Food - News
The Stir Fry Mistake You're Probably Making, According To Chefs
By SANA ROGER
The centuries-old Chinese culinary technique known as stir frying — quickly cooking bite-size pieces of food over high heat — is popular all over the world. Stir-fried recipes are easy to make at home once you've gotten a handle on the technique, and you heed the warnings about the all-too common stir fry mistakes.
"A lot of people get impatient, and so they immediately add their ingredients [...] into a pan before it's even hot enough,” chef Kathy Fang told Mashed. Instead of ruining your dish, follow wok hei: it means "breath of a wok" in Cantonese, entails preheating the wok to smoking point, and is a crucial step in Chinese cooking.
To make the best stir fry, cold oil should be added to the hot pan, then heated for a minute before your cooking truly begins. Ingredients should be tossed around continually for three minutes, as any longer will overcook the food and make it too soft; similarly, be sure not to crowd the pan with too many ingredients.