Wok cooking methods

Woks can be used for a wide variety of food cooking methods. Braising, steaming and frying are all possible in the wok. The two most important things to remember are to use the right high-quality oil or fat and to cook the food at the right temperature. Look for oils that are stable at high heats and that are more or less neutral in flavor. Chinese cooks normally use peanut oil, which has a high smoke point and a pleasant nutty flavor, for stir-frying (and deep-frying). Canola oil, which has a high smoke point and a neutral flavor, is also a good choice. So is pure olive oil (also simply called olive oil) but not the extra-virgin varieties. Other candidates include corn, soybean, coconut oil and grapeseed oil. What makes grapeseed oil so attractive is that it has similar health benefits to olive oil, but with a more “neutral” flavor (I personally like the flavor of olive oil, so I use that). Asian sesame oil is unsuitable as a stir-fry oil. Its strong flavor and lack of stability when heated makes it a poor choice. It is used primarily as a seasoning (be sure to use toasted sesame oil for this), added to the stir-fry at the end of cooking.

Stir Frying (Cooking & roasting)

"Stir-frying" is the name for the typical method of cooking in a wok. It is an Asian method of cooking where the ingredients are continually stirred or tossed in a very hot wok for a few minutes. It is essential to stir them quickly and on high heat. To ensure that you do this right and that you won't burn your meal, all ingredients must be prepared ahead of time, before you begin cooking. This is because the wok cooks very quickly using those high heat levels, so you need to be beside the wok at all times to supervise. You cannot spare time to go chop some more vegetables or grab the chicken out of the refrigerator. Put each of the ingredients into a small bowl of its own and have them all in easy reach.

A very important rule for cooking with a wok is this:

Hot wok, cold oil, food don’t stick.   Always remember this!

This means heat the wok up as hot as you can reasonably get it, before you add cold oil to cook with. Once the wok has become hot, the oil is added and it is heated up to the smoke point. A high temperature is important for stir-frying. You can use a simple water test to test that the wok has reached the optimum temperature. Sprinkle a few drops of water onto the bottom of the wok. If the water forms into droplets, the wok has reached the proper temperature and you can add the oil. Similarly, you know the wok is hot enough once the oil starts smoking (look for a wispy smoke). Once this point has been reached gradually add the ingredients, in the order of cooking times: those that take longest to cook to those that cook faster, and stir them quickly. This enables all ingredients to come into contact alternately with the hot base and the warm edges of the wok. It ensures that they are cooked evenly and quickly.

Quick Tip: don't add the seasonings until everything is mostly cooked, otherwise they will burn.

Some more stir frying tips:

 Prepare ingredients thoroughly, be sure that they are dry, and have them waiting within easy reach.

 Choose the right oil to cook with. It’s best to use oils with a high smoke point and low polyunsaturated fat content. Avoiding oils with high polyunsaturated fat contents, such as soybean or fish oil, will help keep your food and seasonings from becoming gooey.

 Heat the wok before adding oil. Before you add oil to the wok, you need to preheat it dry until it begins to smoke. This will open the pores of the metal and release the flavor stored in the wok before you add the oil. Once the oil is added, the pores will begin to close again.

 Employ high heat. The key to cooking with a wok is to expose the bottom of the pan to controlled, high heat levels. The heat must be high enough to flash-cook the food. Usually the burner needs at least 10,000 BTU to reach the appropriate temperature of around or above 400° F. As long as the heat is high enough, and the pan not overcrowded, you should be able to stir fry meat and vegetables very quickly to produce a crisp, fresh flavor that could only come from a wok.  



Check out this video of a professional Chinese chef stir frying. Notice how aggressive his technique is. This is because of the insanely hot flame he's got going on his professional wok stove. The more intense the heat, the more aggressive your technique must be to avoid burning your meal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGEHcGVYzmw


And to contrast, check out this video of Ching He Huang preparing a simple Chicken chow mein stir fry. Notice too that about half the video is devoted to her food preparation leading up to the actual stir frying. Also notice that when Ching starts the meat cooking in her wok, she lets it sit in the wok for about 20 -30 seconds to let it sear before starting to stir or move it. This is necessary due to the low heat capacity of the home cooking range. While the professional chef had a burner capable of outputting more than 100,000 BTU of heat, the home burner is good for 7000 to 10,000 btu. This is why home wok stir frying is a bit less frenetic than the professional technique. The lower btu s is also why its important not to over crowd your wok when you're cooking in it. Over crowding will reduce what is already a low btu heat that the home cook is already limited to and cause the food to steam rather than sear (or actually stir fry). Check out Ching's video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BxiR7gDDNU

Do not overcrowd the wok or you will lose those high temperatures.

 Try to cook on a gas burner. Gas burners use open flames to heat the pan, rather than an element. Elements retain heat, making it difficult to quickly increase or decrease the temperature level. With a gas burner, the flame can be adjusted and the effect is immediate, giving you better control over your high-power wok cooking so that food does not burn.

Braising

 Braising in the wok is also a fast process. Food that is not cooked properly if stir-fried alone, such as firm varieties of vegetables (potatoes, carrots and celery) can be braised. All ingredients are stir fried briefly before liquid is added. Then they are left to cook at a low heat. Depending on the type of vegetable, cooking can take a few minutes to half an hour. If no lid is used, the liquid will reduce and the meat, fish and vegetables will become tender and the seasoning more concentrated and stronger. Always remember to stir the ingredients occasionally so that they don't stick. Similarly to stir frying, it's best to season braised dishes shortly before serving. The evaporation of the liquid intensifies the flavors of the seasoning.

Steaming

 Woks are ideal for steaming many different kinds of foods, such as vegetables, fish, meat. etc. To do this, you will need a bamboo steamer that you can sit in the wok. These steamers consist of several “levels” so that you can steam several foods at once. Fill the bottom of the wok with water, cover with a lid and bring the water to the boil. Then, place your ingredients in the steamer and put it in the wok. This will cook the ingredients in the hot steam. Note: the wok should only be filled with water to just underneath the bamboo steamer! If necessary, add extra water during cooking. After only a few minutes, you will see that the ingredients will be crisp and fresh, and retain their vitamins and intensify in color. Steaming also cuts down on calories, because no oil is used for cooking. 

Grace Young's Tips for steaming in a wok:

  Always bring the water in the wok to a boil before putting food in the steamer.

Take care when adding and removing food—the steam will be very hot. I recommend using retriever tongs for safe and easy transfer.

If your carbon-steel wok is newly seasoned, steaming (or boiling or poaching) may remove the wok’s thin patina. Simply re-season your wok if this happens. 

 An ingenious technique for steaming, if you don't have a steamer, is to form an “11” or an “X” with a pair of (bamboo) chopsticks. They are placed above a shallow pool of boiling water in the bottom of a wok, and a heat-proof dish or plate holding the food rests on top. The dish will capture the juices and flavorings dripping from the steamed food. Seasonings may include soy or Thai fish sauce, slivers of ginger or minced chilies.

 

Deep frying

 You'll need high temperatures and plenty of oil to cook battered vegetables, egg rolls, fish, etc, in the wok. "Deep frying" in oil is just as popular in Asia as it is in Europe or the U.S. It's very easy to do with a wok: Simply heat a generous portion of oil to approximately 350 degrees and fry the food in it until it turns golden brown. Then, take the food out of the wok using a spider. Let the extra fat drain off on a cooling rack or on paper towels. The temperature of the oil can be measured using a special thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, you can hold a chopstick, pointed down, in the hot oil. If small bubbles form around it, the temperature of the oil is around 350 degrees. Note the draining rack on the wok in the picture on the left. These are sold as add-ons that fit onto your wok for draining foods that you deep fry in it.



And once again from Grace Young, (from an article in Fine Cooking at http://www.finecooking.com/articles/four-ways-to-cook-in-your-wok.aspx), one that I'd never have even considered:

Smoking in a Wok

Smoking is probably the most exotic and ingenious technique for wok cooking. Unlike standard pans, a wok is deep and wide enough to accommodate an indoor smoking set-up, and its spacious interior provides ample room for the smoke to circulate around the food. The method is simple: Scatter tea leaves, sugar, and rice in the bottom of a foil-lined wok—the tea contributes aromatic smoke, the sugar caramelizes to lightly color and sweeten the food, and the rice acts as the fuel source, keeping everything smoking. Heat the wok until the mixture begins to smoke, and then cover it to trap the smoke inside and infuse the food with delicate smoky flavor.

Tips for smoking in a wok:

 Be sure to thoroughly clean the wok before setting it up for smoking so there are no stuck-on bits of food that could burn.

  Remember: If you smoke your food for too long, it can develop a bitter flavor.