| Our 36" Blue Star range has really impressed so far. I bought it from an appliance liquidator down in LA and hauled it the 150 miles home in the back of my truck. When we moved it I tipped it a bit too far on the appliance dolly and dislodged a couple of the grates and bowls which broke one of the ceramic ignitors. I was willing to just buy a replacement but Matt S. from Prizer Painter in PA said no worries and just sent me a replacement. Great service! Thanks for sending the ignitor, Matt. It works fine.
Anyway, when I was hunting around for an ignitor before calling P-P I called Eurostoves since they seem to have a great deal of expertise with the Blue Star ranges. I talked to a real nice gal there who told me all about how she and her family were cooking stir-fry on their Blue Star. I asked her how, if she was using a special wok ring or something like that? Heck no! She just pulls the grate off the high btu burner and sets the wok right down in the burner bowl!
Genius!
When I got off the phone with her I went over to the stove and took a look! Sure enough. Once the grate comes off, you just have the burner bowl sitting there, a perfect, or nearly so, receptacle for a round-bottom wok!
Hot dog. I got a gift card for Amazon for Christmas so I ordered myself up a genuine Chinese wok, a wok chuan (spatula), a ring for serving, and had enough dough left over to buy myself a new digital thermometer since my son in law stole mine. The wok arrived today and I was dying to try it out. They suggested using boiling water and baking soda or salt to remove the Chinese cosmoline they coat their woks with prior to shipping. Well, that was a complete bust; tons of tacky residue still clinged to the wok. So I finally went out to the garage and got a can of brake cleaner and used that to strip the crap off the wok. Then a thorough washing, then baking soda, then on to seasoning the wok. It was more work than I anticipated, but I finally got at least a start on a good seasoned wok. I made ginger beef and snow peas by setting the wok down right into the burner bowl. It worked great. The wok gets hot in seconds and I don't even have the 22k btu burner model! Jeez, I am not sure I would ever need a hotter burner than what this thing is putting out now. Man does it get hot fast.
I am sold on this wokking technique and will be doing lots of stir fry in the future. Our dinner was scrumptious and incredibly fast and easy to make. The Blue Star RCS is really working out well for us so far. |
