fter living my entire life with a complete disinterest in cooking my own stir fry, I moved in with Malaya and suddenly found myself craving it constantly. I've been learning to cook it, by trial and error, and I've gotten pretty good at fried rice also, all thanks to our electric wok.

This page archives blog entries about the wok, our shopping and selection process, and discussion of the food the wok has thus far prepared.

More recent entries are added on top of this page. 

December 6, 2003

We purchased an electric wok (rather than a deep fryer) a week ago, and used it one night to make FFs and some fried shrimp, and it worked okay.  The FFs weren't that good, mostly due to my cooking technique lacking, but the fried shrimp, dipped in a batter of Malaya's concoction, (egg white, corn starch, and spices) was great.

Buoyed by that partial success, we were eager to try it again, on a larger variety of food, and did so Friday night.  This time around we stir fried just about everything we could think of, and most of it turned out damn tasty.

First of all, here's what the wok looks like.  It's 7 quarts, big enough to cook a cat in, and the lid isn't flat; it goes up at the same angle that the pan goes down, so the overall capacity is enormous. The lid isn't useful for deep frying, since while in theory things would stay hotter, there is so much steam and condensation on the lid that half the heat of the oil goes to boiling off the water that slides down the sides.

The hand there is Malaya's, as she scoops out a basket full of fried shrimp.  They were delicious, again, but the other stuff was pretty damn good as well.

 

Here you see a nifty specialty that sounded like death when I first heard Malaya talking about it, but actually turned out to be quite tasty.  It's deep fried spinach leaves, in a light batter. You'd think the spinach would shrivel up to nothing, and it probably would if the leaves were just naked in the oil, but with the batter around them they stay moist and flavorful, and with the crispy batter around them they are just delicious.  And if you take a bite of 2 or 3 of these and then pop in one of the fried shrimp, it's just heaven.  Far better than the sum of the parts. 

Here you see the spinach leaves cooking, along with an experimental vienna sausage (dipper in batter) at the bottom of the photo.  Malaya took one bite and spit it out, so I guess it didn't turn out very well.  The spinach leaves are very cute in the oil, since they sink to the bottom when first dropped in, and I mean sink; they go down at an angle like a boat.  But as the batter almost instantly converts to a crunchy shell, they bob back up and float quite vigorously the rest of the time.

They are oily and crispy and delicious, especially with a dill garlic dip Malaya makes.  I could eat another plate right now.

 

 

Here you see more cooking, mostly spinach leaves and shrimp, which don't float initially either, before the come bobbing back up after half a minute.

 

And of course you've got to have the tools; this metal dip thingie has been in my possession for years and years since my dad gave it to me, but I'd never really had cause to use it, since I never deep fried in anything deep enough to need it.  It's great for the wok though, and that's a chopstick (one of two that came with the wok) beneath it, which we use to poke floating things into the basket.

 

Here's the breakdown on the food this second time.

FFs: We did three types of these.

• The first were cut very thinly and fried without any batter or flour or anything.  They were just okay.  A bit dry, but they got better as we let them sit out for a few minutes (while we were busy cooking other stuff).
• The second fries were a dozen medium-thin ones I threw into the leftover spinach leaf batter.  They fried up nicely, not quite done inside, but very tasty in the batter.  They didn't have much flavor though, since the spinach leaf batter wasn't too spicy.
• Lastly, we did the traditional (for me, anyway, usually pan fried with light oil) fries tossed in a mixture of flour, garlic powder, and chili powder.  They were the best of the three, but also tasted dry when they first came out, and improved greatly after a few minutes sitting.  I can't explain the taste improvement over time, and the fact that it happens is very odd since it's an uphill battle due to the FFs growing colder as they sit out.  I do not like cold FFs.

Shrimp: This was awesome, as good as last time.  I could eat 50 of these and not be satisfied, and the discovery of how good they were with the spinach leaves was nearly life-altering.

Spinach leaves: These turned out very well, better than the one time previously that Malaya made them in a pan, when they didn't crisp that well since the oil wasn't hot enough. No such problem this time, and we didn't make about 97% more dip than we had any need for either.

Chicken: We thawed out boneless thigh meat and Malaya cut it into finger-width and length strips, which we then tried in three different types of batter and cooked up.  The thing that most interested me was how the finished product chicken strips were all gnarled and twisted around.  You'd have sworn we used rough-edged and natural-looking bird bits, rather than cleaver-straight cuts.  The chicken cooked up very well, perfectly browned and crispy and tasty inside... but all three types were relatively flavorless, and only made tasty by dipping them in ketchup or BBQ sauce.

Malaya and I have new appreciation for the difficulties of making a good chicken batter, and now know why the famous Colonel's Secret Recipe is secret.  It must be about 80% spices, since one of the ones we tried making was spicy pepper, and the batter was just about purple with seasonings. And it came out tasting almost the same as the other two.  The boiling oil just eats away the spices, garlic especially, since we could hardly taste it on the fries and they were yellow going in.

Mushrooms: I'd never tried deep fried mushrooms, but I had a new pack of white ones and plenty of left over batter, so I sliced up two big mushrooms and threw them in. I threw in two slices near the end of our casual (mostly eaten standing in the kitchen while the next round of treats was frying) meal, and fished them out after a minute.  They looked great, but the first slice wasn't very good. Flavorless, and the mushroom was too spongy still.

I shook a generous quantity of coarse black pepper into the mushroom batter (left over spinach leaf batter) and tried again, letting them cook for quite a while.  I didn't have any expectation of it being any good, so I was shocked when it was great.  Very crispy and dry, but the mushroom stayed firm and tangy, even though the batter still didn't taste like much of anything.

Oil usage: We use canola, of course.  Corn and peanut and others are very unhealthy and have tons of calories.

The wok requires a lot of oil to fry things properly. About a full bottle off of a store shelf, which is something like 42 ounces.  More doesn't hurt.  You can do less, but you want things to submerge entirely, if possible, even though most of them float.  This will obviously vary depending on how steep the sides of your wok are and how large the flat bottom is.

That sounds like a lot of oil, but you can get 1.25 gallons of canola at CostCo for about $5, and that will fill up your normal oil bottle 4 or 5x, when that size bottle costs $2.50 or more at the supermarket.  You also can reuse the oil between frying uses, since it doesn't spoil.

We wait to let the wok and oil cool down, usually by lying on the couch and burping a lot and talking about how good that was and how full we are.  Eventually the wok cools off, and when it does we go back into the kitchen and pour the top of the oil off into a storage jar, pouring it through a strainer to catch any bits of floating batter of whatever. Once all of the good oil is gone stop pouring; the sandy burned bits of flour and batter and small food bits at the bottom are icky, and should be poured into another jar or like container and thrown away. Don't pour it down your drain or you'll clog it.

We happened to have an almost-empty 1.25gallon container of canola oil, so we're keeping it in a bottom cabinet, and each time we deep fry we pour/scrape the dregs into it. This way we don't have to find a small seal-able container every single time, but can wait as long as we want to get rid of the stuff.  The jar of used but still okay oil lives next to it.

All in all, I like our system and the results are very good, and we'll get better each time as we refine our recipes and techniques.  We're eager to do fish and chips next time out, and I have dreams of hush puppies and corndogs and other such white trash delicacies, as well as improving our batter recipe to the point that we could do tempura and other lovely Japanese and Chinese delicacies.

Malaya and I are looking to get a deep fryer (small appliance) to sizzle up FFs and fried chicken and donuts and lumpia and fish and potato croquettes and deep-fried twinkies, and all that other good stuff we can't do properly in a pan on the stove. Unfortunately they are relatively expensive and there are about 5000 brands and models to choose from.  Does anyone reading this have one and use it regularly and recommend it, and if so what brand do you have and what would you say the most important/useful features are, etc.

From our research it sounds like variable heat and easy cleaning are the most useful features. Removing the spent oil and cleaning it is a big sticking point of many fryers, based on the review comments we've seen on Amazon.com and elsewhere.

Anyway, we're looking for any reviews or user comments on the devices, so if you've got one or have experience with them, please share.

December 2, 2003

To completely change the topic, at last, here are a couple of mails about home frying devices. I asked twice last week for reader advice on deep fryers, since Malaya and I were eager to get one of some type, since we like to deep fry.  Kim came through with the following mail full of very useful info.

I don't have any advice about deep fryer brands, but we've bought a few over the years, from small and cheap (Target) to larger and more expensive (Macy's). So here's my overall opinions about them.

Most home-deep fryers are not deep enough for larger items or large quantities. They look big on the outside, but are small on the inside. Onion rings and fries, small pieces of meat, etc. worked well, so if that's all you plan to fry up, they're ok. Then again, if you only fry small things in small amounts, it's not really a time-saver over pan frying. Deep-fryers we had tended to cook somewhat unevenly, unless you only cooked one piece at a time. Difficult to get things to cook evenly, period. Also difficult to achieve the right temperature needed - depends on the dial they use.

And as to the mess......we didn't find them to be any more convienent in that area. Less splatter, if you close the lid or if the fryer has a deep 'bin' and you use only a shallow amount of oil, but you still have to dump the used oil/shortening somewhere, and you still have to wash out a clunky item by hand.

Like most kitchen gadgets of this sort (the electric wok comes to mind), if you're not exceedingly careful with storage/cleaning/handling, the heating elements (or plug contacts) break far too easily. All three of the ones we've bought just stopped working after a very short period of time. But maybe we were just unlucky.

If you have a gas range, IMO you'd be better off getting a wok and using it instead. If you don't have a gas range, then...... er......... well....... IMO, unless you fry little things every day and don't mind the fragile nature of the appliances, the small home-deep fryers aren't worth it.

--Kim

A few days later this mail came in, from a deep fryer fan.

I Have a Fry Daddy Jr. I don't use it everyday but some treats must be had in it like tater-tots or crispy fried shrimps. I don't like the fact that it doesn't have a on or off switch or a basket. It is pretty much your most basic deep fryer no options and is a pain to clean/empty when it is time. I normally get 10-12 uses from 1 batch of oil before I either burn it or have too many things floating for my tastes. It does have one advantage it is probably the cheapest smallest can put on a shelf type appliance I have so I would not recommend it for regular use but being as how it is very unhealthy to eat such things maybe that is for the best!

--James

James has a point, and the model he has is pretty cheap, but we decided to take Kim's advice to heart, especially since it agreed with the general consensus of online reviews (best seen in the Amazon.com product reviews).  We were all ready to get a home deep fryer, but literally none of the models we looked at, no matter the price, had very positive reviews. Either they were a bitch to clean, or the temperature gauge was wanky, or they broke, or they didn't get hot enough, etc, etc.

We saw better reviews for electric woks, plus when we considered how much easier one would be to operate and clean and how much more versatile it would be (hard to stir fry in a deep fryer), not to mention that they're cheaper and less fragile... the choice seemed clear.  Luckily enough, Tuesday Morning, an odd little discount store in the mall in Moraga had one in stock, a Farberware 7.0quart Electric Wok, for $50.

Large electric woks vary wildly in price online, from over $150 to under $30, though the cheapest ones are generally just 4 quarts, and probably have crappy heat elements as well.  I've found the one we got for as little as $43 online, from Overstock.com, but 1) they don't have any in stock, 2) it would cost at least $3 to ship and would take a couple of weeks to get here even if they did have them in stock, and 3) there is the most blatantly fake reader review on that page that I've ever seen.

Reviewer: Louis from Houma, LA USA

Its gleaming exterior is the first lure, but soon you realize this is also a first-rate cooking utensil. It heats fast, so have all your ingredients ready! A few hints: Follow temperature guides closely as this utensil can achieve very high temperatures perhaps not suited for a particular meal; a prior light coating of peanut oil all over the cooking area will ensure easier clean-up; when finished cooking, pour a cup of boiling water to loosen any food residue; always use wooden utensils to keep from scratching surface. I can recommend the Farberware 7-Quart Wok to you with no hesitation. Of course, the Overstock.com price makes it irresistible to pass up anyway! Enjoy.

If an actual human named Louis who lives in Louisiana who isn't affiliated with Farberware or Overstock.com actually wrote this, I will stir fry and eat my computer speakers.

As for the wok, it worked nicely on our first try Monday night. We made some flour-based coating with various spices and rolled frozen shrimp in it, along with some onion slices and, of course, chopped potatoes.  The wok required almost a full bottle of canola oil to fill up enough to submerge the shrimp, but it heated up quickly and the shrimp were glorious.  Better than ones I've had in restaurants, most recently the dozen we got at Black Angus on Malaya's birthday.  The onions turned out pretty well, though we need to soak them in egg or something to make the batter stick; it mostly boiled off in the oil.  The french fries were actually the least successful, coming out either underdone and still chewy in the middle or overdone and dry, but that just gives me motivation to try harder the next time.

We'll do spinach leaves (delicious in a light batter, if cooked quickly), chicken strips, and maybe fish, with fries of course, and see how that goes.  But not tomorrow. Maybe Wednesday, since we're already planning on our super nachos supreme for Tuesday's dinner.

As for clean up, it was pretty easy.  We had a big 1.25 gallon empty container of canola oil, so we're going to use that for pouring the sludge from the bottom of the cooker into, while we're pouring the relatively clean oil off the top into an old pickle jar, and will reuse that several times, depending on how quickly it gets to old motor oil consistency.

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