Many ways to wok
China Doll’s Frank Shek says in Chinese cuisine, the wok reigns supreme: “I think the national symbol of China shouldn’t be the dragon, it should be the wok because the wok is essential to our style of cuisine. The wok is a very versatile piece of cooking equipment. You can obviously stir-fry in it. You can boil, you can steam, you can slow-roast, you can poach, you can use it as a hat…”
Wok tricks
Just because you’re not cooking in a commercial kitchen, doesn’t mean you can’t get great wok flavours at home, says Frank.
- “If you have an induction which has no flame, you should buy a flat-bottomed wok.”
- “A lot of people think we it’s best to buy a thin gauge wok because it heats up really quickly actually the opposite is true. You buy a heavy gauge wok because there's more metal there to hold the heat.”
- “Give you wok time to reach the optimum temperature and then cook in small batches. It's important that the wok is hot before you add the ingredients, otherwise you end up with a stir-stew rather than a stir-fry.”
- “Have everything in front of you – all your sauces; everything cut to uniform pieces – so you can execute at the right workflow. It's fast.”
Essential ingredients
Frank tells us: “You've got to have your ginger, garlic, shallots, chillies, a couple of soy sauces – one light, one dark – and we're in business.”
Spice story
While not all regions of China cook with chilli, Frank says it’s his number one spice. “A lot of people associate chilli just with heat, but there's a whole lot more to the humble chilli than that. There are huge flavour profiles and so many forms for chilli: there's powdered, there's dried, there's fermented. They all add a different nuance to your dishes.”
Frank says other classic Chinese spices include star anise, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and white pepper.
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