If someone who has never cooked before came to me and asked me to teach him or her one recipe, and one recipe only, I think I would pick a stir-fry. Let us count the reasons:
- It’s quick and easy enough to be reliable for a weeknight meal.
- It can be made with different types of proteins and different types of veggies, giving you lots of options to use whatever you’ve got in the fridge.
- The sauce has those bright and balanced Asian flavors that are always delicious, using ingredients that are usually readily available in the fridge or pantry.
Stir-frying is a technique from Chinese cooking that involves cooking ingredients in a very hot oiled pan, while stirring frequently, so you get a medley of crisp-tender vegetables and cooked meat.
Ideally, you want a wok for stir-frying. But I admit that I don’t have one because, well, my entire apartment is less than 600 square feet and I don’t have space.
I think it’s completely fine to use another high sided pan, so long as you can get some good heat underneath it and you keep the ingredients moving around. That’s the important part! Don’t let not having a wok stop you from making a stir-fry.
One trick for making stir-frying easier is to use a stir-fry sauce. The idea is that you cook all the vegetables and meat first, then bring them all together again at the end and cook them in the stir-fry sauce for a few minutes. It’s quite easy, and I’ll show you how to make it in a minute.
First, prep a few vegetables for your stir-fry. Today I’ve picked carrots, broccoli, and bell pepper, but there are many more vegetables that you can use. Zucchini, bok choy, snow or snap peas, and mushrooms all come to mind.
Whenever I make a stir-fry, I try to limit myself to a maximum of three vegetables, otherwise I can get a bit carried away. Because you cook the vegetables separately, adding too many types can make the cooking time too long.
Once the veggies are prepped, make the stir-fry sauce, which is a mixture of soy sauce, chicken stock, a touch of sugar, cornstarch, garlic, and ginger.
Screw the lid on and shake the sauce vigorously, until everything looks homogenous. And if at any point the cornstarch starts to separate before you use it, just give it another shake.
Heat up a tablespoon of grapeseed oil in a nonstick wok or skillet over high heat, then cook the vegetables in batches. I cooked carrot slices for about 5 minutes, until crisp-tender.
Then I moved those to a bowl and repeated the process with broccoli florets, which only need 3–4 minutes to pick up a bright green color and slight char.
Then stir-fry the bell peppers for 3–4 minutes, until crisp-tender.
Once the veggies are done, add chopped chicken breast and cook for about 5 minutes, until almost cooked through.
Add all of the vegetables back to the pan.
Then add some of the stir-fry sauce and cook for 3 minutes, until the sauce thickens and everything is cooked through.
Serve the stir-fry with rice or noodles, and spoon any extra sauce over the top. Enjoy!
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