Step by Step WOK Cooking of my Favorite Recipe

bigguy136

I make this most every week. I hope to get some ideas of what I should do differently.

Here are the ingredients:

 

I add 1 tablespoon of oil, fish sauce, garlic and lemon grass. 1 teaspoon white sugar and black pepper.

 

I mix it

 

I add 15- 20 oz of chicken (1/4" - 3/8" thick) and I stir the marinade with the chicken. Set aside for about 30 minutes.

 

6 OZ of fresh bean sprouts and 1/2 of a white onion cut and put in bowls

 

A can of mushrooms, water chestnuts and baby corn

 

I put in a shaker jar, 1/2 cup of water, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, 2 tablespoons oil and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Cover for shaking later.

 

I set everything in order from large to small

 

Heat the WOK till the oil starts to smoke. Smoke is my temp gage (Thanks Gary)

 

Add chicken marinade

 

I add the onions

 

Add the mushrooms, baby corn and water chestnuts

 

Add the water mix (shake well) and work till the sauce is the thickness you want. Have a bowl ready to un-load your WOK

 

Do a better plating job than I did and enjoy. Can be made with chicken, shrimp or beef. I also will make it with sugar peas and/ or green pepper

Richard Fl

Nice looking meal.  I like to marinate chicken in cornstarch, chinese rice wine, and white pepper for 20-30 minutes and also like straw mushrooms.  Happy Wokking!

Village Idiot

Looks very good !  Interesting that there isn't any soy sauce.  I think all of my recipes, except one, have soy sauce.  Like Richard, I also like to marinate meat with cornstarch.  It gives it that cling effect.  Nice going.

lecrams

Looks awesome! I had a spider and wok on my Santa list. Our TV died, so I'm sitting in front of a brand new Samsung LCD Smart TV, that Santa brought early. I now have my spider and wok on order and can't wait to start trying some of these recipes. So with all of that, a few dumb questions.

1. My wife fas a seafood allergy, what would be a good substitue for the fish sauce?

2. Can you please provide a little more detail of the amount of cooking time each step takes? It would help this wok newbie immensely!

bigguy136

I forgot to say in my first post that I'm sorry for not cooking on my egg but I live in the frigid north and during the winter months, I wok indoors. When I had the corn starch in the marinade, it sticks to my spatula as a big glob. A few on this site recommended to add it after and it helped a lot. Is there something I'm missing that I can use corn starch in my marinade? Cook times were about 3 minutes on chicken (most of the pink was gone), 1 minute on the onions and 1 minute on the baby corn. When I add the water mix, I watch and stir until it thickens as I want it. For me, it was about 2 minutes.

Village Idiot

Actually, I typically don't marinate the meat with cornstarch.  I drag it through cornstarch to give it a thin coat.  Then I let it sit for 10 minutes.  That gives it that cling effect.

Here is a pic of my Mongolian beef to give you an idea.

bigguy136

Okay, way better looking than the crap I've been eating. What is 'drag it thru'? When in powder form?

Village Idiot

Yes.  Drag it through, or toss it in, the cornstarch that's right out of the can (powder). Make sure you coat it all.

bigguy136

Sorry, 1 last dumb question. When I dust my chicken with corn starch and let rest 10 minutes, do I then mix dusted chicken in with my marinade or are both dusted chicken and marinade kept seperate and put in WOK at the same time?

Village Idiot

If I were you, I'd marinate the chicken for as long as you want, then pat dry it with paper towels, then dust it. The clinging will come while in the wok.

jfm0830

Great looking prep and cook. I love your mise en place

Truth in Advertising: I am a newbie at this. But I have been doing a lot of reading on this and two things came to mind. Take them for what they are worth and one or both may not apply here. The first was that just about every wok recipe I've used had you cook the meat and veggies separately. You cook the meat till ALMOST done. You hold the meat, out of the wok while you cook the veggies. Then you add the meat back in at the end and stir to combine. This allows you to cook in smaller batches for better control and cooking. The second thing I noticed is the wok seemed quite full of food. If there is too much food you start steaming the food not frying. I don't know if it is a bigger batch than recommended for your wok size or not. There are charts showing the maximum amount of food for a particular sized wok.

Jim

Skiddymarker

My teachers all suggest a slightly different technique: veggies first (typical order depending on ingredients): onion, carrot, celery, mushroom, chestnut, bamboo shoot, peppers, leaf vegetables and sprouts. Veggie may be steamed under cover for speed and to avoid burning. Some leaf veggies, like bok choy tops and sprouts, may be added after the sauce - they are warmed only. Once veggie is crispy side of tender crisp, remove to a plate and cover. Meat second. Seldom marinated. Cook to almost done, add to veggie plate and cover. Sauce in the empty wok and much like other styles of cooking, flavor is enhanced by the residue in the wok. Return the meat and veggies to the wok, toss with sauce and serve. Ratio of meat to veggie is typically 1:5. 
@bigguy136 Cut onion into <1" squares, not strips. I'd try some bell pepper, cut into serving size triangles, mix red, green, yellow for color. Baby corn is great, maybe cut back on the quantity just a bit. For my sauce, I use ginger and garlic and sesame oil as the starter, then other ingredients that you like. Sprouts go in with the sauce, warm only. 

lecrams

Thank you bigguy for the timing instructions. Any thoughts on a sub for the fish oil?

Skiddymarker

lecrams said:

Thank you bigguy for the timing instructions. Any thoughts on a sub for the fish oil?

Yeah - just don't use it. Asian cooking has a lot of seafood, fish oil, fish flakes etc... in it because it is a staple of their cuisine. Soy sauce is used in traditional asian foods, but not in the quantities we tend to use in salt crazed North America. There are as many ways to sauce a stir fry as there are rubs to use on a pork Butt. It is all personal and it is all good. 

r270ba

@village_idiot I have seen your mongolian beef recipe.  What about your rice?  It looks excellent.  Care to share how you do it?  My wok comes in tomorrow and I plan on mongolian beef as soon as the rain clears up here (Thursday probably)

Village Idiot

r270ba said:

@village_idiot I have seen your mongolian beef recipe.  What about your rice?  It looks excellent.  Care to share how you do it?  My wok comes in tomorrow and I plan on mongolian beef as soon as the rain clears up here (Thursday probably)

R2,

The secret to making good fried rice is to cook the white rice the day before, and let it dry out in the fridge overnight.  There are hundres of recipes out there, but here is the one I use.  I don't put peas or carrots in mine, but most people do.

Ingredients:

8 ounces Shrimp, small, shelled and deveined

1/2 teaspoon Salt, kosher

Black pepper, freshly ground

1/2 teaspoon Corn Starch

2 tablespoons Peanut Oil, divided

3 Eggs, beaten

2 stalks Green onions , minced

4 cups Rice, leftover, grains separated well

3/4 cup Peas and Carrots, Frozen, defrosted

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon Sesame Oil

Directions:

1.In a bowl, toss the shrimp with the salt, pepper and cornstarch. Let marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature. Heat a wok on high heat. When the wok is hot enough for a bead of water to instantly sizzle and evaporate, add just 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil and swirl to coat wok.

2.  Add the shrimp, quickly spreading out around the cooking surface area so that they are not overlapping. Let fry, untouched for 30 seconds. Flip over and let the other side fry for 30 seconds, or until about 80% cooked through. Remove the shrimp from the wok onto a plate, leaving as much oil in the wok as possible.

3.  Add the eggs, stirring in a quick motion to break up and scramble the eggs. When the eggs are almost cooked through (they should still be slightly runny in the middle), dish out of the wok into the same plate as the cooked shrimp.

4.  Use paper towels to wipe the same wok clean and return to high heat with the remaining 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, swirling to coat. When the oil is very hot, add the green onions and fry until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add in the rice and stir well to mix in the green onions throughout. Spread the rice all around the wok surface area and let the rice heat up, untouched until you hear the bottoms of the grains sizzle, about 1-2 minutes. Use the spatula to toss the rice, again spreading the rice out over the surface of wok.

5.  Drizzle the soy sauce all around the rice and toss. Add the peas and carrots, the cooked eggs, shrimp and sesame oil, tossing to mix the rice evenly with all of the ingredients. Let everything heat back up again, until the rice grains are so hot they practically dance! Taste and add an additional 1 teaspoon of soy sauce if needed. Serves 4.

r270ba

Awesome...thanks!

lecrams

Village Idiot, that sounds good.  I tried my hand at friend rice Saturday for the first time.  It was good, but not great.  I will try your recipe next (sans the shrimp for my wife's seafood allergy).

r2, don't forget to season that new wok!

r270ba

Just got it in today (a day early)! Gonna season tomorrow and wok Wednesday when it stops raining. Mine has the round bottom is that ok?

Eggcelsior

r270ba said:

Just got it in today (a day early)! Gonna season tomorrow and wok Wednesday when it stops raining. Mine has the round bottom is that ok?

For egging, yes. This is the traditional style of woks. Flat bottomed woks were made for cook tops.

r270ba

I have bought the wok ring as well.  I guess just place that down in the egg?  What if I wanted to do it on one of my burners...can I use the ring for that as well?

bigguy136

I have bought the wok ring as well.  I guess just place that down in the egg?  What if I wanted to do it on one of my burners...can I use the ring for that as well?

Look at my above photo. I put my round bottom wok on my burner without any ring. I do hang onto it with a hot pad when cooking.

r270ba

Awesome guys.  Just purchased The Breath of a Wok.  Can't wait to start!

Village Idiot

r270ba said:

Awesome guys.  Just purchased The Breath of a Wok.  Can't wait to start!

Now you're doing it right !  You'll be amazed at the misinformation going around.

r270ba

Thanks again. Will post my first wok soon!