Customer Reviews

Wok Fast (Fast Books)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love the approach taken by the authors of this book -- here are the key techniques, here are the ingredients needed, here are the key flavorings (marinades, sauces), and here are some recipes to try. The authors then encourage you to experiment with these basics to suit your own taste. Very refreshing.

If you are brand new to wok cooking, you may want to follow the recipes closely at first. But after your confidence builds (and these excellent recipes help that process along brilliantly) you are free (encouraged in fact) to try your own combinations. Don't like the sound of black bean sauce with a chicken stir-fry? Great, use the tangerine sauce instead. Once you understand how ingredients cook in a wok (shrimp take almost no time, chicken takes x amount of time, etc.), you will be able to substitute and interchange ingredients in no time. This freedom should be one of the goals of a good cookbook -- to stimulate not only your taste buds, but also your imagination.

Sadly, not many authors take this approach. All too often cookbook authors offer the "my way or no way" approach. Do you know someone (maybe even yourself) who is afraid to vary from the ingredients in a recipe? Fortunately, not too many people are that timid, but it is rare to see substitution and experimentation encouraged in a cookbook.

I also appreciate the courage of the authors to "name names" in terms of ingredient brand names. If you are new to Asian food and have no concept of which company produces the best soy or oyster sauce, where pray tell do you learn? The authors actually give you several brand names that they use and recommend. Most ingredients have two brands listed in fact. I learned the hard way how important this information can be. Once I prepared a hoisin-based sauce with whatever brand was available at the local market and it tasted so vile that I could not serve it! Thanks to a few brave souls on the Internet and the authors of this book I now have some brands to purchase that are of a high quality and flavor. I have lost my fear of hoisin!

The recipes in this book are simple and tasty. My favorite sauces so far (there are many to choose from) include the tangerine and basic veggie stir-fry. They are full of flavor but do not overwhelm the meat, fish, or vegetables in the stir-fry. The authors cover quite a few main ingredient groupings (seafood, poultry, vegetables, etc.) in this fairly slim book, but it is not a comprehensive list of recipes by main ingredient. You won't find twelve chicken dishes and fourteen beef dishes in this book for example. However, with the basics mastered you can easily imagine your own perfect dish involving your favorite ingredients.

If I had one desire it would be that the authors would have included a section on salads and salad dressings. What you say, but this is a wok cookbook! Of course it is, but a lovely salad with your stir-fry is a nice accompaniment. Oh well, perhaps this prolific cookbook team will produce another Asian cookbook with salads included.

I highly recommend this book. Buy it and let your imagination run wild. As of this writing (6/12/2003) I see this book is out of stock. Ten Speed Press does a great job on cookbooks in general, but lately I've been seeing a lot of their books going out of print. Hopefully, this book is only between printings. Whatever the case, this is a book worthy of a search - used or new.

I've gobbled up Barbara Tropp and Gloria Bley Miller's books, which I find thoroughly pedagogic and comprehensive if you want to become a smarty pants in Chinese cooking, but in the end I always fell back on Ken Hom's "Quick Wok" because it seemed to me more practical for whipping up tasty weeknighters in a wink without much fuss or ceremony. That was before "Wok fast" came my way and became as indispensable in my kitchen as the stove itself. As with Ken Hom, the dishes presented in "Wok fast" are delicious and so fast they won't take up more of your precious private time than you're willing to spend cooking dinner after a tiring day at the office or juggling household and/or kids. This fabulous primer explains all the ins and the outs of Chinese cooking in a clear, easy way, and the over hundred recipes can be prepared hours ahead to fit into any schedule. But what I love the most about this book are the recipes for marinades and sauces galore that can be interchangeably used in any of the recipes, a useful section which is missing or incomplete in other books, and which will definitely soup up the simplest, run-of-the-mill stir-fry combination. If you must have just one book on Chinese cooking, let it be "Wok fast." If you can have two, add Ken Hom's "Quick Wok." The others you can dust once in a while for the sake of reference only.

This book gave me a great appreciation of the versatility of the wok. Each recipe follows a flexible formula of carefully cutting the meat and vegetables, marinating the meat, making a flavorful sauce and then pulling it all together in a delicious dish. For me, the marinades and sauces in Wok Fast transformed good stir fry dishes into delicious meals. The book also well describes how to cut and prepare your food before cooking. With dozens of beautiful pictures, you'll recognize some of your favorite Thai and Chinese dishes and will be able to cook them better than most restaurants (and with better ingredients). I wholeheartedly recommend a wok and Wok Fast to anyone who enjoys asian food and great creative easy cooking.

True story: Frustrated by a lack of quality Chinese cuisine in my new neighborhood, I ordered this book. I read through it on a Saturday afternoon, and by early that evening, after a quick trip to the supermarket's international section (the book includes detailed instructions on the key spices and such to buy), was home cooking dinner for ten people. The three recipes I selected (one shrimp, one beef, one chicken) were fast and easy to prepare, and were loved by all. And the food was fresher and higher quality than any of the restaurants I'll never return to.

This is best WOK cookbook I ever have! This book gives me "100" ways to make a dinner. You just need to set up with different bottles of sauces, vinegar, etc., then you are ready in no time with any meats or veggies. I like the most is to clean up my refridger, especially the veggie drawers. If I see the vegetables are on verge to get spoiled, I take them and cook up with thawed frozen meats. We always are suprised with how the dinner comes out!
About WOK pan, yeah, it is true that Carpenter suggests one with long handle. I have a short handles one I received as free thru Chef's Catalog. I almost burned myself with this cuz it's very speedy cooking with this WOK FAST. My husband gave me a Calphalon Anodized Wok with long handle last Christmas. It is very comfy to cook with and no needs to use hot pads. One funny thing is about rice. I have to set up and cook rice in the rice cooker or pressure cooker 5-10minutes before I start cooking the wok dinner OR we will have dinner ready while waiting for rice to be done.
I already ordered Hot Pasta and Hot Chicken. I will see if they are the same with this book.
If you like to spice up your life with dinners, GO for this book!

This book was really helpful on getting started with a wok. Great tips for cooking with a wok for any type of meal. The book really encourages you to make your own recipes and offers great tips on the proper order for cooking things. While we don't really use the recipes exactly, we draw from them to create the meals we want. I am really not into making my own sauces, so I buy pre-made sauces that are similar or just use a sauce I know I like. I have made several dishes from the book, and they have all been great! I mainly bought the book for the tips in the front, not the recipes, but overall the recipes have been great for inspiration for fun meals.

The very fact that I used the wok and this cookbook for lunch/dinner for 2 weeks and wasn't bored, tired, or frustrated at all is a sign of a great cookbook. This book is defiantely going to be a staple in the kitchen for years to come.

Great Wok recipes that are quick and simple. Techniques are given in the front of the book which is extremely helpful, almost like a mini wok tutorial. My only recommendation, stir fry outside on your grill if you have a small kitchen that's not well ventilated.

My friend Jackie told me about this book. It calls for a lot of ingredients which is kind of a pain but the food is good (and high in sodium).

This book tells you all you need to know, at the outset, about ingredients, brand names, equipment and recipes to make your Wok experiments successful from the start -- with plenty of room to grow beyond initial explorations.

The photos are helpful, it is well organized, and overall it is a very useful cookbook. I'm glad I have it.

The recipes for the various sauces in this cookbook are really good. This is a great beginner book for people new to wok cooking.