/ck/ - Food & Cooking

Words on the wok:
This piece of kitchen-ware has suffered more abuse than any other, so let me help you all out. Please forgive my spelling as I've been on the millet whiskey

First lets look at the basic characteristics of a wok.
It's wide and shallow- so it's good for deep frying small things, but will spit terribly and loose temperature if you try to fry large things
It has low thermal mass/ is thin: so it needs high heat and is unsuited to cooking things for a long time
And thus is born the stir fry, the primary purpose of the wok.

Though let me say up front, that despite being unsuited for many tasks- the wok can perform more roles than any other pan I have encountered (that's basically all of them) and can be seen as the kalashnikov of pans.

basic skills:
seasoning: clean the pan thoroughly, heat till below smoking point, then rub high smoking point oil into it; repeat several times. This basically puts oil into the tiny cracks in the metal, giving the pan a non-stick coat. This can be avoided, but an unseasoned wok is prone to some issues and this will become apparent procedurally later on.
Technique: unlike a regular pan, things can be dragged to the outside of the wok to slow their cooking significantly or to keep items warm.
Flambe: The chinese generally deglaze with xiauxing rice wine, or for a VERY large flambe they use bijiau (60% ABV) which should be done with great caution.
Steaming: A fine citcular metal mesh is available to stop oil splashing out of the Wok (as it has shallow sides), this can be used with and suitably sized lid to steam vegetables. Though this is not a great use of a wok it works fine. You can also sit a bamboo steamer directly on top of a Wok, as the edged of a wok are not very hot and bamboo does not burn easily