STEWING

Stewing is a versatile cooking method and basically means
that the solid ingredients will be cooked in plenty of liquid,
enough liquid, in fact, to cover all of the solid ingredients
in the cooking utensil. By the end of cooking time, which
is relatively lengthy compared to a stir-fried dish, the
stewing liquid would have reduced considerably to become
thickened and flavourful. The slightly extended cooking
process, however, means that the dish is guaranteed to
be richly tasty, with the solid ingredients imparting to the
liquid their individual flavours and then absorbing the
combined product back.

Stewing is generally recommended for tougher cuts
of meat and fairly hardy vegetables. Ingredients that
collapse readily with heat are likely to disappear in a stew,
disintegrating and dissolving into the stewing liquid. The
Vietnamese tend to use coconut juice as the base for their
stewing liquid. The sweetness in coconut juice is subtle,
but goes a long way in bringing out and together the
contrasting flavours of the solid ingredients.

STEAMING

Steaming is a technique that cooks food in its own juices,
and in view of the Vietnamese preference to rely on natural
flavours, it is no wonder that steaming is a repeatedly
employed method of cooking. When food is steamed, it
does not come into direct contact with heat. Instead, the
water that is below the food boils to produce steam that
is, in turn, trapped under a lid and heat from the collected
steam is what surrounds and cooks the food.

If you do not have a wok and/or steamer, a large and deep
cooking pot with a snug-fitting lid or dutch oven will do.
Begin by pouring some water into the pot and then position
a rack inside. Arrange the food to be steamed in a heatproof
bowl or dish before bringing the pot of water to the boil.
When the water is boiling, remove the lid and place the bowl
or dish of ingredients onto the rack. Lastly, replace the lid
and steam for the duration needed.

Be mindful of the liquid level in the pot; the water
should never splash onto the food during rapid boiling.
Conversely, add only boiling hot water to the pot should
it become dry. Adding cold water will only ruin your dish
as the then tepid water will take time to return to the boil,
causing your dish to cook unevenly.

STIR-FRYING

Stir-frying is a method of cooking that should not last
longer than 10–15 minutes from beginning to end. The
short cooking time of stir-frying is at once its merit and

also its bane. A short cooking time also means that there
is not a lot of room for error. To avoid the latter, however,
could not be easier. Just make sure that all the ingredients
for the dish you are about to stir-fry are fully prepared
before you even turn on the heat. If you do not have
a wok, a large skillet or frying pan will do. Remember
also to heat the wok or pan up before adding the oil. No
ingredient should enter the wok or pan until the oil is
heated through.

Precisely that the ingredients do not get a lot of cooking
time, it is useful to remember to cut meat and vegetables
to smaller pieces. Meat especially should be no more than
thin slices or small dice. Another thing to take note is that
ingredients similar in nature—hard, medium and soft—
should be grouped together and added to the wok at the
same time. Hard ingredients like carrots take more time to
cook and soften than soft ingredients like snow peas that
collapse readily with heat. More often than not, meats enter
the wok before vegetables, of which the harder ones first.
Grouping your ingredients and adding them systematically
to the wok or pan will certainly ensure that your stir-fried
dish will not be unevenly cooked.

DEEP-FRYING

This method of cooking involves bathing ingredients in
hot oil to cook. If the oil is not hot enough for deep-frying
at the time of lowering in the food items, they will end
up absorbing more oil than they should. The excess oil,
despite draining on absorbent paper, is also likely to cause
the fried items to become soggy upon cooling. Conversely,
if the oil is too hot, then the food items will burn on the
outside before they cook through inside.

It is generally acknowledged that 180°C (350°F) is the
best temperature for deep-frying. Certainly, however,
some recipes will call for higher temperatures. In those
instances, be mindful of the type of cooking oil that you
are using. Some cooking oils, such as peanut oil, have
higher smoking temperatures than most others. What this
means is that oils like peanut oil can be heated to higher
temperatures before smoking and making your stove-top
look like a barbeque pit.

Another thing to take note of is how many items you
lower into the oil at any one time. Consider that you have
appropriately heated the oil for deep-frying, but should you
lower too many items to be deep-fried at once, you will
cause the temperature of the oil to dip below the desired
temperature. Again, deep-frying in insufficiently heated oil
leads to excessively oily and eventually soggy food.

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