Good stir fry recipe?

T

TFin04

Joined
Aug 21, 2005
Messages
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I really enjoy cooking, and recently my girlfriend bought me a wok that I wanted for my birthday, as I'd like to get better at cooking stir fry.

I'm looking for a good recipe, as all I've done with it is basic chicken and steak strips, add some veggies, soy or other sauce and fry it up.

I would also really like a good recipe for a good teriaki(sp?) or sweet and sour sauce.

Thanks.
 
Can I suggest you try to learn to cook without recipies ? Just using recipies always limits you and you're always stuck if you don't have all the ingredients at hand.
 
That's all I've been doing, I was just looking for a list of stuff so I could create some structure in my stir fry skills. I have no idea where to start. I want to get good at making asain sauces, but I have no clue as to what is the base of most of them.

Just looking for some opinions...
 
I tried this recipe I found on the 'net a couple of times - pretty good.

1 cup vegetable oil
3 whole cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash seasoning

mix it all up and let your chicken chunks marinate in it for an hour or two. Stir it up every now and then because the oil wants to separate from everything.
 
Thanks, that's fairly simple as well.

I made a pretty decent sweet and sour sauce with apple vinegar, soy sauce and some other ingrediants. I'll just keep experimenting.
 
mete said:
Can I suggest you try to learn to cook without recipies ? Just using recipies always limits you and you're always stuck if you don't have all the ingredients at hand.
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This is absolutely true. But, recipes can be seen as lessons. You follow the book the first time or two and then you start to tweak it. Sometimes, you can combine elements from several recipes. It can be helpful to look at the same recipe from several sources (and there are tons of recipes online) and see how a classic wok dish like -- for example -- kung pow chicken. You'll see the common ingredients and the approximate proportions and then you can take off from there. After you've done a few stir fries from a book, you'll start to try combining the seasoning from one with the veggie combination from another and see whether you like it or not. Eventually, you'll look in your 'frige and say, "I've got this, this, and that. What do I add to stir fry them?" And you'll be able to throw something together that'll be pretty good.

From a simple stir fry standpoint, put a bit of peanut oil to wet the pan (a tablespoon or so maybe) and whatever meat you've got and get it going. When the meat is mostly done, add whatever veggies you've got, a crushed clove of garlic, a grate or two of fresh ginger, salt and fresh-ground black pepper (very light on the salt). When the veggies are about half-way done, add a splash of soy sauce (hence the light on the salt advice) and a few drops of sessame oil. Cook this for maybe a minute or two more, taste for salt and adjust as necessary, and serve over rice. You can't miss with this.
 
Gollnick is there anything you don't know? :)

I've been reading your website and your posts on these forums for years, and I'm always impressed. I have been making something similar to that, I think I'm forgetting the sessame oil and ginger however...

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Anyone else with a good sauce recipe... lay it on me.
 
mete said:
Can I suggest you try to learn to cook without recipies ? Just using recipies always limits you and you're always stuck if you don't have all the ingredients at hand.
Click to expand...

That is a great idea, but you have to have a framework to work on. Chinese cooking uses powerful flavours like garlic, ginger, and chilli peppers and heavily flavoured oils plus the saltiness of soy. Make the wrong choices in amounts and your dishes are ruined. If you can master recipes in Chinese you can also branch into Thai cuisine.

Any book from Ken Hom is a good starter. The BBC food recipe archive is the largest in the world http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/

Andrew
bit of a chef :)
 
Andrew, there are five major chinese cooking styles , a couple are hot and some are actually edible like Mandarin !! They are not always hot nor strongly flavoured !! ....TFin04, here's a quicky I remembered - Put oil into a hot pan along with a few slices of fresh ginger .Remove ginger after about a minute. Throw in some peas ,cook for about 2 minutes, then add shrimp , cooking for another minute or so until the shrimp is just done . ....As for eating ,for those who don't know the chinese chopsticks are different from the japanese chopsticks .Chopstick etiquette is similar to fork etiquette just search "chopsticks"...Peanut oil is used as it has a higher flash point .DO NOT pay any attention to comments like 'burn the oil a bit to give it more flavour'. DO NOT use MSG , this is a flavour intensifier [to make up for poor quality ingredients], to which many react adversly and gives food a poor flavour. Instead use the best ingredients you can find.
 
This recipe is pretty simply but tasty, you can substitute beef, pork, chicken, scallops etc. in place of the shrimp.

1 Tbsp. Peanut Oil
1 Lb. Shrimp peeled and deveined, tails off. (after peeling and deveining the shrimp cut them down the middle all the way through to the beginning of the tail, they will curl and twist for a better presentation when cooked.
4 oz. fresh snow peas
4 oz. baby bella mushrooms sliced
4 oz. Bok Choy (can substitute celery if desired)
4 oz. baby carrots (julienne)
1 small onion (julienne)
1 garlic clove minced
pinch red pepper flakes
1 scallion chopped
2 tsp. corn starch
2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
2 cups cooked rice

Heat oil in a large wok over high heat, add shrimp, vegetables and pepper flakes (not the scallions), stir fry for several minutes until the shrimp turns pink and vegetables are tender but crisp.

Combine the soy sauce, cornstarch and add 2 Tbsp. water, mix until there are no lumps and then add gradually to the wok, stir constantly until thickened. Add scallions and serve over rice. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds if desired.

Here is a link to a site with lots of info.

http://www.sonic.net/bnoble/wok.htm

Enjoy,


Jack
 
mete said:
Andrew, there are five major chinese cooking styles , a couple are hot and some are actually edible like Mandarin !! They are not always hot nor strongly flavoured !! ....TFin04, here's a quicky I remembered - Put oil into a hot pan along with a few slices of fresh ginger .Remove ginger after about a minute. Throw in some peas ,cook for about 2 minutes, then add shrimp , cooking for another minute or so until the shrimp is just done . ....As for eating ,for those who don't know the chinese chopsticks are different from the japanese chopsticks .Chopstick etiquette is similar to fork etiquette just search "chopsticks"...Peanut oil is used as it has a higher flash point .DO NOT pay any attention to comments like 'burn the oil a bit to give it more flavour'. DO NOT use MSG , this is a flavour intensifier [to make up for poor quality ingredients], to which many react adversly and gives food a poor flavour. Instead use the best ingredients you can find.
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Yes, I know there are different styles, I'm a career chef. I thought there was 4 though, Peking, Eastern, Szechuan and Cantonese. I suppose the fifth could be the way the Chinese cook for westerners? You did however illustrate my point exactly............

Put oil into a hot pan along with a few slices of fresh ginger .Remove ginger after about a minute.
Click to expand...

Ginger is a powerfully flavoured root, I'm pleased you suggested 'a few slices', but how many are we cooking for and shall we use 2 oz of shrimp and a pound of peas, or a pound of shrimp and 2 oz of peas? :) Without a basic idea, people make mistakes.

I agree with all your other advice.
 
My problem is that I've been cooking for so many years without recipies that I have to make it a few times and measure to get a recipie. In that dish the ginger is fresh and 2 or 3 slices very thin ,1/16" , and are in the oil only 1 minute , not what I call a powerfull flavour .I don't care for hot or powerful flavours. Maybe 1 lb shrimp and 1/2 lb peas or whole snow peas.....I started out many years ago as a little kid with chinese food , chopsticks and all ! NYCs china town.There used to be a 'Mandarin House ' restaurent there which was very much to my tastes.Now you can find chinese food in most areas .My finest meal was a wedding reception in Toronto.But with China being a big country with the different major cooking styles specializing in chinese cooking covers lots of territory !!
 
Can I suggest you try to learn to cook without recipies ? Just using recipies always limits you and you're always stuck if you don't have all the ingredients at hand.
Click to expand...



I follow the recipe religiously the first time or two, so I will know what the desired result is, then I let my taste buds, and budget requirements modify it if improvement or alteration is needed.
 
How many major chinese cooking styles ?? I tried looking that up on the internet. It seems that it depends on whom you ask !! Five , eight ,or more . Don't bother looking up Wikipedia , that's a farse !!! Food history is fun . For example the Mongols have a simple dish , mongolian hot pot, which as nomadic herdsman was stuff they gathered as they moved around. The chinese version is more complex ,the korean version more complex yet and by the time you get to Japan the dish contains just about every ingredient possible !!!
 
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