New Woking Blog Post & Some Stir-Fry Pix (pix intensive)

jfm0830 · December 2012

I've been wokking up a storm this past week. I've now got over a dozen stir-fry's under my belt. I haven't posted pix of these because I don't want to bore folks with "All stir-frys all the time". Plus some of them have been repeats for family and friends. Based on the good luck I've been having I wrote a blog entry about my early wokking experiences and what I have learned to be some of the keys to success. Not passing myself off as any kind of wok eggspert-just sharing what has worked, so others who are starting like me out don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Wok Talk - Hitting a Comfort Zone

While I was posting anyway I figured I'd share my first pork stir fry & my first fried rice with egg in it.

FRIED RICE WITH HAM, EGG & SCALLIONS

Breath of a Wok

The first step is to make a batch of Classic Rice, which is long grain rice cooked on the stove. After it is done you fluff it well and refrigerate it for 3 or 4 hours.

This recipe used: The rice, thawed frozen peas, diced ham, sliced scallions, an egg, minced garlic, vegetable oil, white pepper & salt.

The Egg is stabilized at 550, the wok is pre-heating and everything else is out at the Egg ready to go.

The veggie oil was swirled onto the pre-heated wok and was allowed to heat until it just began to smoke. The garlic and scallions were stir-fried for 15 seconds. At this point the rice & peas were added.

After 2-3 minutes of stir-frying, the rice was pulled away from the center to make a well....

The well was used to receive and hold the cracked egg. As soon as the egg hit the wok, it was stir-fried in with the rice & peas.

The egg, rice & peas were stir-fried for 3 minutes.

The ham, salt & pepper was added in next and everything was stir-fried for another 2 minutes to make sure everything was heated through.

Time to plate the rice.

The rice was served with a batch of Sweet & Sour Chicken which is my favorite stir-fry recipe so far. My dad had declared the Yanchow fried rice I made a week ago to be the best fried rice he had ever had. This fried rice now has that title. He loved the addition of the egg to the rice.

HOISIN PORK WITH PEPPERS

Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge

This stir-fry used a few ingredients: Pork, minced scallions, shredded scallions, minced ginger & garlic, thin sliced carrots, sliced red & green bell peppers, white pepper, salt, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, dry sherry & vegetable oil.

The marinade for the pork used: Hoisin sauce, minced scallions, minced ginger & garlic, rice vinegar, soy sauce, salt & white pepper.

The ingredients for the marinade are all mixed through and some sesame oil was then added & mixed in.

The Egg has been stabilized at 550 degrees, the wok has just been placed on the Egg to pre-heat. The other ingredients are sorted and placed in the order I will use them.

Some vegetable oil was swirled into the wok and heated until it was just beginning to smoke. The marinaded pork went on next and is spread out and cooks undisturbed for a minute.

After the initial minute is up the pork gets stir-fried for another minute until it is ALMOST cooked. IT gets removed to a dish and is held for a few minutes while the veggies cook.

Some more vegetable oil was swirled in and the red & green bell peppers, the carrots & some salt are added to the wok.

The veggies are stir-fried for about a minute until they begin to soften.

The pork is added back in.....

The shredded scallions and rice vinegar are added in and everything gets stir-fried for another minute or so until the pork is cooked through.

Everything is ALMOST done. The food continues to cook for the 30 seconds it takes me to run into the Kitchen and pour this into a serving bowl, so I pull it 30 seconds early and let it finish cooking on it's way into the Kitchen. Make no mistake it is still cooking cause it is sizzling up a storm.

This pork stir-fry was excellent. It is my second favorite recipe I've made to date. I am thinking of making some homemade Chinese food this year for New Years Eve and this dish is on the menu.

Jim

Village Idiot · December 2012

Velly nice, Kim Yoo Suk !!!! =D>

Fred19Flintstone · December 2012

Outstanding Jim! I asked for a wok along with an AR for Christmas. I hope Santa comes through! Looking at your stir fry posts are instructive and motivational. Your plating is top notch! ^:)^

NecessaryIndulg · December 2012

Love it! Thank you for sharing!
=D>

Ellis · December 2012

Thanks Jim another great post & pics. I just orderd my wok Fri.

Botch · December 2012

I learned to add an egg to the wok first, swirl it so it makes a thin pancake, then remove and slice/dice, then cook the rice and add the egg at the end.

Your method looks a lot more efficient, will give it a try next time; thanks!

jfm0830 · December 2012

Botch said:

I learned to add an egg to the wok first, swirl it so it makes a thin pancake, then remove and slice/dice, then cook the rice and add the egg at the end.
Your method looks a lot more efficient, will give it a try next time; thanks!

The other recipes in the two cookbooks I have do it the way you described. For some reason this particular recipe did it this way. It was easy enough to do I will say the egg gets thoroughly mixed throughout the rice mixture. This method looked particularly easy, and it sure beats trying to cut up egg outside in the cold weather the way the other recipes did it.

m011708 · December 2012

Jim, Excellent post and pictures, thanks to your inspiration my new wok and accessories will

arrive next week.

Jim

Austin Egghead · December 2012

You are an inspiration. I am going to have to start woking more.

BeecaveKitchen · December 2012

Looks amazing!!! Love you nice and tidy Mise too!

Plano_JJ · December 2012

Awesome! I have received my Spider and the Stir Frying book, Wok is on the way from the Wok shop. Fixin to hit some uncharted territory.

jfm0830 · December 2012

Thanks to everyone for looking and for your kind comments! Based on the number of comments here, as well as people who've been contacting me through the Contact Form on my website there's going be a lot of wokking going on around here soon. I'll be looking forward to picking up some tips and tricks from you all soon! @

BeecaveKitchen said:

Looks amazing!!! Love you nice and tidy Mise too!

I've always used bowls to help keep things organized and I am a big believer in, as you put it: a nice and tidy Mise. It is particularly key with stir-frying that you have everything out at the Egg and you are organized. You just don't have time to run back in and find some ingredient you forgot to bring out or fumble around on the tray looking for the right ingredients to add next. So not only do I have all the ingredients on the tray, I have them arranged in the order that I'm going to need them next.

Also all of you who are buying a new wok, be sure to take the time to season it properly. There is a good video on the website of the Wok Shop in San Francisco. It shows how to season your woks. The method I used is the one where you thoroughly clean the wok first, then lightly oil it and put it in a 425° oven. I put a large oven sized aluminum drip pan underneath to catch the dripping and keep it from dripping directly onto the heating elements. Plan ahead to deal with smoke because you'll get a ton of smoke. About midway through the curing process my kitchen was filling with smoke. I had to open the kitchen door, the kitchen window and put my exhaust hood fan on high, plus close the pocket door between my kitchen and the dining room. I was amazed the smoke detectors didn't go off. The last step after the wok comes out of the oven is just stir-fry some aromatic vegetables until they are withered and way overcooked. This is the one time you are allowed to overcook something on your wok.

Ideally it would be even better to season it outside on the Egg as several here have suggested. I didn't do that because I didn't know the proper set up for the Egg and I was worried about how to deal with the hot oil dripping onto hot coals. Perhaps someone here that has seasoned their wok on the Egg can post a proper method for all you new workers.

Your reward for seasoning your wok properly and maintaining the seasoning by cooking on it regularly, is a pan that is about as nonstick as it gets. I noticed a few cooks ago that the food was starting to just slide off the pan in one large group at the end when I'd go to plate it. It almost looks like a single large pancake sliding off the wok. It sure makes stir-frying a lot easier and there Is little to no stuck on food to clean off.

Griffin · December 2012

Wonderful cooks, Jim. Love the look of that fried rice. Gonna give it a go. Thanks for sharing.

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New Woking Blog Post & Some Stir-Fry Pix (pix intensive)

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