To cook a stir-fry in a wok, preheat the wok until smoking hot, add oil, then ingredients in stages (protein, aromatics, hard veg, soft veg) over high heat, keeping everything moving and not overcrowding the pan, finishing with sauce and garnishes to create that signature smoky "wok hei" flavor.
how to stir fry
To start cooking in a wok, preheat it on high heat until it starts to smoke. Then, add a small amount of oil and swirl it around to coat the wok's surface. Next, add your ingredients in a certain order, typically starting with items that take longer to cook like meat or hard vegetables.
If your stir fry contains meat, chicken or fish, cook that first and then remove and set it aside on a plate when it's about 80 per cent done. Later, when your vegetables are done, just add your meat back in for the final heating.
Add oil to your heat wok or pan. Use an oil with a high smoke point so that it doesn't burn. Grapeseed, vegetable or canola oil are great options and are neutral in flavour. Don't use olive oil because of the low smoke point and it will alter the flavour of your stir fry.
stir-fry—all you have to do is avoid these common mistakes.
5 Things You Shouldn't Cook in a Wok
The first is to cook your protein and your vegetable separately, and combine them only after both are fully cooked. A second rule of thumb for stir-frying: Choose one vegetable per stir-fry. Finally, always remember to add liquid only after everything is more or less finished cooking.
The most noticeable difference lies in their shape. Woks traditionally have a round bottom and high, sloping sides, creating a large surface area perfect for the high-heat tossing and turning of ingredients. On the other hand, stir fry pans typically feature a flat bottom and sloped sides.
Read on for the 10 most popular mistakes people make when stir-frying… and how to avoid them.
A good, long-lasting wok can be a multi-purpose kitchen staple.
Not using the right oil for your wok
Olive oil and butter both have quite low smoke-points. This means they begin to burn, evaporate and turn acrid at a relatively low temperature. In the high-heat, flash-cooking world of Asian cuisine, this isn't what you want.
Heat the oil in a wok or large deep skillet on medium-high heat. Add the onion and carrots; stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the remaining stir fry vegetables; stir fry them for 5 to 7 minutes or until vegetables are tender-crisp.
Generally, after getting the wok super-hot and splashing some oil in, you'll throw in your aromatics like ginger, chilies, and garlic just for a few moments, then add meat if you're including any, then vegetables.
Not pre-heating the skillet & Using the wrong oil
Vegetables stir-fry quicker, so they maintain their crunchy texture. Add the cooking fat (oil) only after the skillet is well-heated, and give the oil a quick swirl to distribute it evenly before adding ingredients. Avocado oil is a great high-heat cooking oil.
Here is the general order of operations for a stir-fry:
Stir fries are delicious, but can sometimes be high in salt, sugar and unhealthy fats.
Tomatoes are acidic and can strip the seasoning of your carbon steel wok and even react with the steel, causing a metallic taste in your food. You can stir fry tomatoes for less than a minute, but avoid tomato stews that have a lot of tomato sauce sitting in the steel for extended periods of time.
For wok cooking, use oils with a high smoke point and low polyunsaturated fat content. Grapeseed oil, peanut oil, etc… Sesame oil and olive oil will burn and taste bitter. Oils with high polyunsaturated fat contents like soybean oil will also turn your food texturally unpleasant.
Rapeseed oil - a staple in central Chinese cooking, used unrefined for hearty stir-fries and refined (like canola) for lighter dishes or deep frying.