THE EVERYTHING® STIR-FRY COOKBOOK
Page 1
THE EVERYTHING® STIR-FRY COOKBOOK
300 fresh and flavorful recipes the whole family will love
Rhonda Lauret Parkinson
Copyright ©2007, F+W Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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ISBN 10: 1-59869-242-9
ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-242-6 (paperback)
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lauret Parkinson, Rhonda.
The everything stir-fry cookbook / Rhonda Lauret Parkinson.
p. cm.
(An everything series book)
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59869-242-6 (pbk.)
ISBN 13: 978-1-60550-278-6 (EPUB)
ISBN-10: 1-59869-242-9 (pbk.)
1. Stir frying. 2. Wok cookery. 3. Skillet cookery. I. Title.
TX689.5.L38 2007
641.7′7 — dc22
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THE Stir-Fry Cookbook
Dear Reader,
My love affair with stir-frying began when I was still a teenager, when my Asian coworkers introduced me to Chinese cuisine. I soon began spending my weekends exploring Vancouver's Chinatown, shopping for the best soy sauce, rice wine, and other ingredients to use in stir-fry dishes.
The first stir-fries I produced were typical Chinese fare: chow mein, pork fried rice, lemon chicken. However, I soon found that stir-frying was perfect for making quick, healthy dishes for my family every night of the week, whether or not I was using Chinese ingredients. Better still, stir-frying was a great way to make quick and easy versions of classic dishes from around the world. Today, along with Quick Broccoli Beef (page 74), Stir-Fried Bok Choy (page 264), and other classic Asian dishes, I use my trusty wok to make everything from Chicken Cacciatore (page 45) to an omelet.
In this book, I hope to show you how stir-frying is a great way to prepare quick and easy meals with little time and effort. I hope you have as much fun learning about the art of stir-frying and preparing the stir-fry recipes contained in this book as I did in writing it.
To all my Chinese cooking instructors, who introduced me to stir-frying and taught me to know my way around a wok.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1
Stir Fry Essentials
The Art of Stir-Frying
Wok Versus Frying Pan
A Stir-Fry Cook's Best Friend — the Wok
Cooking Utensils
Essential Ingredients for Stir-Frying
Dried Ingredients
Putting Together a Stir-Fry from Scratch
Common Cooking Problems
2
Marinades and Sauces
3
Chicken and Other Poultry Dishes
4
Beef and Lamb Stir-Fries
5
Fish and Shellfish Dishes
6
Pork Meals
7
Stir-Fry Classics
8
Noodles
9
Rice Dishes
10
Vegetable Dishes
11
Terrific Tofu Dishes
Appendix A: Glossary of Basic Cooking Terms
Appendix B: Online Shopping Resources
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my husband, Anthony, for his support and encouragement. Thanks also to my agent, Barb Doyen, and my project editor, Kerry Smith, for their guidance throughout this project.
Introduction
THE ORIGINS OF STIR-FRYING, or chao, may date back as far as the Han dynasty (206 B.C. — A. D. 220). Chronic fuel shortages meant that people needed to find a way to cook food without using too much oil. Stir-frying — quickly stirring food in a pan that has been heated with just 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil — fit the bill perfectly. Today, stir-frying has become China's most well-known cooking technique.
Over time, stir-frying caught on in other parts of Asia. Thailand's signature dish, pad Thai, is a flavorful combination of stir-fried seafood, vegetables, scrambled egg, and noodles, finished with a tangy sauce. Stir-frying is also a popular cooking technique in Korea, which shares a northern border with China.
History credits Cantonese immigrants who worked on the American railroads in the mid-1800s with introducing North Americans to Chinese cuisine. Despite this early influence, stir-frying didn't take hold in North America until the health-conscious 1970s. Suddenly, it seemed that everyone was buying a wok and tuning in to watch TV-celebrity chefs like Stephen Yan prepare mouthwatering stir-fries in mere minutes. In California, skilled chef Madame S. T. Ting Wong and restaurateur Madame Sylvia Wu attained minor celebrity status.
Unlike wheat germ, cod liver oil, and other health-food fads that came and went, stir-frying has proven it has staying power. One reason why stir-frying has remained so popular over the years is that it is quick. In today's fast-paced society, many families find it difficult to fit family dinnertime into their hectic schedule, let alone spend hours preparing a meal. A stir-fry can make its way from stovetop to dinner table in as little as fifteen minutes.
Once you've tried a few dishes, you'll quickly find yourself falling into a rhythm — marinating the meat, then cutting and preparing the vegetables, then combining ingredients for a sauce while the meat continues to marinate. The total time for preparing dinner — from cutting and chopping to serving the final product — will nearly always be under thirty minutes.
Stir-frying is also healthy. The short cooking time means that vegetables retain more of their
nutrients than they do when prepared using longer cooking methods. Furthermore, the amount of oil listed in the recipes is a general guideline only — the amount of oil you will actually need for stir-frying depends partially on the type of wok or skillet you are using and how well seasoned it is. Experienced Chinese cooks know that a properly seasoned carbon-steel wok develops its own nonstick coating after just a few uses. If you do decide to purchase a carbon steel wok, be sure to follow the instructions on how to season a wok (page 6).
Stir-frying is a great choice for vegetarians and anyone wanting to prepare a vegetarian meal. Studies show that the boundary between strict vegetarians and nonvegetarians is dissolving — even people who wouldn't classify themselves as vegetarians are choosing to incorporate one or two vegetarian dishes into their diet each week. Stir-frying makes this easy. Often it's just a matter of replacing the meat with tofu (skipping the marinating stage) and adding the tofu to the pan near the final stages of cooking.
Finally, stir-frying is easy. For anyone new to cooking, stir-frying is one of the simplest cooking techniques to learn.
1
Stir-Fry Essentials
IN today's fast-paced society, many families barely have time to sit down to a meal together, let alone spend hours in the kitchen preparing it beforehand. So it's no surprise that fast cooking techniques like stir-frying are more popular than ever. The average time for stir-frying a dish is only five to seven minutes. Better still, stir-frying is one of the simplest cooking techniques to learn. All it takes are a few cooking tips and the right ingredients, and you're ready to start stir-frying!
The Art of Stir-Frying
At some point, you have probably watched an expert chef on a culinary television show stirring and tossing around a variety of exotic-looking vegetables and other ingredients in a bowl-shaped Chinese wok. You may wonder what exactly he or she is doing.
Basically, stir-frying involves cooking food at high heat in a small amount of oil. With a few exceptions (such as allowing beef to sear briefly when it is first added to the pan), it's important to keep the ingredients moving constantly during stir-frying. The constant stirring motion ensures that all the food comes into contact with the bottom surface of the pan, where the heat is most intense. It also keeps food from sticking to the pan.
Like stir-frying, sautéing also involves cooking food at high heat. The major difference between the two is that food is normally cut into bite-sized pieces before stir-frying, while sautéed food is left whole.
Getting Ready to Stir-Fry
While the technique of stir-frying is quite straightforward, there are a few basic principles that make the process of stir-frying go more smoothly. It's important to prepare all the ingredients ahead of time. As noted above, on average, it takes only five to seven minutes to stir-fry a dish. You'll be too busy stirring to have any extra time for chopping an onion or measuring out ingredients for a sauce to add at the end. Always double-check the recipe to make sure you have all ingredients prepared before you begin stir-frying.
Most stir-fry recipes call for meat, poultry, or seafood to be marinated prior to stir-frying. A marinade helps tenderize meat, and it's a great way to add extra flavor to a stir-fry. Always cut and start marinating the meat before doing anything else. Once the meat is marinating, you're free to complete the remaining prep work, such as chopping vegetables, preparing a sauce, and cooking rice.
Whenever possible, try to cut the stir-fry ingredients into uniform-sized pieces so that they will take approximately the same amount of time to cook. Many of the vegetables will need to be washed or rinsed prior to stir-frying. It's important to make sure vegetables are thoroughly dry before adding them to the stir-fry; wet vegetables won't cook properly and can cause the hot oil to splatter. To avoid this, you can wash the vegetables and leave them to drain earlier in the day (for example, in the morning before you leave for work), which gives them more time to dry.
Organization is key when it comes to stir-frying. Keep the sauces, prepared vegetables, and aromatics near the stove so that you'll be able to add them quickly when you start cooking. Have a colander or paper towels set out to drain the meat or seafood if needed.
The Basics of Stir-Frying
The process of stir-frying will unfold smoothly if you follow these basic guidelines:
• Make sure that all the ingredients for the stir-fry are near the stove, so that you can reach for them quickly.
• Add the oil to a preheated pan, tilting the pan so that the oil drizzles along the sides. Stir-fry ingredients don't just sit at the bottom of the pan, so the sides need to be oiled as well.
• Before adding the main ingredients, add the aromatics such as ginger and garlic to flavor the oil.
• If the stir-fry includes meat or poultry, add that first. Let it sear briefly, then stir-fry until it changes color and is nearly cooked through. (The beef should have no trace of pink and the chicken should have turned white.)
• When adding vegetables, add the thicker, denser vegetables first, as they will take more time to cook. Feel free to add a small amount of water or soy sauce if the vegetables begin to dry out during stir-frying.
Keep these instructions in mind as you try out the recipes in the following chapters.
Wok Versus Frying Pan
Selecting the wrong equipment can turn stir-frying from a quick and easy task into an exercise in frustration. The right equipment, on the other hand, will help ensure a successful result. When it comes to cooking equipment, the most important decision you'll need to make is what type of pan to use. Asian cooks traditionally use a wok for many types of cooking, from steaming to stir-frying. With its high, sloping sides and rounded or flat bottom, the wok's unusual design is perfect for stir-frying. Unlike with a standard frying pan, in a wok, you can stir and toss food with ease without worrying about it winding up on the floor. The wok bottom also rests directly on the heat source, allowing food to cook more quickly.
While most people prefer a wok for stir-frying, the frying pan has its fans as well. Unless you live near an Asian market, a good carbon steel wok can be hard to find. Furthermore, many cookware shops carry stir-frying pans that are specifically designed both for stir-frying and other types of pan-frying. The learning curve for stir-frying may be shorter with a frying pan — as with any other piece of cooking equipment, you will probably need to use the wok a few times to get used to it.
Here are a few basic features you should look for when choosing a frying pan for stir-frying:
• Heavy material. A frying pan made of cast iron or heavy-gauge aluminum (such as Calphalon's hard anodized pans) can handle heat without scorching. If you try stir-frying with a pan made of lighter material, such as Teflon, you may ruin the pan.
• Deep sides. While it won't have a wok's deep, sloping sides, a frying pan with deeper sides will make stirring easier.
• A tight-fitting lid. Even stir-fry recipes sometimes call for the food to be covered and briefly steamed or simmered in addition to stir-frying.
• In the end, whether you use a wok or frying pan for stir-frying is really a matter of personal preference. You may want to start out stir-frying with a frying pan, and wait to purchase a wok until you are sure you'd like to continue stir-frying.
A Stir-Fry Cook's Best Friend — the Wok
While a frying pan can be used, when it comes to stir-frying, there's really no substitute for a good wok. Definitely consider purchasing a wok if you're planning to stir-fry on a regular basis.
When purchasing a wok, factors to consider include the wok's size, design, and the type of material it is made from. Most important is whether the wok is made of a type of material that can handle high heat. While the original woks were made of cast iron, today the majority of Chinese chefs favor carbon steel. Carbon steel is lightweight, durable, and a good conductor of heat, so food cooks evenly. Better still, carbon-steel woks are inexpensive — a good wok can often be purchased for under $25.
How t
o Choose a Wok
Cast iron still has its fans, particularly since its conduction of heat is superior to carbon steel. However, the heaviness of cast iron makes it more difficult to drain food or quickly clean out the wok before stir-frying the next batch of ingredients.
Originally, all woks were round bottomed, designed to sink into the pit of a Chinese woodstove. While round-bottomed woks are still commonly used on gas stoves, their shape makes them a poor choice for Western electric stoves. Not only does the food cook unevenly, but the rounded wok can reflect heat back on the stovetop element, causing permanent damage. When stir-frying first took hold in the West, designers attempted to solve the problem by creating a collar for the wok to rest on that would be placed on the stovetop element. A more recent innovation is the flat-bottomed wok, which can sit directly on the stovetop element. However, some people still prefer to use a round-bottomed wok with a collar — the choice is yours.
While Chinese restaurants can use woks up to three feet wide, twelve to fourteen inches is a good size for most families. A larger wok won't fit comfortably on a Western stove, and it will be difficult to cook a meal for four people in a wok that is too small. However, college students or anyone living alone may prefer a smaller wok, between nine and twelve inches in diameter, particularly if space is an issue.
In theory, an electric wok seems like a great way to ensure even heating during stir-frying, while freeing up a stovetop element. In practice, however, electric woks may fail to generate enough heat for stir-frying (although they are good for keeping cooked food warm). Generally, higher-end electric woks tend to perform better than less-expensive models.