Stir fry and I have had a love hate relationship for many years. I love my wok, don't get me wrong, it gets a lot of use but mostly for fried chicken or country fried steak rather than stir fry. But on finding "Create" on PBS I also found "Simply Ming" and he is slowly, very slowly taking away my fear of stir fry away. An added ah ha is you can find his recipes easily on facebook and on twitter!
Today Simly Ming had his parents on showing a recipe taken n one shot that took less than 5 minutes! Using very hot ddep fryer with peanut and vegetable oil Senior Ming blanched whole large prawns (or shrimp) until golden brown, while Mrs Ming was stir frying red oinons cut i thin strips and garlic chives cut into two inch strips in oil. Senir Ming added the prawns to the onion misture then did the rice noodles in an instant in the same deep fryer as the shrimp, turned it onto a plate and the last step was a spicy sauce made with peppers and onions and soy sauce stirred into the prawn stir fry. When it was thoroughly hot, less than a minute, Chef Ming gave it a big toss and poured it over the rice noodles. Looked delicious and Mrs Ming declared it a &29.99 dish!
So What Now?
Something Chef Ming struck home today with his show and that is that everything on the show can be used with different ingredients. He did one chicken dish in just a little bit of a time with celery and carrots and raw peanuts, a soy based thick stir fry sauce that I would probably turn down the heat a bit! He loves the sicy food. But it went together quickly and looked delicious and had chicken as its base. The only thing new was he coated the cut up chicken first with egg whites and cooked then until the egg whites were "dry" and the chicken cooked through and through. He always did the meat first, no surprise there, but the fact that he added the sauce at the last and heated it just enough to heat the sauce impressed me. Most stir fry recipes have you add the sauce as a coating then all I taste is soy sauce cooked pieces of "stuff" instead of what it tastes like in an oriental restaurant.
Ready to Brave Stir Fry Again?
It wasn't until the segment in Beijing that I really "GOT IT" and here is what I saw. The hottest wok I've ever seen, Chef Ming said 1200 BTU's! Chicken coatedd in the egg whites then just raw peanuts and finally the really spicy pepper and nion soy sauce concoction and that was it; with just rice on the side. Even Chef Ming needed a big swallow of beer after tasting a peper from that dish!
But it was its fast preparation and the simplicity that drove it home to me. Finally I knew what I have been doing wrong
Cooking at too low a temperature
Not stirring and flipping enough
Not coating the meat with egg whites to seal in the flavor
Using too many ingredients and adding them too fast
Cooking vegetables first instead of the meat.
There. Now I am ready to try stir fry sweet and sour one more time or perhaps I will check out Simply Ming on facebook or twitter and see if I can find a goodie for tonight and impress my beloved with my newfound stir fry abilities!
barbara bethard
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