shiny stir-fry

In my stir-fries, I'm exploring ways to enhance the flavor through adding a thickened low-fat gravy. Today I found a nice way to do it. The trick is to make a sauce with meat stock, seasonings and cornstarch. The seasonings and cornstarch must first be dissolved in the stock and gently heated. Then, at the end of the stir-frying, this sauce is added in small batch at a time to the pan and mixed. The sauce must thicken and evaporate before more sauce is added. This way, at the end of it, the ingredients in the stir-fry are coated with a thin glossy layer of gravy.

Recipe: asparagus and beef stir-fry (for 2-3)

Ingredients:
- 3 oz cooked lean beef, cut to thin pieces
- 10 oz asparagus, cut to 3" long sticks
- 1 TB oil
- salt (to taste)
- pepper (to taste)
- 1/2 cup beef stock, trimmed of fat
- dash of sugar
- 1/2 tp garlic powder
- 2 tp cornstarch

Procedure:
1. Mix cornstarch, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and sugar with the beef stock. Gently heat the mixture in a sauce pan on the stove. Stir frequently to prevent lumps from forming. Keep the mixture warm on stove top while cooking the stir-fry.
2. Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add asparagus and beef. Stir fry on high heat for a minute or so. Make sure the pan is very hot, but no ingredient gets stuck on the pan. Then add the gravy mixture into the pan, 1 to 2 TB at a time. At each time, the liquid will bubble and evaporate very rapidly. Keep stirring the ingredients. The vegetable will be cooked in the steam of the gravy. Repeat adding the gravy until the vegetable has developed a gloss on its surface.  Optionally, add the remaining gravy and thicken it in the pan. Serve right away.