Asparagus stir-fry is a stir-fry which includes asparagus as a primary or secondary ingredient. Many different ingredients can be combined with asparagus within a stir-fry, including steak, chicken, tofu, tomato, and carrots. Other ingredients such as onion and garlic are frequently added to the stir-fry to increase the flavor of the dish. Stir-fries are traditionally Asian dishes, and many Asian staple ingredients such as soy sauce, hoi sin sauce, and rice vinegar are also often added to asparagus stir-fry. After the ingredients have been chopped, they are all added to a wok or frying pan and shallow-fried until ready to eat.
Technically speaking, any stir-fry dish featuring asparagus is an asparagus stir-fry. Asparagus is very flavorful as a vegetable, however, and is therefore often used as a primary or secondary flavor for the stir-fry. Common major accompanying ingredients include chicken, steak, tofu, tomato, and other vegetables such as carrots and bean sprouts. Other ingredients are often included as part of the stir-fry, but these major ingredients can be used to differentiate between types of asparagus stir-fry.
Some ingredients recur quite frequently in different chefs’ versions of asparagus stir-fry. These are common flavor-filled ingredients such as onions, garlic, and ginger. Generally, these will be fried before the asparagus is added so that the flavors in them are infused into the rest of the dish through the cooking process. Many recipes use spring onions, notable for their length and green coloring, instead of ordinary onion. Shallots are also occasionally used in asparagus stir-fry.
Two basic methods for the cooking of an asparagus stir-fry exist: cooking everything together at once cooking the main ingredients separately and adding them to the mixture before serving. The simplest method of making an asparagus stir fry is to fry all of the ingredients together, and this usually starts with onions, garlic, and ginger being added to hot oil. After a couple of minutes, chefs add other major ingredients such as meat or tofu, and then add the asparagus. Additional ingredients such as bean sprouts can be added closer to serving time, depending on how long they take to cook.
Cooking the major ingredients of an asparagus stir-fry separately is another method of cooking, which reduces the likelihood of the chef overcooking the meat or asparagus. Chefs partly cook the asparagus in boiling water, stir-fry it for a couple of minutes and then set it aside. Any meat or tofu ingredient is fried separately as well, until browned on the outside. They are removed from the heat to prevent them from overcooking while the other ingredients are being fried. The asparagus and meat or tofu are then tossed in the stir-fry to re-heat before serving.
