Help me refine my simple wok-cooked veg. technique

[_john]

I am interested in the simplest, most basic, Chinese technique for showcasing fresh produce. Imagine I have a bitter gourd, some garlic stems, and a green onion. What is the best technique to give them some wok-hey while still remaining al dente and maintaining their distinct flavors?

My current technique is as follows:

cut all the veg. into similar sized pieces. mince some ginger and garlic. heat the wok until it is smoking on the wok burner. add room temp. oil/lard and immediately add the garlic and ginger. When I can smell the garlic and ginger I add the veg. and toss a few times. Then I add a pinch of salt and M.S.G. and stir fry until they have reached the al dente stage. then I splash a cap full of Chinese rice wine and stir fry until it evaporates and serve.

This gives the veg. a great flavor but I would like to improve my technique. What do other people do in this situation?

[jo-mel]

I am interested in the simplest, most basic, Chinese technique for showcasing fresh produce. Imagine I have a bitter gourd, some garlic stems, and a green onion. What is the best technique to give them some wok-hey while still remaining al dente and maintaining their distinct flavors?

My current technique is as follows:

cut all the veg. into similar sized pieces. mince some ginger and garlic. heat the wok until it is smoking on the wok burner. add room temp. oil/lard and immediately add the garlic and ginger. When I can smell the garlic and ginger I add the veg. and toss a few times. Then I add a pinch of salt and M.S.G. and stir fry until they have reached the al dente stage. then I splash a cap full of Chinese rice wine and stir fry until it evaporates and serve.

This gives the veg. a great flavor but I would like to improve my technique. What do other people do in this situation?

←

For me -- I have some chicken broth or water on hand. When it looks as if the vegetables are scorching before they are cooked, I add about a teaspoon or two to the wok to keep steam up and to prevent burning. I also don't use MSG.

[Gabriel Lewis]

To me, the key to real smoky wok flavor is heat, and a well seasoned wok. I know people stress the need for real fire in wok cooking, but I can't tell if you have considered the details. Usually when I preheat my wok and add my oil, I wait until the oil/lard is smoking before adding the first ingredient. Is your wok so hot that it is intensely smoking the whole time you are cooking; enough that you can get puffs of flame out it, and that things will burn if you don't stir for more than a few seconds?

Assuming you are cutting your vegetables so that have the right size and surface area to get good surface browning paired with your desired degree of doneness, it may just be a question of heat. Or maybe you could try cooking the garlic a bit longer before adding the vegetables. For larger vegetables where the garlic is going to spend a fair amount of time in a hot wok usually i only fry them very briefly, but if the vegetables are going to cook very quickly I like to let it turn light brown first. I don't know if you want a very pure/simple flavor or not, but I also find many vegetables are well served by a pinch of sugar or white pepper, or a splash of soy or oyster sauce. White pepper I add at the very end, but with sugar you can get a nice bit of caramelisation.

[hzrt8w]

Why add sugar in Chinese vegetable stir-fries?

[Chris Amirault]

Along with the chicken stock idea mentioned above, I'd urge trying chicken fat instead of oil. I'd also avoid oyster sauce for sure and possibly even the shaoxing and soy. Finally, since the garlic is so easy to burn and can impart good flavor to the oil if you cook it gently, I'd give it a bit of time on its own.

So: cook the garlic over medium heat in the fat, then, when it's light brown, remove it temporarily and blast the heat. when the vegetables are close, add the garlic back in (and the stock and some salt).

And I agree with Ah Leung: if you want to showcase fresh vegetables (and their natural sugars), there's really no need for sugar.

[Gabriel Lewis]

I don't really buy into the whole "accentuating the natural flavor of foods" school of thought. If you want the pure flavor of the vegetables you should blanch, steam, or saute them over lower heat. To me wok cooking vegetables is about the intense heat that gives wok foods their characteristic flavor. I like my simple vegetable stirfries to be garlicky, savory, and often salty. I think that a pinch of sugar complements certain vegetables, like bitter chinese broccoli for example. It can caramelize along with the maillard reactions and add another dimension of flavor.

I personally wouldn't start my garlic over medium heat as my burner isn't strong/responsive enough to do this and still get good wok hei. And in my opinion a strong animal component like stock, chicken fat, or lard isn't going to accentutate the natural flavors of a vegetable.

[Prawncrackers]

I am interested in the simplest, most basic, Chinese technique for showcasing fresh produce. Imagine I have a bitter gourd, some garlic stems, and a green onion. What is the best technique to give them some wok-hey while still remaining al dente and maintaining their distinct flavors?

My current technique is as follows:

cut all the veg. into similar sized pieces. mince some ginger and garlic. heat the wok until it is smoking on the wok burner. add room temp. oil/lard and immediately add the garlic and ginger. When I can smell the garlic and ginger I add the veg. and toss a few times. Then I add a pinch of salt and M.S.G. and stir fry until they have reached the al dente stage. then I splash a cap full of Chinese rice wine and stir fry until it evaporates and serve.

This gives the veg. a great flavor but I would like to improve my technique. What do other people do in this situation?

←

_john, your technique sounds good to me! I don’t think there’s much improvement to be made really. Maybe just a little evolution over time until you are completely happy with it. I can only illustrate what I do and maybe you can take from it what sounds good to you:

I get the wok hot as I can, then add a little veg oil then ginger and lastly garlic. Actually, you know, whilst I’m writing this down now I realise that I’m pretty particular about the ginger and garlic. For stir-fried veggies I never mince them. The ginger I use sliced and gently whacked once with the side of the cleaver and added first to the hot oil. I then add very finely diced garlic – there’s a Chinese term for this ‘micro-brunoise’ but I’m not sure what the translation is. The garlic will only take a few seconds to catch so before it does I throw in the veggies. It may be in my head but there’s a world of difference between crushed/minced and sliced/diced garlic.

Personally I’ve never used MSG. I would however add a little soy, shaosing and oyster sauce as the sweet & salty combo compliments well with practically all fresh veg and gives that unmistakable Cantonese flavour. I add water if it looks like the veg needs to fry-steam a little and thicken with a little starch right at the end.

OK, reading this back it looks like I have developed a specific technique over the years!! But hopefully, it’s evolving and improving too

Edited August 15, 2007 by Prawncrackers (log)

[_john]

Good replies so far. A few replies bring up how to treat the garlic and ginger. I keep knobs of ginger in the freezer and then microplane a little pile of ginger snow on the cutting board. Then I do the micro dice of garlic using the same technique you would use on an onion but on a much smaller scale. I usually add them both at the same time but I will experiment with adding one or the other first and various times/temperatures. I heard somewhere that garlic should never be reduced to a paste because there is some sort of reaction that will take place and change the taste? Any other opinions on garlic and ginger?

I made some chicken stock from just chicken bones and reduced it to a point where it would gel when it cooled. Then I froze little gelled cubes so I can have them on hand for stir fries and other things but I haven't tried using them yet.

I am trying to pare down my technique to use minimal seasonings although white pepper, sugar, and oyster sauce all have a place and would probably be delicious. I'm not sure what to say about the MSG, I would like to leave it out but I really think it adds something without being too obvious or overpowering. The wok I am using is well seasoned and the burner is a wok burner.