[sue anne]

I am contemplating buying an electric wok and I thought this was the place to get some advice.  Can anyone recommend them or not as the case may be.  The thought of nice fresh veg cooked in a healthy and quick way sounds quite yummy but have never tried one.  What do you all think.   

sue anne

[Yorkie]

I've never used one, would they be any harder to clean (spitting fat on power leads?) or more bulky to store than a regular wok?

Do you use less fat in an electric one?  Sounds intriguing 

[sue anne]

I don't really know anything about them apart from hearing about a keep fit instructor praising them quite highly.  I think they cost around 30 to 40 pounds so don't want to splash out until I am sure.

[Poolfield2]

Unless you are short of hob space I can't see the advantage over a stove top wok? Then again I've never tried one.

[mumofstig]

I haven't tried one either but wonder if they heat up as quick as just bunging a wok on the gas or electic?
Stir frying quickly with only a little fat is easy in an ordinary wok ......without the price tag

[A. Fallowfield]

I use a real round bottomed steel wok that I had to season; found it in a Chinese supermarket hidden away in Lincoln for £4!
All the modern ones have the oh so convenient flat bottoms which take too much oil and are really just high sided frying pans! And of course with the steel one on the hob you can hit the smoky high temperatures!

[sunshineband]

We have two electric woks at school that the children use. The biggest advantage is that they can be positioned at a lower level that the top of the hob so children can use them more easily. Bought them in John Lewis, about £35 as I recall. 

At home though I use a non stick one on the top of the gas hob, and it is excellent 

[sue anne]

Thank you for your replies.  I haven't got any sort of wok at the moment and just wondered if the electric was easier to use but I feel now that I should just get a non stick ordinary wok.  I assume that they work just as well on electric hobs.

[Spana]

I 've used one, not mine so I only used it the once.  I found it wasn't hot enough, so you dont get the same effect as on a hob with real blasting heat.

[sue anne]

Now if I want to do a stir fry can I do it in a frying pan or is it better in a wok?  What else can you do in a wok that you can't do any other way?  I know I should know this but have never really understood about woks 

[mumofstig]

I use mine for everything that starts with frying onions
spaghetti sauces, chilli, curry, risotto and paella etc. It gets used as a sort of cross between a frying pan and a saucepan.....great.   I have an old shallow frypan that fits as a lid so after Ive fried off everything that needs it and added the liquids i put the 'lid' on and simmer till cooked

works a treat for me

[madcat]

I 've used one, not mine so I only used it the once.  I found it wasn't hot enough, so you dont get the same effect as on a hob with real blasting heat.

My ma in law had one - and I found it never got properly hot enough for a stirfry and once you put the stuff in cooled fast and took relatively ages to reheat, which meant the stuff absorbed more fat.  Better on a hob - best on a gas hob. 

I now have only electric and have found the best solution to be a flat bottomed wok - not enough contact / heat with the round bottomed (chinese and really well seasoned) one so I have had to give it away.   

Now if I want to do a stir fry can I do it in a frying pan or is it better in a wok?  What else can you do in a wok that you can't do any other way?  I know I should know this but have never really understood about woks 

 

The thing about woks is you dont use a lot of fat and you toss the food in it to cook without burning.  It is a very mobile fast form of cooking.  Frying is more stable, you don't move the food as much and you cant turn the same way without flipping it out the pan.

[arugula]

Having used woks on both gas and electric, I would tend to say that electric hobs don't get the wok hot enough. With an electric hob - even the new fangled halogen ones - the heat is conducting straight onto the bottom of the wok and has to radiate up the sides, whereas the gas flame directs the heat up the sides as well getting the thing hotter.

[sue anne]

Thank you all for replying.  I am fairly sure that I will stick to frying as I have an electric hob and no gas.  Plus as well as your thoughts on here I have also read elsewhere on the internet that electric woks don't get hot enough.  It is good to hear other peoples experiences on here, great help, thanks.

[AnnaM]

I've got an electric wok and it is good, but to be honest I also find that it never gets quite hot enough, so I've actually reverted back to just using a regular work on the gas hob. A x