This is one of the tricks I relied on heavily especially during early years of my independent living, it is tasty, quick, easy and healthy, by rotating different hacking seasonings and vegetable, you get endless flavor and texture of stir fry, a wonderful recipe for your routine cooking on hectic days.
🛒 Ingredients
- 1 pound of vegetable, washed and sliced or shredded to small pieces
- 2-3 cloves of garlic (roughly chopped) or 1 tbsp of minced garlic or garlic paste
- 1/2 to 1 tbsp olive oil (or any vegetable oil)
- start with small amount of hacking seasoning (amount recommendation in "Helpful Tips and Substitutions" section)
- (optioinal) 1/4 tsp of black pepper
- (optional) salt (if not salty enough)
🔧 Essential Equipment
- Large skillet or wok
- Spatula or wooden spoon
- Knife and cutting board
- Measuring spoons
👩🍳 Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat.
- (if you have garlic) Add garlic and stir until fragrant (depends on heat, my stove chopped garlic about 15 seconds, garlic paste about 8 seconds).
- Add sliced vegetable to the pan. Stir continuously to coat it evenly with oil.
- Add hacking seasoning to the pan, mix and stir with vegetable
- (if you have black pepper) You may add black pepper to pan, mix and stir
- Taste a piece to see if salty enough (careful NOT to get burned), if not, add more hacking seasoning or salt
- Stir continuously until vegetable wilt and soft
- Remove from heat immediately to avoid overcooking. Serve warm!
💡 Helpful Tips & Substitutions
- How to choose hack seasoning? Any comprehensive seasoning (which provide multiple flavors, salty, umami and etc.) you like, for example, if you like Chinese hot pot, then hot pot base will be a good choice
- How much hacking seasoning to use?
- Non powder, non hot spiced: start with 1 tbsp
- Non powder, but hot spiced: start with 1 tsp or safe amount you sure not too hot
- Dry powder: start with 1/2 tsp
note: you can always add more if tasted not enough saltness
- Key for success? Taste test! Add a little bit at a time, stir and taste until you like it.
For later reference, you can measure seasonings in tsp or tbsp, and add seasoning from the tsp or tbsp, then later estimate how much left in the tsp or tbsp,
substract the leftover amount, then note down the amount you used, so in the future, less taste testing need to be done.
- Garlic or no garlic? The more bold and complex the hacking seasoning is, the less need to use garlic
- Oil choice: Olive oil keeps it healthy, but other vegetables oil fine as well, no difference in taste.
- General rule for oil amount in vegetable stir fryminimum amount would be just enough to spread over most of frying area vegetable will touch,
use minimum amount for healthier, freshness; double the minimum amount for more aroma
🔁 Storage & Reheating
- Store: Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 day for leafy vegetable,
up to 2-3 days for tougher vegetable such as carrot, potatos.
- Reheat: Microwave reheat or pan fry it a bit.
❓ FAQs
What are the vegetable may I useAn vegetable, especially those quick to cook,
just slice them small, since cooking time for stir fry is short, smaller pieces more savory after cooking
Can this hacking formula be applied to meat as well?Yes, but need minor adjustment, will be covered in another video soon
How spicy is this?
Depends on if seasoning is hot spiced. Also you can always add red pepper flakes or chili oil if you’d like a kick,
red pepper or chili will make the cabbage stir fry dish look a lot more appealing too.
🌟 Wrap-Up
Give it a try for different hacking seasonings, and you will be relying on it before you know it.