I am the Stirfry Queen!!!!

So people tell me....

My mum gave me her old wok when I moved to university and chicken stirfry quickly became one of my favourite meals - it was cheap and cheerful, I could make it uber spicy and you could add variety to its ingredients in a way that meant it was never boring and I could eat it every single day. Which I basically did.

Eventually, I started expanding on this basic chicken stirfry. I learnt a bit about the types of spices that should go into a stirfry: an initial combination of chopped garlic, ginger and chilli is my favourite. Sauces are an important addition too - I don't like my stirfries too liquidy, but I like lots of flavour which I add in with a dash of sesame oil, lots of soya sauce, and occasionally other bits and bobs. These can include honey, hot chilli sauce, even worcestershire sauce if that's what I'm in the mood for. The other days I added a chilli and garlic jam, and of course you can always buy those ready-made sauces to wack in there for additional flavour.

But why am I the stir fry queen? Well, something I've noticed is that everytime I cook a stirfry for people (and it's not something I do often because it is ultimately very easy and not that exciting) they start gushing about how flavourful my cooking is, and how come their own stirfries never come this good? It's happened often enough now that I don't think they're just being polite...maybe there's actually something about the way I cook stirfries that people love. So below I'm laying out a basic stirfry recipe, with a few additional combinations for extra flavour to go with the variety of meat.

Basic ingredients:

sunflower oil

diced garlic

diced chilli

finely diced ginger

sliced onions

julienned carrots

sliced peppers (any and all colours)

Additional ingredients:

soya sauce

sesame oil

peri peri sauce

honey

beansprouts

chopped green beans

chopped mangetout

pak choi (bottom cut off and left in big leaves)

leeks 

mushrooms

sesame seeds

Now chaps, the only difficult part of cooking a stirfry is getting your timing correct. If you cook the vegetables for too long, they'll end up rubbery and soft, and if the wok isn't big enough to hold all the vegetables, some won't get cooked properly and will be served cold and tasteless. And stir-frying is all about flash frying and not boiling your vegetables in a soup of oil and soya sauce. It's all about the technique.

So this is how I go about it. First I heat up my wok until it's nice and smoking hot, and then I swill some sunflower or vegetable oil around the edges so it can heat up very quickly. Word of caution: if your wok is made of stainless steel DO NOT do it this way, because I did once and the hot oil spontaneously combusted (i.e. it caught fire). Scared the living bajesus out of me!!! Once you've got it to that nice smoking temperature, toss in the garlic and chilli (if you're using them) and let them cook into the oil for about thirty seconds before you toss in the onions and giving them a good coating in the oil. I will often add a dash of sesame oil at this point too - it gives off a brilliant smell. And I like to add my dry herbs and spices at this point too and coat the onions in them.

Here's the part where the stir fry takes on a personality of its own - adding the meat. Typically I use fresh or frozen chicken or turkey strips, and add them at this point. They need to be well cooked of course so it's important you leave them for long enough. Making sure they're cut into thin strips means they take less time. I think that the best flavours to go with the poultry are ginger and maybe spring onion, with the sesame oil and soya sauce. However, I have at times used a different technique.

This technique is what I call the 'I'm cooking for one, can't be arsed to get a pack of meat out the freezer, lets stick some chicken nuggets or breaded chicken fillet in the oven tonight'. A bit long-winded I know, but describes it well enough. So I cook the chicken separately (make sure you put it in before you start the stir fry), then when fully cooked I dice it and add it into the cooked stir fry with a lot of hot chilli or peri peri sauce. It comes incredible!!! So that's something a bit different. It's kind of like a hot version of my sister's favourite meal as a teenager: chicken nugget salad. She ate it everyday!!

Loads of other meats go well in stir fries. You can buy beef stir fry strips in packs from the supermarket - I think they're actually overpriced for the amount you get, but you gotta do what you gotta do!! If you marinate these overnight in a home made teriyaki sauce, and put them in the stir fry towards the end (unless you like your beef well done, you heathen, in which case you put it in towards the beginning). Comes delish!! I'd like to try a few other marinates with the beef - sesame, garlic and honey is sure to be divine. I also want to try make a lamb stir fry, with minty flavours - a bit of English-Asian fusion and all that. Can't make it for the boyfriend though - he doesn't really like minty lamb. Maybe there's another approach I can take with the lamb then....oh hallo!!! Just found this recipe. This marinade is totes Thursday night's dinner!!!!

So once you've dealt with the meat portion of the show, you need to add the rest of your veggies. Please do not toss them in all at once - you're just asking for them to be overcooked. Be sensible. Carrots and leeks go in first (they need to be cooked a fair amount), followed by peppers and then green beans and mangetout. Things like beansprouts and pak choi go in last - you want them wilted but not soft. Mushrooms should also go in later, and make sure you don't wash them first because they'll loose a torrent of water. Scrub them with a damp sponge if need be. Also, use a variety of mushrooms if you can - Japanese are my favourite. 

(all images taken from our good friend google)

You'll know when the stirfry is ready - the peppers and softer veggies will be nicely wilted and the smell will be sensational. Turn up the temperature and sizzle in a little more soya sauce and a dash more of whatever your sauce of choice was. Given the veggies and meat a final coating and you're done!! Move the stirfry immediately to a plate or bowl, otherwise everything will simply continue cooking in the wok.

Moving onto side dishes. Most stirfries don't need any. Occasionally I'll mix in some noodles but that's just excess carbs for no reason. Similarly, there's nothing like a nice egg fried rice on the side, with a dash of sesame oil and some frozen peas. Please don't eat chips or bread with your stirfry. It's just weird...

As to the final question...chopsticks or normal cutlery. I'm a purist, and I find eating with chopsticks means I don't just inhale my food. Still, whatever gets it in your gob...