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!
wokwednesdays 
I WANT and NEED one!!! choose me, choose me!
I like anything with ginger, garlic, red peppers and bok choy.
My favorite stir fry is the Beef and Broccoli. I have given the book to my Mom, my niece, my son’s teacher (and myself)! It’s the best stirfry cookbook I’ve ever seen! I’d love to give this wok to my niece!!
You are an epic cheesemaker! So I worked at a Thai restaurant and they made the most incredible Thai fried rice in a wok and I have never been able to get that texture back in the fried rice since then. What to do mr. lardie? Hoook me up with a new wok – ours is teflon and all gnarly!
Give me give me , first poster 🙂
My go-to stir fry dish is always Stir Fry Beef with Vegetables. The veggies depend on what’s in season or what I have on hand. I always have a pound of sliced beef just waiting in the freezer. I WANT THIS WOK, please! Thanks & Happy New Year !
I grow my own ginger so am looking forward to recipes with fresh baby ginger. Anything with the gorgeous fresh vegetables and greens I can get at my local farmers’ markets and I’m good…
My favorite stir fry as I am new to it would be either Kung Pao Lotus Root (if that is a stir fry) or “tropical” stir fry that my mom use to make that used pineapple
I would love a new Wok. I gave two Woks for Christmas presents. Also I put in ingredients for them to use. I made the the dry-fried pepper and salt shrimp for a appetizer that really got them interested in Wok stir frying. I love to cook in a Wok.
My favorite stir fry is long beans with ground pork! It makes such a tiny amount of meat go so far and it’s delicious too.
I enjoy stir-frying chicken breast, pea pods and mushrooms over a bed of brown rice. It’s healthy and delicious. My daughter loves my cooking and she’s starting to learn how to cook!
My favorite thing about stir-fry is that it lends itself to cooking pretty much anything. When I need to use up less then happy veggies I turn to a stir fry to wake them up again. Also it’s a bonus that I can get a meal done super quick after getting home
Yikes, how to pick a favorite stir-fry? I really enjoy stir-fries full of spices that clean out your nasal passages (then you can REALLY smell and enjoy your food!) I also really enjoy tofu-based stir-fries. Tofu is something I rarely eat, but in a stir-fry, it has the power to make me melt!
New to stir frying, but the food has been magnificent. It’s a toss between the curry beef or ginger beef/shrimp w/lo mein noodles. My Calphalon 14″ wok is great, but another would be great when making multiple dishes. Sooner or later I’ll be purchasing another or a larger wok like 16″ or 18″.
It’s great reading everyone’s favorite stir-fries. I just wanted to comment on Michael’s post because I’ve tested the Calphalon and it’s really not great for stir-frying. I hope you win the wok giveaway but if you don’t you really have to treat yourself to a flat-bottomed carbon-steel wok. The pan will become naturally nonstick the more you cook with it and the sear is far superior than what you’ll get using the Calphalon. You should stick with the 14-inch wok. The 16 or 18″ would only work if you are stir-frying on a semi-professional stove like a Wolf or a Viking or a powerful range that has more than 14,000 BTUs.
Just bought a 14″ cast iron wok off Amazon from the Wok Shop. Your advice has been on the money so far, and if my food comes out better than it does now then I’ll be in heaven. It will be my only cookware that’s not Calphalon, and that’s better than 40 pots/pans. Let’s see if the ‘Breath of the wok’ is with me. Thanks again Grace. Mike J.
Michael, I wish I’d seen this sooner. The wok I recommend for cooking on most Western stoves is the one that’s the giveaway: the 14-inch flat-bottomed carbon-steel wok. I’m not sure which cast-iron wok you bought but I don’t generally recommend them. Since you have Sky you can read my reasons on page 15.
ONE of my favorites is the Kung Pao Chicken for it is delicious spiciness, and as with all the stir-fries the ease of getting a meal on the table in no time! Should I be the lucky one, my sister will be the recipient of this wonderful wok – that will be four of us in the family on the stir-fry train!!
My favorite is a thai dish, stir fried eggplant with basil.
I guess Shrimp stir fry would be my fave! With sugar snap peas, red pepper and mushroom. I know that sounds random but I’m new to stir fry and it’s pretty delicious.
My favorite stir fry is the one that brings life to the few broccoli flowers hiding in the back of the bin, the small carrot that escaped the bag, the noodles I made too many of again and the bits and pieces of other meals that seem to be waiting to get together for a new meal. Of course if going from scratch, first time out, Spicy Shrimp with Vegetables or spicy anything or anything with shrimp. Or just about anything that comes out of a wok.
I love my mom’s chicken stir fry! it’ s amazing!! we use lots of soy sauce & have lots of vegetables with it! like carrots, brocolli, zucchini, and onions!
I am new to wok cooking and would love to learn how to stir fry shrimp that has been lightly breaded like they lightly bread the beef in orange beef. Also, some spices to make it have a spicy flavor and some veggies.
My first experience with chinese food was 30 years ago ! I was like the first paint brush on white canvas ! so transcendental moment so they accept to let me in the restaurant kitchen … The chef did not speak any word of english , I did not speak obviously any word of chinese
And never had such clear communication just by gestural words . He showed me how to cut some vegetables , how to stir-fry them and some of the basic ingredients ! This experience is one of my favorite memory in my life .
Since , I am on a roller coaster with stir-frying and woks , learning about chinese ingredients and FINDING them ! now it is getting much easier .
Just by browsing , I see Grace books , instructional vidéos , and techniques about stir-frying.
It was another ” AHA ” moment ! I got the books , I got the woks – was very scared that I will never get them by post ! from such far away country to mine ! –
And now again , even after thirty years of cooking chinese , I feel again like a white canvas with Grace teaching and I can really say now that I am starting to stir-frying correctly …
Although I have not followed a recipe, I love to stir fry my garden vegetables. I just bought Grace Young’s book and I’m excited to learn about stir frying. I would love to have a real wok to use for the recipes.
I LOVE my copy of Grace’s SFTTSE! It’s brought the “missing ingredient” to my stir fries! We’ve really enjoyed all the recipes we’ve tried so far, but the one I’ve come back to the most is Cashew Chicken. It’s one of my five-year-old daughter’s favorite meal 🙂
Oh, and I’ll never make popcorn any other way again! We love it made with coconut oil, yum!
My favorite stir-fries (so far at least) are the 2 shrimp dishes we have tried with WokWednesdays – Chinese Trinidadian Stir-Fried Shrimp with Rum and the Classic Dry-Fried SPepper and Salt Shrimp. When I cook them by other methods, I have a tendency to overcook shrimp, so stir-frying them is a revelation – they are sooo much better when quickly cooked under the high heat of a stir fry.
My face is a recipe I found in a Northwest airlines magazine in the 1980s. It has beef carrots celery and scallions and it is wonderful.
Shrimp with the heads on, garlic and hot peppers & my mom’s fried rice recipe (eggs a must). Love the way the wok sizzles and sparkles when the food cooks. it’s like magic. i borrow my mom’s bc…well..she cooks better than i do and i always trick her into cooking those 2 dishes for me. i think its time for a wok of my own. please and thank you.
Tofu skin is one of my favorite add-ins. Right up there with pad thai sauce…
Boneless pork ribs with pineapple and Ginger. Wok on!
My favorite is Kung Pao Chicken – quick, easy and great flavor. We love all different kinds of Chinese food – my kids like it as well – a great bonus on a busy week night.
I think of tomato and egg stir fry when I think of my mom’s old wok. She hated cooking and once she was emancipated from it from the cheap cost of ordering excellent take out in San Gabriel Valley and LA Chinatown, my experience learning how to cook went out the window. I work with the blind and a student who now attends UC Berkeley asked me once how I manage to cook without the popping and splattering of the oil? UHM…. I need to learn to cook because I LOVE Asian food. I plan to practice Grace Young and Martin Yan’s recipes on that new wok! 😀
I love to order Chinese stir fry beef and broccoli or Thai cashew shrimp/curry… but the kiddo is stir frying his own tofu these days! This would be such a sweet win! ladybugcda (at) hotmail (dot) com I tweet @toothfairycyber
I love ginger, garlic, mushrooms, tofu, snap peas, red peppers, carrots, and, when I’m lucky, specialty sprouts like basil and coriander and beet sprouts that come from the Farmer’s Market in the summer. I have a great wok that is now well seasoned but my sister was admiring mine (and Grace Young’s great book) when she was helping me out during my husband’s recent surgery — I want to give her one!
How long have you been cooking with your wok Susan?
Grace,
I have had the wok for about 8 months. I have a 9 year old and a 12 year old who really liked the stir fry at the dorms at the Univ of IL where I work, where you can select the vegs and protein you like, choose from a variety of sauces you like, and then the cooks stir fry them (not exactly traditional, but a great way to get picky kids to eat vegs). So I started doing some stir fry nights at home where I would put together one of your simple sauces (ginger, garlic, soy, cornstarch, etc.), stir fry proteins first with a bit of sauce, then vegs with a bit of the sauce, put them around on a platter around a mound of rice so kids could pick the vegs they wanted. They fell in love with sprouts which I wouldn’t cook but they would put on top, along with black and white sesame seeds. Not traditional but healthy and tasty. Now I want to learn how to cook for real and they are older and ready to eat “real” stir fry I think. They love garlic, ginger, soy, and tofu and were introduced by a Chinese friend to dried tofu recently so they are open to new things.
Broccoli Beef! I love Grace’s book; I’ve given it to my Mom, my niece, my son’s teacher (and myself!) A new wok would be just what the doctor ordered. 🙂
Oops, I double posted! Sorry!
I used to stir fry a lot when I lived in Florida but gave my wok away when I moved to NY. (wish I hadn’t- it was seasoned so perfectly) Lots of shrimp or chicken, veggies, garlic, ginger, and rice. A very fresh and healthy way to cook.
One of my favorite summer stir-fries is ginger, garlic, tofu, baby bok choy (from my garden!), scallions, a little sesame oil and some cashews.
Cashew chicken that I learned to make at a cooking school in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It’s so easy – chicken, onions, scallion, red pepper, fish sauce, soy, palm sugar… Mmm.
My favorite stir-fry is fried rice and you really can’t do it well unless you have a wok, because the rice flips out of the pan. Frustrating! So I hope very much that I can win this one! I usually make a shrimp and veggie fried rice, with lap cheong—which everyone loves. My father had a wok which I didn’t keep because I didn’t cook much in those days, now I regret giving it away. (It did go to a good home, happily enough!) But now I am ready for my very own. Fingers crossed!!!!
I received my new wok in the mail just yesterday (thanks, Tane Chan). I seasoned it last night and this evening, made my first stir fry. I made Grace Young’s stir-fried chili scallops with baby bok choy. “Wow” – juicy scallops and perfectly cooked bok choy in a chili sauce. Everyone gave it two thumbs up, so I guess this recipe is our new family favorite. This is my first post, so maybe I will have a little beginner’s luck with winning the wok.
My favorite stir fry is one that I do not yet know how to make: Beef chow fun. My whole family just loves it but I cannot seem to figure out how to make the sauce like they do at Chinese restaurants. This is our favorite stir fry because it is simple has a really good flavor that I think is attributed to “wok hay” and both my little girl who is 8 and my picky husband like it and that is no easy task to get them both to like something.
I grew up with my father cooking at least 3 days a week in a beautiful carbon steel wok. Unfortunately, today, my home has an electric stove and so I have been unable to use that old round bottom wok for a long time.
My favorite dish was a stir-fry of duck and vegetables that was sort of a deconstructed take on peeking duck. To this day, every time a eat any Chinese duck dish, I think of my father’s duck stir fry.
Mark
mstrauss@togo-media.com
rice oil, ginger, hot peppers, garlic, eggplant, cinnamon has been a combo that I’m loving right not. Next week…who knows?
My favorite stir fry is kung pao chicken. I love how easy it is to make at home.
I have lots of favourites but one of my new favourites is Mango Chicken. I first tasted this in a Vietnamese restaurant and was pleased to see a recipe from Susanna Foo.
I love making stir-fried sugar-snap peas with garlic and ginger, sometimes with shiitakes.
My favorite stir-fry is Grace Young’s HOISIN EXPLOSION CHICKEN. It’s the first recipe of hers that I ever tried and it was love at first bite. Everything about it was so wonderfully flavorful, the chicken tender and the veggies crunchy. Yummmm! This lead me to want to do many more stir fries, but my stainless steel saute pan is probably not the best pan to use in place of a wok.
The healthly chicken stir-fry it is my favorite to eat.It is amazing creative meal and very colorful.
Thanks for sharing this content. I am so confused to buy Carbon steel wok. Then I am confident to buy this product. Waiting for other resources.
Kathy, The best carbon-steel wok is a 14-inch flat-bottomed carbon-steel wok and the best source is The Wok Shop. They’ve been in business for almost 50 years in San Francisco’s Chinatown. They’ll be able to answer any questions you have about woks. Just tell them you’re a wok weds member. Happy Holidays!