So this is an actual thing you can buy! It’s meant to adapt a standard gas grill for a traditionally-sized wok.
I can’t find the exact kit on AliExpress, but it’s essentially just a new burner carb assembly you put into an existing gas range. It is very similar to this portable version — probably the same assembly: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807711950194.html
This one is the Wok Mon. I have one for my wok and absolutely love it.
[appropriated Jamaican accent] You Wok, mon.
Holy shit, thank you. It was on the tip of my tongue all day lol
Right, I’m looking for instructions to do this hack? A video, wikihow, please?
I figured it was something like this, wok burner is about BTU to a degree but also about flame spread. If you have a very high BTU burner with the wrong flame spread it wound work as well as a decently lower BTU burner with a flame spread like what’s pictured. It’s why using a wok on a traditional western gas burner sucks
I’m like so inappropriately bitter about that last fact.
There’s an incredibly simple dish at a local soup dumpling restaurant that me and my partner adore and it’s fucking dry fried green beans. All you do is fry blanched green beans until they blister, then stir fry some garlic in oil until its just toasty and toss the beans in that oil with some salt.
At the restaurant, it’s amazing. I can make it at home, but it always lacks that ever so brilliant wok hei flavor that really completes the dish. That smoky, garlicky flavor on cooked, yet still fresh and crisp green beans is perfection.
I want a stove that can do it dammit.
I have an outdoor wok burner for this reason. It was about $130, runs on a propane tank, and works amazingly well. The price has gone up a bit since and probably will go up considerably more with tariff bullshit but highly recommend
It’s also called a powerflamer, which I find quite comical. I just looked it up and the base model is $150 now, so not that much more. The website looks sketch but the guy is legit. Outdoorstirfry.com. Takes awhile to ship because I’m pretty sure it’s literally just one guy running the whole thing.
The legs are sketchy as fuck. I got an old aluminum prep table off Craigslist and cut a hole in it with a dremel. Much sturdier, can put the tank and stuff on the bottom, and I put a charcoal grill and a flat top on it too. Now I can do robata too. I cook outside more than inside.
Cook the green beans under the broiler and then finish in the wok. It gets damn close to the restaurant 干煸四季豆
So blanch, toss in oil, broil on a sheet pan, then toss in the fried garlic oil? I can try that, thanks!!
I’m not sure how the place you go to usually does it but I start by simmering dried chilies, smashed garlic, sliced ginger and Sichuan peppercorns in oil over low heat while the green beans cook. I like to get it nice and spicy. Strain the oil and crank the heat up to high and then finish off the green beans trying to get some flame licking the oil as you toss (this is def a more advanced technique). Then add back in the pepper, garlic and gingeralong with like 2tsp each of soy sauce and shaoxing wine. About a tsp each of salt and sugar to taste and a sprinkle of red chili flakes if you want. That’s a pretty tradition preparation but it gets done differently everywhere.
If you really want more wok hei you can hit it with a blow torch right at the end, just be careful not to start a grease fire.
