Let's talk stir-fry recipes, techniques and equipment

[lindsaybluth]

The Squid is really good stuff! It’s good to know Lee Kum Kee is overall good.

I actually thought Thai Kitchen looked suspiciously white-people branded, so I was highly suspect of it overall. Now I know it’s good stuff; it is pricey but it seems like it goes on sale fairly often 'round here.

I’ve always heard good things about Kikkoman soy sauce from Real Asians™ so I figured the bottled sauce would be a good stopgap.

[pulykamell]

@lindsaybluth

I actually thought Thai Kitchen looked suspiciously white-people branded, so I was highly suspect of it overall. Now I know it’s good stuff; it is pricey but it seems like it goes on sale fairly often 'round here.

To be honest, that’s kind of how I view it, too. I’ve never had any major issues with any of their products, although some of them do seem to make some concessions for American tastes, being not quite as pungent or spicy as their Asian-brand equivalents. For example, I don’t much like any of their curry pastes. Mae Ploy is the Thai brand I generally get. Everything else I’ve had by them (like their fish sauce, their coconut milk, etc.) has been very good, except at 3-4 times the price of what you’d get it for with Asian brands. However, the quality of the product has always been very good, in my opinion, if not always to my tastes.

[lindsaybluth]

So I guess a good rule of thumb would be “when in doubt or in a hurry, go with Thai Kitchen” because it’ll at least be pretty good albeit expensive. We always like things fairly explosively pungent/spiced, so I know what you’re saying.

Thanks for the (unintentional) curry paste rec too!

[pulykamell]

I was stir-frying today, and I just remembered an excellent stir fry preparation that’s a little bit non-obvious and unusual.

Here in Chicago, there’s a great Sichuan restaurant called Double Li in Chinatown. One of their signature dishes is black pepper beef. It’s basically stir fried tenderloin (or whatever stir fry cut of beef you like) with oyster sauce, lots of black pepper and garlic, and–here’s the interesting part for me–finished with butter.

Here’s a video of it being made.

Now, the way he does it, he basically deep fries the beef. Personally, I do it just the standard way I outline above, frying the beef (or chicken, which is what I used today) in a neutral oil, and, when making the sauce, I use a copious amount of garlic, coarsely ground black pepper, oyster sauce, and butter. It’s kind of a blend of Chinese and European traditions and one that I think works amazingly well.

[medstar]

@pulykamell

They do. Some of the Filipino brands I’ve had have an odd ammonia-like flavor to them that I don’t like. This brand, for instance, I stay away from. One brand that is widely available and is my fish sauce of choice is Squid brand. As for oyster sauce, the Lee Kum Yee Premium is very good. I usually just look at the ingredients and see which brands have “oyster extractives” as the first ingredient, rather than being buried behind water and sugar.

Any steak cut works well. For more economical cuts, flank (cut across the grain) and top rounds are good. Sometimes, I even buy something generically called “sandwich steak,” which is already sliced very thinly for you, and slice it thinly again into very thin strips.

For pork, loin and tenderloin work best, as they are lean steak-like cuts suitable for fast and furious cooking.

For chicken, anything works, but I like breast in stir fries. I also like to cut it into extra thin strips, if I have the time.
As for blooming the spices in the oil, that is almost always a good idea, but just be careful not to let the spices burn. Anything involving dried peppers requires paying attention (because of their sugar content) and moving around the spices quickly so they don’t burn.

I’d like to recommend that for any meat you use, it’s a lot easier to cut into thin strips if the meat is semi-frozen. If it’s hard frozen, it’s difficult to cut through and if it’s room temperature, it’s difficult to get sharp, precise strips.