I would really love to know how to get the authentic “restaurant” flavour when making this dish.
Are you supposed to steam the vegetables first or cook them straight in the wok?
Should you add water?
How much oyster sauce should one use?
Should you add soy sauce?
Should you add anything else?
Thanks in advance for any replies. Sorry this question is a bit mundane and domestic!
This is basic for broccoli, but you can add other vegetables.
[Copyrighted material deleted]
Recipe is Copyright © 1998 Kasma Loha-unchit.
When I do bak choi or choi sum, I steam the veg for about a minute, throw it in a very hot wok for 30 seconds, add the oyster sauce (liberally), stir the sauce through, and throw straight into a bowl. That pretty nearly approximates how it tastes in restaurants in HK.
I’m glad that tcburnett can you give quantities, since I tend to cook by thumb (that’s about enough there, add a little more here…) A couple of secrets. It works about the same, for broccoli, to steam or microwave it a bit first, but it’s not quite as good. In most Asian restaurants they use two woks and transfer stuff between them to keep the heat up. You should only add the oil when the wok (or pan) is already very hot. You can tell if you’re wok is hot enough by how the oil acts when it goes in, it sort of splays out. I’m sure there’s a technical term for it but I don’t know it. So the oil should be pretty much hot as soon as it hits the pan. Give it a couple of swirls to coat the pan and launch the garlic. If the oil starts to smoke it’s getting too hot; this usually only happens if you have put in the oil and wait too long to add ingredients. You can also cover the pan/wok with a lid (my woks have always come with a lid) so that the broccoli will cook faster.
Moderator’s Notes
tcburnett,
I’ve removed the Copyrighted material from your post. See Arnold’s post in the FAQ’s. We allow you to quote about 5% of a copyrighted article and links are allowed. I realize that 5% of a recipe is useless. Here is a link to the recipe:
Stir-fried Broccoli with Thai Oyster Sauce
Recipe threads now belong in Cafe Society.
Off to Cafe Society.
DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator
Before stir-frying anything in any kind of sauce I always marinate it in the sauce. Although veggies do not soak up flavor like meat does, so this may be an unnecessary step if it’s just veggies.
Marinade:
1/4C rice wine (or any cooking sherry)
1/4C Oyster sauce
1/2C Water
Several dashes powdered ginger
(for red meat dishes) generous amount of freshly ground black pepper
(for white meat dishes) several generous dashes white pepper
You can add a squirt of vinegar (for tanginess), soy or fish sauce (for saltiness), dash of sugar (if too bitter), or almost anything else that makes it taste the way you want it to taste. But beware, too much soy sauce & sugar will give you a teriaki flavor.
The measures are very approximate, since I also tend to cook on the fly using the time honored pich-of-this-dash-of-that method. 1/4C seems right for about a half pound of cut up chicken & two handfuls of veggies, but I might just as quickly double the measures if it didn’t look right as I was cooking.
Marinate the meat (or veggies if you like) in this for at least an hour. Over night will give the best (strongest) flavor. Then heat up the wok or large frying pan and add a couple TBSP of oil. Type of oil is your preference, I use peanut oil if I’m making cashew chicken to lend nutty flavor. If you don’t want any flavor from the oil use canola or olive.
Once the oil is hot, lift the meat (veggies) out of the marinade (use a skimmer so the liquid stays where it is for now) and spoon it into the wok. Unless you have a really big wok or frying pan, limit the amount of meat (veggies) that you put into the pan. I suggest no more than 50% of the pan’s surface area should be covered by raw food. You may have noticed that the restaurants use woks big enough to bathe an infant in just to cook a single order. (1) This will give you room to move the food around while cooking, and (2) too much raw food at one time will cool the pan down and you’ll lose the “flash heating” effect that is so important in stir frying.
Veggies stir fry rather quickly, meat takes a minute or two longer depending on how small you cut it prior to marinating.
If you have more raw food than 50% of the pan can accomodate, cook small amounts and move the cooked food into a serving bowl when it’s done. Then bring the pan back to temperature & repeat. Once all the meat/veggies has been cooked, bring the pan back up to temp & pour in the marinade. The pan will cool down with this much liquid, but that’s ok- all we want to do it thicken the sauce & cook any little bits of meat that are left behind in it. The oyster sauce marinade above should thicken fairly quickly, and will thicken a stil more as it cools. Stir briskly to prevent sticking to the bottom (I like to use a compressible whisk because it flattens out nicely to cover the pan’s bottom, but don’t use it on teflon). Other sauces may need a pinch of corn starch to help them thicken.
Pour the thickened sauce over the meat/veggies. Just don’t ask us how to cook rice!
Success is 30% recipe & 70% technique, so you may have the perfect recipe but still wind up with mediocre results. Don’t be discouraged until you get your technique right!
Oh this is so great guys - thank you - the first time I tried I way overdid the soy and it was soooooo salty! I can’t wait to have another go.
Make stir fry sauce:
1/3 to 1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp. corn starch
2 - 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 - 3 Tbsp Mirin (sweet rice cooking wine)
1 - 2 tsp hot chili sauce
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 - 4 Tbsp oyster sauce
mix well
Heat wok, add 2 tablespoons peanut oil, add a couple of tablespoons each minced fresh ginger and garlic, and the tops from three or four green onions, also chopped. Toss in raw veggies and stir until they are done to your preference. You must keep stirring all the while. If the wok starts to get too dry, I use a squirt bottle to add small amounts of water, up on the side of the wok. Be careful not to splash hot oil if you do this, it burns like hell. 
Add stir fry sauce and cook until it just begins to thicken.
It takes a little experimentation to get all this just to your liking, you may want to increase or subtract from some ingredients. I don’t know how experienced you are in wokking, but it’s a fun, healthy way to cook. Not mundane or too domestic at all!
Be careful if you use olive oil, it will burn at a relatively low temperature. Peanut oil holds up well under high heat, and is the recommended method.
You might want to check with the library for some books on stir-frying.