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Showing results for 'wok'.
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Well, as one old person, I can recommend a 30 cm (just short of 12 inch) cast iron wok. These seem to be the smallest on offer here. And smaller woks work just fine! They have the benefit of being lighter. I still use 34 cm woks, but as the years go past, it's becoming more difficult to life and toss the things.
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I just came across this. The most common size for a domestic wok here is 35 cm - just under 14 inches. And they are commonly used to cook multiple dishes at one meal, for a lot more than two people. The way to go. The vast majority of woks used in China on a daily basis are carbon steel. I wouldn't buy anything else.
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Curious, what was your seasoning process? I'm looking at shifting over to carbon steel wok after some disappointing experience with a tri-ply.
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Hi, I'm Henri from Finland, near Helsinki. I'm currently drawn into making frozen delights - ice cream, sorbet etc. Challenging stuff! Otherwise its been mostly Asian/wok etc. Nice to be here! //HS
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What about a full ring/rack like what they make for woks (click)? It'd have to have legs to raise the rack to mid-pan. If the center isn't blocked by food, then you'd still have good convection air circulation. There's a steamer rack, too (click) that might work, too but might need to be a bit taller depending on the thickness of whatever is being air-fried on the bottom layer. I don't have a dog in this fight (to quote TV's Dr. Phil) but it seems like there's an easy answer out there. Maybe eGullet needs its own line of cookware and accessories.
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Yes, I've seen a few. He seems the real deal, but I find his videos rather boring to watch. I mean, 10 minutes of watching someone stirring stuff in a wok? He needs a editor.
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The brushes used to be standard part of a wok kit (as seen on TV). Like @weinoo give me a green scrubbie or the one with blue scrubbie on one side and sponge other side. I like the bamboo one as a decorative element in the utensil holder-pot.
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Hmm. I don't think I want to know your sponge habits. I get through a bamboo brush about every two weeks, but I do use my woks at least once a day; usually more.
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You should see how long I keep a sponge! Only kidding - remember, I wasn't a daily wok user, so they lasted; probably longer than they should have.
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My traditional bamboo wok brush arrived today. They are becoming more difficult to find in the city. I ordered this one online after my usual store didn't have any.
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. I see. I have a massive carbon steel wok my brother in law bought in the market in Trivandrum and brought over in his airplane luggage to England. It's been my favourite bit of kit in the kitchen for the last few years. So versatile for Kerala cooking, stir-fries, fried chicken, tempura... If you're reading this thread you probably know! And it has the added sentimental value. We've recently moved house, and we now have an electric ceramic hob rather than the gas hobs we've had for decades. We're strongly inclined to fit a gas hob, but I do feel the lure of induction. I think that old wok is going to make the decision for me.
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It has become very difficult in recent years to find round bottomed woks, even here in China. Most department stores, supermarkets and other domestic kitchen supply shops etc only stock the (at least slightly) flat bottomed type. The reason is very simple. Induction cookers. Whereas in the past people used gas burners for the ever-popular table top hotpot style of cooking (even in restaurants), it quickly became apparant that free standing induction cookers were more convenient and safer. I'd say that that's what 90% of people use now. It is still possible to buy the traditional type, but only in artisan craft shops or professional, restaurant suppliers' places - sometimes not even there. I have both types.
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I have a flat bottomed wok. It works fine. From what I understand, flat bottomed woks are pretty common throughout Asia, unless you're a restaurant.
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Thank you! I need to go and do some research. I was under the impression that the round shape of a wok made it unsuitable for use on induction hobs.
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Don't they all do that? Every one I've had did. My current one does beep then switch off, but there is a reasonable time delay before the power cuts. I've never timed it. I'll test it later, if I remember. It's 2,100 watts which I find more than enough for stir-fry wok cooking when I have to use it that way, but that happens very infrequently. I mostly use it for long, slow, acidic wok braises. 🤣
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I've really enjoyed using this lately (while only briefly each time): It's a relatively inexpensive induction hob - 3500 Watts!!! It brought about 12 quarts of water to a rolling boil in just under 12 minutes. It doesn't really like it when I lift the pan - it beeps at me when I do so, but at least it doesn't shut off. So far, I've only had time to use it to bring the stockpot to a boil (as a test) and to stir fry a few veggies in my carbon steel wok, which was an absolute pleasure - so much easier than when I used to use my crappy underpowered gas stove. One of the things that makes it inexpensive is that you can only choose from about 10 power levels, which has been fine so far for what I've been doing. Sometime soon in the future I'm going to get a Vollrath induction unit (I'm thinking the 2600W since so far I haven't had the need to use this one at 3500W except to boil water - the stir fries haven't gone over 2400W and even that is crazy hot) which you can control the output power in 1% increments, from 0 to 100% and also, rather than cycling the power on and off for the power level, it adjusts the power intensity. Plus, to control the power there is a knob rather than push buttons... but that's for another post.
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OK - I guess I wasn't clear for what I do though... my braise in the tamarind liquid would be for about 15 minutes tops... I don't know if I'd do a 2 hour braise in the seasoned wok, but most Asian wok braising doesn't take that long. I'm going to attempt it teh next time I make that dish... I'll report back my findings.
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One fact is that I've been cooking such things in a wok for a quarter of a century without problems.
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Related to our discussion in the wok-cooking thread, how do you cook the orzo? Do you just use a pot on another burner? Also, how many burners (hobs) do normal Chinese kitchen have? I'd think there would be only 1 since everything is usually cooked in the wok anyway...
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Interesting.... I guess it doesn't really matter - especially since you don't use that much water anyway, and the wok is already hot - you rinse with hot water regardless of the initial water temp!
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My late sister-in-law regularly made 4 or 5 dish dinners plus soup. All cooked in the same wok. No one here would even think that remarkable. It's normal.
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I haven't posted many dinners recently. It's been a strange week. Still is. Wok-braised chicken with morels and Agaricus subrufescens or 姬松茸 (jī sōng róng), also known as almond mushroom, mushroom of the sun, God’s mushroom, mushroom of life, royal sun agaricus, himematsutake. Served with orzo. Braise included Shaoxing wine, garlic, shichimi togarashi, coriander leaf, scallions, potato starch slurry for thickening. Photographed through steam.
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Main vessel... or only! But the good thing about the wok is that it cleans fast (just a quick rinse in hot water) and the stir fried veg cook super fast, so you can plate your braised dish (typically family style), clean the wok and cook the veg and the braised dish will have barely cooled down. That's my experience anyway..
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Chinese way would be to finish the braised dish, then stir-fry the veg in the same wok (after a quick clean). After all, how long does it take to stir-fry a vegetable side? Alternatively, revolutionary idea, have more than one wok! I have three, but rarely use two of them.
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And I can understand why people do, especially if it's the main vessel used for cooking. I like a Dutch oven or a rondeau for braising...that way, I can do a braised dish and use the wok for stir-frying a side veg.
