SAUCES AND RICE

STRONGLY FLAVORED SAUCES ARE THE KEY to vibrant stir-fries. In our testing, we found that cornstarch makes sauces thick and gloppy. We prefer the cleaner flavor and texture of sauces made without any thickener. A half cup of sauce (all of the following recipes yield this amount) will nicely coat the ingredients in our standard stir-fry without being too liquid. We have made a specific sauce suggestion for each stir-fry, but feel free to create your own combinations of sauce, vegetables, and protein.

The chapter ends with three rice recipes—traditional sticky Chinese white rice, fluffy American-style white rice, and brown rice. The white rice recipes start with the same basic ingredients (rice, water, and salt) but rely on different cooking techniques to produce different results.

For sticky rice, bring the rice, water, and salt to a boil in a saucepan and simmer until the water level drops below the top of the rice. Then lower the heat and cover the pan. After about fifteen minutes, the rice emerges tender and sticky in nice clumps, perfect for picking up with chopsticks.

American-style fluffy white rice is better suited to eating with a fork. Sauté the rice in a little oil to bring out its flavor and then simmer it in a covered saucepan until all the water is absorbed. Then remove the rice from the heat and let it stand to finish cooking. Just before serving, fluff the rice with a fork to separate the grains. This rice tastes nutty from the toasting, while sticky rice has a cleaner flavor.

If you prefer brown rice, we recommend a rice cooker or a two-step cooking method that involves boiling the rice in abundant water until it is almost tender, then steaming it to finish the cooking process and dry out the grains. Because brown rice requires so much time to cook (40 to 45 minutes), we find that it cannot be reliably made in a covered saucepan without running a high risk of scorching.

Each of the following rice recipes yields six cups, a generous amount for four people that follows the Chinese custom of "stretching" a stir-fry by serving it with plenty of rice.