[0 - 2] - Hi, I am Eric Huang, I'm a professional chef,
[2 - 5] and today, I'm gonna show you how to stir-fry everything
[6 - 8] Stir-frying is all about balance, heat,
[8 - 9] movement, and timing.
[9 - 11] You're going to get restaurant-quality,
[11 - 15] delicious food on your plate in really little time.
[15 - 18] This is Stir-Frying 101. [upbeat music]
[18 - 20] So it's helpful to understand a little bit
[20 - 22] about why stir-frying is a thing.
[22 - 24] So usually, you cook stir-fries in a wok,
[24 - 25] which is a very thin piece of metal,
[25 - 27] and it's meant to be cooked very quickly.
[27 - 29] This developed in China because it was historically
[29 - 31] not very rich in combustible fuel,
[31 - 33] so things were meant to cook quickly.
[33 - 34] Stir-frying is a prime example of that,
[34 - 37] everything is cut into thin, small, bite-sized pieces.
[37 - 39] It's very economical, it's very versatile.
[39 - 42] You cook it up real fast, have it on the dinner table by 5:15.
[42 - 44] The whole point is bringing all the seasoning together
[44 - 47] in the pan at the last moment and eating it really hot right
[47 - 48] out of the pan.
[48 - 50] So hot. Usually with rice.
[50 - 52] We're gonna cover three basic techniques for stir-frying.
[52 - 54] We're gonna do with a sauce, dry,
[54 - 56] and green vegetable cookery.
[56 - 57] There are many schools of cooking,
[57 - 60] but with these three, you can cover a huge wide base
[60 - 65] and use pretty much everything left over in your fridge. [clacking] [booming] [upbeat music]
[65 - 68] Stir-frying with sauce, it's a really nice way
[69 - 70] to add lusciousness, viscosity,
[70 - 72] moisture to what you're cooking.
[72 - 73] Stir-frying with a sauce
[73 - 75] is probably what you're thinking of when we're stir-frying,
[75 - 77] it's probably the most popular technique
[77 - 78] when it comes to stir-frying.
[78 - 81] We're gonna start with one of my personal favorites,
[81 - 83] the almighty chicken and broccoli,
[83 - 85] a Chinese American takeout classic.
[85 - 86] So when you're stir-frying with a sauce,
[87 - 88] the basic principles are the same
[88 - 89] as everything else except at the very end,
[90 - 91] you're adding the sauce at the end,
[91 - 93] you're potentially thickening it a little bit
[93 - 95] with a starch slurry, and then you're tossing it
[95 - 96] all together because you don't want it
[96 - 98] to be runny or watery.
[98 - 101] You want this sauce that's clinging but not claggy either,
[101 - 103] it requires a little bit of finesse.
[103 - 105] So when it actually comes to stir-frying,
[105 - 107] the cooking part is really only a few minutes.
[107 - 109] All the work comes in the preparation.
[109 - 111] So we're gonna start with a very important technique
[111 - 114] for preparing proteins for stir-fries,
[114 - 115] we're gonna do velveting.
[115 - 118] As its name implies, velvet is about creating
[118 - 120] a very smooth texture with your proteins.
[120 - 124] Velvet is not something that's absolutely necessary,
[124 - 126] but it also kind of is.
[126 - 128] This is how you make really delicious stir-fries
[128 - 130] and get that wonderful texture.
[130 - 132] Let us velvet some chicken.
[132 - 133] Thinly-sliced chicken breasts here,
[133 - 135] we're gonna get that into the bowl.
[135 - 139] And then we're going to add our egg white, cornstarch,
[139 - 141] a little bit of baking soda, and salt.
[141 - 145] So all of these things are going to do something different
[145 - 146] to the chicken breast that is really important.
[146 - 149] The egg whites are slightly alkaline, and then we add
[150 - 152] a little bit of more alkalinity with the baking soda.
[152 - 155] It prevents the proteins from coagulating as tightly,
[155 - 158] so that helps with the tender texture, step one.
[158 - 160] Egg whites and the cornstarch are going to combine
[160 - 162] because the starch is going to distribute
[162 - 164] throughout the protein, which is gonna create kind of like
[164 - 166] a matrix or a lattice of starch,
[166 - 168] that helps the chicken hold onto its own juices,
[168 - 170] so that makes it juicy, that's number two.
[170 - 172] And then salt, you know, you need salt
[172 - 174] to make things taste good, and then you're going to work it
[174 - 177] and then massage it and really, really go for it.
[177 - 179] I'm gonna marinate. I'm gonna squish it around.
[179 - 181] I'm being pretty forceful, kind of breaking up
[181 - 182] a little bit of the protein structure,
[182 - 184] you're almost kind of like tenderizing it
[184 - 185] with your hand a little bit.
[185 - 187] And then you're really working that starch into it,
[187 - 189] the egg white, the baking soda, the salt.
[189 - 190] This is really what's gonna give you
[190 - 192] that nice texture later,
[192 - 194] that classic Chinese American takeout texture,
[194 - 197] which I kind of describe as smooth, slippery, bouncy.
[198 - 201] Okay, so I've been doing this for about 45 seconds
[201 - 203] to a minute, so this is all marinated.
[203 - 205] I'm gonna let this sit for 30 minutes.
[205 - 208] We're ready to go here and I'm going to make a sauce.
[208 - 210] So I'm making a really basic brown sauce, that is
[210 - 213] the foundation upon which Chinese American restaurants
[213 - 215] will do 400-item menus for you.
[215 - 216] It starts with this, we're just gonna make
[216 - 218] a really basic one, and it focuses
[218 - 222] on balancing the umami salty flavors and soy sauce
[222 - 224] and the sweetness coming from sugar.
[224 - 226] So for my brown sauce, we're gonna start
[226 - 228] with light soy sauce, oyster sauce here,
[228 - 231] and this is gonna add a little bit of viscosity,
[231 - 233] sweetness, and more savoriness.
[233 - 235] Hoisin sauce, it's gonna add some sweetness,
[235 - 236] some color, viscosity.
[236 - 239] Next, ketchup, I think it's a perfect condiment,
[239 - 241] it's perfectly balanced between sweetness,
[241 - 243] acidity, and umami as well.
[243 - 244] Sugars, you can't just use soy sauce,
[244 - 246] you need a bit of sugar to balance it out.
[246 - 249] Bad Chinese takeout, poorly prepared, jarred sauces,
[249 - 252] they're often too sweet, so it's worth the step
[252 - 253] of making your own brown sauce.
[253 - 257] I'm gonna add MSG. Do not be scared of MSG.
[257 - 258] It's perfectly safe, perfectly good for you,
[258 - 260] makes all your things taste great.
[260 - 263] I'm gonna add cornstarch directly to the sauce,
[263 - 266] that way, you don't have to add it as a slurry later.
[266 - 269] Toasted sesame oil, it's very strong, it's very aromatic,
[270 - 271] you really just need a little bit.
[271 - 274] Garlic, just a single clove, nice and grated.
[274 - 276] When you grate garlic, the more finely you cut it,
[276 - 277] the more intense its flavor.
[277 - 278] I'm gonna whisk everything together,
[278 - 280] It looks a little cloudy and perhaps light
[280 - 282] because the cornstarch has been distributed.
[282 - 284] That's going to clarify once you cook it.
[284 - 287] So we're still in our preparation phase because again,
[287 - 288] the stir-fry is going to come together
[288 - 290] in really just a minute or two.
[290 - 292] So cooking the broccoli first.
[292 - 296] Broccoli, given its shape and its rigidity,
[296 - 298] needs to be cooked ahead of time.
[298 - 301] It will not cook in time in the final stir-frying steps
[301 - 303] without turning into mush.
[303 - 306] So I like to par-cook it, and that way,
[306 - 309] we only need to stir-fry it for just about a minute or two
[309 - 310] to finish it with the sauce and the protein.
[310 - 313] I like to test it by fishing one out and pinching the stem.
[313 - 315] If it feels like it's just about to break,
[315 - 316] that means it's pretty much ready to go.
[316 - 320] So this is my marinated chicken and I'm going to cook it,
[320 - 322] I'm going to do what's called a pass-through.
[322 - 325] In a Chinese restaurant, you would take this velvety chicken
[325 - 328] and you would either cook it in stock or water or oil.
[328 - 330] You could fry it very quickly.
[330 - 332] It all depends on obviously how you wanna do it.
[332 - 334] Most people don't have a pot
[334 - 336] of hot oil sitting around their home though,
[336 - 338] so I think water's the way to do it.
[338 - 339] And you've already blanched the broccoli,
[339 - 341] so why not just blanch the chicken in there?
[342 - 344] Gonna mix this up slightly and then gonna try
[344 - 346] to keep these separate, and we're really looking
[346 - 349] to just cook for about 30 to 45 seconds here.
[349 - 353] This step for velveting with either oil or water is crucial
[353 - 356] because these pieces are so thin, they cook very quickly,
[356 - 357] and that's all I'm trying to do.
[357 - 359] I'm just trying to cook it, set the protein,
[359 - 362] and get it ready for the stir-fry stage.
[362 - 364] Look at all our mise en place, we are well-prepared.
[364 - 368] This allows us to bring our stir-fry together very quickly.
[368 - 369] I'll be cooking this dish with a wok.
[369 - 372] I really like woks because they retain heat very well,
[372 - 374] so when you add stir-fry products to it,
[374 - 376] you can maintain that high heat throughout,
[376 - 379] which is a really important flavor to Chinese stir-fry.
[379 - 381] Okay, I've been letting this preheat, and we're going
[381 - 384] to be cooking over high heat for about a minute,
[384 - 387] and you're going to see it start smoking slightly,
[387 - 389] that's the oil that has been seasoning the pan getting
[389 - 390] to its smoke point.
[390 - 393] I'm going to use some neutral oil, high smoke point,
[393 - 396] and I'm going in with my chicken and broccoli.
[398 - 399] Just stir-fry very quickly.
[400 - 402] And then I'm gonna add my sauce.
[402 - 406] I'm gonna add it around the rim, this way, it kind of
[406 - 409] has a second to reduce and caramelize really quickly.
[409 - 412] Wave-like motion, up and down, you're cradling the sauce
[412 - 415] and it's reducing against the edges just slightly, coating everything.
[415 - 418] I'm tilting forward and backwards, I'm rocking the motion
[418 - 421] so it's cradling against the bowl of the wok,
[421 - 424] and that's pretty much ready to go.
[424 - 425] You might need a little bit of water just
[425 - 429] to adjust the viscosity, but I'm happy with that.
[429 - 432] And then I'm gonna go straight onto the plate,
[432 - 435] and that is chicken and broccoli in about 45 seconds.
[435 - 437] Because the cornstarch cooked very quickly
[437 - 440] and thickened the sauce, we have the perfect viscosity here,
[440 - 443] so it's not running when I tilt the plate,
[443 - 445] it's very slow to move, and it's clinging
[445 - 448] to all the crevices in the broccoli
[448 - 449] and the chicken really nicely.
[449 - 452] So get yourself a bowl of white rice and eat that.
[452 - 455] All right, let's see. So hot.
[457 - 459] Nice, texture of chicken's nice.
[459 - 461] It's not overly sweet, it's just sweet enough
[461 - 462] where the soy sauce isn't overpowering,
[462 - 464] you need the sugar to kind of balance it,
[464 - 466] and I really like that.
[466 - 469] And that's how you stir-fry something with a sauce,
[469 - 474] a saucy stir-fry. [clacking] [booming] [gentle music]
[474 - 476] A great example of dry stir-fries
[476 - 478] are dry-fried string beans.
[478 - 480] What we mean by dry is that there isn't a sauce.
[480 - 484] In saucy stir-fries, the flavor comes from the sauce.
[484 - 486] In dry stir-fries, you're getting flavors
[486 - 489] from the high heat, aromatic vegetables,
[489 - 490] animal fat, and light seasoning,
[490 - 493] so they're really enjoyable when done correctly.
[493 - 495] So here, we're gonna do dry-fried string beans.
[495 - 497] I think that's a Chinese restaurant classic.
[497 - 499] I really enjoy it, it's a really different way
[499 - 501] from approaching green vegetables in Western cooking,
[501 - 503] which are usually blanched and glazed in butter.
[503 - 506] These we're going to cook it extremely high heat
[506 - 507] and toss with aromatic vegetables
[507 - 508] and a little bit of animal fat,
[508 - 511] and it makes for a really flavorful vegetable dish.
[511 - 514] So I have my string beans, they have been topped and tailed.
[514 - 516] I'm going to coat them with a little bit
[516 - 519] of neutral vegetable oil, a little bit of salt,
[519 - 521] and then we're just going to toss, toss, toss,
[521 - 523] just lightly coat them.
[523 - 526] I'm going to arrange these in a single layer as best I can.
[526 - 528] Part of the prep is the par-cooking.
[528 - 530] We're gonna cook these string beans about 50%
[530 - 532] of the way under the broiler, and then we're going
[532 - 533] to finish them in the pan.
[533 - 536] Okay, so my string beans have come out of the broiler.
[536 - 539] You see they're a little wrinkly, a little bit charred.
[539 - 540] You're trying to drive off a little bit
[540 - 542] of that initial moisture.
[542 - 544] If you did this from raw in the pan,
[544 - 546] there would be too much water content.
[546 - 548] It would steam, it would turn to mush.
[548 - 549] This step is really important
[549 - 551] because like all the stir-frying we're doing,
[551 - 553] you're really only in the pan for about a minute.
[553 - 554] Stir-frying is usually done in a wok,
[554 - 555] but it doesn't have to be.
[555 - 557] And you can do a saute pan or non-stick,
[557 - 559] a high-sided sauteuse like this.
[559 - 560] The key is getting it hot enough,
[560 - 562] the key is something that you can manipulate with ease
[562 - 565] and comfort because you need to be able to cook quickly.
[565 - 566] So I have my mise en place here.
[566 - 569] As you will notice, there is pretty much nothing wet,
[569 - 571] hence why this is a dry stir-fry.
[571 - 573] With a sauced stir-fry, all the flavors
[573 - 575] are in the sauce that you built ahead of time.
[575 - 578] With a dry stir-fry, we're building the layers of flavor.
[578 - 580] We're gonna heat this up here, add a nice amount of oil.
[580 - 582] I'm gonna add my chilies.
[582 - 583] I'm gonna add Sichuan peppercorn.
[583 - 585] I'm gonna just toast those for a second
[585 - 586] to bring out their aromas.
[586 - 589] It's not a blow your face off kind of heat.
[589 - 591] Sichuan peppercorns are really floral,
[591 - 593] they're delightful, citrusy.
[593 - 596] Adding my ground pork, little bit of that saturated fat
[596 - 598] from the rendering out of the pork fat
[598 - 599] is really, really nice.
[599 - 601] All right, you're just cooking that out.
[602 - 606] A little bit of fire, always fun. Scrape that up, okay.
[606 - 610] Moving that off the heat for a second, garlic, ginger,
[610 - 612] a little bit of preserved mustard green.
[612 - 615] I'm just moving it around, manipulating the heat just
[615 - 617] by moving the pan.
[617 - 619] All right, and then once all these flavors are built,
[619 - 621] move it off the pan again, going in
[621 - 625] with my dried string beans, salt, a little bit of sugar,
[625 - 629] MSG, maybe another 15 seconds.
[629 - 631] Let's add a little bit of wine.
[631 - 632] I'm adding scallions,
[633 - 636] just cooking those for a couple seconds.
[636 - 638] So I'm tossing it, even though this is not a wok,
[638 - 640] this tossing motion is coating everything,
[640 - 642] getting the aromatics evenly distributed,
[642 - 644] and then we don't wanna overcook these.
[644 - 648] That's pretty much it. We're gonna go to the plate.
[648 - 650] Stir-fried food, you gotta be eating immediately.
[650 - 652] It's gotta be ripping hot, almost dangerously hot.
[655 - 657] This is awesome. I mean, you could do this with anything.
[657 - 658] You could do it with broccoli,
[658 - 660] you could do it with asparagus.
[660 - 661] 'Cause you can prepare proteins this way,
[661 - 663] it's a really versatile and delicious way
[663 - 667] to make something out of very ordinary ingredients.
[667 - 669] Once you learn the basics, dry stir-fries
[669 - 675] are a wonderful tool in your arsenal. [clacking] [booming] [upbeat music]
[675 - 676] So for our third chapter, we're going to be talking
[676 - 678] about cooking greens.
[678 - 679] Anytime you go to a Chinatown market,
[679 - 681] you're gonna notice tons of vegetables,
[681 - 683] tons of green and leafy vegetables.
[683 - 685] And this is pretty much a way of how to cook all of them,
[685 - 687] they're all incredibly delicious
[687 - 688] once you unlock this technique.
[688 - 691] So this kind of stir-frying, what changes
[691 - 693] is the base ingredient, what kind of leafy vegetable
[693 - 696] you're using, the base layer technique does not change.
[696 - 698] It's always garlic, some sort of chicken stock
[698 - 701] or chicken powder, a salt, and oil,
[701 - 703] and then you're stir-frying it all together.
[703 - 704] I have Shanghai bok choy here,
[704 - 706] this is kind of like a medium size.
[706 - 707] I have some boiling water here,
[707 - 709] I'm gonna add some salt to it, season it.
[709 - 711] And just like any other steps, we're par-cooking here,
[711 - 714] the stir-fry step is very quick, it's very short,
[714 - 715] maybe a minute or two.
[715 - 717] So obviously, bok choy has the leafy green part
[717 - 718] and the stem part, they're supposed
[718 - 720] to be contrasting textures,
[720 - 722] so the stem is just tender, nice.
[722 - 724] All right, my bok choy is just lightly cooked here,
[724 - 726] and yet again, I have a wok in front of me.
[726 - 729] We are going to stir-fry our green vegetables here.
[729 - 731] We're going to do a technique called qing chao,
[731 - 733] which just means clear stir-fry.
[733 - 736] It's very simple, it's salt, garlic, oil,
[736 - 738] and chicken bouillon powder.
[738 - 740] In a perfect universe, you would have inherited
[740 - 743] your grandmother's 50-year master Cantonese stock
[743 - 746] that has had millions of chickens cooked in it.
[746 - 747] We're just going to use chicken bouillon powder.
[747 - 749] It adds umami, that's the really key difference
[749 - 750] towards what makes it great.
[750 - 753] All right, I'm gonna add some neutral oil here.
[753 - 754] So I'm gonna add my garlic
[754 - 757] and we're just gonna let it gently brown.
[757 - 759] The hottest part of the wok is at the bottom,
[759 - 762] so you just kind of wanna keep it swirling,
[762 - 763] otherwise, it's going to burn.
[763 - 765] I'm gonna go in with my bok choy.
[768 - 769] Splash of water.
[770 - 774] It's gonna help kind of finish the steaming a little bit. Salt.
[776 - 779] You're not looking to brown anything or char anything.
[779 - 781] Just gonna add my chicken powder.
[781 - 783] Just a touch of sugar, really not a lot,
[783 - 785] just to balance the salinity a little bit.
[785 - 787] The vegetable's gonna start to become translucent,
[787 - 788] look a little shiny.
[788 - 790] The water is controlling the temperature of the wok
[790 - 792] so that your garlic doesn't burn.
[792 - 796] And that's it, it should look glossy, delicious, shiny.
[796 - 799] Gonna go to the plate. [upbeat music]
[799 - 802] Okay, and then you gotta get all this garlic
[802 - 803] and that little bit of stock over it,
[803 - 806] makes them eat nice and juicy.
[806 - 809] That's really it, so easy, just a little bit of knife work,
[809 - 811] preparation, blanching it ahead of time.
[811 - 813] This is gonna be really, really delicious.
[814 - 817] That was delicious. The stem still has texture.
[817 - 819] The leaves are really tender and slippery.
[819 - 822] So that's really a simple basic foundation technique.
[822 - 825] Garlic, some sort of MSG, chicken bouillon powder,
[825 - 828] salt, and oil, and you can cook any vegetable
[828 - 833] and really, really up its game. [upbeat music]
[833 - 836] So I showed you three basic categories of stir-frying here,
[836 - 838] but there is a multitude of techniques.
[838 - 840] So with these three core basic principles,
[840 - 843] you can stir-fry pretty much everything and anything.
[843 - 845] Start with leftovers, some vegetables you're trying
[845 - 848] to use up, and I promise it's a whole deep universe
[848 - 850] to explore, so I wish you the best of luck
[850 - 851] in all your stir-frying.