College Student's Guide to Stir-Fry

This introduction is long but has great information in it. If you need things fast, though, the absolutely necessary information is at the bottom.

Welcome to the College Student's Guide to Stir-Fry! First, I feel I should explain what exactly this guide is and for whom it is intended. This guide is for anyone who struggles to cook for themselves, hasn't cooked much before, or is just looking for an easy way to make meals quickly. I've named the guide 'College Student's Guide to Stir-Fry' because this guide is about how to make good food with very few tools and ingredients. Being a college student myself, I fully understand the struggle of attempting to make a lot with a little. Stir-Fry is quite possibly the best way to make cheap, great tasting meals quickly. All it takes is a little advice.

I'll do my best to make this guide light-hearted and entertaining to read, but the advice I give is what I do in the kitchen most days. Don't be afraid of the kitchen, it can be your best friend.

The Absolutely Necessary Information:

This tutorial will be organized into steps outlining the process of stir-frying and an 'extra knowledge' section. You can follow these steps directly, but I encourage you to read the extra portions to learn more about cooking in general. The whole idea of this tutorial is to teach you how to cook so that you won't need a stir-fry tutorial ever again. The most important information here--aside from the safety warnings--is to have fun.

Before we begin, I'd like to add a disclaimer here: Things in the kitchen can often be hot and/or sharp. Please exercise caution, and use your best judgement. I am not responsible for any injury that may occur in the kitchen. If you are not an adult, please cook with one. If you feel like you're not an adult, but you legally are: welcome to the club.

For any basic stir-fry, you'll need:

1. A Pan (Preferably a wok)

2. A Stick or Spoon to stir with (get it? Stir-fry?)

3. Stovetop, doesn't matter what kind

4. Some kind of oil

5. Meat (or Tofu)

6. Your favorite vegetables (If you don't have these, maybe just choose some)

7. Your favorite seasonings

8. Fish Sauce (Trust me)

9. A bowl and utensils to eat with

Collect your wok or other pan, a cutting board, knife, and cooking utensil of choice. Here, I have a wok, wooden spatula, knife, and cutting board. Be sure all tools are clean.

Extra Knowledge:

A wok is an excellent piece of cookware. You can use it for just about anything. Nobody wants to admit they ate cereal out of a wok because they were too lazy to clean a bowl, but you could and someone likely has. Not me though. Never.

You don't really need a wok, though. To prove that point, I used a normal frying pan for the rest of this recipe (the silver also looked better on camera). Woks are incredibly cheap for how useful they are, though.

If you choose to use a wok, please don't attempt to flip food it in if you never have before. Flipping food in a wok is remarkably easy, but putting out a grease fire is remarkably difficult.

Choose spices that go along with with one-another. I chose salt, garlic, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and minced ginger for an eastern flavor.

Extra Knowledge:

Spices are the fun part of every meal. I won't provide any specific measurements in this tutorial, but that's only because you don't need them. Just put stuff in until it smells and tastes good. Trust your judgement.

As for different spices, you could use any number of things. In a photo above, I took a picture of all the spices and sauces I had on hand. If you want a tex-mex flavor, go for cumin, turmeric, lime juice, and hot sauce. Mix and match to your tongue's content.

Always use salt, though. Please.

Start your rice in a rice cooker, pan, or microwaveable container. Follow the instructions on the bag for cook time and water-ratio.

Extra Knowledge:

Rice is best for stir-fry. It's cheap and filling. Rice cookers are also cheap.

Select ingredients that you want to eat. Most often this consists of a meat and two vegetables. I chose a carrot, poblano pepper, baby bok choy, green onion, and chicken breast.

Extra Knowledge:

Ingredients are the second most fun part about cooking. Since you're the cook, you get to choose exactly what you want. Chicken is a cheap and healthy option, but so is pork. Beef can be great in a stir-fry too! Just be sure to adjust your spices to fit your meat (or other main ingredient).

Remove anything you wouldn't want to eat from your ingredients. Cut off any dark spots or stalks on vegetables and any large pieces of fat or gristle on your meat.

Extra Knowledge:

Stir-fry offers a very quick cook time, which is why we're cutting of the fat here. The meat won't be on the heat long enough to melt and emulsify the fat, so if you don't enjoy biting into squishy fat pieces, we have to cut it off.

Cut your ingredients into manageable sizes, being careful to cut them to be the same size so that they cook evenly.

Extra Knowledge:

Cutting your ingredients to be the same size is important for two reasons: 1. It makes everything cook more evenly, and 2. It is much more visually appealing. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn knife skills as well. I personally use the claw-hand method, which I believe to be the best and safest way to cut.

Oil your pan with a high-heat oil, adding just enough to coat the bottom. I recommend vegetable oil. Heat to medium heat.

Extra Knowledge:

Oil is very important in getting your food to cook evenly. Be conscious of how much you add, though. Too little and your food might burn, too much and it can be unsafe. Just enough to thinly coat the pan on the bottom is perfect. All oils have different smoke points and are used for different heats in cooking. Vegetable oil is pretty good all-around, so if you're not familiar with choosing oil: choose vegetable.

Note: This does not count as one of your vegetables. Eat your greens.

Lay your meat in the pan, letting it sear and cook on one side until color has climbed halfway up the piece.

Flip your meat, being careful to not slosh oil out of the pan.

Remove your meat when fully cooked. Test whether or not it is cooked by cutting a piece open.

Extra Knowledge:

If you're anything like me, you're terrified of giving yourself or someone else salmonella. So, the first few times you cook, you might over cook your meat a bit. That's okay, but I'll leave some tips here on how to tell if your meat is done.

1. Make sure every part of it has changed color (Especially if it's pork, fish, or chicken)

2. Test the texture if it looks correct. If it feels snappy or rubbery, cook it a little longer

3. Rare beef is okay sometimes, but never eat any other meats rare.

Also, wondering why we cooked the meat first? Check the after-picture of the pan. That substance is called fond, and it is the fat/flavor that the chicken leaks when it cooks. When we cook vegetables in it, they taste better and burn less.

Add in your physically hardest vegetables first, cook until they are as tender as the next raw vegetable ingredient.

Extra Knowledge:

Conflicting textures are the enemy of good food. Unless you're a professional chef, don't try to do anything jarring with textures. Nobody wants to be surprised at something hard in their food. Unless you do, which, well, it's your kitchen.

Add in your next hardest vegetable, and cook them until the desired tenderness. Tip: Use your utensil to test how tender your ingredients are. If you're using leafy greens, do not add them until the end when directed. They could wilt if added now.

Extra Knowledge:

In my opinion, softer is better for stir-fry. I usually cook until I can cut my hardest vegetable with my wooden spatula.

Add in your desired spices, toasting them along with your vegetables. This includes your sauces, like soy sauce. Tip: Judge by smell how much to add--much of human taste is smell.

Warning: If you intend to add alcohol and cook it down here, DO NOT add it directly from the bottle. It could ignite and follow the stream up into the bottle. Always add from a separate container.

Try fish sauce in your stir fry in addition to spices you're comfortable with.

Extra Knowledge:

I know, fish sauce. Awfully desirable name. On the bright side, it also smells bad when you first pour it. However, if there were ever any 'secret ingredient' to stir-fry, it's this. This stuff can make anything taste amazing, especially if you love meaty flavors. Just because it's fish sauce doesn't mean it has to go on fish, I use it every time I stir-fry--even when I'm going for tex-mex flavors. The smell goes away when you heat it, don't worry. I use several dashes in my pan.

Add your meat back in, coating it with whatever spices and liquids are in the pan. Add your leafy greens now.

Use your utensil to add rice to a bowl, then lay your stir-fry on top.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor, and think about what you learned today. Did you have fun? Are you proud of yourself? You ought to be!