We have a terrible weakness for those Chinese take-out stir fries that come coated with glossy, unctuous sauces. We could never quite duplicate it in our kitchen, and then we stumbled upon the secret ingredient!
Cornstarch! In his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman recommends mixing 1-2 tablespoons of cornstarch with the same amount of water, and tossing this into the stir fry just when it's almost done. It thickens in seconds, picking up the flavors of everything already in the dish and coating evenly.
Cornstarch is a good choice for this technique because it thickens quickly and evenly without clumping. It also doesn't have much flavor of its own, so it won't interfere with those already present in the dish. Rice starch would be a good substitute if you don't want to use cornstarch.
We've also used this thickening step to add another layer of flavor to our stir fries. Instead of water, you can use soy sauce, ponzu, miso (thinned with water), vinegar, or broth - either by themselves or combined in a mix.
What's your favorite sauce for stir fry?
Related: What's the Difference? Flour, Cornstarch, Potato Starch, and Arrow Root
(Image: Flickr member ginnerobot licensed under Creative Commons)
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Comments (16)
Though I've never tried it myself, my mom claims that the really glossy sauces you see in restaurants are thickened with potato starch and not cornstarch.
I loooove kung pao chicken and make it fairly regularly. The recipe that I use involves adding corn starch to the mix of liquids that you pour in at the end of the cooking process (well, once everything else is properly sauteed; then it bubbles away in the sauce for another 10 minutes or so). Never really put the two together about why the sauce ended up so thick and delicious...but suddenly the dots are connected!
duh.
the key is waiting until the sauce is bubbling before you toss the corn starch in, then it will immediately thicken up. toss it a few times, and you're done. if the sauce isn't hot enough, or if you add it in earlier, i feel like it doesn't work as well. (learner while cooking at manchu wok in high school).
I often, but not always thicken with cornstarch. Recently, I stumbled upon an altogether different secret ingredient, though it's not appropriate for every sauce.
Ketchup.
A tablespoon or two mixed in gives sauces an awesome, fruity, sweet-and-sour taste, without actually resembling ketchup.
Yan of Yan Can Cook always has cornstarch by his side.
When making asian dishes, I use cornstartch to thicken sauces, but all other dishes, I generally prefer a roux.
When I was in college a Chinese friend of mine made some stir fry and that's when I saw the cornstarch go in to thicken the sauce. Ever since, I've done the same.
Yes, cornstarch if you want that thick texture. I have a stir fry recipe that calls for orange juice (very good). I was out one day, but I did have apricot nectar. FANTASTIC! It has a thicker texture, too, so it didn't water down my sauce.
(Might try ketchup.)
I can't believe I knew something that the Kitchn is just discovering! I feel so smart (and thank my mom for teaching me this a while back)
Potato starch does make a lovely, glossy sauce, but it's kind of a pill to find for some reason. My mom uses it to make her sweet and sour pork (WAY better than restaurant sweet-n-sour!). I have seen it in asian markets and once in Safeway in a box labled in Dutch. Didn't know what to make of that.
I keep a babyfood jar in my utensil drawer for just this purpose. Whenever I want to thicken a sauce, I just put a couple spoons of cornstarch in the jar, add water, shake, and dump in the pot. It always works like a charm for me.
I often do this with pan drippings too, and I call it my 'cheater gravy'. It's not quite as good, but a lot faster than separating the broth and fat, then making a roux, etc.
Being Chinese, cornstarch is definitely a Chinese kitchen staple.
Cornstarch does clump and its properties change when you stir it.
High high heat will make it clump and burn.
When you make your mix, pour it in by whisking it into the pan on a lower heat. Stir immediately to keep it from congealing.
A simple soy sauce, cornstarch (1 tsp) and some water mixture will do. Great for tofu too as it the tofu sucks in all the flavour (if you press the water in the tofu out first with a cloth).
Also, ketchup also really works for shrimp and garlic.
The taste changes when you cook it. It gets light and sweeter. It no longer tastes like a condiment but a sauce.
My tip for cornstarck..actually my mom's tip is to mix it with a teaspoon of water before adding it to your sauce. No clumps. Ever.
Yeah, cornstarch can clump if you throw it in on its own, which is why you usually mix it with a bit of water before throwing in the main dish.
It's also the secret ingredient behind making egg drop soup!
I grew up using cornstarch for gravy-making as well, instead of roux, because my mom had celiacs disease. It's a pretty great all-around kitchen "cheat."
we use tapioca starch.. works like a charm every time!