How to Stir Fry Chinese Food with Ginger, Spring Onions and Garlic

A common way of stir frying dishes in the North East of China is by using the taste of spring onions, ginger and garlic to influence the dishes. If you ever get invited for a home-made meal in the North East of China and you have a chance to take a look into the kitchen, the first thing you will see will be these three items.

Nowadays, Chinese people can buy fresh vegetables in the market the whole year long; however, twenty or thirty years ago, in winter, because of the very cold weather, it was difficult to find fresh seasonal vegetables apart from winter grows. (You should be aware of the fact that in the North East of China, when the Siberian wind blows in the winter, we can easily reach temperatures of -30 to -35 degrees Celsius).

Hence, most families would stock up vegetables for the tough winter time, including large quantities of 'big spring onions'. These look similar to leeks, but the taste is much closer to the taste of regular spring onions; however, they are easier to preserve than regular ones.

Anyway, the strong taste of spring onions, ginger and garlic combine perfectly together when stir frying Chinese dishes. In fact, the taste of these natural ingredients is much better than the taste of those powders that you can find in little jars on the shelves of the supermarkets.

Stir Frying Method

Normally, for stir frying, these three ingredients must be well chopped into very small pieces beforehand. Then, we put them into heated oil, wait until the smell comes out, (at this point, the oil is flavored as well), and finally add the rest of the food.

However, the way they influence the dishes depends on when you put them in. For instance, if you put the spring onion at the very beginning (in heated oil), the flavor would influence the whole dish (in this case, normally it is the part of the white stem being used); if you put it in when you finish or have almost finished the cooking, then the freshness and sharp smell of the spring onion will not be mixed into the dish, but remain on the top (in this case, it is the green part of the spring onion that is used). Am I talking sense?

Almost every dish can have these three items in for enriching the flavor, but personally, I like to have garlic with green vegetables, spring onion with lightly stir fried dishes, and ginger with fish and meat dishes