, you may noticegreasy film onsurface. Wipe this film away, and wash your wok in warm, soapy water. To season your wok, put it onstove over medium-high heat forfew minutes. Adddrop or two of oil, and swirl it around to coatsurface evenly. Remove fromstovetop to let cool forbit, and then usepaper towel to wipe outoily residue. You may want to season your wok once more before you begin cooking with it.
Gather your utensils. Professional chefs usemesh ladel to toss meat and vegetables around inwok, but if you do not have one of these,wooden spoon will do just fine. Place several large, clean bowls and plates oncounter next to your wok so you can set your cooked items aside as you prepare them in batches. Other items you'll need:chef's knife, cutting board, and several bowls of different sizes to store liquid mixtures and chopped herbs and vegetables.
Cut and dry food prep. The most time-consuming part of stir-frying is preparingingredients. You'll want everything portioned out and cleaned, chopped, sliced and diced in advance. The actual stir-frying is fast and furious (you've probably heard those pans rattling like mad while waiting for your Chinese takeout!) so meat, vegetables, noodles, spices and oils should be ready and within reaching distance so you can grab and get on with it. Chop everything into bite-sized chunks to ensure quick and thorough cooking. Make sure there's no extra water or other liquid in your wok while stir-frying meat and vegetables. As mentioned earlier, liquid inwok will cause your meal to stew instead of lightly fry.
Stir-fry in batches. Properly stir-fried food retains its crisp, firm exterior and tender, juicy inside by cooking small portions attime. Heatwok, drizzle in enough oil to coatsurface, and add enough small cuts of beef, pork or chicken to just coverbottom. Fry on medium-high heat, tossingentire time. When your first batch of meat is thoroughly cooked, remove fromwok and drain on paper towels. Frysecond batch inlittle more oil, and then set aside. Oilpan once more, toss infew cloves of crushed garlic and/or ginger, and stir-fryvegetables, addingthicker ingredients like potatoes and carrots first, and then tossing in quicker-cooking ingredients like scallions and mushrooms atend. Whenvegetables are done, returnmeat topot withvegetables, and finish with your liquid sauces and seasonings. Give everythingquick toss, simmer forfew minutes and then remove from heat.
Learnflavors. Thai cooking is immensely popular right now; similar to Chinese, but with its own exotic spices and flavorings, some of which take their cue from Indian cuisine. Malaysian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean fare all boast their signature recipes as well. With practice, you'll learn which spices and sauces go with what and how to identify their flavors. You can buy most of what you need atAsian specialty store.
Always have some Asian cooking staples on hand: soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce. Fresh ginger, garlic, chillies, galangal, Asian shallots, scallions, kaffir lime leaves, cilantro and lemongrass. Green or red curry paste, shrimp paste. Noodles and rice. And of course... plenty of fresh meat, fish, tofu and vegetables. Pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, prawns, scallops. Onions, carrots, broccoli, snow peas, bok choi (Chinese cabbage), mushrooms (regular, oyster mushrooms, shitake mushrooms).
There really is no limit to what you can do withwok,assortment of meats, vegetables, spices and sauces. If you'recreative chef, feel free to experiment. If you're"bybook" cook, go out and purchasestir-fry cookbook which will explain each technique in detail as well as familiarize you withexotic ingredients. Above all: know that stir-frying ishealthy way to prepare and enjoyfoods you love incomfort of home.
Copyright twozerozerofive Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.
Aboutauthor:
Dina Giolitto isNew-Jersey based Copywriting Consultant with nine years' industry experience. Her current focus is web content and web marketing formultitude of products and services althoughbulk of her experience lies in retail for big-name companies like Toys"R"Us. Visit http://www.wordfeeder.comfor rates and samples.
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