Stir fry - garlic burns if I put it in first, what am I doing wrong?
You have a few options, as you're dealing with high-heat cooking


Only fry the garlic for a few seconds before adding something else to cool down the pan.  You don't want it to cook 'til it shows color ... just a few seconds then toss in some onion or other high-moisture items.
Add the garlic with something else (eg, ginger), to keep it from burning quite as quickly.
Leave the garlic in larger bits, so it'll take longer to burn (as the moisture doesn't cook off immediately).
Really crush the garlic well.  Not chopped, but pulp it into a paste before using it, so it both holds together as a mass, and releases all of its moisture.
Move the garlic to the edge of the wok after cooking it (use a wok scoop or rounded spatula to make sure you get it all) ... then add your next ingredients, but don't bring the garlic back down 'til plenty of other stuff is in the pan.


And of course, make sure that you've cut up everything before you add the garlic -- you're cooking over such high heat that you want to be able to quickly add other things, otherwise you risk cooking the garlic for too long while you're dealing with some other ingredient.