I quite often get my stir-fries wrong; some ingredients end up overcooked or the whole thing ends up too oily or watery. I found some good advice in 200 Wok Recipes which I was given as a Christmas present. In general I don’t like these little bargain bumper recipe books, but this advice seems good. This is my summary:

* Cut all ingredients into small pieces that will cook quickly and evenly e.g. no big broccoli florets next to finely sliced carrots. Add tender veg such as beansprouts at the end to retain crispness.

* Do all weighing, slicing and chopping before you start cooking. Keep all ingredients to hand to be tipped into the wok at the right moment.

* Use only lean cuts of meat trimmed of excess fat and not those that need extended cooking to become tender. Use seafood that keeps its shape e.g. monkfish, prawns and avoid delicate fish like seabass.

* Get the wok smoking hot before starting to cook. It takes a while for the heat to reach the wide rim. When the oil shimmers in the pan it’s time to start cooking. (But won’t this burn minced garlic and ginger?)

* Stirfry in small batches; as soon as ingredients are added to the wok the temperature drops dramatically. Brown the meat or fish first, them remove it to add back in at the end, otherwise it will stew instead of frying.

* Keep stirring to ensure even cooking and prevent sticking and burning. Add a little liquid (usually water but could use stock or soy sauce) to finish, once ingredients have been seared and browned.

So, following from the advice above, perhaps I shouldn’t be adding noodles into the wok as this makes the total volume far too large. Perhaps I should cook them separately and layer the stir-fried stuff between the noodles when serving? Or I could fry off the noodles in a separate wok?

Sounds as if it will be useful to keep a large warmed bowl to hand to transfer cooked ingredients into.