Lifestyle

This Is How To Make A Perfect Stir Fry

Quick, easy and healthy too, a stir fry is an ideal dish for a weeknight dinner. Yet soggy and overcooked bean sprouts can ruin the taste and texture. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to up your stir fry game and create a near-perfect dish that everyone will be fighting over to get a second helping. Read on to find out how. 

Picture sourced at Pexels – Licence CC0 

Get that authentic meat texture 

When you eat a stir fry in a restaurant or get take out, you have probably noticed that one of the best things about it is that the meat is cooked, but soft and tender. This doesn’t just happen by chance, there is instead a very deliberate preparation process to go through to get your meat to be this way.

This process is known as velveting, and it involves marinating your meat in seasoning, oil, and just a dash of cornstarch before you begin cooking. The longer you leave the meat in the mixture in your refrigerator the better. Although a minimum of an hour will do in a pinch and will ensure that you elevate your next stir fry to professional levels.

Get saucy! 

Arguably, one of the most crucial aspects of any stir-fry is the sauce. Indeed, this is where the majority of the flavor comes from. Of course, you can buy all sorts of sauces from the supermarket, but why bother when you can make your own delicious stir fry sauce at home? 

Yes, that’s right in just 10 mins you can follow this easy stir fry sauce recipe from start to finish. This will ensure you have a thick, glossy, and scrumptious sauce that will taste divine over any combination of ingredients from meat and fish to noodles, and veg. 

Don’t ditch the carbs 

Making sure your carbs cook for the right amount of time when making a stir fry is vital. After all, you don’t want overcooked rice or soggy noodles as this will ruin your dish. Rember to get your rice on beforehand if you are cooking it from dry. You might even wish to invest in a rice cooker to help you get perfect fluffy grains every time. 

Noodles on the other hand cook quickly, and you can even buy packets that can be opened and just thrown in the wok without any prep. Something that can make cooking a delicious stir fry even faster. 

Say no to overcrowding 

While the temptation to throw all the ingredients together when cooking a stir fry is strong, it’s best to resist it. This is because if you have too much in the pan at the same time, your ingredients won’t stir fry but steam instead, and this can change the whole feel of a dish. 

Instead, make sure that your ingredients are all cut up to be around the same shape and size, and then cook in batches with starchy vegetables like pak choi stalks, peppers and onions being cooked first as these take the longest. Then as each set of ingredients is cooked, remove them from the pan and leave them to sit. Add back in at the end with the sauce to heat through and serve. 

Karla Urwitz
Follow Me