The Stir Fry Thread

JC 2K3

In recent months, I've started to fall in love with stir frying. At first I used to google random recipes, choose one and go for it, usually following the steps quite precisely, but I've started to become more daring and these days I frequently modify recipes and experiment with different combinations of ingredients.

I generally use chicken or sometimes prawns as the meat, but I think I'll try something with beef soon. My favourite ingredients would be things like coriander, garlic or ginger, and for sauces, my favourite things to use would be fish sauce, sesame oil and sweet chilli sauce. I love starting off stir fries by frying some garlic in sesame oil, it's one of the nicest smells I've had the pleasure to experience.

So are there any other stir frying enthusiasts on the board? What are your favourite ingredients? Any recipes you'd like to share? I'd be interested in hearing about any unusual combinations, since I find a lot of the recipes I find online are all along the same lines and tend to be a bit boring. I'll post some up when I get the chance.

mikep

Hi there

Good call on the stir fry thread..

Here's one I have been playing with recently,

Mix garlic, ginger, pepper, chilli powder (quantities vary according to your preference) in a good glug of olive oil and soy sauce.
Thinly slice some fillet steak and mix with the above, allow to marinate for at least an hour mixing occasionally.
Slice some onion and stir fry for a few mins..lash in the beef etc and stir fry for a few mins, add some spring onions if you like while cooking and serve with noodles or rice..

Yum!

This is fairly robust and you can add stuff like mushrooms, peppers etc..also some cumin in the marinade works well...enjoy...

Oh yeah another time I added tomato puree and some brown sugar which made a nice spicy gloop with a bit of sweetness in the background...

Minder

Fish sauce and lamb are made for each other.

I made a dressing of equal parts fish sauce and lime juice, then add chopped green chilli and garlic. Mix in a tsp of palm sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves.

I get a boneless piece of lamb leg, about 300g and colour this on a very hot griddle. Then into a hot oven for about 10 minutes and leave to rest for 15 minutes - it will be pink.

Stirfry garlic and ginger, then add french beans and cook for several minutes. Add scalded bean shoots and cooked thread egg noodles. Toss around in the wok to combine.

Serve a pile of noodles in a bowl, several slices of lamb on top, garnish with fresh coriander leaves and crushed peanuts, then pour over the dressing.

If you don't like the lamb cooked pink, or can't get a suitable cut to slice, use shoulder pieces sliced thinly and stirfried first before adding the garlic and ginger.

Ponster

Minder wrote: »

If you don't like the lamb cooked pink...

Then go grab a pizza instead.


Minder that sounds wonderful. Gonna try that tonight !

rubadub

Cashew nuts.

JC 2K3

@mikep,
Nice, I'll try that next time the family wants steak for dinner.

@Minder
Ditto for lamb!

@rubadub
Cashew nuts! How could I forget them. They're awesome. I made a Balinese Chicken dish a few weeks back with coconut milk and cashew nuts. I basically stir fried the chicken in sesame oil with some garlic, then when it was lightly browned I added:
-a chopped onion
-2 chopped red chillis
-more minced fresh garlic(about 4 cloves)
-1/4 cup crushed cashew nuts
-2 tablespoons lemon juice
-one tablespoon soy sauce
-2 teaspoons of brown sugar
-1 teaspoon chopped ginger

After about 2/3 minutes I added a can of coconut milk and let it thicken for 10-15 mins. Served it on rice with additional roasted cashew nuts. It had a lovely mix of flavours.

Crannog

Before adding to garlic/oil combo (Mmm), first coat chicken in paste made from egg white and cornflour. Can't beat it.

The Sweeper

See if you can get chili bean sauce. It's a combination of very hot chili, like a sambal oelek, and fermented black beans - the sort you'd use in a black bean sauce. The two flavours together are excellent. It's extremely spicy, and is mixed in with oil so you have an oil, scorching chili, fermented bean flavoured paste.

The best way to use it is to add a tablespoon to the wok just after sealing very thinkgly sliced meat - heap the meat to one side, tilt the wok so oil puddles a little, add the paste to the oil. It'll go a little crazy first off, then the rawness will come off it. Mix the meat back through, throw in whatever veg you're using, splash rice wine or any brand of chinese cooking wine over it, stir, serve with rice noodles and shredded cucumber. If you used chicken, squeeze a lemon over the finished sauce.

Minder

Pad Thai noodles

I use mung bean noodles aka glass noodles. Soak in boiling water for several minutes until al-dente, then refresh in cold water. I dry these on a clean towel to take out as much moisture as possible - that will stop them from turning into a sodden mass in the wok.

To make the Pad Thai sauce, add 1 tbsp of tamarind paste to a bowl and add 2 tbsp of warm water, 2 tbsp of fish sauce and 1-3 tsp of red chili sauce, depending on how spicy you want it, finally add 2 tbsp brown sugar. Or buy a jar from the supermarket.

Make a thin omlette with 2 eggs and roll up, then cut into thin strips.

Cook thinly sliced chicken thigh meat in a wok for a couple of minutes, add prawns, garlic and chilli and stir fry for another couple of minutes. Add some scalded beanshoots and the Pad Thai sauce and cook for a minute. Add the cold noodles and stir to coat everything with the sauce, add the shredded omlette and cook for a couple of minutes to get everything piping hot - keep it all moving to prevent the noodles from sticking. The noodles should be coated in the sauce rather than swimming in it.

Pile onto plates and top with more scalded beanshoots, some chopped fresh coriander and crushed peanuts. Garnish with a lime wedge.

Minder

One of my favourite wok dishes is duck with noodles and pickled plums - the pickled plums recipe comes from Peter Gordon and is a fridge staple - it lasts indefinately and is one to make now as plums are in season.

The plums take about a week to take up the pickling liquid flavour. The dish uses shredded cooked duck, thin egg noodles, ginger, beanshoots and the pickled plums. Some of the pickling liquid is used to wet the dish.

garbanzo

Good thread folks. Here's my current staple. In a half pint glass mix:

- 1/2 tsp of corn flour
- glug of light soy sauce
- tsp of smooth peanut butter
- clove of chopped garlic
- some chilli flakes to give heat
- small drop of fish sauce
- couple of splashes of rice vinegar
- hot water
- 1/4 tsp of sugar


Fill the glass 'til almost full and stir until all is combined. It looks manky but don't worry. Mix into your stir fried veg and meat with one minute to the end of cooking time and watch it all come together. I think this is fab and most importantly, so does mrs garbanzo.

We have not been to the chinese take away in the last two years . . . why bother when you can do this. Try it and let me know how you get on.

mike65

Lild out of the freezer! Its not bad actualy and can be supplimented with whatever you fancvy yourself.

The Sweeper

Here's another for you - lemon chicken.

I'm not too excellent on the measurements on this one, so bear with me.

Assume you're feeding each person up to a single chicken breast. For each chicken breast, allow one egg white and one teaspoon of cornflour.

Separate the egg into white and yolk, and either discard the yolk or stash it in the fridge for something else. Whisk the egg white with a level, scant teaspoon of cornflour. The result should be a bubbly white liquid.

Thinly slice your chicken breast, and stir it through the egg white marinade, ensuring it's well coated. Cover and leave in the fridge for an hour.

In a jug (this will serve two people) make up about 1/3 of a pint of chicken stock. To that, add:

one tablespoon soy sauce,
one tablespoon rice wine or cooking sherry,
one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (or more to taste, up to two tbsps),
one tablespoon dark brown sugar
a teaspoon of chili sauce (or to taste)

Stir to dissolve the sugar and mix the ingredients.

This dish is very good served with rice noodles and shredded fresh cucumber, so prepare the cucumber first and have it plated up, waiting for the rice noodles and the sauce.

Heat some peanut or sunflower oil in a pan (not olive oil, the flavour is too strong). Remove the marinated chicken from the fridge. You need to fry the chicken in the oil, a few pieces at a time, until golden brown. You're better to use more oil at this point, because you're going to drain the fried chicken pieces on kitchen paper and pour off the excess oil. Take the chicken pieces out of the marinade, ensuring they're still well coated with egg mix, and fry them until golden brown both sides, and use a slotted spoon to stack them on kitchen paper to drain the oil. You'll get a nice, battered chicken effect without the heavy duty chipshop-style batter you get from a chinese takeaway.

When all of the chicken is fried, wipe the pan clean and return it to the heat. Pour your jug of sauce into the pan and allow it to heat until gently simmering. Return the chicken pieces to the simmering sauce and give them enough time to cook through - if you sliced them very thinly, this will take five minutes given that you've already fried them off.

At this point you can put your rice noodles in some hot water, because they take less than five minutes.

You can thicken and glossify the lemon sauce by adding about one teaspoon of cornflour that you've mixed with a little cold water. Stir well, and pour the paste into the centre of the simmering liquid. Quickly stir it through, you'll see the liquid starts to thicken and turn glossy. Give it about two minutes to cook into the sauce and remove any raw flour taste (though that's not much of a problem with cornflour).

Plate up the rice noodles with the cucumber and then pour over sauce and chicken for each person. Add a wedge of lemon for everyone to squeeze over theirs.

garbanzo

Wow ! Some recipe, technique and clear instructions. Will try this and get back to you with feedback. Have you anything else like this sort of recipe to share Minesajd?

the beer revolu

Any Chinese style stirfry will benefit from the addition of a small handful of preserved black beans and a dash of dry sherry (fino) of rice wine.
The beans are available in any Asian store
.

And you can make your own black bean sauce too.
They're kinda like a vegetarian, Chinese oxo cube.
You must try them.

guildofevil

This is one of my regular rotation, so I thought I'd pitch in.

Stir-frys are easy once you get the idea that the flavours of the individual vegetables should come through, so don't overdo the spices, use a fairly neutrally flavoured oil and cook the vegetables individually, in a very hot wok, for a short time.

You'll notice the absence of meat in this recipe. It's not actually needed but can easily be added. I'll stick my recipe for soya sauce fried pork at the end.

Egg fried rice with vegetables and cashew nuts.

Serves 4.

Ingredients.

Two Cups of rice, cooked and cooled (do this the day before if you can).
One cup of toasted cashew nuts.
Oil for frying. Peanut, Sunflower, or rapeseed oil (usually sold as vegetable oil).
Two eggs, lightly beaten.
Two tablespoons of soya sauce (I use Kikkoman which I get in 1l bottles from an Asian market)

Spices:
Two green finger chillis (finely chopped).
Two or three cloves of Garlic (peeled and finely chopped).
Two centimetres of Root Ginger (peeled and finely chopped).

Suggested Vegetables (substitute your favourites):
One large Carrot (sliced into long thin strips).
One Green Pepper (sliced into long thin strips).
One Red Pepper (sliced into long thin strips).
One can of Bean Sprouts.
One small can of Bamboo Shoots.
Baby Sweet corn.
One bunch of scallions/spring onions.


Equipment:
You will need a large wok, a chopping board and sharp knife, and a large bowl for cooked vegetables.

Process:
Finely chop the garlic and spices.

Wash and tail the scallions, finely chop the white, oniony end of them and add to the pile of spices. Chop the green ends into 1cm pieces and set them aside separately.

Drain and rinse the canned vegetables.

Wash and chop the fresh vegetables into matchstick (or a bit longer) strips.

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in the wok until it is very hot.

Put the chopped carrots into the wok being careful of hot oil splashing/leaping out at you. Stirfry for a few minutes, so they are cooked, but still retain a certain crispiness. Scoop them to the side of the wok to drain for a few seconds, then scoop them into the large empty bowl.

Top up the oil in the pan if necessary and repeat the process with the green pepper. Continue frying each vegetable individually until the have all been cooked, with the exception of the scallions.

Pour the beaten egg into the pan and scramble it. Don't overcook the egg, make sure there is still a bit of gooeyness to it. Scoop onto the cooked vegetables.

Top up the oil in the pan and ensure it is very hot.

Fry the spices and finely chopped ends of the scallions for about two minutes.

Add the cold, cooked rice to the pan and stir-fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the soya sauce, cashew nuts and green ends of the scallions and fry for a further two minutes.

Add the entire bowl of cooked vegetables and scrambled egg to the wok and mix thoroughly. Make sure that the entire mix if piping hot then serve.


Meat on the side: Soya sauce fried pork.

Get one gigot pork chop per person (Giogot is cheaper than centre loin and tastes better, in my opinion) and cut into strips.

The following is for two pork chops, adjust as necessary.
Put some oil in a pan on a medium heat and brown the pork pieces.
Add half a tablespoon of soya sauce and stir well, so the soya sauce and the meat juices mix and coat
the pork pieces.
Keep frying and stirring occasionally until you notice that the amount of liquid in the pan is reducing. Sprinkle half a teaspoon of sugar into the pan and mix well.
Serve when the meat is cooked through and the pan is nearly dry.
Just throw the strips of pork on top of the egg fried rice from above,

No1XtinaFan

Great thread, must try some of these recipes!

My bf does all the cooking but i've started helping recently.
Got this recipe from a jamie oliver DS game cookbook!!!!

It's beef and brocolli stir fry.

I can't find the full recipe though There was definitely sesame oil, soy sauce a bit of ginger, garlic, egg noodles and brocolli and I think we through a few chilli flakes in to

It's beautiful, the trick was the way you cook the brocolli though, (fresh is best!) put it in a large bowl, boil the kettle pour it over the brocolli and cover with a plate leave it for about 15 minutes, I don't know why but it's the nicest brocolli I've ever tasted!

The stir fry itself is very very tasty, I'l try find the recipe when I get home

the beer revolu

guildofevil wrote: »

This is one of my regular rotation, so I thought I'd pitch in.

Stir-frys are easy once you get the idea that the flavours of the individual vegetables should come through, so don't overdo the spices, use a fairly neutrally flavoured oil and cook the vegetables individually, in a very hot wok, for a short time.

You'll notice the absence of meat in this recipe. It's not actually needed but can easily be added. I'll stick my recipe for soya sauce fried pork at the end.

Egg fried rice with vegetables and cashew nuts.

Serves 4.

Ingredients.

Two Cups of rice, cooked and cooled (do this the day before if you can).
One cup of toasted cashew nuts.
Oil for frying. Peanut, Sunflower, or rapeseed oil (usually sold as vegetable oil).
Two eggs, lightly beaten.
Two tablespoons of soya sauce (I use Kikkoman which I get in 1l bottles from an Asian market)

Spices:
Two green finger chillis (finely chopped).
Two or three cloves of Garlic (peeled and finely chopped).
Two centimetres of Root Ginger (peeled and finely chopped).

Suggested Vegetables (substitute your favourites):
One large Carrot (sliced into long thin strips).
One Green Pepper (sliced into long thin strips).
One Red Pepper (sliced into long thin strips).
One can of Bean Sprouts.
One small can of Bamboo Shoots.
Baby Sweet corn.
One bunch of scallions/spring onions.


Equipment:
You will need a large wok, a chopping board and sharp knife, and a large bowl for cooked vegetables.

Process:
Finely chop the garlic and spices.

Wash and tail the scallions, finely chop the white, oniony end of them and add to the pile of spices. Chop the green ends into 1cm pieces and set them aside separately.

Drain and rinse the canned vegetables.

Wash and chop the fresh vegetables into matchstick (or a bit longer) strips.

Heat about a tablespoon of oil in the wok until it is very hot.

Put the chopped carrots into the wok being careful of hot oil splashing/leaping out at you. Stirfry for a few minutes, so they are cooked, but still retain a certain crispiness. Scoop them to the side of the wok to drain for a few seconds, then scoop them into the large empty bowl.

Top up the oil in the pan if necessary and repeat the process with the green pepper. Continue frying each vegetable individually until the have all been cooked, with the exception of the scallions.

Pour the beaten egg into the pan and scramble it. Don't overcook the egg, make sure there is still a bit of gooeyness to it. Scoop onto the cooked vegetables.

Top up the oil in the pan and ensure it is very hot.

Fry the spices and finely chopped ends of the scallions for about two minutes.

Add the cold, cooked rice to the pan and stir-fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the soya sauce, cashew nuts and green ends of the scallions and fry for a further two minutes.

Add the entire bowl of cooked vegetables and scrambled egg to the wok and mix thoroughly. Make sure that the entire mix if piping hot then serve.


Meat on the side: Soya sauce fried pork.

Get one gigot pork chop per person (Giogot is cheaper than centre loin and tastes better, in my opinion) and cut into strips.

The following is for two pork chops, adjust as necessary.
Put some oil in a pan on a medium heat and brown the pork pieces.
Add half a tablespoon of soya sauce and stir well, so the soya sauce and the meat juices mix and coat
the pork pieces.
Keep frying and stirring occasionally until you notice that the amount of liquid in the pan is reducing. Sprinkle half a teaspoon of sugar into the pan and mix well.
Serve when the meat is cooked through and the pan is nearly dry.
Just throw the strips of pork on top of the egg fried rice from above,

Tinned bean sprouts are the devil's spawn!!!!:eek:

Minder

No1XtinaFan wrote: »

Great thread, must try some of these recipes!

My bf does all the cooking but i've started helping recently.
Got this recipe from a jamie oliver DS game cookbook!!!!

It's beef and brocolli stir fry.

I can't find the full recipe though There was definitely sesame oil, soy sauce a bit of ginger, garlic, egg noodles and brocolli and I think we through a few chilli flakes in to

It's beautiful, the trick was the way you cook the brocolli though, (fresh is best!) put it in a large bowl, boil the kettle pour it over the brocolli and cover with a plate leave it for about 15 minutes, I don't know why but it's the nicest brocolli I've ever tasted!

The stir fry itself is very very tasty, I'l try find the recipe when I get home

Will probably have oyster sauce included.

No1XtinaFan

Minder wrote: »

Will probably have oyster sauce included.

It didn't actually, where do you get that? I needed it for a different recipe and couldn't find it

Have the full recipe now:
3.5 oz purple sprouting broccoli
sea salt
2 good quality sirloin steaks (we just used steak pieces)
2 tsp cilantro seeds (couldn't find these )
olive oil
1 red onion peeled and finely sliced
2 garlic cloves peeled and finely sliced
1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped (dried works too)
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
egg noodles to serve
finely sliced red chilli to serve

tasty as hell!

CodeMonkey

No1XtinaFan wrote: »

It didn't actually, where do you get that? I needed it for a different recipe and couldn't find it

Any of the asian markets in dublin would have it. I've seen it even in fallon&byrnes and the bottle should look something like this ...

Dizzyblonde

Sharwoods do oyster sauce too, you can get it in most supermarkets.

the beer revolu

No1XtinaFan wrote: »

It didn't actually, where do you get that? I needed it for a different recipe and couldn't find it

Have the full recipe now:
3.5 oz purple sprouting broccoli
sea salt
2 good quality sirloin steaks (we just used steak pieces)
2 tsp cilantro seeds (couldn't find these )
olive oil
1 red onion peeled and finely sliced
2 garlic cloves peeled and finely sliced
1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped (dried works too)
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
egg noodles to serve
finely sliced red chilli to serve

tasty as hell!

cilantro is coriander

The Black Oil

JC 2K3 wrote: »

@rubadub
Cashew nuts! How could I forget them. They're awesome. I made a Balinese Chicken dish a few weeks back with coconut milk and cashew nuts. I basically stir fried the chicken in sesame oil with some garlic, then when it was lightly browned I added:
-a chopped onion
-2 chopped red chillis
-more minced fresh garlic(about 4 cloves)
-1/4 cup crushed cashew nuts
-2 tablespoons lemon juice
-one tablespoon soy sauce
-2 teaspoons of brown sugar
-1 teaspoon chopped ginger

After about 2/3 minutes I added a can of coconut milk and let it thicken for 10-15 mins. Served it on rice with additional roasted cashew nuts. It had a lovely mix of flavours.

Gave this a go yesterday, was good. Thanks.

garbanzo

Veleting the meat with cornflour and eggwhite is just unbelievable. Finally sorted how to get that authentic texture and flavour. Thank you, thank you, thank you all . . . . particularly minesajackdaniels. Mrs garbanzo very happy with the result too.

Has anyone tried my Thai stir fry sauce which I posted earlier ?

Rowley Birkin QC

Big fan of stir frying here too. A vital ingredient for me is white pepper, really adds to the flavour.

I recently got to raid the kitchens of a Thai resturaunt that closed down so I have two carloads of spices, sauces, noodles, rice and all sorts of pastes to make sauces. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for inspiration as to how to use them all!

PrettyInPunk

Wow some of those recipes look amazing. Where are these Asian markets you lot speak of?

JC 2K3

Oyster Sauce is awesome. You can get it in any supermarket.

Last night I made sweet chilli beef:
-About 600/700g of sirloin steak
-3 cloves garlic
-1 large red chilli, deseeded
-Some ginger (about 1-2 tsp chopped)
-1 green pepper
-Bunch of spring onions
-a lot of Sweet Chilli Sauce (like 4/5 tbsp)
-2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
-2 tbsp Soy Sauce

Next time I might consider putting some cornflower in, as the sauce turned out to be quite runny. But the taste was awesome.

Name Changed

I want to make a stir fry which is easy and low on ingredients.

For the sauce, would simple soy sauce on it's own suffice?

For example, would this be nice?

Fry your chicken and veg and then throw in a couple of teaspoons of soy sauce on top of it for ten minutes?

And also, I like stir fry with noodles. Would it be best to cook the noodles separately or put them in with the chicken and veg?

The Sweeper

Chicken, veg and soy sauce is a perfectly functional, basic stir fry. It will taste salty and strongly savoury from the soy, and the sauce will not be thick.

Cook the noodles separately, drain them and toss them through the chicken and veg at the end.

Once you're happy that you have the basic one down pat, then try additional flavours.

JC 2K3

Name Changed wrote: »

And also, I like stir fry with noodles. Would it be best to cook the noodles separately or put them in with the chicken and veg?

Depends on what you want really.

I often cook noodles in a saucepan and then throw them in the wok at the end. Other times I'll serve noodles and let people take what they want of the meat/veg/sauce.

I'd try something a little more interesting than just soy sauce. Maybe throw some Oyster or Fish Sauce in also? (A quick google or glance through this thread should give you a load of different combinations of sauces, and a rough idea of general ratios which work well etc.) But essentially, yes, you could just throw in a few teaspoons of soy sauce after frying veg and meat and you'd have a quite nice meal. 10 minutes would be a bit long if your veg and meat are already cooked when you put in the sauce, however. 2/3 minutes should be fine, and serve it immediately so your vegetables don't go soggy