Stir Fry looks like looks unappealing but tastes good (chicken, carrot, sugar)
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I need help with my stir frying. They taste good, but look unappealing. They meat pieces combined with sauce look like they have been glued together. The meat and sauce's color looks almost brown to grayish. Is just not dark enough like it is caramelized.
Is the sauce too thick, therefore using too much cornstarch? Am I adding too much rice wine in the middle? Should I not velvet meat with whole egg and instead use whites only? Something tells me it is yoke because it sort of does remind me of scrambled eggs.
Peanut oil? NOT canola or other. Make sure burner is hot enough.
The egg makes little sense to me. Look at the cornstarch slurry that is the finisher. It is thin. No egg there. Sauce color -hit the sugar with heat early, some soy sauce has more color than others.
I cook carrot longer than broc, and use steam instead of boil. YMMV
Yes to egg whites only for velveting - and I'll bet you're using too much cornstarch at that step. And I'm betting you're using the wrong kind of pan, not getting it hot enough. Probably cooking the neat and veg all at one time?
Sorry, but I quit watching this video when he VC added THAT much oil to the uncooked beef. (And it wasn't sesame oil)
Peanut oil? NOT canola or other. Make sure burner is hot enough.
The egg makes little sense to me. Look at the cornstarch slurry that is the finisher. It is thin. No egg there. Sauce color -hit the sugar with heat early, some soy sauce has more color than others.
I cook carrot longer than broc, and use steam instead of boil. YMMV
The egg is used in the marinating/velveting phase.
Yes to egg whites only for velveting - and I'll bet you're using too much cornstarch at that step. And I'm betting you're using the wrong kind of pan, not getting it hot enough. Probably cooking the neat and veg all at one time?
Sorry, but I quit watching this video when he VC added THAT much oil to the uncooked beef. (And it wasn't sesame oil)
Veg oil is soy or rarely cottonseed. Peanut has a higher smoke point. Sesame oil - dunno, personally, in most dishes with strong flavor I haven't noticed it added that much.
That again seems to me like a lot of cornstarch in the totality of the cooking. It ain't fried chicken.
The egg is used in the marinating/velveting phase.
I use vegetable oil. Is that no good ?
Not egg yoke. Just egg white, corn starch for velveting. A flavoring is optional, but most common are soy sauce or rice wine (NOT the same as rice vinegar!)
I've read about velveting techniques using baking soda. Personally, I wasn't pleased with the results on meat. I do use it when I make shrimp.
There is actually another step to velveting that many (most?) Asian restaurants employ: blanching the meat after marinating. I've done it a few times, and it does make the meat (chicken and pork, I never use beef in stir fry) more tender. But unless I have the pot of boiling water already going, I dont bother. (like if I'm making noodles instead of rice) )
You need oil to cook the stir fry, not at the marinating/velveting stage. Vegetable, peanut or canola oil is fine for that; all have high smoke points. Peanut is the most common.
I hate having to waste a good yolk though. I tend to use as much cornstarch like I am trying to flour each and every part of the slices.
I get that you dont want to waste a good egg yolks, but it wont work with velveting. If you dont take it out, I'd suggest skipping velveting entirely. (But let's get real - depending on where I'm shopping, I buy eggs for 65 cents to a $1.25 a dozen. At most, that egg yolk cost me a dime.)
You can stir fry meat in a very light dusting of plain, dry cornstarch. Do not use too much starch! Shake the pieces to get rid of excess before putting in the hot oil. Fry veggies first (NO starch), remove from pan, then fry the meat till the outsides are seared and then toss in the veggies for a few moments. I sometimes made a thin slurry of cornstarch, water, soy sauce, cooking sherry, and spices to mix in as a final step, but this is optional. Stir fries taste good with just the meat, veggies, and oil providing flavor and texture. You can add soy sauce to taste on the plated serving.
Egg yolk in the coating probably is making the food look gray. Just don’t do it.
Best oil to use: high-heat peanut oil.
Do NOT use olive oil or sesame oil to stir fry because they will burn, or turn nasty. They are not meant for high-heat frying. Sesame oil added to the plated food as flavoring (or floated on bowls of soup) is fine. Some olive oil labels say they can be used for “saute” but that does not mean high-heat stir fry!
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