The Wok: Part IV

Accessories

There are some important tools you need for cooking in your wok. There are three important ones and some other optional ones. 

Lid  You really need a lid for cooking in a Wok. Yes, even for stir fries. If your wok didn't come with a lid you should get one that is 1 inch smaller in diameter than your wok. For the common 14" woks, this means a 13 inch lid.  

The lid lets you steam some ingredients that don't cook to the proper stage in stir frying, particularly Brocolli as we know it in the west. When I'm cooking broccoli as part of  a stir fry, I give them about 90 seconds of steaming time with a little Shao Hsing wine while covered with the lid. This cooks the broccoli to the proper point, flavors it a bit and is quick. Otherwise, you need to take the time to blanch the broccoli and the quick steam trick is much simpler and faster and happens right  in the wok. When the wine evaporates, the wok quickly comes back up to stir fry temps. You might need to adapt your technique some depending on your heat source, perhaps with an empty wok for a few 10s of seconds to get back up to heat.

Some other wok cooking techniques such as steaming or smoking require a lid. 

I'm partial to the full dome lid rather than the flat topped lids. I like having some extra space for larger objects in the wok, such as the breast on a whole chicken or duck. 

Spatula or Shovel (Chuan) This is slightly round lipped tool for turning and mixing ingredients in the wok. The spatula is shaped for your wok so check that it matches your size of wok. This is both in length so you have the right reach and also the right rounding of the edge to match your wok. Generally it should be close the same length as the diameter of your wok.  I think this tool is still preferable to a flat edged spatula in a flat bottom wok as the round edge is useful where the flat wok transitions into the sides. And it's flat enough to do a good job in the flat part as well. 


Wok Ring If you're using a flat bottom wok this isn't necessary but for a gas stove they're important for safety and convenience. I prefer the solid walled types with holes rather than the wire types because you can trim them down for a custom fit on your stove and even cut notches to fit just right over your cooking grate.


Optional Accessories

Spider This is handy for removals of ingredient from a frying or blanching process. I use this more than a wok ring personally, but there are other tools to achieve the same result. An 8 inch spider is my preference.  I also use it for clearing ingredients from a pot of stock. And, on occasion, for sifting the powder from the bottom of a box of Captain Crunch to get to the last good sized pieces.


Ladle  This is a ladle with a curved lip to match the curvature of your wok. It should be about the same length as the diameter of your wok. You'll often see professional cooks stir frying with a ladle instead of the spatula. They dip the ladle into different ingredients and seasonings, add it to the wok and keep on going. That's great if you're set up like a pro but it's not practical for the home cook in my opinion. I never used the one that came with my first wok and ended up giving the ladle away. 


There are still other things you can get that I see serving even less purpose so don't get them. But for completeness:


Draining Rack  I have one and never use it. Too small and really in the way more than helpful particularly if cooking for more than one or two people.

Cooking Chopsticks These are dirt cheap and dramatic. Warp easily and most people don't have the skill to make them work usefully, including me.  You might occasionally see Martin Yan use them on his show.  I have a pair of these too. I mostly use them to separate meat that I'm oil blanching or velveting. But many other tools or even the cheap bamboo chopsticks for table use will do the job as well.