Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

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cast iron wok

How to: Fry Eggs in your Wok

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When it comes to eggs, your cast iron wok is the best pan for doing it!  You can never run out of ways to cook them and then there are infinite more ways to eat them on top of, with and inside something!  
I’m constantly asked how I get my fried egg yolks so bright, beautiful and round. Here are a few tricks which I’ll share with you…
Use a wok, the dip in the wok keeps the yolk intact and round!
Use an efficient source of heat which means gas, it’s all about controlling the heat on a whim.
Use oil that withstands high heat: avocado oil, ghee, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil.
Let the egg cook till it naturally ‘releases’ from the wok.  If you keep poking or moving it, it will stick. Same technique with making omelets or for frying meat for that matter.
I slather some sort of chili sauce around the yolk or on top of the omelet like Lingham’s chili sauce or sriracha, it makes everything taste good.

‘park’ egg on side while heating up leftover Pad Thai!
WokFriedEgg
Different techniques: hubby spoons oil over the egg to cook it, while I use lower heat.

FRIED EGG:
1. Heat your cast iron wok or pan (please no non-stick) to medium heat, add oil so it drizzles down the sides and coat the sides so the egg doesn’t stick!
2. Crack your egg into the oil and push out the whites with your spatula. This way the whites cook quicker in a thin layer instead of bunched around the yolk.  I like my fried egg sunny side up with slightly crispy edges.  Be patient and you’ll be rewarded with a bright colored yolk.

Park warmed Jerky Pork on side while cooking omelet in wok. Use leftovers to add element of surprise in your omelet!
OmeletinWok
Park mini sweet peppers on side and cook omelet in wok. If you want cheese, add them in before you do the fold over.

OMELETS:
1. Crack your eggs (3-4) in a bowl.
2. Add chopped scallions, salt and pepper.
3. If you have fillings which can be leftover veggies or meat, warm them up a little first, no oil is necessary and park them on the side of the wok (see photos below.)
4. Add oil, then pour in the egg mixture, swirl around wok to widen the surface area. Turn heat down a little so bottom doesn’t burn before you’ve had a chance to cook the eggs.  The bottom will release from the edge when you slide your spatula under omelet. When you flip over your omelet, there’ll be uncooked egg swirling, don’t panic, slide the cooked part up sides of the wok. You’ll get the hang of this with practice.  Let the eggs cook a little, add your fillings in especially small chunks of cheese before folding over the omelet.
Here are more ways I’ve enjoyed my egg…

veggie omelet
double fried eggs
egg in a parathawich
cheese omelet
Jerky Pork Cilantro omelet
Fried egg on banana pancake
egg on flaky paratha
Goat cheese omelet
Quail eggs salad
Fried egg with Pad Thai
Red Light Restaurant’s Bacon, Spinach Salad with poached egg
Area 31’s poached eggm oyster mushrooms, faro, collard greens, mamey and smoked bread

 

Char Quai Teow with Jerk Pork

In Asia, it’s quite common to add egg to noodle dishes as in Quai Teow with Pork Jerky or How to Make Malaysian Street Food, Char Kuey Teow in your Wok, you’ll love it!

Do visit my #LetsLunch buddies posts below for their take on Chicken or the Egg theme this month. And if you’d like to join, go to Twitter and post a message with the hashtag #Letslunch — or, post a comment below.
– Charissa‘s Gluten-Free Leek, Ham & Pecorino Souffles at Zest Bakery
– Denise‘s Beet Dye & Pink Deviled Eggs at Chez Us
– Emma‘s Eggs In A Hole at Dreaming of Pots & Pans
– Felicia‘s Perfect Sandwich at Burnt-Out Baker
– Grace‘s Scrambled Eggs & Tomatoes at HapaMama
– Joe‘s Kim-Chi Deviled Eggs at Joe Yonan
– Karen‘s Molecular Gastronomy “Eggs” at GeoFooding
– Linda‘s Home-made Cadbury Eggs (Maple Chocolate Eggs) at Free Range Cookies
– Linda‘s Taiwanese Tomato Eggs at Spicebox Travels
– Lisa‘s Legendary Egg & Onion at Monday Morning Cooking Club
– Lucy‘s Old-Fashioned Boiled Dressing (& Chicken Salad) at A Cook And Her Books
– Nancie‘s Son-In-Law Eggs at Nancie McDermott
– Rashda‘s Bombay Toasts (Spicy French Toasts) at Hot Curries And Cold Beer
– Vivian‘s Oeuf Chaud Froid at Vivian Pei

Seasoning Cast Iron Wok, Salt Pork Experiment (Updated)

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After spending over 20 years teaching wok cooking, researching and understanding cast iron woks, it still surprises me how many misconceptions, mistakes, misunderstandings there are about this ingenius material!  I was introduced to using a cast iron wok through my mother who bought her first one in Malaysia as a young bride. She taught herself how to cook and I learned to cook from her and so glad I did.  My Wok Star project was born because of her.  I wanted so much to help others be successful in wok cooking and even went so far as to ‘preseason’ cast iron woks prior to shipping to customers because I didn’t want them to do it incorrectly and mess up their woks! Another reason is that I wanted folks to not have any obstacles to starting their journey into wok cooking and just have FUN!
Seasoning a cast iron wok from China if not done correctly, can make you very sick because they put a ‘finish’ to prevent the wok from rusting during shipping. I’ve read many horror stories on Chow.  It’s also not that hard to do, just time consuming and a little smoky. It’s the most important procedure to set up your wok for a lifetime use.

My good friend and top Asian food blogger, Bee Yinn Low of rasa malaysia asked me to write, Seasoning a Cast Iron Wok p. 19 in her new cookbook: Easy Chinese Recipes: Family Favorites From Dim Sum to Kung Pao.  Many readers have found me through her book, so thanks Bee.
I was also a lucky tester for her Fish Fragant Eggplant. Of course cooked in my wok, perfect for deep frying.
 
 

I DON’T use pork fat so my Jewish clients won’t have to worry.
SaltporkI was experimenting seasoning a new cast iron wok with cured salt pork. Wow, tons of fat.  I wanted to see the difference in seasoning if any between animal fat and canola oil. I’ll use this wok for my own use at home. I also needed to reseason a wok that an unnamed venue had put in a dishwasher!  I nearly had a heart attack, it ripped off all my patina, it’s not the same. It went down to bare metal, ouch.
I’ve changed my ‘seasoning’ technique a little with the help from many youtube commenters!  They sure don’t scrimp at telling you their thoughts. Here’s my husband’s amusing video on Care and Feeding of your Wok with over 62,000 views!

Well, the result of seasoning with pork fat was not very satisfactory for me personally.
MY REASONS AND TIPS:
1. You have to wait for the hunk of fat to dissolve, it took a lot longer. I found it quite dangerous with splattering.
2. The pool of fat prevented the heat from “burning”(seasoning) the cast iron wok. You have to pour out the fat first.
3. Make sure you have a glass or plastic container BEFORE you start seasoning.
4. Wait for fat to cool PRIOR to pouring into a glass or plastic container to prevent cracking or melting the container!
5. Do NOT throw lard down the drain which can clog and make everything back up.
 

I still prefer just using vegetable oil to season. It’s quick, cleaner and not so smoky. Here’s an interesting article on the Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning with flax seed oil and one post that makes sense!  I can’t wait to try using flax seed oil to see how slick it makes the seasoning process! Thanks Renee, a twitter and #LetsLunch friend for reminding me of this article.