What makes a good stirfry?
The quintessential Chinese dish. I remember being 19, moving into a rooming house. One of my house mates was an older man of about 50 or so with a daughter about my age. When I told him how old I was, he said, "you’re a daughter then!" Thereafter he always saved some steak for me if he was making some. One time we had so much leftover that we went to a supermarket together and picked up some side ingredients for a stirfry. He exclaimed, "this is the best stirfry I ever had!" I was so proud.
So what makes a good stirfry? It’s common sense, really. You need a wok, a wok spatula, peanut oil, and a gas stove. Granted, not everyone has these things, so in a pinch, you could use a nice big skillet, a nice wide spatula, and a electric stove. Peanut oil is essential to a good Chinese stirfry. You need something that would heat up to very high temperatures without burning. Olive oil is a no no, and butter is a no no no no no. Grape seed oil would work, in a pinch.
Chop your vegetables in a way that they would all cook at the same time. Carrots take longer to cook than say, mushrooms. So make sure your carrots are diced smaller than your mushrooms. Make sure you drain everything before a stirfry - any water clinging to food will 1) cool the oil down 2) splash the oil in your direction.
Make sure your oil is HOT before you put anything in. Hold on to one handle of the wok, and scoop up, turn, scoop up, turn. Make sure everything touch the oil at the bottom of the pan in turn. Toss and toss and toss. There shouldn’t exist a moment where the food is just SITTING at the bottom of the pan. If you did everything right, the stirfry process should take less than 5 minutes. Don’t forget the soy sauce.
