The most important tool in the kitchen of China and most of South East Asia is the wok. Versatile, cheap, and easy to use, woks are indispensable for Asian cooking, but how much do we know about them?
- The shape of woks was originally thought to have been the easiest shape to achieve when you beat a plate of copper into a pan shape. However, woks were not made out of copper, but cast iron, and were often 3 feet across with a thickness of a quarter an inch. This needed technology far in advance of what was available in the West at the time, and produced many cracked and broken articles in the process – so why did they insist on the shape and thinness?
- One school of thought states that people insisted woks be thin, in order to heat up quickly to conserve fuel (traditionally charcoal), while the shape and size allow a larger cooking surface that provides a range of temperatures in one pan.
- Nowadays, most cheap woks are made out of pressed steel or aluminum. However, cast iron or mild steel is still the material of choice to get a constant, uniform heat that makes food taste and texture great. Pressed steel does not retain heat – burning instead of cooking, and aluminum reflects a lot of heat.
- When you buy your wok, you must season it before use. A well-seasoned wok can be as non-stick as a Teflon-coating, without the cost and potential toxicity of the actual thing. To season it, place your wok on a low flame, and use a paper towel to wipe it thoroughly with a thin layer of vegetable oil. Now leave it on the heat for ten minutes. Cool. Now wipe away the greasy film. You should repeat until your towel comes away clean. After this, never use a dishwasher or soapy water. Just wipe it down with paper towels, and ensure a thin layer of oil is present.
- Although when we think of woks, we think of stir-fries, woks are real workhorses in the Asian kitchen and are used for a variety of other cooking methods such as roasting, boiling, frying and deep-frying.
- Most cooking methods with woks involve high heat, and quick temperature changes, so a gas range is far easier to use than an electrical range. Also, with high heats you need to use oils with a high smoke point. This means soya oil, corn oil, and peanut (groundnut) oil. Butter or olive oil will smoke and harm the taste of the food.
- Although there are several tools that you can use with a wok, the main two are the semi-circular spatula for tossing ingredients, and the bamboo or stainless steel strainer for boiling or deep-frying. Although instead of the spatula you could use a wooden spoon, the shape of the wok spatula conforms to the rounded edge of the wok, meaning you can shovel up the ingredients far more easily.
- And one last piece of advice, especially with stir-frying – ensure all your ingredients are ready chopped and prepared, because you certainly won’t have time to do it when you are cooking!