The Stir Fry Wok Starter Kit

The art of making stir fried dishes can seem very intimidating to the casual cook - exotic ingredients and odd cookware and utensils that you don’t already see in your pantry may lead you to believe that the best way to eat a stir fried meal at home is to order take out. While this may be your initial assessment of stir fry, take a closer look and you’ll see that there’s nothing really exotic or unusual about this method of cooking. The wok is a very versatile piece of cookware and (most) ingredients in a stir fry can be found in your local grocery. In an effort to make things easier to navigate, here’s a list of items you’ll need to get started.

Hardware

If you have a stove top, or even just a burner, you can cook over it in a wok. Anything from a gas range to electric to induction ranges work just fine - you only need to understand what type of range you have before buying your wok. A nice flat-bottom carbon steel wok will work on all these ranges, which makes it an excellent choice. You can also use a traditional round-bottom wok with a simple adapter ring, allowing the wok to rest over your heat source without tipping - just beware that round-bottom woks generally only work on gas ranges and burners. Choose one of the options from the list below:

• Flat bottom carbon steel wok - for any cooking ranges
• Carbon steel wok with adapter ring - for gas ranges
• Carbon steel wok with outdoor 100,000 BTU burner - for outdoor cooking
• Induction burner with carbon steel wok - for standalone and safe indoor induction cooking
• Iwatani Culinary Butane Torch - this is the real-deal torch for achieving that perfect wok hei flavor

You may also require some additional utensils and accessories for your wok, like:

• Wooden wok spatula
• Stainless spatula and ladle set
• Wok lid - for steaming
• Bamboo wok cleaning whisk - for easy cleaning of your wok

Ingredients

Again, while you can find most ingredients in your local market, some items can be hard to find and don’t really have a good close substitute. We encourage you to look locally first, but here’s a list of items used in almost every stir fry dish that you will be buying again and again.

• Shaoxing wine
• Dark soy sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Oyster sauce
• Chinese black vinegar
• Szechuan peppercorns
• Sesame oil

Recipes

And of course, last but certainly not least, a best-selling cookbook from an actual chef with hundreds of fantastic stir fry recipes

• The Wok: Recipes and Techniques

With all the above items in hand, you will be 100% prepared to take on stir frying in a wok. We can’t wait to hear about and see the dishes you make!