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« Asian Dumpling Online Class: Preview and Special VWK Price |Main
November 05, 2013Nonstick Wok Recommendations
I often take pictures of my food cooking in a wok so it wasno surprise when a couple of people asked about wok selection and care. Lastweek, Man Nghi wrote this: “I have the heavy Chinese cast-iron wok at homebut often it is very useful to have a non-stick one too.” She’d seen one forabout $59.99 and thought it pricey, which led to this question, “Is that thenormal price for a good non-stick wok? I would ask my mother however she doesnot own one.”
Her comments hit on a lot of points forme, mainly that for decades, my mom didn’t have a wok at home. She stir-friedin a well-worn deep cast iron skillet. Viet cooks tend to not be big on woks.Chinese-Vietnamese people, like my friends Eric and Sophie Banh in Seattle, are more inclined to use them forcooking Viet fare. I can totally understand why Man Nghi’s mom isn’t a Viet wokuser.
When I started outcooking for myself and tinkering with Chinese food, I initially tried a regularcarbon-steel wok. My food kept sticking and I switched to using a largenonstick skillet. In the late 1990s, I wanted to try the wok again but was gunshy. I bought a nonstick wok for about $20.
The nonstick wok instantly made me feellike a Chinese food pro. Slices of marinated meat slid around the pan with ease.I turned out fabulous dishes as if I’d been using one for years. The troublehit when the bits of nonstick coating came off into the food I was cooking.
Ididn’t realize that you couldn’t heat the darn thing up at high temperatureswithout consequences. Stir-frying is about high heat, fast cooking. The flecksof black came off during a dinner party, as I was finishing up dishes to bring tothe table. I picked out most of the bits and hoped for the best. The next day,I threw the wok away.
I didn’t cook with a wok until yearslater, after I’d been inspired by reading Grace Young’s Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. Grace was on a wok mission, arguing thattraditional woks worked best. Poking around a Ross Dress-for-Less one day, Ifound the flat-bottomed wok you see here. As Tane Chan, owner ofthe Wok Shop in San Francisco says, a good wok doesn’t have to cost much. My $20 wokcame in a box as a Joyce Chen kit and the unusual discovery of it at Ross of all places was akin to Asian cooking kismet (a cheap deal!). After assembling it, I threw away the otheraccoutrements as I can’t figure out how to comfortably wield those longchopsticks.
I followed Grace’s instructions to washthen season the wok with a bunch of Chinese chives (the same stuff used in classicChinese dumplings!). Then I started cooking, blasting it with heat without fearof nonstick coating fleck coming off.
Food stuck time and time again. Watchingme repeated scrape bits from the wok wall, my husband suggested that I buy anew wok. “Because the sticking is suppose to go away,” I’d responded infrustration.
Then I decided to deep-fry in the wok. Perhaps the oil would penetrate themetal to hasten the formation of a nonstick surface? Plus, less oil wasrequired for wok frying and it heated up in a jiffy. About 2 years into usingthe wok once or twice a week, there was a beautiful black coating in the lowerthird. Food still stuck less, though stir-frying noodles or making fried ricecould sometimes be challenging if the noodles or rice wasn’t dryish.
I rarely washed the outside of the wok, which is why it looks slightly crusty versus the smooth interior. A fast scrub after each use with hot water and maybe a drop of soap was all ittook to clean up the wok. Then I dried it over a low flame while we ate dinner.
As the wok developed its patina, I foundmyself using it more often, even keeping it out on the stove for days on end. Inot only liked it. I loved it. The wok naturally became nonstick. I was evenfrying eggs in it, something I’d rarely do in my All Clad stainless steelskillets.
One day last year I simmered a dish inthe wok and had to re-season the wok. I felt like I’d take a half stepbackwards. But I just kept using it for stir-frying, panfrying, anddeep-frying. On one occasion, I slid the wok into the oven to hide it fromguests after I finished deep-frying a batch of wontons. I left it in the ovenovernight and the next day, turned the oven on to bake something. By the time Iremembered the oil-filled wok, the oven was hot. I carefully carried the hot wokoutside to cool on the cement patio.
When cooled, the wok and wood handledhad surprisingly developed a rich patina in the oven. A beautiful, unintended consequence. I’dread that you can season a wok in the oven and I’d done it by mistake.
So what’s the advice on buying anonstick wok? Get a carbon-steel or lightweight cast iron one. It doesn’t needto be expensive. To turn a cheap wok into a priceless piece of cookware, youjust have to use it often. Religiously, as if you’re exercising the wok andyour wok cooking skills.
If someone told me that the break-in time would take years, I would have been patient back in the 1990s. Had I truly realized that the fundamental idea behindChinese wok cooking is that it’s your go-to cooking vessel for all kinds of cooking methods, I would have understood that traditional Chinese cooks have 'nonstick' woks by using it at a super high frequency. My perception of the wok was that of a dilletante.
My long journey to achieving nonstick wok status required practicing a wok routine. A little blind neglect helped my cause too. To answer Man Nghi's question, the best nonstick wok is one you make yourself.
If you have wok experiences or questions, feel free to share.
Posted in Asian Food Culture, Cooking Tips & Tools | Permalink | |
| Comments Nonstick Wok Recommendations
I often take pictures of my food cooking in a wok so it wasno surprise when a couple of people asked about wok selection and care. Lastweek, Man Nghi wrote this: “I have the heavy Chinese cast-iron wok at homebut often it is very useful to have a non-stick one too.” She’d seen one forabout $59.99 and thought it pricey, which led to this question, “Is that thenormal price for a good non-stick wok? I would ask my mother however she doesnot own one.”
Her comments hit on a lot of points forme, mainly that for decades, my mom didn’t have a wok at home. She stir-friedin a well-worn deep cast iron skillet. Viet cooks tend to not be big on woks.Chinese-Vietnamese people, like my friends Eric and Sophie Banh in Seattle, are more inclined to use them forcooking Viet fare. I can totally understand why Man Nghi’s mom isn’t a Viet wokuser.
When I started outcooking for myself and tinkering with Chinese food, I initially tried a regularcarbon-steel wok. My food kept sticking and I switched to using a largenonstick skillet. In the late 1990s, I wanted to try the wok again but was gunshy. I bought a nonstick wok for about $20.
The nonstick wok instantly made me feellike a Chinese food pro. Slices of marinated meat slid around the pan with ease.I turned out fabulous dishes as if I’d been using one for years. The troublehit when the bits of nonstick coating came off into the food I was cooking.
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Recent PostsNonstick Wok RecommendationsAsian Dumpling Online Class: Preview and Special VWK PriceGiveaway Winner: Asian Dumplings Online ClassStovetop Salmon Teriyaki RecipePre-Launch Giveaway! Asian Dumplings Online ClassCozy Asian Pumpkin Recipes and IdeasPanfried Tofu with Pickled Ginger RecipeVietnamese Cookbooks ListOld School Sweet and Sour Pork RecipeMy Q&A with 5th GradersCopyright 2002-2013 by Andrea Nguyen | Privacy Policydocument.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js'%3E%3C/script%3E"));COMSCORE.beacon({ c1: 2, c2: "6035669", c3: "", c4: "http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2013/11/nonstick-wok-recommendations.html", c5: "", c6: "", c15: ""});
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