Stir fry??

[Honeymoonmummy]

Hi all, can you point me in the direction of a nice, fool-proof stir fry recipe? I try using the supermarket packets but they don't taste great.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

You need some herbs and spices as well as some good quality soy sauce and a decent wok! Failing the wok, use a frying pan. I tend to use Chinese mixed spice (from Tesco) but DH has a little grinder thing and he smashes up Star Anise and fresh ginger...then he throws that (finely chopped) into the hot wok for about a minute...adds meat and broccoli...sometimes some other things too like sliced peppers...cooks it till the meat is done through//.he uses chilli sauce or oyster sauce and adds finely chopped spring onions at the end for the last minute. Pak Choy is nice too...rip it up and throw it on the top in the last minute...if you don't have pak choy, use shredded cabbage.

[Honeymoonmummy]

So you don't use the stir fry veg packets or spice packets? Ah!

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

No...we tend to think they're a bit yuk...plus they're full of additives in the main.

[McPrice]

if you have a mini blender try this sauce. i add half at the start of cooking and half at the end.
2 garlic cloves
5 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tsp of chilli flakes
2 tsp 5 spice
1 tlsp runny honey
if a bit watery when cooking add a shake of cornflour which will thicken nicely.

[McPrice]

invest in a wok. get oil hot before cooking to avoid sticking and get sesame oil it jazzes up any stirfry if you add at the end.
i use the packets of veg and beansprouts i even use *gasps frozen chopped onions! and you can thinly slice carrot by using peeler.

[OneLittleToddleTerror]

Try this one from Fuchsia Dunlop.

www.fuchsiadunlop.com/cooking/

Most stir fries involves 1) make a marinade and put meat in there, 2) make a sauce, 3) stir fry.

I don't use any premade spice pack or veg from the supermarket. Obviously I don't count the ones like chilli bean paste.

[mrspaddy]

Chinese 5 spice makes the difference I think. I used one of the blue dragon sachets last week and it wasn't as nice.

[KatoPotato]

I use pork, marinade it in five spice, sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce.

Add to the hot (not smoking) wok and fry off for 3-4 mins. The pork tends to release water so I drain this off into a bowl, add Aldi's packet mushroom stir fry and fry for a further 3mins or so then add straight to wok wholewheat noodles (also aldi!)

I then add a packet sauce (GASP!) Garlic and hoi sin is lovely (aldi again!) then add the drained meaty water to finish.

[Surya]

I also think the key is to get the work really, really hot, almost smoking, and then only cook small portions at a time (we tend to do only one portion at a time, even though we've got a normal sized wok): adding everything all in one go just tends to bring the temperature down and make everything greasy. If you ever see the cooks stir-frying in a Chinese restaurant, their woks look ferociously hot. Since it all cooks so quickly (have everything to hand next to the wok), its not much of a hassle to cook individual portions.

[OneLittleToddleTerror]

mrspaddy I doubt it's the five spice. It seems more a British obsession. I'm chinese actually and we barely use it. The typical taste is just some variation of soy, sugar, rice wine. Have you seen Gok's show on Chinese cooking? He's pretty authentic, surprisingly.