Woks. Are they still a big thing? (They are large physically. I still think the basis of the no washing up rule comes from the fact they are too big to fit in basins.) I wondered briefly yesterday since I spent a considerable amount of time seasoning a wok. Does everyone just buy non-stick ones these days? I’ve even seen Ken Hom’s fizgog on the box of a non-stick wok so it might be true. But okay, this was not a new wok, it was Emma’s old rusty wok which i though, with a bit of wire wool and a lot of elbow grease I could put back into circulation. The amount of elbow grease would have kept Brent Spar happy I think.
I could not remember exactly how to season it (this usually comes in a ropey leaflet with the cheapo wok which was now lost in the mists of time). But I remembered smoking oil being a key point. So this is what I did, wipe oil over the whole thing and heat furiously until it started going bronze. Then I let it cool, washed it out with hot water and damped dry – and repeated it all over again. The house stank of smoke and a touch of grease but looking at the lovely burnished product I got a swell of pride that I had rescued something from the scraphead.
Then I fried an egg in the brand new non-stick frying pan I had bought that afternoon.