cooking advice requested

[waider]

I know there are several cooking-fanatical people on my friendslist, so I figure at least ONE should be able to bail me out here: I have a wok. I do not have a gas burner to sit it on. I have a halogen/ceramic electric cooker which has a 0-6 power range, and that’s it. I have made several unsuccessful attempts to do useful wok things, but ultimately I run into one of two problems: (a) smoke and (b) more oil than I’m happy with in the end result. So. Given that I cannot, at the drop of a hat, replace my halogen/ceramic heat source with something that might actually be wok-friendly, I have the following questions:

1. How should I best determine the optimal setting for heating the wok? I am leery of anything that involves smoke generation, due to a hypersensitive smoke alarm that’s hooked into the house upstairs and which I cannot switch off once it’s triggered
2. Is the excessive oil down to too much oil in the wok, or incorrect heating?
3. Should I just give up on the wok entirely, and buy chinese from the local takeaway (it is quite good)?

That is all, thank you in advance for any input (especially useful input)

Comments

[wisn.livejournal.com]

I don't know about what Chinese groceries are like in Dublin, but even in relatively podunk hereabouts the cookware at the Chinese groceries are better for their purpose than in the honky stores, and cheaper. Also shorter lifespans - I love my $5 Chinese cleaver but it gets nasty with rust with no effort at all, while the $mumble German cleaver has nowhere near the heft and control, but it will outlast me.

A cheap steel wok works better than an expensive Teflon-coated unit. That's contingent on being able to get the pan hot enough. On the other hand, I've never seen flat-bottomed woks at a Chinese grocery. A decent broad steel pan with round, deep sides might work better than a flat-bottomed wok for an electric stove.

If you watch stir-fry made by the pros, the food in the wok never stops moving unless it's in sauce. They're continually stirring and banging the pan around. All the mythos and specificity of tools aside, that's probably the best way to approximate their technique: high heat (higher than you should keep Teflon at), continually stirring.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Short version: I think I agree with everything said by wisn here. Now for the slightly longer version.

Can't speak for Dublin, but the Chinese grocery stuff is true for over here, too (although my £5 cleaver isn't prone to rust: it tends to lose its handle instead). They are also good for dirt-cheap bamboo steamers. Non-stick "woks" are best avoided, as the non-stick tends to fall apart at stir-fry temps, but woks of various types are available at a variety of stores.

The other advantage of woks (including the flat-bottomed ones) for stir-frying is that you can shove stuff up the sloping sides for a while, if you want it to be subjected to a gentler heat. Some large frying pans will alow this, but to a more limited extent.