A lot of people ask me about how to stir-fry on an American stove—equipment that pales in comparison to the high BTUs that Chinese kitchens tend to employ. When your crummy electric burners can barely summon up enough energy to fry an egg, how can you possibly achieve what Grace Young called wok hei in her award-winning book, The Breath of a Wok? The literal translation of wok hei is wok “fragrance,” which is the perfect name for all of the glorious aromas of caramelized sugars, smoky oils, and slightly charred ingredients you get whenever you stir-fry on super-hot iron. A stir-fry without the considerable magic that wok hei imparts is, to be honest, just a little bit sad.
When we try to stir-fry on electric stoves, we are asking them to perform in ways their designers never imagined. That was the hurdle I was faced with when I set about writing All Under Heaven: The 35 Cuisines of China; at the time my husband and I were living in a rental with a glass-top stove. This stove and I did not like each other very much. It wanted to simmer; I wanted to stir-fry. It wanted to slowly braise meats; I wanted to caramelize them. We were at an impasse. I begged our landlord to install a gas stove. I offered to pay half of the cost. No luck. I was stuck with that beast, and it with me, for 13 long years.
I returned to my wimpy electric stove with angry resolve. I was going to make this work. After all, I had a book to write. So, first things first.
Know your burners
I figured out which burner was the hottest—by cranking all four burners up to high, setting pans filled with the same amount of water on each one, and then noting which one boiled the fastest—and from then on, that was my designated wok burner. Next I got a good-quality wok designed for electric stoves. It was constructed just like a traditional round-bottomed wok, except that its bottom was flattened, meaning that about five inches of metal were in direct contact with the burner. As always when I have a new wok, I seasoned it by only deep-frying things in it for a while, which built up a Teflon-like layer on the surface. (You can find a great selection of woks and other Chinese cooking equipment at The Wok Shop in San Francisco and online, and Grace Young’s book will tell you how to choose and care for them.)
Dry it out
Once my wok and my burner were ready, it was time to turn to the food itself. The beautiful thing about stir-fries is that the high heat sears the ingredients quickly and caramelizes their exteriors. If you’ve ever enjoyed a perfectly seared shrimp or browned strips of onion or singed carrots, those deep flavors are courtesy of caramelization and the Maillard reaction, and that’s what I’m always aiming for in a stir-fry.
You are going to want to make these ingredients as dry as possible before you start cooking in order to achieve caramelization. If you’re using, say, strips of pork or chicken, either salt them lightly or toss in whatever marinade you’re using, as this will bring water to the surface of the proteins. Then either pat the salted meats with a paper towel or drain the proteins to prevent excess moisture from hitting the wok. This holds true for vegetables and tofu, too, so wrap leafy vegetables in a dry tea towel, and allow slices of the tofu or the harder vegetables to drain on paper towels.
Warm it up, keep things in a single layer, and be patient
The next thing you do is set your wok on your favorite burner. Turn on the overhead fan and crank the heat under the wok to as high as it will go. Don’t add any oil at this point. Just let the metal heat up. When the wok starts to emit little wisps of smoke, drizzle in a little oil (or not, depending upon the recipe) and swirl it around the inside of your pan. Arrange your proteins or vegetables over the bottom of your wok in a single layer. If you have more ingredients than a single layer will hold, do this in two or three batches; overcrowding the wok will lower its temperature and prevent ingredients from directly contacting the surface of the metal, which means you’ll end up boiling instead of searing.
