The Secrets Of Chinese Stir-Frying: Why Does It Always Seem To Go Wrong At Home?
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We all know the pleasures of good stir-fried dishes in Chinese restaurants. There's an ineffable taste about them that says "Chinese," and there are remarkable textures throughout. But when you try to reproduce these things at home, you usually get something else coming out of your wok. Good food, maybe... but not the same food you enjoy at Chinese restaurants.

Why?

Because the fundamentals that go into real Chinese stir-frying are usually left out of the cookbooks purporting to help you stir-fry! Sure, the right way is a little more difficult, but the results are well worth the effort.

The following step-by-step guide should aid you in getting much closer to Chinese-restaurant stir-frying at home.

STEP #1: Even before you cook, you must make sure you have the equipment essentials. This is key! The enemy of home stir-frying is the small wok -- especially when it's crowded with too many ingredients. Lots of vegetables, for example, in a too-small wok, steam rather than fry when you cook them. The flavors and textures of steaming and frying are totally different! You need girth in your wok and not too many ingredients cooking in it!

STEP #2:
Stir-fry over the biggest flame you can muster: another key! One of the essentials of Chinese-restaurant stir-frying is what they call "the taste of the wok." This taste comes from high-heat contact between ingredients and metal. Once again, if the wok's not hot enough, the food will taste braised, or even steamed. Now, it's not easy to reproduce the dramatic inferno of restaurant burners at home -- but make sure to crank the heat all the way up on your hottest stovetop burner!

STEP #3:
Once you start stir-frying, things go quickly. So, as you know, you must have everything prepped before the stir-frying begins.

Prepping the aromatics. Most stir-fries involve ginger, garlic, onions, chiles, etc. Figure out what you need, mince away and reserve.

Prepping the vegetables. Do whatever cuts you need for your dish, and reserve the cut vegetables.

Prepping the sauce: Combine the ingredients of your sauce in a bowl or measuring cup.

Prepping the cornstarch: Most stir-fry sauces are thickened with cornstarch mixed with water to make a slurry. To keep things flowing at stir-fry time, it is good to prepare this in advance in a small bowl. You'll need a few teaspoons of cornstarch, and just enough water stirred in to create the texture of heavy cream.

Prepping the protein. This is another key element in a proper stir-fry! Most home cooks are surprised to realize that the proteins of Chinese-restaurant stir-fries are often pre-cooked, in another way, before they go into the stir-fry! The most important form of pre-cooking proteins is: frying in deep oil! Proteins are usually marinated and/or coated as well. Believe me: it changes everything! No more grey, listless meat in your stir-fries!

STEP #4: Time to start the dish in the wok by heating and adding vegetables. How you do it counts! The key principle here, as the Chinese say, is: hot wok, room temperature oil! In other words, get your wok very hot before adding anything. I do that by putting the empty wok over the highest flame, and letting it sit for 1-2 minutes before adding a few tablespoons of oil, preferably by swirling the oil down the sloped sides of the wok. Then you're ready to add the vegetables (please note: sometimes vegetables are pre-cooked as well, such as pre-steamed broccoli!). Don't stir too much at this point, because you want the vegetables to brown (developing the "taste of the wok.")

STEP #5: Now it's time to add the aromatics. Many cookbooks call for aromatics first, before vegetables. But if your wok is really hot, they'll burn! I like to add them afterscorching the vegetables.

STEP #6: Finally the pre-cooked proteins get added in. Usually, this will require only a quick-toss after the [pre-cooked] proteins go into the wok.

STEP #7: Now comes the important moment of creating the sauce in the wok. Put in just enough liquid so you can see the sauce around the edges of the proteins and vegetables. As soon as the liquid starts simmering, stir up the cornstarch slurry in its cup, and pour a thin stream all around the wok into the sauce. Stir the entire contents of the wok together immediately; the liquid will thicken right away over a hot flame, and you will see if you have the right amount of sauce and cornstarch thickener. Adjust, if necessary. (NOTE: Real Chinese-restaurant stir fries, like good pasta dishes, have only enough sauce to coat, not to drown. And good Chinese sauces are lightly thickened, not gloppy.)

STEP #8: Chinese chefs like to finish off many stir-fries with a very small amount of sesame oil (like a quarter-teaspoon) drizzled over and stirred in just before serving. Then, the dish gets turned out on a platter, just like in the restaurant!