Wok thread

Roper

Roper

Idiot Savant, still
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I love stir fry but only did it in a frying pan. So I decided to up my game and bought a honest to goodness real wok. I have to season it first but I’m eager to get started using it. I’m browsing recipes and sauces but I know there’s some good cooks here. So jump in and share some of your favorite recipes. Tips on how to properly use a wok is appreciated too.

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Woks are how we do most our cooking. We specifically chose our stove because it has a high BTU wok cradle in the middle.

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Really, we cook just about anything in it since we don't do much for big slabs of meat (about the only thing that doesn't go well in a wok). Looks like yours is a fancier one than the ones I use. I have trended to liking thec heaper Cash n Carry woks. something about em just works right with a gas stove.

(the large one here was in need of a steel scrubbing at the time. it usually lives in our outdoor kitchen)
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Great purchase. We use ours two or three times a week. Of course, it is great for stir-fry. I will typically add some curry powder for flavoring during the process. And more recently, I've been adding some cubed fresh tomatoes near the end of the process. That adds a burst of flavor and tends to thicken the sauce at the bottom of the wok (replacing corn starch). While my wife is less rigorous about it, I always wipe a light coating of vegetable oil after washing it; this keeps any rust from forming.
Woks are great for deep-fat frying; we use it for shrimp, cubes of chicken, and cubes of pork tenderloin. My wife also uses the wok when cooking hush puppies. To make deep-fat frying easier, purchase a tempura rack. This is a stainless-steel ring that sits on the top edge of the wok. This allows oil to drain back into the wok from the items that have completed cooking.
Steve
 
stir-fry a fave...shrimp or small strips of chicken or sirloin, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, water chestnuts, green beans...mix of lite soy sauce, sesame oil, bit of ginger, dash of chicken broth...damn, getting hungry writing this
 
Lots of good recipes here:
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I use a cheap steel wok from Pal-do. Our stove doesn't have quite the BTUs that it needs, but we use it often. One tip I got was to use the highest power burner, but remove the diffuser plate so the flame is huge and direct to the bottom center. You have to light manually though. It really improved how my stove handles a wok

This is my go to resource for work skills, techniques, and recipes. It's more textbook than cookbook and I love it. Every recipe I've followed has been a banger.
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Gary Knowels said:
I use a cheap steel wok from Pal-do. Our stove doesn't have quite the BTUs that it needs, but we use it often. One tip I got was to use the highest power burner, but remove the diffuser plate so the flame is huge and direct to the bottom center. You have to light manually though. It really improved how my stove handles a wok

This is my go to resource for work skills, techniques, and recipes. It's more textbook than cookbook and I love it. Every recipe I've followed has been a banger.
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Anything from Kenji is usually phenomenal. Lots of good stuff from him on seriouseats.com, I'm sure there is some of his wok articles there too. It's a bummer I can't follow him on Instagram anymore after I made what I thought was a harmless jab about his beer choice and he blocked me 😂.
 
I thought this was the woke thread being Roper posted it. But I like woks too. I cook many meals in the wok. I don't do anything fancy to start them off other than only use sesame oil and always cook at high heat meat heavy for the first few dinners. Then I throw whatever in it. I don't wash thoroughly but I do clean it. I always give a sesame oil before storage. Woks are great and among the most used items in my kitchen. I say whatever you cook in them cook them hot with an oil that can deal with that. Sesame never let's my down and I like the flavor.
 
I did some wok cooking at a noodle house years back, and I can tell you three things:
1. It's a lot of fun.
2. You need a lot of heat (more than most conventional stoves can produce) to keep a wok hot enough to work its magic.
3. As @Brute said, prep is essential. Things go fast (like, really fast) when things are going right, and if you have to walk away to get something or chop something you forgot, it can ruin you.

I currently do not have anything close to a proper wok burner on my stove, and that makes it difficult to near impossible to maintain sufficient heat on the cooking surface to properly execute a lot of wok dishes. I also don't have any safe place to properly season a wok. To compensate (somewhat), I use a cast iron skillet to make most of my stir fry dishes. It isn't a wok, but it holds what precious, little heat my typical, cheap-ass stove can muster better than a wok, so it works better for me. If you've got a good burner like @Evan B , you should rock the wok!
 
Shad said:
I did some wok cooking at a noodle house years back, and I can tell you three things:
1. It's a lot of fun.
2. You need a lot of heat (more than most conventional stoves can produce) to keep a wok hot enough to work its magic.
3. As @Brute said, prep is essential. Things go fast (like, really fast) when things are going right, and if you have to walk away to get something or chop something you forgot, it can ruin you.

I currently do not have anything close to a proper wok burner on my stove, and that makes it difficult to near impossible to maintain sufficient heat on the cooking surface to properly execute a lot of wok dishes. I also don't have any safe place to properly season a wok. To compensate (somewhat), I use a cast iron skillet to make most of my stir fry dishes. It isn't a wok, but it holds what precious, little heat my typical, cheap-ass stove can muster better than a wok, so it works better for me. If you've got a good burner like @Evan B , you should rock the wok!
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A good way around that is an outdoor propane burner like a turkey fryer. I run one of those on the back patio too. But yeah, stove heat isn't even close to enough for most wok dishes.
 
Evan B said:
A good way around that is an outdoor propane burner like a turkey fryer. I run one of those on the back patio too. But yeah, stove heat isn't even close to enough for most wok dishes.
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I have one of those in the basement I got for free and have been thinking about building some sort of stand/work place on the patio just for wok cooking
 
As for recipes... Most any typical Chinese-American dish (to include soups) is best prepared in a wok. As in most cooking, the basic elements break down to fats, aromatics, vegetables, a protein of some sort, and a sauce or spice blend. The fats, aromatics, vegetable blends, and proteins vary by region, but the thing that defines a given region's cuisine most is the spices they use. When wok cooking, I like to have at least these items handy in my pantry/fridge:

1. Fresh aromatics. Garlic and ginger are cornerstone.
2. White pepper (it's not the same thing as black pepper, which I also love).
3. Crushed red chili (doesn't take much, but you usually want some).
4. A plan for a sauce... which leads me to...
5. Corn starch (mix it with water or any liquid in the dish to thicken any sauce, so you don't end up with a soupy mess). Be careful with this one... add it gradually, so you don't go too far.

You'll learn what you like, but start at your local Asian market for sauces (and ingredients... these are great places to find "trick" ingredients at good prices).

Start by searing your protein. Remove it from the wok before it's fully cooked and set aside. Next, add your vegetables and aromatics. Stir fry until almost tender.

Add the protein and your sauce. Season up with your favorite soy sauce/chili oli/etc. When everything is hot, slowly add the corn starch "slurry" until the sauce reaches the desired thickness. Immediately remove from heat. Serve with good rice and fresh green onions and sesame seeds on top.

As an aside, my favorite fats for stir fry are peanut oil and canola oil. I love sesame oil, but like extra virgin olive oil, it burns easily and can be overpowering, so it's important to add it at the end, and in conservative quantities. It's amazing how far a few drops go at the end of the cooking process.
 
Evan B said:
A good way around that is an outdoor propane burner like a turkey fryer. I run one of those on the back patio too. But yeah, stove heat isn't even close to enough for most wok dishes.
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Trouble for me is I'm on the third floor and can't use any grills/smokers/burners/etc. on my balcony. It's cast iron or bust for me, and even that sets off the damned smoke alarms sometimes, because I don't have any actual ventilation to the outside.

Some things about living in an apartment are kind of nice (think not having to pay for or do maintenance), but the quality and functionality of kitchens are typically absolute trash. As someone who loves to cook, that challenges me tremendously.
 
No need to be sad, though... I have learned to put out some solid cuisine from my lousy excuse for a kitchen. Working with what you have is kind of the "essence de la cuisine," non?
 
Is a Coleman camp stove enough to fire up a wok?
 
Roper said:
Is a Coleman camp stove enough to fire up a wok?
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It would probably depend on the model. We have one and it isn't even close to enough. You'll want to find something with probably at minimum like 50,000 BTU if you can.

My Bosch range has 20,000 BTU on the wok burner, which gets us by if we don't overload the wok. The outdoor burner is for the heavy lifting.
 
Evan B said:
It would probably depend on the model. We have one and it isn't even close to enough. You'll want to find something with probably at minimum like 50,000 BTU
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My Iwatani is much less than that. 15,000 BTU. But my Camp Chef Explorer has 30,000 BTU and is more than enough.
 
A couple of thoughts….. We really like the recipes we have tried from the Recipetineats website. Here's an example that has come into rotation at our house about every three weeks. I can add or subtract ingredients as desired, say, add snow peas or egg, or sub barbecued pork or prawns for the chicken This easy recipe calls for packaged bean sprouts and coleslaw mix from the produce section of your grocery, and Top Ramen or similar noodles sans the seasoning packet. My wife developed an anaphylactic allergy to sesame about three years ago so I sub red curry paste for the sesame oil. I add the coleslaw mix and bean sprouts at the end so they don't overcook while my household range works to bring the water to a boil.
www.recipetineats.com

Chow Mein Ramen Noodles

How do you make ramen noodles better? Make CHOW MEIN! Everything you know and love about Chow Mein, made with ramen noodles. 12 minute recipe!
www.recipetineats.com www.recipetineats.com

I found that my regular spatulas didn't work well with the woks. I bought 2 silicone wok spatulas and find them entirely adequate for household use. If you search silicone wok spatulas on Amazon they will pop up towards the bottom of the first page, 1 red 1 black for about $10.

Asian restaurants with their powerful burners are able to introduce fire into the wok, resulting in that wonderful combination of slightly smokey and slightly charred flavors. I can't do that on my gas kitchen range, but if I said blasting the cooking food with a volcano-hot hand held butane torch does the same thing people would think I am crazy, so I won't say that. But Amazon has the torches for about $13. Try, “butane torch kitchen blow lighter”. Asian markets and US Chef stores usually have butane canisters.

I found that olive, canola and vegetable oil smoke points are too low. I have switched to Grapeseed oil.
Have fun!
 
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