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ASIAN COOKING 101: STIR FRY

Posted by: tommy_t on January 29, 2008

This is meant as a basic guide for anyone interesting in making basic Asian dishes, but with little or no prior experience. It’s a good dish to try for the starving college student as it is cheap, easy, and quick to make. It’s also fun since you can experiment a lot and develop good cooking habits and experience.

Ingredients:
- a couple tablespoons of cooking oil (vegetable based)
- a couple cloves of garlic, crushed
- meat (optional)
- vegetables
- stir fry sauce (such as oyster or hoisin)

(You’ll notice I have not listed specific proportions to make a dish. This is because stir fry is a very generic and customized dish. If you would like a specific recipe to serve a specific number of people, you can look up plenty of them online.)

Oil:
Drizzle the pan (or wok) lightly with it. Vegetable, corn, or olive oil are good ones to use.

Garlic:
Usually one clove will do, but feel free to use more for larger dishes. Once you peel a clove or two off, smash it with a blunt object (the flat side of a knife works) and remove the skin. Do not chop or mince it, as it will be difficult to discard afterwards. Throw onto pan.
(As a tip, I’ll usually warm up the pan and immediately throw the oil and garlic in. As soon as the garlic starts dancing, you know it’s ready for cooking.)

Meat: (optional)
Throw into pan and continually mix. Once the meat is evenly cooked (but before it browns), add vegetables.
I like to keep my meat and vegetable ratio approximately 1:1 in a stir fry dish. You can obviously modify it depending on what the dish is. You can skip the meat for a vegetable-only dish, but if you do decide to use meat make sure it goes in before the vegetables. Also, be sure to chop the meat and vegetables into similarly sized pieces and shapes. This will keep smaller pieces from dropping down and settling.

Vegetables:
Throw vegetables in and mix. Once the vegetables soften and meat starts browning, add sauce.

Sauce:
Dash the dish with sauce and keep mixing. The amount will vary depending on your salt tolerance, and if you’ve already added in salt, pepper, or broth in the dish already. Experiment and taste test!
Cook for a few minutes and remove from heat. You’re done! Pour over a plate or steamed rice.





Nine times out of ten, a Chinese dish will use oyster sauce as their base sauce.
(Don’t let the name fool you as it doesn’t taste like oysters. It’s actually a kind of sweet-and-salty tasting sauce.)
This is a common sauce that can be bought at any Asian supermarket, or at some specialized supermarkets with a good international aisle. I suggest using this sauce for anyone trying stir-fry for the first time.

NOTE: If you are a vegetarian, you need to use a vegetarian based sauce. Regular oyster sauce is made from oyster extractives. Vegetarian oyster sauce is made from mushrooms. When in doubt, read the ingredients on the jar.

Example Dishes:
- bite-sized cuts of chicken, red peppers, green peppers, onions
- thin strips of beef, sliced carrots, snow peas
- chicken and squash
- string beans or asparagus, served as is or with shrimp, seasoned with soy sauce
- Chinese spinach, served as is or with shrimp. A dark green and tasty vegetable.
- Bok Choy, served as is or mixed with anything. A green-leafed vegetable with white stalks. It translates literally into “white vegetable.”
- Chinese cabbage, served as is or mixed with anything. Looks like a head of lettuce but elongated. Chop into small rectangles or squares.

The previous three examples use ingredients typically found in Asian supermarkets. Don’t have access to one? Shame on you. And for laughs, here are ingredients generally used in more “westernized” stir fry dishes:
- broccoli
- bean sprouts
- white mushrooms
- red onions
- the frozen corn/carrot/pea triumvirate, or any other frozen packaged vegetables. Forgivable if you’re a college student.

For the slightly more advanced cooks:
- Add in a dash of sesame oil for more flavoring, or garnish with sesame seeds. You can also experiment with other sauces if you wish; they’re generally all lumped in the same aisle as the oyster sauce stuff. Try the spicy ones.
- Add in some chicken broth or other broth in before you cook the meat or vegetables.
- To thicken up a sauce, mix corn starch and water in a bowl. Lightly sprinkle and stir in until it thickens up to your liking. Best used when a broth was added.
- Try this dish: ground beef and Chinese pickled cucumber. A lightly sweet dish. The cucumbers come in a jar filled with a black liquid. Drain the liquid and mince the cucumbers into small pieces. These sweet cucumbers might be harder to find.
- Cook with noodles or rice. You’ll generally want to season the rice/noodles with soy sauce. Adding eggs to scramble in with rice is a good idea, but you better not let an Asian see you scramble eggs into a generic stir fry dish.
- Want to try cooking teriyaki dishes? Well you can because it’s the same exact method, but using teriyaki sauce. Don’t skimp on the sauce either. Recommended dishes are salmon and onions, shrimp and onions, beef and onions, or chicken and peppers (and onions of course).