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(TheAlligator) wrote:

wrote:
>>Thanks I'll check out the catalog. Those are pretty cheap, I'll have
>>to check my local asian mom and pop shop and see if they have a similar
>>one for the same price. One last question though, how do you regulate
>>the flame on one of those and is there any guidelines to how I should
>>set it or do you just use it all out?
>>
>Depends on how adept you are at using the wok. Like another poster
>farther down here just said, it's not how hot you GET it, but how hot
>you KEEP it. Using an electric burner even on high, if you throw in a
>large quantity of food at once, it will just cool down and stew.
Forgot to add something. One way to avoid the cooldown is cook in
batches. If I have too many vegetables, or too much meat in a
particular dish, I cook in batches. Split the vegetables into 2
groups - hard and soft, or whatever. Dump them in a bowl as you cook
each batch. Adding marinated chicken chunks , divide into 2 or 3
small batches and cook. (I promise you, if you try to do too much
meat in one batch, you will have tough, semi-stewed meat - the
opposite of what you want). Throw everything back together and let it
heat up. This really doesn't take any longer than dumping a huge lot
in and waiting for it to cook because the temp has plunged to zero.
This might be your best approach. I almost always cook the vegetables
first, then the meat, which seems to be the opposite of what most
people do. I found that if you marinate with corn starch in it,
cooking the meat leaves a junky residue which tends to burn, smoke and
make the wok hard to stir around in.