Southeast Asian cooking, and for that matter, any wok cooking, requires super high heat... fire power.

Have you ever wondered why the dishes you cook at home using your wok never taste quite as good as the dishes that you get when you go to the local restaurant? Not that the flavors are not there, but because the texture is not there. Even if you followed the recipe to a tee, the dish never seems to approach the quality that you expected. The issue is fire power. 

In the restaurant we have two kinds of setups. One for regular wok cooking and one for high speed wok cooking. The burner under the regular wok setup consists of two concentric rings of fire, each fully adjustable. The high speed setup consists of what amounts to 18 Burnz-O-Matic torches aimed at a 7 or 8 inch diameter section of the wok that sits atop it. Each ring in the regular setup produces on its own about 22000 BTU of fire power, that's a total of 44000 BTU when both rings are lit. The high speed setup produces about 90000 BTU of fire power when the valve is fully on.

Contrast those figures with what you have available on your home range. Smaller ranges, such as those found in rental apartments, produce anywhere from 5000 BTU to 12000 BTU per burner. More expensive home ranges will produce between 10000 BTU and 15000 BTU per burner. Commercial ranges will produce from 10000 BTU to 18000 BTU burner.

While the BTU output is certainly important,  there is the mechanical component to consider. A commercial Chinese wok stove is comprised of a deep round well, fashioned from steel or from stone. The wok being round, fits partially into the well, exposing the bottom half of the wok to the intense heat of the burners. The wok, being made from carbon steel, conducts the heat even further up the wall of the wok.

Why so much heat? The theory behind all of this fire power is that to properly cook foods in the Chinese fashion you need to seal the internal juices of what you are cooking quickly, without immersing the ingredients in a lot of oil. A typical quick fried dish requires only 1 or 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

When the Southeast Asian refugees first arrived in America they were confronted with a major problem: How to do wok cooking on an American gas range? In their own country they could simply walk down to the open air market and buy a stone/cement setup in which they could use charcoal as their primary fuel. My wife and I owned three grocery stores at the time and the refugees asked me to import their special utensils. Eventually, we were able to accommodate them.

For those that couldn't wait, I was amazed at their ingenuity. A steel bucket, lined with cement and with breather holes cut out at the bottom did the trick. The technique here is that the cook occasionally fans the coals through the vents at the bottom to keep the heat intense. The concept is much like the bellows used by the local blacksmith.

To compensate for the requirements on an American stove top a steel collar can be purchased. The steel collar does two things: It provides stability to the wok while sitting over the flat grate of the American burner and it tends to concentrate the heat at least in the lower portion of the wok. Yet, I maintain that it is just not possible to achieve the same cooking results on the home range as would be achieved in a restaurant setting or using the steel bucket scheme, mostly because the set up is just not right to provide the proper temperatures over a large enough surface in the wok. You can however, achieve a  modicum of success by following these rules.

Organize, Organize, Organize
Review your recipe carefully. Gather up all of the ingredients in your recipe and do whatever slicing, dicing, mincing or chopping you need before ever turning on the gas to your range. After all the ingredients have been prepared, arrange them on a large platter in clockwise order that they are to be added to the wok. Use small bowels for liquid ingredients even whiskey shot glasses if the quantities are not excessive. If the combined collection of the ingredients exceeds more than two cups you will need to cook your recipe in two parts. Simply arrange half of each ingredient on a separate platter and half the liquid ingredients into a separate set of shot glasses. The reason for all of this fuss has to do with the fact that the moment you add ingredients to your hot wok, there will be a significant temperature drop, both in the oil and the wok, and you will not be able to properly seal the juices in the ingredients. Before you begin, review in your minds eye the entire process as described by the recipe. Now you are ready to cook.

• Set up your wok using a collar... the collar focuses what heat you do have into the bottom of the wok
• Turn the burner fully on and when it begins to give off smoke add your oil
• Add your oil (no ore than 1 or 2 tablespoons) and allow the oil to begin to give off smoke
• Add your ingredients, if you arranged them as I suggested above, start at noon and place those ingredients first
• With the Spatula, quickly stir the ingredients for 15 seconds or so
• Add your next ingredient and stir quickly again. Repeat until all of the ingredients are in the wok
• Immediately remove all the cooked ingredients to a clean plate and serve
• Repeat the process for each serving