The Secrets to a Chinese Stir-fry

Whenever people think of Chinese food, they naturally think of stir-fries. It's like the equivalent of Chinese cooking, but I think there's so much more to Chinese food. A lot of effort goes into the food, all the careful steaming to get everything done to perfection, the braising, the slow-cooking for tender and flavoursome food. It's not all quick, easy stir-fries. Chinese restaurants in Singapore (and in China I assume) are so so different from the Chinese restaurants here which serve up MSG-laden sticky and oily deep-fried food.

That said, a good Chinese stir-fry is not that easy. Even with the exact same ingredients and recipe my stir-fry can never match up to that of my favourite tze-char stalls in Singapore. I love cooking and finding out about food, to the extent of a nerd actually. So here are the compilation of tips from surfing a lot of forums, watching a lot of Youtube and master chefs, and Saturday Kitchen on BBC iplayer.

1. High heat!

Sauteeing slowly over low-heat doesn't sear the meat and vegetables the same way, and everything needs to be done fast, which brings me to the next point

2. Fast!

It's not always the more the better, in this case, more time is not better. It always amazes me how much time goes into the prepping of the ingredients but the actual stirfry is over in a matter of minutes.

3. A wok

The heat distribution of a wok is quite different form that of a frying pan. It's where you get that wok hei, that smoky depth to the food at tze char stalls or restaurants. Also, because it curves in at the base, you can "deep-fry" garlic, shallots and ginger without having to use much oil. I don't have this ): I will always be inadequate. Boo.

With meat, I've always wondered how Chinese chefs get the meat so tender and juicy despite the fast cooking on high heat. So anyway, Ken Hom revealed the secret to this on the recent episode of Saturday Kitchen:

4. Velveting

You coat the chicken or whatever meat pieces in egg white, cornflour and some rice wine, before cooking in warm (forums say hot. but the Ken Hom says warm..) water or oil, take it out before it's cooked, because it'll continue cooking on slowly, and that add it back to the dish at the end for a final heatshock. I was so fascinated I trawled the forums and found out some people use baking soda instead too.

So, it goes like this

For about 500g of meat, let it marinade for 20-30 min in:

1/2 tsp baking soda OR 1 eggwhite

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp Chinese rice wine (shaoxing/huadiao)

1/2 tbsp or so of oil (I'll use sesame oil)

any other flavouring agents like soysauce etc.

2 tbsp of water/stock (for beef esp, apparently because beef will absorb more water when cut)

I like the idea of parboiling in water, so you get a lighter dish than using oil to parcook. I've tried chicken cooked this way before I almost thought it wasn't cooked because it was so tender! But I'm not sure if it'll work with beef?

Future project: Experiment with all the techniques (baking soda/eggwhite, water/oil, warm/hot), using different meats, then do an update someday ;)

5. Slicing

For meats like beef, slice against the grain, and slice thinly.

Tip: Partially freeze it so the meat stiffens up and you can go real thin diagonally easily.

Ah I know I'm weird, but I really enjoy doing research like this.