Stir-frying in china
2 min readStir-frying (CHAO) is by far the most frequently used cooking method in China. It’s quick and simple: the actual cooking time usually takes no morethan a few minutes, provided all the preparations are done beforehand.
Basically, a small amount of oil is healed in a wok, then the ingredients are added to be stirred and tossed with seasonings for a short while. Nothing could be simpler, but – and this is a big but – what most cookery writers fail to say is that first of all, the wok must be heated to a high degree before the oil is added, and furthermore, the oil should not only be seasoned, but also preheated just before being added to the wok used for stir-frying.
There are many variations of stir-frying, the following are some of the most commonly used methods;
(a) Pure Stir-frying: the ingredients are not marinated nor coated with a batter – they are just stir-fried in hot oil, and seasonings are added towards the end of cooking.
(b) Soft Stir-frying: the main and supplementary ingredients are stir-fried separately and are brought together with the addition of seasonings and a thickening agent.
(c) Twice Cooked Stir-frying: one ingredient has been previously cooked and is then cut into smaller pieces and stir-fried with the other ingredients and seasonings.
The two most important points in any type of cooking – particularly for stir-frying the Chinese way – are the temperature of the heat and the timing.
A Chinese cook uses all five senses – sight, sound, taste, touch and smell – while preparing food. The sound of the sizzle when food is added to the preheated wok is important: it indicates instantly whether the preheated wok and oil are at the correct temperatures – something Western cooks need not worry too much about, since they can always rely on gadgets such as automatic controls, thermometers, regulators and other timing devices to guide them. All this is fine when cooking in an oven or in a deep-fat fryer with automatic control, or with a thermometer clipped to the side of the frying pan, but none of these devices will work when it comes to stir-frying. Here you just have to rely entirely on your intuition – use your eyes, nose, ears, hands and mind to judge whether the temperatures are correct, or the amount of seasoning is just right, and the timing is spot on.
Of course, all these skills require long experience, so do not expect too high a success rating to start with. I would say that an 85% mark would be agreat achievement. Remember that the gas burners in a Chinese restaurant kitchen have been specially converted to give extra intense heat – something you can never hope to match at home. Nevertheless, not all stir-fried dishes require intense heat, therefore you should be able to obtain a 100% mark on certain dishes – maybe after a few attempts!
