Hot Beef Stir Fry on a Cold Night

Thanks for the tip @Richard_Fl, I will keep it in mind. I actually was wearing a long glove for most of this one. When I poured the marinated beef into the wok, something in the marinade (black soy sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil) flared up big time. Just when my arm hairs were growing back after my last BGE flashback too. The Thai chiles are what were giving off some powerful gasses. I am curious though, how would you get the chili oil into the dish? Or is it a case where the recipe just shouldn't even call for you to do that?

@Griffin. Thanks for looking and thanks for your suggestion. There is only one problem though: that whole pesky stir-fry in the winter thing. Since it's a stir-fry and since you're busy the whole time, I'd have to bring the plate out before I started cooking. Since the air temperature was only 27° that wasn't practical. When I'm doing something less labor-intensive, I will often have a plate sitting just inside the door in the heat of the kitchen and just before the food is coming off the grill, I'll run and grab it and take my food off the grill and plate it out there. But with the stirfry things were just too busy. Your idea will certainly work in the warmer weather, but in the meantime I'm going to have to just pull the food a little earlier.

Here is the link for the other post: http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1145653/chicken-w-garlic-snap-peas-1st-wok-cook#latest

I really did like Breath of a Wok. About half of the book is background about the culture and how the wok and wok cooking evolved over time and I found that very interesting. I felt it was good to get an understanding of where the type of cooking came from and it's traditions, before I attempted it myself. This additional understanding helps bring the recipes to life once you get to the recipes section. Reading the reviews in Amazon, I know some people were put off by the amount of background and non-recipe information. But to me was very helpful to understand the culture and the nature of the cooking before actually attempting it. One of Grace Youngs other books Stir-Frying to the Skies Edge, is about three quarters recipe and one quarter background if the recipes are more important to you.

Thanks again to everyone for looking & their kind remarks. 

Both wok cooks I have done have been done with the lid open. With the lid down, I stabilize the egg at my desired cooking temperature, put the wok on for a minute or two to preheat it, and then open the lid. From this point forward the lid stays open. I do close the lower damper to about 50 percent of where it currently is. This serves to help keep from getting runaway temperatures because the top lid is wide open.

In terms of time: My first cook took eight minutes at 550 degrees and this cook took five minutes at 600 degrees. The first cook did have more steps in it. This Cook was relatively straightforward with only three cooking stages.