Ten top tips for successful stir-fries

Do all your stir-fries end up looking the same? Do you start with lots of colour and end up with an anaemic mishmash? Follow these tips and get it right next time.

1. Keep it simple – no more than three or four ingredients in the wok at a time.
2. Have some delicious sauces ready to hand – either good-quality shop-bought or, better still, ones you have made yourself and refrigerated or frozen.
3. Don’t add oil to a wok that looks as if it’s drying out. Instead add a splash of water to create intense steaming heat – just the thing.
4. Put hard vegetables in first – obvious but vital.
5. Never use unmarinated tofu – it’s a waste of space.
6. Add tamari or soy sauce towards the end or it will just stick to the pan and make that awful bitter taste.
7. Use the real McCoy Chinese wok – they’re the cheapest, thinnest, and also the best, because they conduct heat rapidly and evenly. Stop the rust by filling with salt and heating to a very high heat the first time you use it. When the salt is burnt black, discard it, rub the wok with oil and proceed, oiling it before and after each use. Dry meticulously.
8. Cook noodles and rice separately and throw into the wok at the last minute.
9. Remember that stir-fry is another way of saying sauté, so European combinations can work well cooked this way. For instance, try stir-frying a fennel bulb, cut into 8 segments, in a little oil with large chunks of red pepper or tomatoes or both, some finely sliced garlic, black pepper and plenty of basil. Delicious – and it only takes minutes.
10. For the genuine article you should stay away from olive oil – it is just too foreign to eastern tastes.

Stir-fry shopping list
The following ingredients are basic to a good stir-fry. Most of them can be kept in your storecupboard, others will need to be bought fresh.

• noodles
  
• rice
  
• almonds or cashews
  
• arrowroot
  
• fresh chillies
  
• coconut milk
  
• ginger
  
• garlic
  
• groundnut oil
  
• lemongrass
  
• oyster sauce
  
• oyster mushroom sauce
  
• sesame seeds
  
• tabasco
  
• tamari
  
• tamarind
  
• yellow bean paste

Pad Thai
Serves 4

Heat 2 tbsp groundnut oil in a wok. Toss in 250g beansprouts and a large bunch of spring onions, finely chopped, and very quickly stir-fry. Then break 2 eggs into the wok and leave for several seconds before stirring into 250g just-cooked noodles.

For the sauce: mix 6 finely chopped garlic cloves, 1 finely chopped bird’s eye chilli, a thumb of ginger grated and squeezed of every drop of juice, 2 tbsp soft brown sugar, 2 tbsp fresh coriander, 1 tbsp tamarind paste with 90ml hot vegetable stock and 1 tbsp oil. Pour over the noodles and vegetables and sprinkle chopped peanuts over the top.

Shiitake, Broccoli, Spring Onion and Cashew Stir-Fry
Serves 2

2 tbsp groundnut oil
500g broccoli, broken into florets
200g shiitake mushrooms
1 bunch salad spring onions, trimmed and sliced diagonally
30g cashew nuts, salted (or toast some unsalted ones)
small piece finely chopped chilli
small bunch coriander

For the sauce
2 tbsp Tamari
2 tbsp pale yellow bean paste
1 small bird’s eye chilli, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 thumb ginger, grated
1 tsp brown sugar
1 dsp arrowroot

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients with 150ml water, stir well and set aside.
2. Heat the oil and when very hot add the broccoli florets. Stir briskly for a minute or so, then add the shiitake mushrooms and fry till they look silky and slippery.
3. Add 2 tbsp of the sauce, making sure it doesn’t burn, plus extra as necessary. You’ll probably use about half.
4. Add the spring onions until they just begin to flop and finally add the rest of the sauce, stirring very quickly, so that all the vegetables are shining with it. Either add the cooked Udon noodles and stir or immediately remove from the heat.
5. Garnish with the chilli and coriander.

Butternut Squash and Spinach Stir-Fry
Serves 4

1 tbsp groundnut oil
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1.5cm cubes
1 tbsp Thai Seven Spice
1 stalk lemongrass, tender leaves only, chopped very finely
2–3 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
1 tbsp Tamari or soy sauce
400ml coconut milk
4cm-piece ginger, coarsely grated and juice squeezed out
1 small piece red chilli, chopped very small
2 handfuls baby spinach
250g noodles
juice of half a small lime
1 small bunch coriander, tough stalks removed

1. Heat the oil until it’s very hot and add the cubed butternut squash. Stir-fry for a minute or so before adding the Thai Seven Spice, the chopped lemongrass and the garlic.
2. Throw in a couple of tbsp of water as necessary, then carry on stir-frying adding most of the tamari or soy sauce. When the butternut squash is tender and browning slightly, 6–7 minutes later, add the coconut milk and the ginger, the chilli and remaining tamari. Leave it to bubble for a couple of minutes and add the spinach. Cook till wilted.
3. Remove from the heat, stir in the cooked drained noodles, the lime juice and half the coriander. Use the rest as a garnish.