Wok – How to Determine Gas Output Required for Home Stir Frying

I wok on an electric stove and have found there's a few tips to really help - its not perfect, but it helps:

• Preheat, preheat, preheat. Before you start any of your prep, put your wok on the stove and crank the heat. Let it heat up before you do anything at all to it.

• Make sure everything is at least at room temperature. We often use frozen stir fry veggies, but we thaw them out first and they're at least at room temp before they go in. The same goes for meat. For sauces, we'll often microwave it so that its a bit warm before it even goes in. If you have a screaming hot wok, and you add cold food - then for a long time it will only steam the food.

• Do it in batches. Don't crowd your wok until everything is already hot. If you're doing meat and veggies - do the meat first, take it off, let the pan reheat, and then do some of the veggies. Work in batches so that the pan temperature doesn't drop and give it time to reheat between batches. Assemble it all at the end.

It doesn't appear like a no-stick wok so its a carbon steel one. I'm concerned about the blackish colour. Normally woks don't come that black. Nevertheless, I would take an SOS pad and scrub it well but not too hard. See if some of the black comes off, if some comes off ok. If it doesn't come off with a good scrub then its on there for good. From your pics you have no wooden handles so no protection is needed. Wipe some vegetable oil all over it at room temp. (preferably peanut oil because of the higher smoke temp) and invert it in a 400 deg F oven for 15-20 mins. Let it cool down gently on its own. When you take it out and it feels dry, repeat the process, up to 3 times. Now you're ready to cook. But, you will now need a small bamboo brush. When you are finished cooking a meal all you do is rinse the wok under warm water and bamboo brush only!!! This is where the extra seasoning comes to play. Every time you use it the seasoning grows. My wok is seasoned but a black/browish tint. Good Luck!