Cooking requires proper planning and utilization of kitchen tools. You have your recipe, you have your ingredients and you have your wok, do you know how to use a wok? If you don’t know how to use a wok, it would be easy for you to make unpleasant food.
Things You Should Watch Out When Using a Wok
Using a wok is not complicated but if you are new, you could end up burning your food and wok as well. Using wrong temperatures, wrong oils and wrong cleaning methods can ruin your wok so here are the steps to make sure you use your wok appropriately.
Prepare Your Wok First Before You Start Cooking
It is a new wok so you cannot directly use it. First make sure you prepare it and below are the steps to prepare your wok.
- Use hot water and dish soap to wash the wok. Use a sponge or steel wool to ensure you scrub out the factory outer covering. Most companies normally add a thin oil film to protect the wok from humidity
- Dry the wok
- You can take the paper towel to eliminate any excess oils. If you don’t remove these oils, they will ruin your food’s test.
- Now put your burner on high temperatures and start drying it. Remaining oils may burn completely leaving the wok clean and ready for cooking your food.
- You can rub it again to remove residues after it has cooled down completely.
Season the Wok
You wouldn’t like your best wok to be sticky on foods and other materials that you cook. For that reason, always make sure you wash it, dry it and apply a small amount of oil before you store. A dark colored wok is an indication that it is not sticky.
Every time you cook, make sure you wash and dry the wok so that it retains its non-sticky nature. Different materials of the wok behave differently so you may see different color changes.
How to Cook Using a Wok
Learn how to use the wok in the below steps. Remember, every food has its own time for cooking so make sure you read to the end and you will know how to cook.
Step 1: Heat the Oil
Using medium heat amount, heat the wok until it becomes hot. You can take oil and add it to the wok. Spread the oil until it covers the full inner surface where you will place your food for cooking. You can swirl the wok so that you easily distribute the oil on the surface of the wok.
Step 2: Start Searing Your Protein and Keep It Ready
Before you add the protein inside the wok, make sure you dry the wok using a paper towel. Protein that is not dry will steam instead of drying so make sure it is completely dry before you add the protein. Add the protein in a single layer, it could be chicken, beef or any other type of protein, just add in a single layer.
Leave it for minutes to ensure it has perfectly seared at the bottom then you can use the spatula to ensure you turn over the meat. Even when the protein has seared well on both sides, continue cooking it because the depth of the protein might not be ready for consumption.
After you are sure the protein is ready and well-cooked, you can then season it with salt and transfer to a bowl or plate.
Step 3: Cook the Aromatics
Aroma is everything when it comes to food. To cook aromatics, first return the wok to medium sized heat. Put one tablespoon of oil in the wok and swirl like you did at the beginning. Garlic, onions and ginger are some of the aromatics and spices that people use. Put whichever aromatic you and stir continuously until it mixes perfectly with the oil.
Step 4: Cook Vegetables
To the aromatics that you have just cooked, add vegetables. Add from the ones that take longest time to cook to the ones that take very little time to cook.
- Up to 7 minutes’ vegetables include broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and carrots. You can examine your ingredients to know which ones are hard
- Up to 5 minutes-these include vegetables like mushrooms and Zucchini
- Up to 4 minutes’ vegetables include baby carrots, snow peas and bell peppers
Once you have added the vegetables, stir as they cook so that they get ready as they cook. Make sure you are steady so that they cook evenly in all sides.
Step 5: Add Your Protein and Rice if You Have
Once the vegetables are ready, it is time for you to add the proteins and liquids. Whenever adding liquids, add from the margins of the wok so that it distributes perfectly cook well. Pouring the liquids from the sides helps to heat the liquids before they even touch your food. This leads to proper cooking so that you enjoy a delicious meal.
Quick Notice Before You Staring Cooking
Always know the time that you are supposed to cook every food. Below are some of the hints on how to cook some of the foods.
- Protein, Cook from 4 to 7 minutes
- Aromatics should only be cooked for 1 minute
- Vegetables should be cooked for 1 to 7 minutes depending on the hardness
- Sauce should only be cooked for 2 minutes
Conclusion
Using a wok is simple but you need to know how every food is supposed to be cooked. Over cooking foods could lead to them losing tastes and even burning them. using appropriate oils also helps not just for the foods but also for the wellbeing of the wok. This is the best way to ensure you produce excellent dishes. Besides knowing how to use a wok, make sure you learn how to clean it so that after you are done, you will be able to perfectly clean it and store it appropriately. Don’t allow your wok to get rusty or have some areas of weakness.