How do you make a good stir fry

[sun burn]

I'm not much good at stir and hardly ever make it but i think i will have to learn given all the asian vegetables I am growing.

Can you please tell me how you make your stir fry.

[pippimac]

There are a few tricks to a great stirfry, but it’s really very simple.
Rinse the veg and drain. Not so much to clean, but the remaining water will 'steam' them.
Cut up everything before you begin stirfrying. (I like things really chunky).
I do it while I'm cooking my rice/noodles. I usually just chop everything up and shove it to the back of the board. The idea for me is to be able to chuck everything in together.I always use significant amounts of fresh ginger, chilli, garlic and an onion of some description. Brown's fine, But I usually use multiplying spring onion types, and/or garlic chives. But really, it's down to whatever you've got around.
Find your oil. (Preferably not olive; I use ricebran).
Line up your sauces/flavours. You can use some/all: soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, any old 'Asian' style sauce that's lurking around.
Prepare your herbs. Coriander, Vietnamese mint and Thai (or any) basil are great.
Sesame seeds, peanuts and cashews are good additions.
Make sure you have everything ready to go, the next bit's important and really fast.
Heat a cast-iron pan or wok till it starts to SMOKE. Keep the heat on High.
Tip in some veg oil.
Add all the veg, garlic etc, nuts/seeds if using, but not the herbs. If it doesn’t fit easily in the pan, there's too much. Cook it tomorrow!
Shake it around, turn it over once or twice, make sure the garlic's not burning. This only takes until the veggies just go bright coloured. Adding the sauces and residual heat will finish it off. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Take it off the heat, add the sauces and sesame. It should be so hot that the liquid pretty much evaporates.
Add the herbs and serve.
The important things: be prepared, open a few windows, have the pan so hot you’re a bit nervous, cook it less than you think it needs.

[sun burn]

Thanks pippi . That sounds interesting, I will give it a go. I notice there's a red chilli on my bush, maybe I will be brave enough to throw some of that in too. Or not.

[prairiekerry]

My system is pretty similar to pippimac's. I chop everything up in advance and mix my sauces, then cook it while the noodles or rice are cooking.

The sauce I use most frequently is a recipe from my dad, who's not Asian but does make a pretty mean stirfry:

1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
rice vinegar, sesame oil, and diced garlic to taste (I am pretty generous with all three - probably at least a tablespoon each)
dash of corn starch to thicken

You can also add fresh or dried chiles or chile sauce to taste.

I heat peanut oil in my wok until very hot, then toss in chopped onions and more diced garlic and saute them for just a minute before adding the rest of my veggies. You can use basically any veggies you like, but my usual mix includes broccoli, carrots, bok choy, celery, and green peppers. Saute them until bright and crisp, then add in the sauce and saute for another minute or so until everything is good and coated. At this point you can either mix in the noodles, or serve it over your rice of choice. One of my favorite meals. :) You can also add shrimp, chicken, or other meat if you want.

[eco4560]

I make a very special stir fry known as refrigerator stir fry. That's where you take everything left in the fridge and put it in the stir fry. ;)
Pre chopping everything is the key - you want to get it all in fast. The only exception to that rule is to take into consideration cooking time - so carrots go before leafy greens as they need longer to cook through. Hot is good - but you don't have to be a slave to the wok and you can cool it down a bit so you can keep up with the cooking time if you did forget to chop it all first. I like a splash of soy, a lick of honey, and some ginger as my sauce of choice.

[pippimac]

These days, my way of getting everything cooked at the same time is to cut things like carrots thinner and keep leaves really chunky. I like creating the least dishes possible! It helps that I like things pretty much just 'warmed through'.

[Grasshopper]

Chop veggies
Hot wok
I use rice bran oil but peanut is good too
I have my ginger in the freezer and grate it
Equal parts ginger to garlic
Equal parts soy to rice wine about a tablespoon(its about $2 a bottle at IGAs or Asian Grocery)
Stir fry the veg add water let steam
I use corn/potato or tapioca flour and water to thicken the sauce(potato flour gives a good silky result(IGA about $4 will last for maybe 6 months depending on how much you use it)

For extra flavour and depending on what I am stir frying I add oyster sauce, chilli and a bit of palm sugar.
Experiment
I am always trying to replicate authentic Vietnamese tastes from restaurant dishes I had in Victoria Street in Melbourne.
So am constantly fine tuning
Tonight is chilli chicken and asparagus