Ingredient

Stir-fry

A stir-fry takes four minutes to cook and twenty to prepare, and reversing that ratio is why home stir-fries come out watery and grey. Everything must be cut, measured and within reach before the pan goes on, because once it does there is no time for anything else.

The domestic heat problem

A restaurant wok burner puts out several times the heat of a domestic hob. That heat is what evaporates moisture instantly and produces the characteristic smoky flavour of a proper stir-fry.

At home you cannot match it, so you compensate: cook in small batches, get the pan as hot as it will go and let it fully recover between batches, dry everything thoroughly, and accept that a heavy flat-bottomed pan on a domestic hob often works better than a round-bottomed wok, which only touches the ring at one point.

The single biggest improvement most people can make is to halve the quantity in the pan. See crowding suppresses evaporation.

The order of operations

1. Prepare everything first. Cut all the vegetables to sizes that cook in similar times, mix the sauce in a bowl, slice the meat, and line it all up by the hob.
2. Marinate the meat briefly — soy, a little cornflour, a splash of oil, sometimes egg white. The cornflour coating, called velveting, protects the surface and keeps it tender.
3. Get the pan smoking hot and add a high-smoke-point oil.
4. Cook the protein first, in one layer, undisturbed for thirty seconds to get colour, then toss until just done. Take it out.
5. Add the aromatics — garlic, ginger, chilli, spring onion whites — for a few seconds only. They burn fast.
6. Add the hardest vegetables first, then softer ones, keeping everything moving.
7. Return the protein, pour the sauce down the hot side of the pan so it sizzles and reduces, toss to coat, and serve immediately.

Why stir-fries go watery

• Too much in the pan. The single commonest cause. Cook in two batches.
• Wet vegetables. Wash and dry them properly, well in advance.
• Frozen vegetables or defrosted meat going in without being dried.
• Salting or saucing too early. Salt draws water out. The sauce goes in at the very end.
• Pan not hot enough, or not given time to recover between batches.
• Constant stirring from the start. Let things sit for a few seconds to take colour before moving them.

The sauce

Mix it in advance so it goes in as one addition.

Salty

Soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, fermented bean paste.

Sweet

A little sugar, honey or hoisin — it balances the salt and helps browning.

Sour

Rice vinegar or a squeeze of lime, usually at the very end.

Aromatic

Sesame oil, added off the heat — it burns and its aroma is delicate.

Thickener

A teaspoon of cornflour slaked in cold water or stock. It gives the glossy coating that makes the sauce cling.

Common questions