Thickening Revisted

I got a chance to use the Konjac flour today and it worked pretty well. I made a stir fry and used about 1/4 tsp of the flour. I mixed it with water first. It turns the water to a gel. Then you scoop that gel into the liquid part of your stir fry, as you're boiling it. In the future I might use 3/8th of a tsp as it seemed like the thickening power of 1/4 tsp wasn't quite as much as I needed. But I think this might end up being my favorite stir fry thickener so far!

The Thickening Thicket

I'm back to experimenting with thickeners. My last stir-fry I tried to skip the cornstarch and used some not/Sugar instead, which is a mixture of vegetable gums. It got thick when I mixed it with water but promptly lost it when I poured it into the stir fry juices.

I have some xanthan gum and haven't tried that. But I stumbled upon something I hadn't considered! Glucomanan flour or Konjac flour. It's a type of plant sometimes referred to as a yam. I bought it a couple years ago thinking it was something I could use as flour and I had awful gastrointestinal consequences from that. But turns out, it really isn't something you should use like that, but more like a substance to create a gel or thicken stuff.

Here's an article out using Konjac flour to thicken things:
The low carb thickener - Konjac flour

So back to the stir-fry drawing board!