1 WOKS 2 SEASONING A WOK 3 COOKING WITH A WOK 4 FLAMBEING YOUR CEILING -- (MY DISCLAIMER -- DO NOT DO THIS!) === 1 WOKS There is only one type of wok to use. It is not electric; it is not flat bottomed; it is not stainless steel; it is not small: and it is not expensive. The standard, round-bottomed, mild steel, Chinese woks will work on any stove: gas or electric. Also, they can rust, so proper care is necessary. For most home cooking I use a 14 inch wok with one long handle. On electric stoves, I use a little stand that keeps the heat focused. 2 SEASONING A WOK The only time you should ever use soap on a wok is when you bring it home. They are usually covered with a factory grease that keeps them from rusting. Thoroughly scrub the wok with cleanser and steel wool. Then put on the stove at full heat. Walk away! Come back in 10 minutes and pour a large glass of cold water into the wok and rinse. Repeat two or three times. What this does is to expand and contract the steel, forcing out any impurities and dirt. You should have a nice, very black circle in the centre of your wok. That is good! You can even move the wok around a bit to widen this circle. To season the wok, lower the heat to medium- low and pour in 1 cup of cooking oil (I use canola or peanut oil for stir-frying. Do not use olive or sesame oils -- see p.10). Add to the oil a small onion, finely minced. Leave this on the heat for at least half an hour. The heat should be low enough that the onion does not burn, but fries gently. Swish the oil around the edges occasionally. You now have a seasoned wok that has a virtually non-stick surface. Cleaning is easy. After cooking a dish, just rinse (never use soap) and scrub with a bamboo wok cleaner or a hard plastic scrubbie. If necessary, dry and oil lightly. A wok, properly used, rarely needs to be re-seasoned. 3 COOKING WITH A WOK It is very simple. Have everything cut and ready. Cook on full heat. Keep the food moving over the wok bottom. Cook quickly. Have all the ingredients of the stir-fry dish already cut, and have any sauces ready or mixed. Heat the wok to almost smoking before putting the oil in. Then, as soon as the oil has gone in, put in the initial ingredients -- green onion and ginger, or garlic and salted black bean, or lemongrass ... whatever the dish needs or you want. Stir these first ingredients quickly on the wok bottom until you get what Y-liang Wang of Winnipeg's Mandarin restaurants calls "The Good Smell!" It will take only a few seconds, so get ready to move quickly. Toss in the next ingredients. If the dish is a mix of meat and vegetables, you can either par-boil the vegies (never the onions) before cooking the meat, or cook the vegies in the wok first and remove them while cooking the meat. At full heat, a dish can cook in as little as two or three minutes. Sauces with corn-starch should be mixed with a little water and stirred just before tossing into the wok. It then has to be stirred all through the food so that it thickens smoothly. Cooked properly, most dishes will slide out of the wok leaving a glossy, well-seasoned surface. It can be rinsed and put away. Sometimes the surface will become deglazed -- tomato sauces or wet curries can do this. In that case, rinse, dry and lightly oil the wok before putting away. 4 FLAMBEING YOUR CEILING -- (MY DISCLAIMER -- DO NOT DO THIS!) A very Chinese trick that should not be done in your kitchen is to heat the oil, toss in cooking wine, AND IGNITE IT! Be very careful, as the oil should spatter when hit with the wine. To 'light up,' hold a match to the spattering oil and wine and light it! But BE VERY CAREFUL! Never try this if you are using a lot of oil. Kitchen fires are hell. But it does add a nice smoky taste to dishes.