Hello cupcakes,
Note: The Caterbakes team and your very lovely chef are available to cater for your events and ceremonies across Nigeria
Stir-frying is not a new concept, however, it is an advanced way of cooking a lot of dishes and this is what you need to learn to prepare a wonderful pasta this Easter holiday.
Stir-frying requires being very strict with cooking time so it doesn’t get soggy.
If the pasta is overcooked when pre-cooking (par-boiling), it will become soggy and the stir-fry is not going to come out fine.
These amidst many rules of stir-frying will be discussed in the course of this write-up.
Most grains (dried foods) can be stir-fried and stir-frying techniques cut across different food processing and preparation.
This is when Food is fried on high heat while stirring vigorously.
Sometimes, it might involve mixing (stirring continuously) processed foods with their corresponding sauce while frying on high heat.
Benefit Of The Stir Frying Technique
Table of Contents
- This method preserves food nutrients and prevents overcooking
- It adds to the beauty of the food making it glister and less soggy
- It saves food materials like oil and other ingredients needed.
- It makes your food more tasty.
How To Make A Stir-Fry Pasta
These involve three food processing steps;
- Par-Boiling The Pasta
- Preparing The Sauce
- Stir Frying
Par-Boiling The Pasta
I used pasta in these write-ups because there are different types of pasta ranging from Spaghetti, Gnocchi, Farfalle, and macaroni to Campanelli.
You can use these and more to make a stir-fry even rice. So, these are the steps to parboil pasta.
Preparation
Put enough water on heat depending on the amount of pasta you want to pre-cook, add salt and half a teaspoon of vegetable oil (This is to prevent clumping of the pasta).
Make sure the water covers it so it can be drained off.
Cook at medium heat for 5-10 minutes depending on the type of Pasta you are preparing.
Drain off the water and set aside.
PREPARING THE SAUCE
This is where the work is. This is where you decide the type of pasta you want to prepare.
You can even make it a Seafood or a Soul food depending on the ingredients you use as Sauce.
You might even decide to go Chinese or Japanese and prepare a ramen.
However, the sauce I’m preparing is a simple garnished Vegetable sardine pepper sauce. You are free to add crayfish, dried fish, cowskin, cow intestine, grilled beef, chicken etc
INGREDIENTS FOR SAUCE
* Sardine
* Tomatoes
* Habanero pepper
* Onions
* Spices (Curry, yaji spice, ginger)
* Seasoning
* Salt to taste
* Carrot
* Green pepper (Optional)
* Groundnut oil
PREPARATION METHOD:
1. Food Prepping: As a chef, whenever I’m to make a stir-fry, I prepare my garnishes beforehand.
This will make the food preparation easier and faster.
So my carrot has been diced, green pepper sliced, pepper has been coarsely blended or chopped and my pasta has been parboiled and refrigerated. (Not Frozen).
However, if you have enough help, you might just do it all at once.
2. Set your Pan on medium heat and pour in your Groundnut oil.
( This is a very important aspect of making the stir-fry and this is because the cooking oil must be enough for the stir-fry)
If it’s too much, stir-fried Pasta will be too oily, if it’s too small, the overall pasta won’t come out with the right color and might probably be dry.
3. Leave for about 45 seconds to 1 minute and Pour in your onions; leave to fry a bit before adding pepper, dried fish and cowskin, etc.
4. After 2-5 minutes, season it, add your sardine, carrot, and other veggies you decide to use.
( I added the carrot and sardine because I don’t want the carrot to get too soft and I don’t want the fish minced before stir-frying starts).
5. Set Aside.
STIR-FRYING:
Now you have your salted parboiled pasta and your sauce.
Process:
On high heat, pour your pasta into the sauce and stir continually until the sauce covers the whole pasta.
Taste to check if it’s perfectly seasoned. Stir more for about 2 minutes.
Reduce the heat and cover for about 2 minutes and put off.
In the case of cooking for 8-10 people and you don’t want to use 2-3 frying pans, divide the sauce into 2 or 3.
On high heat, pour in half of the pasta in and stir until the sauce fully covers it.
Pour the remaining pasta in and the sauce on top. Stir all together and cover for 2 minutes before putting off the heat sauce.
Let me know what you think. Reach out to me or comment if you love this Easter stir fry recipe.
Happy Easter and don’t forget to share this post.
