"Stir Fry" question.

Yes, the quotations in the title are by design. Reason being, I'm looking for a simple seasoning blend for a very unauthentic stir fry.

I've recently been messing with trying to use up home leftovers by compiling compatible bits (veggies, rice, pasta, protein) in a big round bottomed pan and frying it all together in a way that is palatable for the three ladies I cook for. My first attempt was just some Soy and cooking wine and I butchered it by adding way too much soy (lesson learned).

I guess what I'm looking for, is advice from somebody more experienced and intelligent than I am when it comes to cooking. I'm not a cook, closest I came was washing dishes when I was 16. That said, I love to cook and do most of the home cooking.

Is there a "go-to" set of seasoning that any of you fall back on whenever doing a pan fry like this?

Apologies if the question is rankly amateur, it comes from a good place of me wanting my wife and daughters to enjoy leftovers.

use a blend of 3 parts peanut oil, 1 part sesame oil
make a ginger and garlic flavored butter (dried chili flakes and/or fresh thai chili if you want some spice)

2C oyster sauce, 1C hoisin, 1C tonkatsu sauce (all of which you can buy from asian grocery store) 1/2C brown sugar mix all together and use as needed
just remember there will be excess juices from the food being cooked, at which point if it is too thin you can thicken with a corn starch slurry.

panda said:

use a blend of 3 parts peanut oil, 1 part sesame oil
make a ginger and garlic flavored butter (dried chili flakes and/or fresh thai chili if you want some spice)

2C oyster sauce, 1C hoisin, 1C tonkatsu sauce (all of which you can buy from asian grocery store) 1/2C brown sugar mix all together and use as needed
just remember there will be excess juices from the food being cooked, at which point if it is too thin you can thicken with a corn starch slurry.

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Thanks a lot for the help. I know exactly where to get the ingredients. Much appreciated!
Kevin.

try to add canned waterchestnuts (rinsed and patted dry), bean sprouts and sugar snap peas if possible

also remember to always thaw any frozen vegetables you might be using first by rinsing it in room temperature water and then drying really well before cooking.

garnish with toasted white sesame seeds, thin sliced scallion

I like to use black bean garlic stir fry sauce, add a little lime juice and some palm sugar. All ingredients you can find at an asian market

Garlic, ginger, Chinese rice wine (real stuff, not cheap cooking wine) soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, hoisin sauce and dried peppers. Different combinations of those cover a wide range of Asian stir fries. If you want Viet, change the soy sauce to fish sauce.

some great mentions.

and one mention of corn starch. corn starch for sure. you need the sauce to stick to your food..which means you need to make it less salty than you imagine because it is sticking to your food.

i'm a black bean fanatic..i have two versions, the hard salty cantonese one and the can soupier, sweeter taiwanese version.

Cooking rice wine, rice wine, sake, mirin... or sherry... but NOT occidental cooking wine or wine....

Rice vinegar, rice wine vinegar, distilled vinegar, chinkiang, balsamico but.... NOT wine vinegar.

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White part of green onions belongs in the aromatics pile.

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IMHO, if you bother to use a syrup (plain, inverted or maple) rather than just adding sugar, something is more rounded about the result. Can't quite put my finger on it...

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Blatantly american chinese sweet&sour sauce? Try reducing pineapple juice as a base and adding sugar and vinegar with extreme prejudice Don't do that in a carbon steel or cast iron wok.

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Try adding in Doubanjang, Douchi or Sambal Oelek (careful, salt bombs, all of them!) with the aromatics...

Try adding five spice (careful, that stuff is potent!!!) or a chili/garlic sauce (or traditional sriracha).

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Look at a recipe for Pad Pak Ruam Mitr, a popular and simple Thai-Chinese stir fry.

Also, try Szichuan Drypot (been meaning to post photos a few times, always been more hungry than photographic )

Reserve experiments with serious fresh hot peppers for a time when you have shed some of your wok-anxiety - the last thing you need is getting maced while trying to master new techniques.

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And then realize that a great curry sauce (Thai or vietnamese style, not indian - unless you are making a Jal Frezi ) is an even better match for a mixed-stuff dish Curry has its ways to create diplomacy between ingredients, while an ill-chosen or unbalanced soy-based sauce tells them that they'd be better off throwing each other under the bus....

By the way: Don't overthink fried rice, pre-mixing everything (except meat that NEEDS to be cooked in a defined manner, the liquids and if using, the egg!) with some (not all) of the oil and throwing it into a hot wok frying it like it owes you rent tends to get the best results.

I can recommend Fuschia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice. Keep lots of ginger, garlic, Chinkiang vinegar, good quality soy sauce on hand and you are most of the way there.

Every time I make stirfry it gets a tsp of ketchup.

boomchakabowwow said:

some great mentions.

and one mention of corn starch. corn starch for sure. you need the sauce to stick to your food..which means you need to make it less salty than you imagine because it is sticking to your food.

i'm a black bean fanatic..i have two versions, the hard salty cantonese one and the can soupier, sweeter taiwanese version.

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Forgot the corn starch for sure.

@spoiledbroth which is a shortcut for adding tomato paste (which makes sense in some stir fry sauces), syrup and vinegar.

Oh, and by the time you figured out how much thickening is best with which sauce/ingredient combination, stop considering yourself a beginner Hints: the finer the ingredient cuts, the more you need to be wary of overthickening. Same if you have a sauce that should have an oil mirror (easy to destroy with too much thickener). Same if there are fine noodles. Same if there is coconut milk involved (too much cornstarch and you really get a gloop).

boomchakabowwow said:

some great mentions.

and one mention of corn starch. corn starch for sure. you need the sauce to stick to your food..which means you need to make it less salty than you imagine because it is sticking to your food.

i'm a black bean fanatic..i have two versions, the hard salty cantonese one and the can soupier, sweeter taiwanese version.

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Thats why i coat my protein with flour before sauteing

To thicken the sauce or give the sauce something to stick to? I could never figure out that protein dredge in flour ... Like in a stew. lazy man's roux ?

I prefer tapioca over corn starch for thickening and frying

Black Vinegar, soy, ginger, garlic, honey, fresh toasted and ground szechuan pepper, handful of fresh basil is the most popular sauce at my restaurant. Its thickened ahead of time with xanthan but could be made more traditional with corn starch

spoiledbroth said:

To thicken the sauce or give the sauce something to stick to? I could never figure out that protein dredge in flour ... Like in a stew. lazy man's roux ?

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makes the sauce stick more

cheflivengood said:

Black Vinegar, soy, ginger, garlic, honey, fresh toasted and ground szechuan pepper, handful of fresh basil is the most popular sauce at my restaurant. Its thickened ahead of time with xanthan but could be made more traditional with corn starch

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Sichuan pepper, I haven't found many Americans that like 'hot and numb" as part of their flavorings. That was one things I learned in Chengdu I had to save for nights when I was cooking alone.

Cashew (not the lacquer lol) can also work the thicken sauces

I have seen some recipes that recommend actually making a stock of the usual aromatics (scallion, ginger, garlic) and using that as a sauce base together with the usual addins... haven't gotten around to trying....

@Noodle Soup now I'm super envious (about the Chengdu training)...

@aboynamedsuita isn't that more suitable to something like a Jalfrezi (which, of course, is a stirfry) than chinese-american?

Noodle Soup said:

Sichuan pepper, I haven't found many Americans that like 'hot and numb" as part of their flavorings. That was one things I learned in Chengdu I had to save for nights when I was cooking alone.

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I can buy it in 3 grades, I buy the medium. I let it steep in the sauce then strain it through a chinois, the finest particles make it through, the bigger pieces don't, and it gets plenty of the flavor. I wasn't told once when they brought the top grade and it was used, some of the guests were indeed alarmed from the overwhelming salivation.

And be careful with commercial made "prickly oil", that stuff is, for some reason, far more potent than just frying up some szichuan pepper in oil yourself....

LifeByA1000Cuts said:

I have seen some recipes that recommend actually making a stock of the usual aromatics (scallion, ginger, garlic) and using that as a sauce base together with the usual addins... haven't gotten around to trying....

@Noodle Soup now I'm super envious (about the Chengdu training)...

@aboynamedsuita isn't that more suitable to something like a Jalfrezi (which, of course, is a stirfry) than chinese-american?

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I'm a true disciple of Fuchsia. My instructor over there thought I was nuts when I insisted I wanted to see the huge sharpening stone in the school courtyard she used when she was a student.

Noodle Soup said:

Sichuan pepper, I haven't found many Americans that like 'hot and numb" as part of their flavorings. That was one things I learned in Chengdu I had to save for nights when I was cooking alone.

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I love the slightly tingly taste.

@Evilsports seriously, try drypot.