A Superior Non-stick Wok
A wok is just one of those awesome pieces of cookware that you can just toss in a heap of ingredients and whip up a delicious meal in a short time frame. The most common type that chefs use is a
Carbon Steel Wok, however, for those who don't want to have to regularly season their wok with oil, a quality nonstick wok can be a great substitute.
I’ve been using the Pro IQ 32cm Wok from Scanpan which I have found to be a great size, able to fit lots of sliced vegetables with plenty of room left for the tumbling/tossing action of stir-frying. The wok feels very sturdy yet easy to hold with its long handle on one side and a loop handle on the other for carrying to the table with both hands. The Pro IQ really provides the best of both ranges, inheriting the durable stainless steel handles of the
Scanpan Clad 5 range but with the added benefit of a quality non-stick.
Sharing almost identical stainless steel ergonomic handles to the Clad 5 range, it makes handling a large wok like this full of ingredients easy to toss and manoeuvre when stirfrying
The wok’s shape not only has a bigger capacity than other
frying pans and pots, it features a bigger cooking surface with the well-like bottom absorbing and transferring the heat to the outer edges. This allows food to cook quickly and therefore retain the best texture, colour and taste. While stir-frying traditionally calls for a very high heat, Scanpan recommends using medium to low heat. However, the wok is oven-proof to 260°C/500°F. It is also induction ready!
Scanpan woks are made in Denmark from 100% environmentally-friendly recycled aluminum. In the manufacturing process, the cooking surface is creating with Ceramic Titanium non-stick technology, in which it is heated to 20,000C, fusing it together with the aluminum. The base is also subjected to extreme pressure of 250 tonnes to ensure that it will not ever buckle or warp.
The Pro IQ
carbon steel wok comes with a large set of wooden chopsticks. I found these to be a great tool to stir-fry my vegetables and move them quickly around the pan. The wok also includes a removable tempura rack. This can be used when frying, to drain and to keep the food warm. This is also perfect for stir-frying, which often requires cooking ingredients separately.
The extended chopsticks make it easy to pick and place ingredients into the wok, perfect when making tempura prawns or for stirring of veggies
Click here to view the entire range of
Scanpan Pro IQ Cookware sets and individual pieces by Scanpan
Tips for Stir-frying Success
- Use a lightly-flavoured oil with a high smoke point: safflower, peanut or rice bran oil.
- Use a mandoline and slice all ingredients into pieces roughly the same size, and have everything prepped and ready to go: stir-frying goes fast and requires constant attention.
- Once the oil is heated, start with your aromatics: ginger, garlic and spring onion. Then follow with cooking the protein almost through, then set aside on the rack while the vegetables cook. These are brought together at the end to finish cooking with the sauce ingredients.
- Cook vegetables in order of hardness and cooking time. Vegetables such as broccoli, carrot are first while mushrooms, zucchini and lastly greens and soft vegetables like tomatoes.
- To speed up cooking, add a few drops of water to lightly steam the vegetables such as broccoli that may need a little help to finish cooking.
- Keep the ingredients moving: Use some chopsticks to quickly turn the ingredients around the pan, and try your hand at tossing the wok. The action is to toss the wok away from you and up, then quickly move it back underneath the ingredients. It takes some practice but looks very pro when you start to master it!
About the Author:
Becky Gilhespie is a food writer and former Masterchef semi-finalist. Her blog,
www.eatwhatweeat.com provides inspiration for meals that the whole family can enjoy. They are elegant, easy to follow recipes that are fast to get on the table and use every day ingredients.
Becky is originally from the US but lived in London for 15 years and now resides in Sydney with her husband and two little boys. Her food is inspired a lot by her travels (and desire to travel more).
