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file:///H|/Temp/Cooking%20e-books/(ebook)%20-%20Recipes%20-%20Wok%20Recipes/WOK.txt
file:///H|/Temp/Cooking%20e-books/(ebook)%20-%20Recipes%20-%20Wok%20Recipes/WOK.txt
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.01
Title: Introduction
Categories: Info, Wok
Yield: 1 info
No ingredients
The "cooking craze" for gourmet meals and exotic cooking at home has
finally arrived, states a feature article of TIME magazine of
december 19, 1977. The "cooking craze" rampage has caused homemakers
to purchase thousands of Chinese woks across the country. From the
sensuous pleasures that these people have derived from dining at top
quality Chinese restaurants across the nation, the zeal for Chinese
food has reached a popularity that surprises even the most seasoned
Chinese restauranteur. Few of these wok purchasers know much about
wook cookery, but most express a desire to learn how to cook well in
one. Hence, the reason for writing this booklet.
The author has spent some ten years teaching Chinese cooking both
formally in a university classroom and informally to various consumer
groups. This booklet was written in response to the numerous
questions that she has been asked within the last two years. The
basic instructions and recipes have all been used by her many
students.
One should have a desire to know something about China and its foods
before seriously embarking upon cooking stylistic dishes of its
cuisine. It lends greater fascination to know how some of these
dishes were developed and gives one a slight insight into Chinese
customs and culture.
The country of China, now known as The People's Republic of China, is
the largest country in the world by population, with 800,000,000
people. It is the third largest country in the world by geographical
area. Probably the best known feature of Chinese culture and
civilization is its cuisine. Chinese restaurants are found in almost
all large cities of the world.
Chinese cuisine has been at a high stage of sophistication for
countless centuries. This is evidenced by Confucius when he wrote in
his "Analects" during the sixth centure, B.C., that he liked his meat
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minced fine and his rice polished white. Regional cooking styles have
existed in China for at least a thousand years. Even foods described
in poetry by the Sung Dynasty poet, Su Tung Po (1037 to 1101 A.D.)
are not much different from the ones consumed today. There are extant
descriptions of court banquets at Hangchow of the Sung Period (907 to
1279 A.D.) that consisted of 40 to 200 courses and were served over a
period of one to three days. To serve all this food, the "elite" of
this period used gold, silver, jade and all types of porcelain
dishes. Some of these wares are presently on display at the Peking
Museum.
Since it is impractical in our society to strive toward ancient
Chinese court life, we can nevertheless strive to become sopisticated
gourmets. Some students are quite content to learn some Chinese
dishes and add variety to their diets. To become an accomplished wok
cook, it is not essential to use truly Chinese ingredients. Some
students do prefer Chinese ingredients, but the author has found that
most beginning wok cooks could not readily find the time to go to a
Chinese grocery store. Because of this inconvenience, this initial
booklet is designed to utilize ingredients that are readily available
in a large supermarket. Recipes utilizing true Chinese ingredients
can be found in another booklet, "Advanced Wok Cookery", by the same
author.
China has had a long legacy of high civilization, and it has long been
recognized that man must exist harmoniously with society and nature.
Even today, despite increased technology in agriculture and animal
husbandry, nature still creates its catastrophes; hence, the Chinese
reverence for good food, well prepared. If one has only one life to
live, then at least let it be pleasant as possible for one's duration
on the Earth.
MMMMM
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.01
Title: The Wok
Categories: Info, Wok
Yield: 1 info
No ingredients
It is not known exactly when the Chinese first used woks. By examining
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extant funerary stoves and stone relief pictures of the Han Dynasty
(200 B.C. to 220 A.D.), the author conjectures that they definitely
have been used for at least two thousand years. Since the Chinese wok
is a concave shaped cooking pan without seams or corners, it war
probably invented to fit directly over the round hole of the Chinese
cooking stove. Wood was used to fuel the cooking stove. When the wok
was put over the cooking hole, the rounded bottom of it would become
the hottest part of it, while the upper sides remained somewhat
cooler. To take advantage of this heating condition, the Chinese
"chow" or stir fry pieces of food that have been cut up into bite
size quickly in the wok. The high heat at the bottom of the wok seals
in the individual flavours of each ingredients. With a quick stir of
the wrist, all of the flavours of the ingredients are blended
together to form harmonious or contrasting tastes and textures.
Deep frying and steaming may also be performed in the wok. The wok is
actually an all purpose cooking utensil for the Chinese. Except for a
very good Chinese cleaver and a pot for cooking rice, that is all
that a Chinese really needs to prepare his meals.
MMMMM
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.01
Title: Selecting a Wok
Categories: Info, Wok
Yield: 1 info
No ingredients
Because there are many types of woks available for sale on the
market, the novice wok cook should make some distinction among them.
Some woks are sold individually while others are sold as sets with
lids, rings, etc. The materials that woks are made of are spun sheet
steel, hand hammered iron (low carbon steel), and stainless steel.
There are also teflon coated electric woks. For the beginner, the
author recommends that he purchase a wok set with lid, ring, wok
turner, ladle, and strainer. A wok made of low carbon steel is
preferred are this type of metal is a better conductor of heat. If
one is concerned with appearance, a stainless steel wok is
recommended. It can be scoured with steel wool and restored to
newness after each use. Because stainless steel is a relatively poor
conductor of heat and tends to reflect the heat back to the stove, it
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is recommended that a stainless wok be chosen with a slightly
flattened bottom, to provide greater contact with the heating element
of an electric stove.
Regardless of the type of wok that one selects, one should consider
the concaveness of a wok. There are shallow concave woks and deep
concave woks. The best wok shape is a medium concave wok. If a wok is
too deep then the heat of it will be mostly concentrated in the
bottom of it and not enough on the sides. If the wok is too shallow,
again, only the center of it will be heated and sides hardly at all.
For the same reasons of heat conductivity, a thicker gauge wok is
preferred to a thin metal wok.
MMMMM
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.01
Title: Seasoning the Wok
Categories: Info, Wok
Yield: 1 info
No ingredients
Only iron and steel woks need to be seasoned. Stainless steel woks do
not need this treatment as they are far less porous than iron or
steel woks. However with stainless steel woks, more oil is required
to prevent the food from sticking.
Seasoning a steel wok enables foods to glide smoothly over the cooking
surface of the wok. In a properly seasoned wok one should be able to
make perfect omelettes. If the omelette even sticks ever so slightly,
then the wok is not properly seasoned and should be re-seasoned.
There are two methods for seasoning the iron or steel wok. After
purchasing the wok, wash it out thoroughly with detergent to remove
the surface grease which is applied to keep the wok from rusting
while in shipment. Instead of grease some woks are coated with
varnish coating and is difficult to remove. Bicarbonate of soda
should be boiled in the wok to rid the surface of this coating. When
the cooking surface of the wok is free of anti-rusting coatings,
apply a thin coat of polyunsaturated cooking oil to the surface of
the wok. Heat the wok up over a very high cooking flame for three or
four minutes until the oil begins to smoke. Reduce the heat and keep
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the wok over low flame for the next half hour. From time to time
brush some of the oil up around the sides of the wok to season it. At
the end of half an hour the wok is ready to use.
Another more thorough method of seasoning a wok is to brush
polyunsaturated cooking oil on the cooking surface of the wok and then
place the wok into an oven at 150'C. for four hours. The oil in the
wok will become pooled while heating in the oven, so about every hour
or so, take your brush and brush the oil up around the sides of the
wok and continue heating.
New woks may cause a slight metallic taste to the first two or three
dishes that are cooked in it, but after use, the metallic taste
disappears.
MMMMM
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.01
Title: Caring for and Storing the Wok
Categories: Info, Wok
Yield: 1 info
No ingredients
A properly seasoned wok should not be scoured with abrasive material
such as steel wool. After cooking foods in the wok, iti s best to run
very hot water into it and clean the surface of the wok with a bamboo
brush or plastic scour. Dry the wok thoroughly with a paper towel and
store for future use. Some gourmets will place a small amount of oil
on their fingertips to re-coat their woks to keep them in top cooking
condition. Eventually through repeated usage, a dark brown film will
develop in the wok. The wok is now truly seasoned. This film is
essentially carbon and is not harmful to one's health. The bottom of
the woks, the part that touches the cooking flame of the stove should
definitely be scoured over occasionally to free it of collected
residue.
If one has the misfortune to accidentally burn food in the wok, it
will be necessary to take steel wool and scour out the burnt material
and then re-season the wok once again. Each time that one has to
scour out the wok with abrasive material, then one should re-season
the wok.
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