What's the Difference between Stir Fry and Sautée? Broccoli with Garlic, Two Ways | Chinese Cooking Demystified

Two absurdly similar cooking methods: sautéing and stir frying. Ask most people what the difference is, and you'll usually find one of two answers: "no difference" or "stir fry's at a higher heat".

Both of those answers are mostly correct, but there's two important techniques to stir fry that you won't find in sautée. First one is longyau (a.k.a. huaguo in Mandarin and confusingly also 'seasoning' in English), which is where you preheat your wok to a high temperature and swirl your oil around the wok (note: in restaurants they'll often do this step, pour out the oil, then re-add the oil quantity you need). Second technique is reguoliangyou ('hot pot, cool oil'), which refers to adding your first ingredients almost immediately after adding in your oil.

Outro Music: "Add And" by Broke For Free
https://soundcloud.com/broke-for-free

ABOUT US
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Tuesday (unless we happen to be travelling) :)

We're Steph and Chris - a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shenzhen, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China - you'll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that's been living in China and loving it for the last nine years - you'll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.

This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you'd get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what's made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients - but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too!
Share this Post:

Related Posts: