Stir-frying happens just like it sounds: you cook food quickly over high heat in a large, open pan. The hotter the pan, the more vigorously you stir to evenly brown, rather than burn, its contents – and not set off the smoke alarm.
Vegetables usually feature heavily in stir-fry; I often add a half-dozen types to the pan. This happens in stages, from those that need the most cooking time to the tenderest produce. Heating the aromatics at the end ensures they don’t char and blacken. If you prep everything before you heat the pan, the order in which the ingredients cook best becomes obvious.
You can also easily see how much you intend to cook. A overcrowded pan of vegetables will steam rather than brown and crisp. In a home kitchen, a flat-bottomed wok gives you the most room to work. It also lets you push ingredients that are cooking too quickly off the directly heated bottom and up the cooler sidewalls. A large skillet has less space and more limited temperature zones but still lets you toss and stir for even cooking.
The slightly thickened sauce is as adaptable as the rest of the dish. Sometimes I replace the wine with lime juice or stir in a little brown sugar. Vegetable stock provides instant flavor and keeps the meal vegetarian if I’ll be tossing in Crispy Pan-Fried Tofu at the end. If I plan to add raw, peeled shrimp in the final minutes, I substitute Homemade Shrimp Stock.
Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry
Serves 4
1/4 cup vegetable stock
2 tablespoons rice or white wine or dry sherry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons sunflower oil or other high-smoking point oil
Up to 2 pounds fresh vegetables, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced gingerroot
1/4 teaspoon crushed Home-Smoked Chili Peppers or red pepper flakes
1/4 cup toasted cashews or 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds (optional)
In a small glass measuring cup, prepare the glaze by mixing together the stock, wine, soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil. Whisk in the cornstarch until thoroughly combined; set aside.
Heat a well-seasoned wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sunflower oil and heat until shimmering hot. Add the densest vegetables and cook, stirring often. When they start to soften, add less dense vegetables in stages, cooking each addition for two to three minutes before adding the next. Finally, add the fastest-cooking vegetables and cook, stirring constantly, until all of the vegetables are crisp-tender and slightly browned.
Push the vegetables to the pan’s edges and drop in the garlic, ginger and chili; stir constantly for about 30 seconds, until fragrant. Mix the vegetables back into the aromatics.
Whisk the glaze again to redistribute the cornstarch, and then add it to the pan and stir until the sauce thickens. Remove the vegetables from the heat and toss with the nuts or seeds, if using. Serve over noodles or basmati rice, if desired.
Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger at TwiceAsTasty.com.