How Not to Season a Wok

I love it when I buy things that come with supposed instructions on proper usage and things never turn out as expected. I finally bought a rice cooker to do my rice cooking for me as our crockery set is a bit basic. I remember when I lived at home my stepmother always used a rice cooker to make rice and it always came out perfect--except for the times she made me make rice. All throughout uni I made rice in a pot because that's the way I could. I made it just the way my mother made it, white with a large dollop of butter and a bit of salt. When I became serious about my vegetarian diet I switched to brown rice and I can never get the rice to be as soft as white rice, that was, until I bought my rice cooker.

The first time I made rice in it, I followed the directions in the booklet, which said that as a general rule brown rice is cooked with a ratio of 1 cup of brown rice to 1.5 cups of water. I knew in the back of my head that that was wrong, but went along with it and sure enough made some really crappy rice. Attempt number two, using a proper ratio of 1 cup of rice to 2 cups and a scant more made a great rice. Softer and more luscious than any brown rice I've ever had.

I decided to practice making my lemon "chicken" stir fry for dinner tonight and it was absolutely fantastic. I had to season my wok first, which took about 45 minutes. Seasoning a wok is basically heating oil on it at high temperatures and burning it into the surface various times to produce a black carbon on it. I was sure I'd ruined my wok as I saw it turn from a shiny silver to coffee black. No where in the instructions did it say my wok would turn black. I was doubtful of the directions that came with the wok, so I googled "how to season a wok" and got a more complete set of directions. Apparently an unseasoned wok will make your food stick. It was such a breeze cooking with a seasoned wok!

When I took my cooking classes in Thailand I remember thinking that the woks in the kitchen could use a good washing with all of that "black stuff" stuck on them...

The stir fry was fabulous AND vegetarian. Lemon and soy sauce, so yum.