Wok Wednesdays Month-Long Birthday Celebration

On May 16th Wok Wednesdays officially turns one! Over the past year we have grown together as a group, exploring some of the amazing recipes in Grace Young’s Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, and learning more about the ancient and fascinating cooking style of the stir-fry.

Photos: Steven Needham

Over the next month there will be lots of fun content to celebrate our first birthday, including a look-back on what we’ve accomplished, a preview of what to come, videos, discussion, and more. But I’d like to get the festivities started with something REALLY fun – another giveaway! Over the past few weeks we’ve had a bunch of new people join Wok Wednesdays, some of whom don’t have a wok yet, so I’m excited to announce that Wok Wednesdays has partnered with Kitchenworks, an independent kitchenwares retailer in North Carolina, to give away a brand new 14″ Helen Chen flat-bottomed carbon steel wok to one lucky winner!

And they aren’t stopping there. For the ENTIRE month of May Kitchenworks is giving EVERYONE in Wok Wednesdays 15% off your entire order on their website, Kitchenworksinc.com. You can shop once, you can shop twice, you can shop every day for the whole month and you’ll get 15% off each and every order, how cool is that!? They not only have woks and stir-fry tools, but they have virtually everything you need for your kitchen, so stock up!

Here is how you can enter the giveaway and get your discount:

1. To enter the giveaway for one 14″ Helen Chen flat-bottomed carbon steel wok, leave a comment on this post by midnight, Sunday May 5th,  with your answer to following question:

What has been your favorite recipe that we’ve made in Wok Wednesdays thus far? OR (if you are new) what recipe from Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge are you most looking forward to making?

2. To claim your 15% discount at Kitchenworksinc.com all you need to do is enter the promotional code WOKSTAR (all caps) during checkout. The coupon is valid for multiple uses anytime between May 1st, 2013 and May 31, 2013. All regular Kitchenworksinc.com policies apply to each purchase.

Good luck, and happy wokking!

- Matt

LYL – Wok Portrait Contest

It’s spring break here at Wok Wednesdays, and instead of doing another recipe this week we’re taking a “vacation” and posting some beautiful wok portraits instead. All week long wokkers will be posting photos of their woks to our Facebook group and at the end of the week our guru Grace Young will pick the most creative portrait to receive a prize – Helen Chen Universal Kitchen Shears!

If you haven’t joined Wok Wednesdays yet but would like to enter the shears giveaway, just join the Wok Wednesdays Facebook Group and post a cool photo of you with your wok, your wok in action, or your wok just hanging out. Use your imagination! And never fear, we’ll be back to our regular wokking schedule in another two weeks.

- Matt

Giveaway – Ceramic Paring Knife

February 10th is the start of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake, and what better way to celebrate than with another giveaway! I’m particularly excited about this one – a ceramic paring knife from the great folks at Helen’s Asian Kitchen! Helen Chen’s products are fantastic, and this ceramic paring knife will help you fly through all of your stir-frying prep work. Ceramic blades are super sharp and never lose their edge, making peeling, cutting, and dicing a breeze.

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below answering the following question:

What is the biggest challenge that prevents, or in the past has prevented, you from stir-frying: Finding Asian ingredients? High heat cooking? Using a wok? Other?

The contest will be open until 11:59 pm EST on Friday, February 15th. A winner will be chosen at random from the comments.

- Matt

Wok Winner

Congratulations to Susan Layton who won the 14″ Carbon Steel Wok in our giveaway! Thanks to everyone who left their healthy stir-fry tips and wishes, and get ready for another giveaway coming up soon.

Many thanks to Tane Chan of The Wok Shop in San Francisco for donating the wok!

- Matt

New Year, New Wok Giveaway

We’re going to start 2013 off with a bang by giving away a 14″, flat-bottomed carbon steel wok. This is the wok that many of us Wok Wednesdays folk use and the one that Grace recommends. The carbon steel conducts heat wonderfully and is the best metal for attaining that beautiful seasoned finish as you cook with it, and the flat-bottom allows the wok to be used with virtually all Western stoves (electric coils, glass-top, gas, and induction).

All you have to do for a chance to win a brand-new wok is leave a comment below with your answer to the following question:

What is your favorite stir-fry and why? (If you’re new to stir-frying, you can tell us what healthy stir fry you’d be interested in learning)

The contest will run until 11:59pm, Wednesday January 16th. A winner will be chosen at random from the comments.

Many thanks once again to Tane Chan of The Wok Shop in San Francisco for donating the wok! Tane has been a fervent supporter of Wok Wednesdays – check out her shop (both online and if you’re ever in SF) for all your Asian kitchen needs!

October Giveaway

It’s time for another giveaway, and its a repeat! The great folks at Bambu have been generous enough to donate another fantastic cork cutting board for you to win. This cork cutting board is lightweight, durable, and incredibly gentle on your knives. All you have to do to win is leave a comment on this post by 11:59pm on October 31st (Halloween!) answering the following question:

Since everyone has been stir-frying for a few months now do you feel comfortable improvising a stir-fry and not following a recipe? If so, can you tell us about one of your recipes?

Good luck!

Negi Cutter Winner

Congratulations to Sita who won our latest giveaway! She’ll be receiving a negi cutter, perfect for all the slicing and shredding that comes with stir-frying. Thanks to all who entered, and stay-tuned for our next giveaway.

- Matt

Giveaway – Negi Cutter

If there is one ingredient that tends to show up time and again in stir-fry recipes its scallions. Personally I love scallions, but oftentimes when the recipe calls for the thinly shredded scallions that are a staple of many stir-fry dishes, I wimp out and just roughly chop them. Luckily for us some enterprising genius came up with the negi cutter, a nifty and easy way to quickly and uniformly shred scallions. It’s also handy for asparagus, leeks, and other veggies.

Many of our upcoming recipes will call for shredded scallions, so I’m happy to announce our next giveaway will be a negi cutter, courtesy of The Wok Shop! Here’s how to enter:

Leave a comment below by midnight on August 31st with your thoughts on the following prompt:

Would you make a non-Asian stir-fry (ie. shrimp scampi stir-fry)? Do you feel stir-fry has to be Asian or do you like the idea of stir-fries with Mediterranean, Latin, or even Caribbean flavors?  Can the aromatics be garlic, shallots, or onion (rather than ginger, scallions, and chilies) and be seasoned with chopped basil and wine (rather than cilantro and rice wine)? Tell us what you think.

A winner will be chosen at random and will find him or herself the proud owner of a new negi cutter!

Szechuan Peppercorn Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Laura of Mother Would Know – she won a packet of high quality Szechuan Peppercorns, direct from China! We’ll also be cooking a version of Laura’s favorite crispy shredded beef dish later on this year.

I hope everyone is getting excited for our next recipe, Kung Pao Chicken. The Q&C post will be up tomorrow for anyone who has questions or comments before we try the recipe.

- Matt

Szechuan Peppercorn Giveaway & July Recipe Announcement

Thanks for all the nominations! The recipe we’ll make on July 25th will be….Kung Pao Chicken! In addition to being one of my favorite Chinese takeout orders, Kung Pao Chicken will also be a good practice in mise en place - there are a lot of ingredients!

Photo: Robyn Lee, SeriousEats.com

I’m also excited to announce our next giveaway. This is a fun one! If you look at the ingredients for Kung Pao Chicken in SFTTSE you’ll notice that it calls for Szechuan peppercorns. These can be hard to find if you don’t have an Asian market in your area. Luckily for us, Grace has come to the rescue! A good friend of hers recently came back from a visit to China and brought her some super-high-quality, authentic Szechuan peppercorns, and she’s going to send a small packet of the peppercorns to the lucky winner of this week’s giveaway! You’ll receive them in plenty of time to make the recipe, and you can tell your friends that these peppercorns are direct from China! All you need to do to enter is a leave a comment on this post answering the following question:

What’s a favorite stir-fry dish (from a restaurant, Chinese takeout, etc) that you wish you knew how to make? (It doesn’t have to be from SFTTSE)

Double bonus! In addition to getting the peppercorns, we will also make the winner’s suggested favorite dish as a special project later on this summer!

You have until Monday, July 16th at 11:59pm EST to enter. Good luck!