Why run when you can wok

I have always been mesmerised by the dexterity with which the street vendor round the corner from my office tosses noodles and assorted vegetables to dish out a Manchurian that’s spicy and garlicky beyond words.

But the sauce in a Bisleri bottle, and my squeamishness over the hygiene, is a put-off, and I’ve been meaning to try and do it at home instead.

So when I recently saw a video of Jamie Oliver demonstrating a stir fry on his website, I caught the bug all over again.

Oliver is the kind of guy who can enthuse even a potato to take up cooking, and soon I was googling away, reading up on books and hassling more accomplished chefs to talk to me about stir frying.

For starters, you should know there’s more to it than you might imagine. This is not surprising when you consider stir frying originated thousands of years ago, in China.

It was only in the mid 20th century, however, that the term ‘stir fry’ was introduced to English speaking audiences by Buwei Yang Chao in her book How To Cook And Eat In Chinese.

Interestingly, she shares her last name with one of the two ways in which you can stir fry food. Chao involves heating a wok, then pouring oil in it, followed by spices and finally the food.

Bao requires the wok to be red hot, before the oil and other ingredients are added in quick succession and tossed rapidly.

Either way the end result, in the words of Barry Foy, author of The Devil’s Food Dictionary, is a dish “with vivid colors, vibrant flavours, and varied textures.”

The colours are vivid because nutrients are preserved and don’t leach out into the sauce. There’s vibrancy because the seasonings don’t dominate, only enhance the original flavours of the vegetables and meats.

Ditto the texture: since you don’t cook the food for too long, every ingredient retains its original character.

Heart healthy
According to Deepak Bhatia, executive chef, The Leela Kempinski, Mumbai, cooking in a wok with a high flame makes all the difference.

“The Europeans fry in a flat pan, on low to medium heat. Hence food has to be cooked for a longer time. A stir fry is made in a matter of minutes using a round bottom wok at a high flame. The heat and the pressure at the centre of the wok seals the juices inside, leaving the surface crisp.”

The wok also plays an important role in imparting flavour to the dish, says Paul Kinny, executive chef, InterContinental, Marine Drive, Mumbai. “If you observe Chinese cooks, they will heat the wok, pour generous amounts of oil in it and then pour the oil back into its container. This is called tempering the wok.”

Cuts and flavours
The time you need to prepare for a stir fry is usually longer than it takes to cook the dish. Whether it is vegetables or meat, the cuts have to be small. Secondly, meats have to be parboiled.

All ingredients should be kept ready and simply tossed one by one into the wok as per the recipe.

Mita Kapur, author of The F Word, says that the way she cuts bell peppers makes a big difference to the stir fry. “If I julienne them, then it will lend flavour to the entire stir fry. On the other hand, if I cut them into larger dices, then it adds crunch to the dish.”

Then there are the flavouring ingredients. Chefs recommend using strong liquid flavouring such as soy sauce, red chilli sauce, or Chinese wine apart from fresh ingredients like ginger or garlic. But the flavouring changes from region to region. Thai stir fries, for example, use galangal, bird’s eye chillies, lemon grass and even coriander and cumin seeds.

From time to time, Kapur likes to give it an Indian touch. “I find paneer too boring to cook. So I stir fry it with bell peppers and use ginger, coriander, green chillies, and chilli powder as flavouring. At the last minute, I add spring onions,” she says. Stir frying is ideal for our hectic lives since it is quick and healthy.

So the next time you are in a rush and want a home-cooked lunch, raid your fridge for a few simple ingredients, chop, toss and you’re good to go.