Taking a Break from Recipes: Exploring the Art of Stir-Frying

Today, we wanted to take a break from our usual recipe-driven videos and really zero in on stir-fry technique. We'll show you four different ways that you can stir-fry – first, a basic ingredient-by-ingredient stir-fry, second, how you'd do the same thing only without a wok, third, how you'd stir fry with all the ingredients together, and finally, the common restaurant technique of pre-cooking the meat with a brief deep fry.

Minimizing Confusion: Understanding Heat Sources

To minimize confusion, we'll be showing all this with one dish – a simple, classic home cooking stir fry of pork and chilis called Qingjiao Rousi. Before we get into it, a quick word on heat source. See, if you talk to a lot of people in the West, they'll insist that it's impossible to stir-fry without a high-powered restaurant stove, which, to be frank, is nonsense. This is the little burner we use for these videos, and this is the flame it makes. No jet engine here, if I've done my math right, it's a shade under 10 thousand BTUs. By comparison, a Western home stove usually clocks in at around 7 thousand, a Chinese home stove, 14 thousand, a Western professional range, 30 thousand, and... and those Chinese restaurant jet engines, 100 thousand or even higher.

Those stoves are cool, but much more important is your technique. Don't fret if you've got a wimpy range; you're still well within the margin of error. So to get started, we're using 150 grams of pork loin. Pork is... vastly easier to work with than beef or chicken, so if you're new to stir-frying, start with pork.

Preparing the Pork

Now we'll be slicing this into slivers against the grain. The grain is the direction of the muscle fibers... what you want to do is slice down perpendicular to those fibers. So first cut into the pork to get roughly 2 millimeter wide sheets, and for some stir-fries you'd stop there, but for this one we'll stack all those up and cut into them about 3 millimeters apart to get some... slivers. Transfer that over to a bowl, and we can marinate.

Marination: Velveting the Pork

This sort of marination's sometimes called velveting in English... and it is critical to a good stir fry. For this amount of meat, we'll add in a quarter teaspoon salt and a half teaspoon sugar. This makes the meat juicier just like a dry brine would. We'll also toss in a half teaspoon liaojiua.k.a. Shaoxing wine... if you can't find this sort of wine, most people suggest dry sherry but I'd personally reach for some sort of rice wine instead.

Crucially Important: Cornstarch

Next up is a half teaspoon cornstarch – this's crucially important as it'll coat the pork and prevent moisture loss. And I personally mix the starch with the wine before tossing them in to prevent clumps. To season, we'll add in a quarter teaspoon soy sauce... here we're using dark soy sauce for color but regular soy sauce would work just fine.

Marinating and Preparing the Dish

Once that's all combined, squirt in about a teaspoon of oil and coat all that well and set it aside for at least 15 minutes to marinate. For this particular stir fry, we'll be frying that pork together with 100 grams of chilis. We live in China, so these are Sichuan erjingtiaochilis... but feel free to use whatever's convenient and tasty where you live.

Preparing the Aromatics

Julienne some poblanos, anaheims, jalapenos, green bell peppers... really whatever. For aromatics, we've got an inch of ginger... smash it, julienne, then get into a fine mince, and two cloves of garlic... smashed, julienned, and gotten into a fine mince.

The Art of Stir-Frying: A Technique Called "Cutting and Chopping"

So a nice first step to a stir fry is a technique called... [insert text here].

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enToday, we wanted to take a break from ourusual recipe driven videos and really zeroin on stir-fry technique.We’ll show you four different ways thatyou can stir-fry – first, a basic ingredientby ingredient stir-fry…second, how you’d do the same thing onlywithout a wok… third, how you’d stir frywith all the ingredients together… and finally,the common restaurant technique of pre-cookingthe meat with a brief deep fry.To minimize confusion, we’ll be showingall this with one dish – a simple, classichomecooking stir fry of pork and chilis calledQingjiao Rousi.But before we get into it, a quick word onheat source.See, if you talk to a lot of people in theWest, they’ll insist that it’s impossibleto stir fry without a high powered restaurantstove, which, to be frank, is… nonsense.This is the little burner we use for thesevideos, and this is the flame it makes.No jet engine here, if I’ve done my mathright it’s a shade under 10 thousand BTUs…by comparison, a Western home stove usuallyclocks in at around 7 thousand, a Chinesehome stove, 14 thousand, a Western professionalrange 30 thousand, and… and those Chineserestaurant jet engines, 100 thousand or evenhigher.Those stoves are cool, but much more importantis your technique.So don’t fret if you’ve got a wimpy range,you’re still well in the margin of error.So to get started, we’re using 150 gramsof pork loin.Pork is.. vastly easier to work with thanbeef or chicken, so if you’re new to stirfrying, start with pork.Now we’ll be slicing this into slivers againstthe grain.The grain is the direction of the muscle fibers…what you wanna do is slice down perpendicularto those fibers.So first cut into the pork to get roughly2 millimeter wide sheets, and for some stirfries you’d stop there, but for this onewe’ll stack all those up and cut into themabout 3 millimeters apart to get some… slivers.Transfer that over to a bowl, and we can marinate.This sort of marination’s sometimes calledvelveting in English … and it is criticalto a good stir fry.For this amount of meat we’ll add in a quarterteaspoon salt and a half teaspoon sugar…this makes the meat juicer just like a drybrine would.We’ll also toss in a half teaspoon liaojiua.k.a. Shaoxing wine… if you can’t findthis sort of wine, most people suggest drysherry but I’d personally reach for somesort of rice wine instead.Next up is a half teaspoon cornstarch – this’scrucially important as it’ll coat the porkand prevent moisture loss… and I personallymix the starch with the wine before tossingthem in to prevent clumps.Then to season, we’ll add in a quarter teaspoonsoy sauce… here we’re using dark soy saucefor color but regular soy sauce would workjust fine.Once that’s all combined, squirt in abouta teaspoon of oil and coat all that well andset it aside for at least 15 minutes to marinate.For this particular stir fry, we’ll be fryingthat pork together with 100 grams of chilis.We live in China, so these are Sichuan erjingtiaochilis… but feel free to use whatever’sconvenient and tasty where you live.Julienne some poblanos, anaheims, jalapenos,green bell peppers… really whatever.For aromatics, we’ve got an inch of ginger…smash it, julienne, then get into a fine mince…and two cloves of garlic… smashed, julienned,and gotten into a fine mince.And now, to stir fry.So a nice first step to a stir fry is a techniquecalled \"Longyau\", or \"Huaguo\" in Mandarin…it’s a restaurant technique that’ll getyou a nice slippery frying surface.In restaurants before frying, they’ll heattheir wok til it’s super hot, add in someoil, swirl it around, and drain it into adedicated side oil bowl.We know most people don’t keep an extraoil bowl lying around their kitchen, so insteadwe like to get our wok piping hot, about steaksearching temperature, shut off the heat,add in the oil we need to fry with, so hereabout two tablespoons, and give it a swirlto get a nice non-stick surface.So with your flame on high now, toss in themarinated pork slivers.Break them apart with some chopsticks cuzslivers tend to clump, and fry for about oneminute until 90% done.This step by step stir-fry helps ensure eachingredient is perfectly cooked, so once thecolor’s visibly turned, set that aside.Now do another longyau with about one or twotablespoons of oil, and immediately afterfinishing toss in the garlic and the gingerover the same high heat.You want to add your aromatics basically secondsafter adding the oil or else they can burnon you.After about 15 seconds, pour a tablespoonof liaojiu or your wine of choice over yourspatula and around the sides of the wok.This’ll cool everything down, so quick mix,and go in with the chilis.Fry those for about 30 seconds, then add backthe pork.Quick 15 second fry, then season with a teaspoonof soy sauce and a quarter teaspoon of salt.Give it a brief toss if you can, shut offthe heat, and drizzle in a teaspoon of toastedsesame oil.Quick mix, and… out.Pork and chilis, done.Now suppose you don’t own a wok.I like woks and so should you, but you canstill stir-fry without one.This is a 28 centimeter non-stick wok, which’sbasically a glorified non-stick skillet.This’s all more or less the same, only noneed to really do that whole longyau routine.Just heat stuff up like you’re used to,high heat, and add in the oil.Pork in, same one minute fry, and reserve.Then with the flame back on high, swirl ina touch of cool oil, and toss in the aromatics.15 second fry, then swirl in that liaojiuwine… this’ll annoyingly be kinda messywhich’s why woks are better.Toss in your sliced chilis, fry that for about45 seconds… tossing’ll help the pan cookit more evenly but it takes a touch longer.Then go in with the pork and fry for about30 seconds, and season with your teaspoonof soy sauce and quarter teaspoon of salt.Quick toss, heat off, teaspoon toasted sesameoil, brief mix, and… out.No wok, same exact thing, just a touch morekitchen to scrub down after.Now if you’ve ever eaten on the street inChina, usually you find that vendors don’tcook in stages, but instead do everythingin one pot.Still dead simple to execute.Same exact method of stir-frying that pork,but once it’s about 80% finished, scoochit up the side of the wok.Add a touch of cool oil, aromatics in, fryfor 15 seconds then mix everything together.Add your wine over the spatula and aroundthe sides of the wok… chilis in, 30 secondfry, seasoning in, quick toss, heat off.Sprinkle in your sesame oil, give it a mix,and… out.Finally, let’s talk about the deep fryingmethod.This technique is also called passing throughoil, is a go-to method for restaurants, andmakes for super juicy, tender meat.For this one, we’ll also crack a half anegg white into the marinade, which furthertenderizes our pork.Egg white marinades tend to stick to the wokif you’re using one of the previous methods,but work brilliantly while deep frying.So in a round bottomed wok, get about a cupor so of oil up until 180 centigrade and tossin the marinated pork.Fry that for about twenty seconds… roundbottomed woks are awesome for deep frying,but you could also use a little more oil andshallow fry in a pan instead.Pour out the oil, and reserve the pork.Now I figure some of you might want to knowhow to add a sauce to your stir-fry, so let’smake one real quick.To three tablespoons of water add in a halfteaspoon of stock concentrate, or alternativelyjust use stock if you got some on hand.Add in your seasoning… so here that wasour quarter teaspoon salt and our teaspoonof soy sauce.Then in a separate bowl make a slurry of ahalf tablespoon cornstarch and just enoughwater to let it come together, about one teaspoon.If you want a saucier stir-fry, add more stockand cornstarch… if you just want a touchof sheen, add less.So go through the motions just like we didbefore, but when you’d add the seasoninglower the flame to medium and add the sauceinstead.Quick mix, then go in with the slurry.And once that’s thickened up, about 15 seconds,take it out.Qingjiao rousi, done.\n"