Secrets for Perfect Stir-Fried Potato Threads

Many housewives add oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar while cooking without much thought.All these seasonings are added casually. Actually, by slightly adjusting the order of adding them, not only can we preserve the color, aroma, and taste of the food to the greatest extent, but more nutrients can also be retained.

Oil: When stir-frying, do not heat the oil too high; once it exceeds 180℃, the oil will decompose or polymerize, producing harmful substances like acrolein that strongly irritate the body. Therefore, "hot pan with cold oil" is a trick in stir-frying. First, preheat the pan without waiting for the oil to smoke; add the ingredients when the oil is seven or eight parts hot. Additionally, sometimes you can stir-fry cold ingredients directly with cold oil and fat, such as frying peanuts or rice.Moreso, this method makes the fried peanuts crispier and more fragrant while avoiding an external crunch inside. For marinated dishes, add the oil after mixing the ingredients to enhance freshness and flavor. Salt: Salt is an electrolyte with strong dehydration properties; thus, its timing depends on the dish's characteristics and taste.When stewing meat or stir-frying vegetables rich in moisture, add salt when the dish is eight-tenths cooked to avoid excess liquid content or premature protein coagulation that makes it difficult to tenderize. Different oils require different salt addition times: for dishes made with peanut oil and rape seed oil, adding salt near the end can reduce vitamin loss in vegetables;for dishes using soybean oil, add salt earlier to increase oil temperature and decrease the levels of aflatoxin. Soy sauce: During cooking, high-temperature long-term boiling will destroy its nutritional components and reduce its freshness.

Therefore, add soy sauce just before serving.When stir-frying meat slices for tenderness, marinate them with starch and soy sauce first; this not only preserves the protein but also makes the meat more tender when cooked. Vinegar: Vinegar can eliminate odors, remove fishy flavors, freshen up dishes, enhance fragrance, and preserve vitamins while promoting the dissolution of calcium, phosphorus, iron, etc., increasing the nutritional value of the dish.The best time to add vinegar in cooking is at the beginning or end; for dishes like "stir-fried potato strips," add vinegar when the ingredients enter the pan to protect vitamin C and soften vegetables; for dishes like "sugar-cured pork ribs" or "scallion-broiled lamb," add it twice: once when the ingredients are added to eliminate fishy flavors, and again just before serving to enhance flavor."Stir-fried potato strips" can best benefit from vinegar being added immediately after ingredients go in to protect vitamins and soften vegetables;while dishes like "sugar-cured pork ribs," "scallion-broiled lamb," etc., should add it twice: once when the ingredients are added to eliminate fishy flavors, and again just before serving to enhance flavor.

Soy sauce: When stir-frying, high heat and long cooking can destroy the nutritional components of soy sauce and reduce its umami flavor. Therefore, soy sauce should be added just before serving.To make meat tender when stir-frying slices, mix the meat with starch and soy sauce beforehand; this not only preserves the protein but also makes the cooked meat softer and smoother. Vinegar: Vinegar can not only remove gamey and fishy odors, eliminate greasiness, enhance fragrance, and preserve vitamins, but it also promotes the dissolution of calcium, phosphorus, iron, etc., thereby increasing the nutritional value of the dish.

The best time to add vinegar while cooking is at two stages: immediately after adding ingredients or just before serving the dish. For dishes like "Stir-fried Potato Strips," add vinegar right after the raw materials are added to protect the vitamin content and soften the vegetables; for dishes such as "Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs" and "Scallion-braised Lamb," add vinegar twice: once immediately after adding ingredients to remove gamey and fishy odors, and again just before serving to enhance aroma and flavor."Stir-fried potato strips" should add vinegar after the ingredients are in the pot to protect vitamin C and soften the vegetables;"Sweet and sour pork" is best added twice: after the ingredients are in the pot to remove gamey flavors, and just before serving for additional flavoring;"Scallion-braised mutton" should add sugar and vinegar after the ingredients are in the pot to reduce gameiness, and again near the end of cooking to enhance aroma. And dishes like "sweet and sour spare ribs""and braised lamb with scallions" should be seasoned twice: add seasoning when the ingredients first go into the pot to remove fishiness and strong smell,and add it again just before cooking is finished to enhance aroma and flavor."Wait until the dish is almost done to add seasonings twice: adding them when the ingredients first go into the pot can reduce gamey and fishy odors, while adding them just before serving can enhance flavor and seasoning."