Stir Fry - High Heat and Fast Paced in a Wok

After my slow cooking recipe from last week, I want to swing to the opposite this time: using a lot of heat in a brief time. And what would be more ideal for this than a Stir Fry?

Have Everything Cut and Prepped!

The most important rule for this recipe is what's called mise en place in Fancy French. That means, everything that you can should be prepared before turning on the stove. All the meat and veggies must be cut, and ideally the sauces mixed and even the spices portioned out... I don't know about that last part... But I certainly made sure I would not waste any time getting anything ready when the wok is hot.

Here I have rainbow chard, washed and cut into convenient pieces, together with the green parts of spring onions (scallions). Their white bulbs I cut into rings and places in a separate bowl, as that comes in first. On the cutting board I have a few cloves of garlic finely chopped, and some ground dried red chilis. The beef is cut in thin stripes, and the red bell pepper (capsicum) is also cut and laid out separately. For seasoning I use soy sauce and oyster sauce.

The Order is Essential

Is everything ready? Double check, then turn on the heat under the wok and crank it up as high as it goes. When it's smoking hot throw in a piece of butter. It will melt instantly. Now add the aromatics as the first step: garlic, onions, and the chili peppers.

Stir as you fry, hence the name of the dish. Don't wait until everything has fallen apart. When things are showing first signs of browning, proceed to the next phase: the meat.

Once again, keep stirring to make sure everything is covered and exposed homogeneously. The meat will release grease to fry on, but also quite a bit of water. Don't worry about that. No need to wait for it all to evaporate. Instead you can add the harder vegetables that need more time. In this case the bell peppers.

Now there is quite a bit of water. That's fine, keep frying and stirring. On the bottom of the wok the ingredients get stewed in the juices, while on the sides they get fried dry. So you must keep things moving. Practice the wok toss or just use your spatula to get everything exposed evenly. Don't wait too long for the next phase: the leafy greens.

Adding the big plate of chard and onion greens sure fills up the wok. But most of it is water, and it will evaporate in no time. So keep moving it around. In less then a minute you will be ready for the last phase: the sauces.

By now your stir fry should be almost ready: the greens are reduced in size, but not shriveled completely. The bell peppers are well toasted, but still a bit crunchy and juicy. The meat is starting to get tender, and the onions have completely disintegrated and mixed up with everything else. Give it one last good stir to mix the sauces with everything, and turn off the heat. Done!

As I was doing the preparation, I set up some rice to cook, so I would not have to touch it while making the stir fry. Now it is also ready to be served. I also made a fresh salad to go with it, but this post is not about that. Still, this is what the final dish looked like: