Hi from Budapest, Hungary

[kjozsa]

Greetings from Central Europe! I started grilling only about 2 years ago on a 18" Weber kettle which I upgraded to a 22" Master Touch after a year. I got Meathead's book for this Christmas (and read through most of it in just a few days, loved it!) so that's how I got into this forum. Talking of which, I'm just preparing onion powder based on Meathead's recipe for the first time while writing this...

I'm looking forward learning a lot of tricks from you, including cooking in a wok on the grill (the Weber cast iron wok was another Christmas present I got) - I have zero experience with woks at the moment but want to start practicing this also from this spring. Got any easy recipes to start cooking in this wok? Thanks

[Shane Rakow]

Welcome to the Pit, kjozsa!

[tbob4]

Welcome to the Pit. The first thing I would do is to go to threads including the name Spinaker that talk about seasoning cast iron. He goes into really good detail about the virtues of different oils for seasoning. The experts on the site who use a lot of cast iron weigh in. Since it is a wok, I would start out with something simple just to get the hang of the apparatus. Take your favorite marinade for veggies - usually what you would use for shish kabob - and use some of the juices from that marinade to cook the veggies. Put your favorite rub/prep on meat and refrigerate almost to freezing state. Slice thin and add to veggies once they are done. Add a tablespoon of soy sauce to the mix. Make sure the wok is good and hot before you start and make sure you have a long stirring implement. Serve over rice. You will come up with an array of sauces, vegetables and meats to add as time goes on. Be careful with the use of butter because it can burn if the wok is good and hot.

[DWCowles]

Welcome kjozsa

[MBMorgan]

Greetings and welcome to the Pit! If you start searching for posts involving cast iron, you might also search for " CI " because we get too lazy to type around here and often find "creative" ways to abbreviate long words and phrases.

[fuzzydaddy]

Welcome to The Pit kjozsa! Thanks for joining and nice to have you here!

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Hope to hear & see more from you!

[Spinaker]

Welcome to the Pit. We are happy to have you here.

Get that Wok fired up !! I think a great way to get used to the wok is to cook something simple. This might sound weird but doing one or two simple veggies and a protein of your choice is a great way to cook on a wok. Cooking with a Wok is different from other cooking you may have done. So making a simple dish to start is a very good idea. Cook and sear the meat first, then throw the veggies in on top once the meat has cooked for a bit. Use oil but not too much and allow it to heat with the wok. Peanut or avocado oil are the best options, IMHO. Don't let the WOK heat to above the oils' smoke point. I choose these oils because they have high smoke points and are perfect for sautéing and frying. Avocado oil smokes at 550F and peanut oil is around 450 F . Both hot enough to get things rolling. Let us know how it goes. And if you have questions about storage and care of your wok let me know and I can direct you to a place that will help you with that too.

[LA Pork Butt]

Welcome to the Pit!

[lschweig]

A hearty welcome from Illinois.

[Thunder77]

Welcome to the Pit from Baltimore, Maryland! We're glad you're here. 😎

[Mr. Bones]

Welcome to th' Pit, @kjozsa!!!
With 2 nice webers and a new wok to play with, yer gonna have some fun!!!
Lookin' forward to learnin' with, an' from ya!

[smokinfatties]

you will love cooking on your cast iron wok! do you have the 22" with the premium grate that has the hole in the middle? That is the best for the wok, you simply load about 1/2 - 3/4 of a chimney of hot charcoal underneath and that will keep your wok plenty hot. As Spinaker said, use high smoke point oils. As a first attempt, I would shoot to just do some sauteed veggies in it to see how it cooks. let the wok get hot, add some oil and throw veggies in there! after a while you can add some kind of a marinade or sauce, but I personally don't do it from the start.

What i usually sautee is some broccoli, onions, carrots, mushrooms, asparagus and green beans. Depending on the size of everything, I try to get my timing all in order so nothing gets overcooked. One key is to try to cut your veggies consistently so they're all close to the same size. Start with broccoli and carrots, a few minutes later I would add the onions, asparagus and green beans, and then finally the mushrooms would go at the end since they cook the fastest. If you want to add meat, I would throw it in whenever the right time would be to finish with the veggies. If thinly sliced, it should cook very quick.

As far as marinades and sauces, most of the Asian style ones I like to use have a good amount of sugar, which doesn't always mix well with a super hot wok. Therefore I usually add it towards the end so that it doesnt burn up during cooking. Something like soy sauce etc. probably wouldnt burn up since it's mostly salt. The other benefit of cooking the veggies first is that you get some of the water content out before cooking, otherwise if you add everything all at once I have found that it gets a little too watery and then cooking the water out overcooks the veggies.

If you also want to do a thicker cut of meat while you're cooknig on the wok, you can always use the grill area on the outside of the wok space to cook the meat while the veggies are cooking.

Hope this helps! Cheers

Paul

[SMO]

Welcome! I loved my visit to Budapest a few years back. Welcome! Stand Tall, Steve
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[Huskee]

Welcome!

[Nate]

Welcome from Indiana, USA! Look forward to learning anything you are willing to share about Hungarian food.