Stir Fry's! Mine never seem to taste quite right despite using the recommended ingredients?

Question

They always taste so bland. Can you give me some advice on such a simple thing please. I feel daft asking but there you go.

No this is the original spelling of her name. Others evolved through the mists of time.
What's that got to do with stir fry's Zoe?

Answer 1

I have to tell everyone here, Chinese don't put MSG when cooking at home! A lot of nice restaurants here in Hong Kong don't use MSG too.

1) Before you stir fry your ingredients, do you marinate the meat? Cut pork, chicken or beef in slices or strips, marinate with soy sauce, garlic powder, cooking wine, sugar and a bit corn starch for at least 15 minutes.
2) Heat frying pan or wok real hot,the hottest your stove can heat up, when you see smoke or steam coming up, that's time you add oil in the pan. Remember - cold oil add in hot wok.
3) Garlic & ginger - stir fry crushed fresh garlic & ginger in hot wok till fragrant, then add other ingredients in.
4) Stir fry ingredients quickly on high heat, sprinkle cooking wine & soy sauce or oyster sauce or salt to taste (base on any recipes you follow) Below is a stir fry recipe for your reference.

<<<<<<< Stir-fried Salty and Crispy Prawns >>>>>>>>

600g tiger prawns, with shell
3 gloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 small Thai red chili (seeded, finely chopped)
green onion (finely chopped)
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 egg white (slightly beat)
1 tablespoon of cooking wine
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
a dash of five-spice powder
a dish of black pepper

1) Rinse the prawns and pat dry, cut off antennae and all appendages from the prawns (still in shell), devein and mix with egg white, cornstarch for about 15 minutes, set aside.
2) Heat the wok in high heat, then add oil till hot, reduce heat to medium high, deep-fry the prawns for 1.5 minutes or until the shell is crispy, remove and drain.
3) Remove oil from the wok, reheat the wok then add 1 tablespoon oil, stir fry garlic & chili till fragrant, add salt, five-spice powder and black pepper to the wok, return prawns in wok and stir quickly for 1 minute or till cooked, sprinkle green onion.
4) Transfer to a serving plate, serve immediately

Hope this help.

P.S. Five-spices powder is kind of strong in flavor and it doesn't blend well with some other flavors sometimes. You may add a tiny bit into the marinade for pork or chicken or like the recipe I post up there for deep fried prawns, squids, fish, spare ribs, etc. I like to marinate beef with oyster sauce instead of soy sauce, the flavor is totally different from soy sauce. Five-spices powder goes well with soy sauce but not with black bean paste nor oyster sauce.

Answer 2

The best stir fry are on wok!
Heat it then pour the oil (not to much), then lower your flame, usually put first the garlic and ginger is using it) then onions, when they are golden add a touch of salt, then add peppers and carrots or the ingredients you are using...
If you are using some kind of meat, you can cut it in very thin bits and soak it depending the quantity with one soy sauce to 1 of water and add a little of cornstarch.
Dont let the vegetables over cooked! They must be done but firm!

Answer 3

You never get enough heat from a hob at home. When I go to the fantastic eastern cuisine restaurants in London they always have these huge stoves with blue hot open flames. They also use stir-fry specific oil such as sesame oil, which get much hotter. In addition they have the correct pans and utensils, made from the most conductive materials.

Stir frying is all about flash frying to seal in the flavour and juices. At home we tend to boil everything because we can't get enough heat to the raw food quickly enough.

You're basically scuppered my friend!

Answer 4

My gorgeous partner is chinese and he taught me to cook a few things the way they did when he was living at home. This is what you do with your stir-fry:
Chop onions and start frying them in sesame oil. Add your stuff that you want to stir-fry (whatever veg, meat you want). Pour light soya sauce or dark soya sauce if you want it to go dark too. Light soya sauce is saltier than dark. Then keep stirring them then later on add some sliced ginger and garlic. Then some more soya sauce, although you can also put a tablespoon of black bean sauce too. Then just before its done, add a few drops of sesame oil on top of it. Dead easy!

Answer 5

If it is bland then there is almost certainly not enough garlic in it.A little chilli can help and of course soya sauce. I wouldn't fry in sesame oil as it is a bit over powering,its really good to toss some noodles init though.For frying try peanut /groundnut oil
Shake in a few drops of boulion if you like.

Answer 6

Have you tried using oyster sauce? You can get it from most supermarkets. The better Chinese brands are available in Chinese/Thai supermarkets though. Just add a couple of dollops in at the end and it makes all the difference. Try using sesame oil instead of normal oil too. Oh, and use beansprouts but only add them near the end so that they stay crunchy. Good luck!

Answer 7

Don't forget the take aways put lots of MSG in it. I use a little garlic(1 small clove crushed) soy sauce and 1/4 tsp 5 spice and a pinch of salt.

Answer 8

Unfortunalty monosodium glutamate is often used in a lot of chinese food, it is a flavour enhancer and makes things more tasty.

As the poster above you may try to use more authentic things like sesame oils, proper fish sauce etc.

Answer 9

Instead of using normal oil try Toasted Sesame seed oil, This makes it taste much more Chinese.
I used ginger, garlic, spring onion and chillies and soy sauce for the basic recipe. but I still believe I am missing one ingredient.
When I try Chinese five spice it never quite tastes right.
are you putting enough salt in?

Thanks Luvfactor my missing ingredient - black bean sauce

Answer 10

Looks like everyone has covered the spices and sauces Just make sure that you do not cook the veggies to done they need to still have crispness to them.