seasoning my wok

Wash it in hot water only and use a clean rag to wipe it off...DO NOT USE SOAP.....once it is dry I add a drop of olive oil and wipe it in the wok with a paper towel....you will love the wok...

Linda,
Shrimp fried rice, stir fry veggies, broccoli beef, kung pow chicken to name a few.

This is one of my favorite wok recipes. I cooked it at Eggtoberfest...

Szechuan Pork
Ingredients:
Medium red pepper
Green onions
1 lb pork tenderloin
Chili garlic sauce
Fresh ginger
Low sodium chicken broth
Low sodium soy sauce
Peanut butter
Rice or spaghetti noodles
Pea Pods
Cooking oil
Directions
Take 1lb pork tenderloin and cut it into 1” strips. In a plastic zip lock bag marinade the pork by mixing 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce and one teaspoon of minced fresh ginger and mix it into the pork. Set aside and marinade for 2-4 hrs. Slice a medium red pepper into strips or Julienne style. Next take 4 green onions and slice them diagonally into 1 1/2″ pieces. Cut ends off of pea pods and cut the pods in half. Set vegys aside for later use.
Next take 1/4 cup of low sodium chicken broth (you must use low sodium or it will be very salty when cooked) and 1 1/2 tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce and add it to 1 tablespoon of peanut butter Mix this together with a fork or small whisk.
Get the BGE stabilized at 350 degrees. Place the wok in the egg for about 5 minutes so the wok gets hot. Put 2 tablespoons of a good quality cooking oil into the wok. Next add the pork to the wok. You only need to get the outside of the pork browned but not fully cooked before you add the red pepper. The smaller the pork chunks and the hotter your wok is the shorter the cook times will be and vice versa. Cook the red peppers & pea pods until they start to soften slightly before moving on to the next step.
At this point the pork has been cooking about 12 minutes at 350 deg. Now that the peppers & pods have started to soften it is time to add the green onion and peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Allow this to cook until the sauce thickens slightly. About 2-4 minutes. With extra caution and two oven mitts remove the wok and pour the Szechuan Pork into a bowl making sure to get all of the sauce from the wok.
We served this over fried rice & it was great. Eat & enjoy

2Fategghead wrote:

Thanks Frank. The next time I use my egg i'll season on the wok some more. Tim

By definition, yes you will...but I wouldn't put any more effort into it.

I'm by no means an expert on wok cooking or seasoning. All I know is my own experience. I did a heavy seasoning using oil when I first got my wok (if I ever have to do this again, I'll actually use lard). I got a high-shine finish like what you've got. And then as I started cooking, that shiny coating started flaking off. After many cooks, my wok now has a dark, matte finish. With the initial coating, you could see that the finish had a thickness to it...it was a thick layer of coating. Now that I've been using it a lot, that layer is gone, and the seasoned finish it has now just appears to be part of the surface of the wok, rather than COATING the surface of the wok. I believe that what I now have is approaching a seasoned wok, not a wok with a coating of burned oil.

You've done enough to get your wok in a condition where you can start cooking on it. As you use the wok, the act of cooking in it will do the REAL work in seasoning it. No more effort required, unless you do something that ruins the patina, like cleaning with detergent, or leaving acidic foods in the wok (cooking with tomatoes or other acidic ingreds should be fine, just clean the wok right away, afterwards).

Also, you know that shortening (Crisco) and lard are two completely different things, right?

Don't worry about your seasoning anymore...just cook. From this point on, the seasoning will take care of itself.

i would go indirect for maybe an hour, check it twice and wipe it again if needed then shut the egg down with it inside. whatever extra is in it will drip out while it cooks, just don't go real heavy with your crisco, its better to go with really light coats instead of one heavy one. the way yours looks just cook it til it starts to get dry and shut it down inside the egg.

What a great thread! I just got mine a week or so ago and did maybe 4 cycles of oiling/heating/washing. I moved the wok all around and inverted it until it was black all over.

On my first cook, beef with oyster sauce, I scooped everything out with a ladle but before I could remove the wok the sauce that was left in the bottom was burned on. When I washed it the seasoning in this area came off.

Should I re-season it or just continue cooking? Should I remove the wok when the dish is done instead scooping out the contents?

When I lived in Thailand they had these "brushes" that were basically thin strips of bamboo that were tied together at one end. When they finished cooking they added water, quickly scrubbed it with this device, and then dumped the water. How does that sound?

Bruce

Ah, I like the water bottle idea Ben. I saw those bamboo brushes at the Asian market in OKC before I ordered my wok. I plan on getting one next trip down...would you like for me to grab you one (or anyone else interested)while I'm there?

Bruce