A question about stir frying garlic

Scam · 13 Feb 2014 at 21:30

So I'm watching the Hairy Bikers Asian Adventure and it's reminded me of something that has always confused me about cooking Chinese food, or stir frying in general. A lot of stir fry recipes start off with your typical garlic, ginger and spring onions.. And say to stir fry on a high heat. And anytime you see someone cooking with a wok on TV its absolutely blasting hot. But my question is, by doing this don't you just end up burning the garlic? Or is that the idea for Asian cooking? Are you supposed to let it go brown and slightly bitter? Normally, say in a tomato sauce that would totally ruin it :confused:

Participant · 13 Feb 2014 at 21:54

I think you're meant to continually stir it so it never catches and burns.

FrenchTart · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:12

Personally in stir fry I would add garlic near the end.

You basically want to cook everything the exact amount it needs and no more. As such, you should time the additions of all ingredients so that they all finish cooking at the same time.

Buchanan0204 · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:18

You are supposed to begin with the holy trinity, garlic, chilli and ginger. This then flavours the oil and flavours everything else. It's not meant to go in at the end.

Participant is correct, you keep it moving in the traditional stir fry fashion and it's only in there on its own for a few seconds, followed by the meat, which also prevents it burning.

Just keep it moving, don't keep it in for more than a few seconds.

That's why you need to have everything prepped before stir frying.

Source: I love Asian cookery.

FrenchTart · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:26

Whether or not that is traditional I would question it as the best way to make use of the ingredients.

That said, definitely try the traditional way the first few times. If it works for you then stick with it.

Buchanan0204 · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:30

FrenchTart said:
Whether or not that is traditional I would question it as the best way to make use of the ingredients.

That said, definitely try the traditional way the first few times. If it works for you then stick with it.

Your questioning every single professional Chinese chef? That's like questioning mavity. If it was supposed to go in at the end or it was better, they'd do it.

FrenchTart · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:34

Buchanan0204 said:
Your questioning every single professional Chinese chef? That's like questioning mavity. If it was supposed to go in at the end or it was better, they'd do it.

The reasoning of "these guys are awesome at cooking and they do it" isn't enough for me to think that something is the best way to go. If there's some (good) explanation somewhere as to why it is better to do it that way rather than add towards the end then I'll of course admit that they're right.

I'm off to bed shortly but in work tomorrow I'll do some googling. I'll post back with my results - even if I'm proven categorically wrong

Participant · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:37

FrenchTart said:
Personally in stir fry I would add garlic near the end.

You basically want to cook everything the exact amount it needs and no more.

Garlic needs quite a lot of cooking though. It's basically an onion, and you wouldn't add that at the end of your [insert onion recipe here] recipe

.

FrenchTart · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:38

Participant said:
Garlic needs quite a lot of cooking though. It's basically an onion, and you wouldn't add that at the end of your [insert onion recipe here] recipe .

It really doesn't need that much cooking. A few minutes at most.

I do happen to really like garlic though

(I'm talking about chopped garlic of course - not whole cloves)

Participant · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:41

Fair point. Maybe it's just that the later you add it, the less it influences the flavour of whatever else is in the wok then.

FrenchTart · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:45

Participant said:
Fair point. Maybe it's just that the later you add it, the less it influences the flavour of whatever else is in the wok then.

I did wonder about that being the reasoning but garlic tends to be regarded as kind of overpowering by most people so I'm really not sure.

Anyhow, I need to get some sleep soon. I'll definitely be avoiding work by looking into this tomorrow

Buchanan0204 · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:45

Let's not bother searing steak, sweating vegetables, adding salt and pepper... After all what do the French know!

Have you any idea how crazy that sounds. The WHOLE of Asia, even the Indians, Thai, Japanese... They all do it the conventional way. I'm pretty sure they know what they're doing.

Ken Hom would be throwing his cleaver at you.

There's nothing to look into. The worlds right, you're not.

If you look hard enough for anything on the internet you will find it, including Elvis being alive. It won't make it correct.

Participant · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:48

Everyone does it isn't a reason not to try and understand it though

.

FrenchTart · 13 Feb 2014 at 22:48

Buchanan0204 said:
Let's not bother searing steak, swearing vegetables, adding salt and pepper... After all what do the French know!

Have you any idea how crazy that sounds. The WHOLE of Asia, even the Indians, Thai, Japanese... They all do it the conventional way. I'm pretty sure they know what they're doing.

Ken Hom would be throwing his cleaver at you.

Your reasoning is just that you've heard it's great so it must be.

Understanding *why* you should do or not do something is the key to actually being a good cook and not just someone that follows a recipe from the BBC website or something.

Not to mention that tradition isn't always the way to get the best results. I'm not a huge fan of Heston but he has certainly proven that there are lots of avenues to explore with food that aren't steeped in tradition.

Anyhow, really doing it this time - bed time

monkentage · 13 Feb 2014 at 23:11

Isn't it only pureed garlic that goes bitter after a few minutes of frying/cooking without liquid?

Participant · 13 Feb 2014 at 23:19

So burnt garlic isn't bitter as long as it's not puree? Riiight

.

monkentage · 13 Feb 2014 at 23:25

What I meant was sliced garlic should take quite a bit longer to burn than puree/crushed.

robfosters · 13 Feb 2014 at 23:55

Burnt onions the worst.

People make that mistake with curries. They think they should blast the nuts off the onion, when in fact it should be cooked very slowly for a long time (20-30mins) until it goes brown and caramelised with no burning.

I used to think I stir fried fast enough until I watched a proper chinese chef stir fry in a top local restaurant. Jesus! smoke, flames, tossing and all sorts. He must have been all of 3 minutes making sizzling beef with ginger and spring onion before serving it up. Never seen anything like it.

The_Abyss · 14 Feb 2014 at 01:15

robfosters said:
I used to think I stir fried fast enough until I watched a proper chinese chef stir fry in a top local restaurant. Jesus! smoke, flames, tossing and all sorts. He must have been all of 3 minutes making sizzling beef with ginger and spring onion before serving it up. Never seen anything like it.

But, as you probably know, they use quite different gas burners, with inducted air to get them super-hot. Impossible to replicate on a typical gas hob at home.

panthro · 14 Feb 2014 at 11:15

Scam said:
So I'm watching the Hairy Bikers Asian Adventure and it's reminded me of something that has always confused me about cooking Chinese food, or stir frying in general. A lot of stir fry recipes start off with your typical garlic, ginger and spring onions.. And say to stir fry on a high heat. And anytime you see someone cooking with a wok on TV its absolutely blasting hot. But my question is, by doing this don't you just end up burning the garlic? Or is that the idea for Asian cooking? Are you supposed to let it go brown and slightly bitter? Normally, say in a tomato sauce that would totally ruin it

They cooked the garlic until it was starting to go a very light brown, and then added the pork. When it's at the very light brown stage it's not bitter at all.