Good Eating Monday: How to Stir Fry



 

Welcome to the last week of March!
Today's good eating topic is some how-to's on stir-frying.

 

I had a Japanese room-mate, while in college many years ago, who taught me that stir-frying has an specific order as to what you put in the pan first, second and so on.

In general, you can use a wok or an electric skillet or a regular skillet.

I use my largest iron skillet. If you were cooking a large quantity of stir-fry, a deep wok might be better.

Next, you want to pre-cut everything you're planning on stir-frying into bite-size pieces.

 

The original purpose of this bite-size format was for ease of eating with chop-sticks.

But beauty is also very important in oriental cooking, so you want lots of bright colors and shapes in your stir-fry, so it's also pleasing to the eye.

 

Now the order of cooking:

I usually add a little olive oil & garlic to my pan and saute the garlic just enough to flavor the oil.

First, the really dense veggies:
carrots or sweet potato Stir fry these till partially cooked.

Second, the slow to moderate-cooking veggies:
Broccoli, green beans, cabbage, pea pods
Stir fry till partially cooked. 

Third, denser meats:
Such as chicken, beef, pork, weiners, chicken livers or keilbasa. Also tofu.

Stir fry till partially cooked.

 

 Fourth, anything that heats through quickly:
 Onions, peppers, fresh spinach, egg, shrimp,
bean sprouts, mushrooms, nuts, mandarin oranges, 

 pineapple, noodles, etc.
Stir fry till cooked.
After this, everything else ought to be fully cooked, ready to serve.

Done.

 

(And if you've never cut a sweet potato into strips and stir-fryed it in garlic & oil, you're missing a true delight!)

 

That's it for today.
Eat up, me hearties, yo-ho!