How to stir-fry

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Ching-He Huang shows you all the tips and tricks you need to make the perfect stir-fry

In this video Ching makes a stir-fried beef recipe, but you can use the same method to stir-fry anything, from pork to veggies prawns or tofu, let your imagination run wild. Here are some of 4Food's favourite stir-fry recipes if you need a bit more inspiration

Preparing your ingredients

Whether you're using meat, fish, or veggies for your stir-fry, make sure you cut them finely and evenly, so that everything cooks at the same time.
If you want to make your stir-fry as healthy as possible, trim the fat off meat before you slice it - as you're cooking everything so quickly, it shouldn't have time to dry out.

Marinating

Marinating meat fish or tofu before frying will give your stir-fry a flavour boost. Here's a tasty marinade combo that works well – dark soy for depth, light soy for a touch of saltiness and Shaohsing wine or dry sherry for a bitter-sweet edge.
Marinate meat for up to 20 minutes.

STIR-FRYING

Oil and heat

Make sure you get your wok really hot before adding anything to it. Once it's smoking, add a splash of oil - use oils with a high smoking point such as sunflower, vegetable or groundnut oil as other oils, such as olive burn easily.
Swirl the oil around in the wok so that the sides of it are coated. This will stop the ingredients from sticking.

Cooking

Add aromatics such as garlic, chilli and ginger to the wok before you put in any meat or veggies and move them around so they don't burn.
Don't put meat and vegetables in to the wok at the same time, as you're likely to end up with over-cooked meat - toss the veg into the wok after the aromatics, and a splash of water to help them steam through, then transfer them to a plate while you cook the meat. Don't bother cleaning the wok, just put it back on the heat, bring to smoking point, pour in your oil, swirl and toss in the meat. Once it's cooked to your liking, pop the veggies back in and let them warm up before serving.
Adding a dusting of corn flour to meat before cooking will help to make it tender and juicy.

Recipe from Ching's Fast Food published by Harper Collins
Buy the book

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Kitchen friendly version

Average rating: 4/5

Stir-fry recipes

An Eastern institution, stir frying is the ultimate fast food. Get out your wok and your inspiration for these for fried rice, sweet and sour noodles and more stir fry recipes