The stir fry has taken me a while to master. Soggy vegetables, watery sauce, overcooking, slathered in gloopy shop bought sauces. I have endured it all. Then I had an epiphany. It was around the time my mum gave me a proper Wok while
I was at university. I started to try and get around all the above, and I nailed it. if you are going to take care in chopping vegetables properly, then why would you cook them within an inch of their lives?
I started working out a Woking order. Half the ginger and garlic first with all the hard stuff. Carrots, broccoli, peppers. Then add some
soy sauce and let us steam a little bit not too much. You want it al dente. tip it on to a plate. Wipe pan. Add more sesame oil and ground nut oil. Get it hot. Then fry the greens that take less time to stir fry. Soaked shiitake mushrooms (I soak mine in soy and honey and garlic). Bok Choi or Pak Choi, thinly sliced mangetout, sliced baby corn, sliced sugar snaps, runner beans and the broccoli stalks sliced finely. Waste not want not. The. Tip these out. This is a shorter stir fry.
then reheat the pan and add your blanched rice noodles, the other half of the ginger and garlic grated, more soy sauce, chillis or tomato chilli jam that I make. toss them and tip them on to the serving plate. I wok all the veg again together really fast. Then I wok some
polenta rolled chicken or a little sticky beef. Amd top the vegetables with the meat or prawns in Garlic and chilli. Then finish with coriander leaves and finely chopped stems.