| |
| |
|
Cooking Tips Information |
|
|
|
Wok this Way! (Part 3 of 5) Seasoning Your New Wok
Seasoning is the most important thing you can do to your wok. Only carbon steel and iron woks need to be seasoned. The purpose of seasoning is to remove the manufacturer's protective coating and coat it with a thin layer of oil. This creates a smooth cooking surface which enables food to shift and glide easily, thus preventing your food from sticking, discoloring, and picking up a metallic taste. The initial step is to scrub it thoroughly. Take a steel wool scouring pad and scrub both the inside and outside of the wok with soap. This will remove the anti-rust coating that comes with most woks. If your new wok comes with some rust spots, don't worry. It is completely normal for unseasoned woks to develop some minor rust. Just make sure that you scrub out the rust before you move on. Rinse it thoroughly with hot water. Then, to make sure that you remove all the coating, set the wok on the stove, fill it with water, and boil it for 5 to 10 minutes to dissolve the remaining coating. Pour out the water and scrub the surface again with steel wool scouring pad and soap. New woks may cause a slight metallic taste to the first two or three dishes that are cooked in it, but after that, the metallic taste will disappear. Reminder: the steel wool scouring pad is only to be used in this initial step prior to seasoning your new wok. Do NOT use a steel wool scouring pad on a seasoned wok, EVER! It will waste all the effort you put forth in seasoning your wok, and will require you to re-season it again. Next, place the wok on the stove over high heat. You're ready for the next step when you sprinkle a few drops of water into the wok and they start to dance around the bottom. Then, roll up a few sheets of paper towel, or use a piece of cloth, and dip it in cooking oil. Peanut oil or corn oil are preferred because of their high smoking point, thus minimizing smoke fumes when you are seasoning the wok.. Naturally, turning on your stove top vent will help reduce the fumes, too. Using a pair of long wooden chopsticks, or tongs, wipe the soaked paper towel over the entire inner surface of the wok. Reduce the heat down to low, and let the wok sit for 15 minutes. This allows the wok to absorb the oil. If the surface begins to dry off, then wipe the wok again with the soaked paper towel. You want the wok to obtain a thin film of oil when it's seasoned. The bottom of the wok should be slightly brown. Repeat the above steps two more time, and the bottom should darken even more. Over time, the entire wok will turn black (that's good). Now the wok is ready to go. But we're not nearly done. Ever wonder why Chinese restaurant dishes produce that mouth-watering aroma when they are served on your table? And ever wonder why you can't quite match that flagrant flavor when you try to cook Chinese food at home? They come from cooking food on an almost impervious shiny black coating in a well-seasoned wok. That black coating is called "patina", which is essentially harmless carbon residue from cooking in a wok repeatedly on high heat. A well-seasoned wok cooking at a high heat will impart what Chinese chefs lovingly call "wok hay". Its literal translation is "breath of wok". Wok hay is so revered in Chinese culinary tradition that in China , especially in the Canton region (south), when a customer is served stir fry dish without wok hay, it is considered an insult or bad luck. It takes time, care, and regular use before a wok develops a patina. There are no shortcuts. But having patina on your wok is still not enough produce wok hay on your dishes. It is imperative that you heat the wok on high heat to the point where you see some faint smoke coming from the bottom before you add cold cooking oil. The cold cooking oil cools down the wok slightly, and makes the food taste tenderer once it's done. If the wok is not hot enough, or cold (gasp!) when you pour in the cooking oil, the ingredients will stick to the wok (even with the patina) and inevitably burn, also leaving the ingredients raw inside. Not to mention you lose that coveted "wok hay". In Part 4, we will talk about cleaning and caring for you wok. Helen Fan grew up in a family that has owned various Asian restaurants all over North America, from Vancouver (Canada), Houston (Texas), Decatur (Illinois), to Chicago (Illinois). She, and the rest of the Fan family are now sharing their decades of knowledge on the art of Chinese cuisine at http://www.ChineseHomeCooking.Com You can read more of our articles at http://www.ChineseHomeCooking.Com/resources/resources.htm
MORE RESOURCES:
Cooking-Tips - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
10 Dishes Every New Bride or Groom Must Know How to Make! Okay, you've either gotten married or are planning to pretty soon. Congratulations! I'm sure you're aware that this means you will be responsible for at least half the meals you and your loved one will eat from here on out! Not to mention future children, your visiting family members and - of course - inlaws. Digital Kitchen Timers - Never Burn Another Dish Digital kitchen timers come in many shapes and sizes. Timers are an indispensable tool in the kitchen. What is a Serving Size? Have you ever wondered how much a serving really is. Well, pull out your box of Raisin Bran, grab the milk a bowl and a spoon. How to Bake: Bread on the Grill One of the slickest tricks we know is baking bread on the grill. Once you get to know your grill, it's easy-like baking your favorite recipe in the oven. Two for One Dinners: Beans If you find leftovers boring, uninviting or downright "yuck," then here are some ideas to put the "zing" back into mealtime. With a little creativity your home-cooked meal can easily become a delicious meal another night. The Almighty Beer-Can Chicken A popular method of cooking chicken in recent years both in Barbeque contest as well as backyard barbeques is the beer-can chicken. Cooking a beer-can chicken couldn't be any easier but the results are worthwhile. Hot Apple Pie - The American Apple Pie Legacy While each country might have its own preferred style, "American Style" apple pie includes your basic pie with apples in it, spiced up with cinnamon and/or nutmeg. Some folks top it off with a scoop of ice cream (such as vanilla) and this is known as "Apple Pie a la mode. Using Bread Machine Mixes in Your Oven You don't have to own a bread machine to enjoy the variety of bread machine mixes. And you don't have to make blocky, square loaves with holes in the bottom. Is Your Cookware Poisoning You? For over 40 years scientists have known that the fumes from hot non-stick surfaces can kill pet birds such as canaries. So just how dangerous are they to you?Several studies have been conducted into health concerns surrounding Teflon, the coating invented and patented by DuPont. Save Time in the Kitchen - Cook Pasta the Way Restaurant Chefs Do Have you ever wondered how a restaurant can get a dish of pasta to your table in about four minutes when you know it takes ten minutes just to cook the pasta? Does the water on their stoves boil at a higher temperature than the water on yours? Do they know a trick that you don't? As a matter of fact, they do.They parboil, or partially pre-cook their pasta; so when an order comes in to the kitchen, a cook can turn out a dish of perfectly 'al dente' pasta in a minute or two. How to cut a cake Have you ever wondered how to cut a cake? I have had a lot of practice. When I turned 16 and requested a Spider Man sheet cake I busily honed my cake cutting skills by making concentric rectangles and then served up the master piece. Moms Easy Cooking - Fast Meal Ideas For Busy Moms Every busy mom worries about how to prepare fast, nutritious meals for her family. Working moms often find they have very little time for meal planning and preparation. Fruit Cake Are you the fruit cake in your family? Before you raise your eyebrow, I would suggest you read on to know what I mean.The fruit cake has tantalized the world for centuries. Two for One Dinners: Beef If you find leftovers boring, uninviting or downright "yuck," then here are some ideas to put the "zing" back into mealtime. With a little creativity your home-cooked meal can easily become a delicious meal another night. The Art of the Marinade It's a sad fact that these days it has become almost essential to marinade most cuts of meat, unless you intend to casserole them.I'll go into why that is the case a bit later on, but for the time being let's just examine why we use marinades at all. Making Homemade Pasta for Dinner Tonight Homemade pasta cooked al dente (to the teeth), is a chewy and light treat. Here are the simple steps to making fresh pasta for dinner tonight. To Fry Or Not To Fry? Here's a little known factoid - did you know that KFC changed its image by retiring the slogan Kentucky FRIED Chicken. Instead, they became known as serving up Kitchen Fresh Chicken. Bacteria and Food-borne Diseases Types of BacteriaBacteria are all around us, in the air, water, ground, on our skin and in our bodies. They are classified in a variety of ways, but for our purpose we can categorize them in a more basic way. Grilling Tips - Safety Comes First at the Barbecue You're standing at the gas grill in the hot sun, wiping the sweat from your brow, and having your favorite cool drink. You are making one of your favorite grill recipes for the neighbors that are coming over in a few minutes for a home and garden party. Unique Cake Decorating With Flowers Flowers as a Cake Decoration, unique and easy to place on every one of your cake creations.Flowers, both real and artificial are relatively simple to use.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
