The wok pan is indispensable in Asian cuisine and in the kitchens of exotic flavor lovers. This bowl-shaped round pan has several advantages that make it the most widely used pan in Asia: it distributes heat evenly and efficiently, ensures very fast cooking of food and requires much less oil to fry food. The rounded shape of the wok has the role of allowing the easy movement of the ingredients in it to avoid burning when cooking at very high temperatures.
Suitable for meat, fish and vegetables, cooking in a wok pan has the special quality of preserving vitamins in food intact due to the very fast cooking process. For a perfect stir-frying, make sure for the flame to be high and use a high-fumigation level oil; cut the food into thin strips and cook for only a few minutes until they are browned, but the texture stays firm.
The size of a household wok pan usually ranges between 20 cm and up to 40 cm in diameter. Even larger wok pans are used in the kitchens of large restaurants and in canteens. When choosing a pan, consider the number of people you usually cook for and the size of the cooker or hob burner, which should not be too small compared to the diameter of the wok pan base.
Choose a wok pan with a flat base if you are not going to use it in a professional kitchen. Wok with a rounded base is quite unstable on a hob and tends to reflect heat back to the hob and may damage it. A flat-base wok heats up a little more slowly, but accumulates heat and eventually provides the same cooking performance as a rounded-base wok.
Choosing a wok pan with a long handle or one with two ergonomic handles depends on the preferences of each chef. A long handle allows easy mixing of food even without a mixing tool, while a two-handle wok can be more stable to handle and easier to carry. As with cookware, we recommend you to pay attention to the material from which the wok pan is made. You can choose a stainless steel or aluminum wok pan, with several layers of materials inside (multi-ply), you can choose the classic carbon steel version or you can choose an almost indestructible cast iron wok pan, efficient, but harder to handle. Take the time to discover the benefits of each material and you will find the best option for you.