2024 the best stir fry recipes review

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(as of Nov 25, 2024 21:15:08 UTC - Details)

Winner of the 2011 James Beard Foundation Award for International Cooking, this is the authoritative guide to stir-frying: the cooking technique that makes less seem like more, extends small amounts of food to feed many, and makes ingredients their most tender and delicious.

The stir-fry is all things: refined, improvisational, adaptable, and inventive. The technique and tradition of stir-frying, which is at once simple yet subtly complex, is as vital today as it has been for hundreds of years—and is the key to quick and tasty meals.

In Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, award-winning author Grace Young shares more than 100 classic stir-fry recipes that sizzle with heat and pop with flavor, from the great Cantonese stir-fry masters to the culinary customs of Sichuan, Hunan, Shanghai, Beijing, Fujian, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as other countries around the world. With more than eighty stunning full-color photographs, Young’s definitive work illustrates the innumerable, easy-to-learn possibilities the technique offers—dry stir-fries, moist stir-fries, clear stir-fries, velvet stir-fries—and weaves the insights of Chinese cooking philosophy into the preparation of beloved dishes as Kung Pao Chicken, Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli, Chicken Lo Mein with Ginger Mushrooms, and Dry-Fried Sichuan Beans.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Taunton Press; First Edition (November 1, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1416580573
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1416580577
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.64 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 1.1 x 10 inches
Reviewer: CMCM
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Love this Cookbook
Review: I have to start by saying I simply adore this cookbook. This book brought me to Chinese cooking, and this is coming from a person who loves Thai food and never goes to Chinese restaurants. I still don't go because I don't know of any top notch ones to go to, and besides, I can cook fabulous Chinese food at home now. However, I have such a new-found appreciation for Chinese cooking that I never had at all before. What you eat in typical American Chinese restaurants is emphatically NOT what these recipes will produce. These recipes are entirely different. And I learned off the bat how what I used to cook in my pathetic stainless steel wok was NOT proper stir frying for myriad reasons that I learned in reading this cookbook. I threw out my stainless wok and bought a proper one.This book is such a visual treat to begin with. Beautiful, thick, slick type pages with gorgeous decorative elements on the pages, wonderful use of colors, beautiful photos of the food. I went into exploring a renewed fascination with getting a wok and learning the "real" way to do Chinese cooking. This book has it all, but you must have the patience and desire to read all of Grace's wonderful information: the essential cooking tools and what to do with them, how to buy and season a wok, all the various unique ingredients to be used with photos of them, even photos of the cans and jars of various substances so you know exactly what to buy, good information on cooking oils and which to buy for wok cooking, and much more. Everything is beautifully organized and presented. The first 63 pages are devoted to this very necessary background information, and every bit of it is useful and enjoyable. If you want to do this right, every page should be read carefully as you will absorb all the information into your mental databank of knowledge about Chinese wok cooking. None of the recipes is difficult or complex to do, but the prep for wok cooking takes time while the actual cooking does not! If you are looking for superficial, quick and easy, then this isn't the right book for you. If you want to learn, understand and appreciate this type of cuisine, this book is fabulous.Among the most important things I learned was about the wok, the oil, the heat, how to cut the meat properly, about marinating (very different!). Grace Young gives a world of background details that have been invaluable to me. Now to the recipes: I waited to review until I'd had this book around 4 months and had tried a lot of the recipes. They are fabulous, I've loved every one of the dozen or so I've tried at this point. I have a few that are such favorites I keep doing them over and over. Standouts for me are Stir-Fried Ginger Beef, Cantonese Style Stir Fried Pork with Chinese Broccoli, Hot Pepper Beef, Stir Fried Curried Beef, Stir Fried Mongolian Lamb with Scallions (I used beef), Trinidadian Chicken with Mango Chutney, Spicy Orange Chicken, Hong Kong Style Mango Ginger Chicken, and well, quite a few more. Not a dud among them, all fabulous in my opinion. I've never had a cookbook in which I liked so many of the recipes and kept making them over and over. I use recipes from this book at least twice a week. I'll also mention that there are recipe sections for seafood and vegetarian/tofu type dishes, but I haven't tried any of them yet because I'm less of a fish person, and have simply found the meat and chicken recipes so interesting so I've been stuck within the beef, pork and chicken recipe sections. I'll get to the others eventually.In addition, interspersed throughout the book are very interesting historical notes and personal profiles for various displaced Chinese cooks that Grace has met, and who have taken their traditional Chinese recipes and added things influenced by the area they emigrated to, such as the Caribbean. The recipe for Trinidadian Chicken with Mango Chutney is an example of this.I can't recommend this cookbook enough, and it's such a fascinating and pleasurable book to work with. If you have even the slightest interest in Chinese cooking, you'll completely enjoy this book and give it the time and attention it deserves.

Reviewer: Seajaymac
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Blissful Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge
Review: I can't tell what I love most about Grace Young's magnificent cookbook Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge - the recipes, the stories, the glorious images, or the way it makes me feel like a wok master when I place one of the finished dishes on the table for my family or for guests. What a wonderful book this is. I had a wok many years ago, but never became proficient at using it. In fact, I couldn't even master seasoning it. I don't even know what happened to that wok. It just got lost somewhere along the path of my life. But recently, a friend of mine met Grace Young and started using Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge. My friend raved about it so much that I had to try it. I purchased it and began reading. What an exquisite compilation of artwork, photography and masterful storytelling. I almost forgot it was a cook book at first. But you can't really forget that because the recipes are 'mouth watering' when you read them and they do not disappoint when you prepare them.At first I started using a big saucepan I had to prepare them.... I was afraid to attempt another wok. I started with Crystal Shrimp because I had just purchased some wild caught shrimp and the recipe sounded like it was within my reach. What a delight! Before I knew it I found myself in San Francisco at The Wok Shop purchasing a wok and racing home to season it. To my surprise, following Grace's instructions, I turned out a beautifully seasoned carbon steel wok and I love it! It has become the favored pan in my kitchen.You can travel the world with this cookbook and surprise and delight your family and friends. It is a teaching book that answers all of your questions with easy to understand and follow directions. I swear my dishes often look just like the pictures....well, almost. 🙂 I have tried so many of the recipes, too many to list and not had a failure yet. The book is on the top of my gift list and everyone I've given one to has loved it as much as I do.Cooking with Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge is a joyful experience. There is no other way to describe it. Thank you Grace Young for such a wonderful book and so many delicious meals! By the way, I became so fascinated by Wok Hei, something I learned about in this book, that I had to also purchase The Breath of the Wok....another masterpiece and must have for your kitchen!

Reviewer: msmtz
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Buenas recetas, bien explicadas.

Reviewer: Eddie and Louise
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Although I'm a seasoned cook and very confident with all types of cuisine, stir frying is not one I can admit to being comfortable with.This book is so easy to read, with very clear 8nstructions on techniques and ingredients, that I am sure I'll be able to add stir fries to my repertoire really quickly

Reviewer: guysgottaeat
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Over the last little while, it seems that quick meal books have been all the rage. You know the ones, 30-minute meals or even 15 minute meals. But after spending some time with Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, a thought popped into my head: stir fries could be the original 15 minute meal!This particular cookbook isn't just a compilation of recipes, but also a collection of stories. Grace Young interviewed people in any area where stir fry can be found. You'd expect stir fry to be popular in China, but it can also be found in some unlikely places. Jamaica? Sure, why not? Through the stories of the people who have settled there, we learn how they adapted to their new environments through the lens of those who continued to stir fry in an effort to hold on to their cultural identity.In addition to the stories, the book also segues into other topics such as a history of chop suey, or the healthiness of stir fry as a cooking method, and other topics of interest These might be considered fluff by those just looking for good recipes, but I think it would be worth your while to read them. The author has taken the time to not only provide us with stir fry recipes, but also anything that has to do with stir fry: it's history, it's culture, it's people. The non-recipe parts are not only educational, but for me, it invoked almost a sense of romanticism when cooking after I've read through all the book had to offer.Before getting into the recipes, the author guides you in the necessary preparation: how to purchase and prepare a wok for its upcoming use, and how to identify Asian ingredients that you'll need. If you have an Asian grocery store nearby, you will likely find all that you need to prepare everything in the book. If not, the author suggests some substitutions where appropriate.The recipes cover what I think is the standard sections: meat, seafood, and vegetables. There's also a section for fried rice and noodles. No dessert section, though. I don't think stir frying quite lends itself to making desserts. I tried about a dozen recipes in all. Some recipes require only ingredients that you would be able to find in any regular grocery store. Others require more specialized ingredients such as lotus root, or straw mushrooms. I personally found the recipes that require special ingredients more interesting: they added a special flavour, and made the dish more authentic. I think it's worth seeking them out if you can. A lot of the recipes do use the same ingredients, so if you can at least obtain the basic ingredients (soy sauce, rice wine, and sesame oil would be my top three), you'll be ready to tackle a number of recipes.The recipes all worked as written, though I found some variation in the salt levels. Some seemed to need a bit more saltiness, and some recipes had too much. But the author does advise us in the beginning that some experimentation could be necessary. Some dishes may not look like the greatest thing, but rest assured, they all taste great. I would also take seriously any tips offered in the book: when the author says that once the stir frying starts, there won't be time do more prep work, she's not joking! The prep work may take a little bit of time depending on your knife skills, but the cooking itself is definitely fast and furious.All in all, I think this is a fabulous book extolling the virtues of stir fry. It's obvious the author is knowledgeable about the subject and is eager to share her passion for stir fry with us. The recipes are delicious and the side stories add a wonderful flavour, making this a really complete book in my eyes. Definitely recommended!

Reviewer: Minnesota Girl
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The recipes I tried were very tasty and typical Chinese (mainly the chicken ones) but I am unable to follow the recipes so diligently (I am an experienced cook and in stir-fry). The author writes and explains the cooking procedures in so much detail that I find it a bit over the top but in a nice way. But it is written with lots of love and dedication that it's simply a joy to read.

Reviewer: Ger
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Bought as a Christmas present and recipient very happy.