Chris Hennes

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Can you confirm that you're talking about a cast iron wok, not a carbon steel wok? They handle very differently. I'm not: the mechanics of their actual use are different, but the physics of the heat transfer are the same. You don't want to overcook the centers of your strips/chunks of beef (this is what causes the muscle fibers to contract and liquid to exude), but you want a sear on the outside. This requires very high heat. If your heat is too low, then (as Michaela mentioned above), the interior will become overcooked and tough before the exterior gets its sear.

I think that actually with only around 10k BTU and a heavy cast iron wok, a 5 minute pre-heat is not that unreasonable. I think that any of us doing wok cooking expect the oil to hit its smoke point immediately when added to the wok, so that's not unusual. What cut of beef are you using here? When I get my wok screaming hot I basically add the beef as fast as I can after the garlic and ginger (for that style of stir-fry) - 5-10 seconds is much longer than I give them, I think. How long are you cooking it for, and how much beef are you putting in at once? You don't want the beef to steam, so if you are adding too much at once that might be the only problem you've got. If your beef is exuding too much liquid it's likely that low temperature, not high, is to blame: you need to get the outside seared before the muscle fibres contract too much.

Good luck with that recipe, Sally, it's still one of my all-time favorites.

The trick with sichuan peppercorns is to only use the husks, not the hard centers. It's a pain to pick them out, I admit, but it makes a big difference to the quality of the finished dish.

Perfect, thanks again. I'm looking forward to the trip, I've never been to SA.

A quick report from my recent visit, for whatever it's worth... We had dinners at Cowboy Star - http://thecowboystar.com/ Mediocre steakhouse. Dramatically overpriced for the quality. JSix - http://www.jsixrestaurant.com/ Interesting menu, fine food, nothing remarkable. Cafe 21 - http://www.cafe-21.com/ Even more interesting menu, quite good food, service might have been a little too laid back, but it wasn't awful. and lunches at Cafe Chloe - http://www.cafechloe.com/ Excellent all around: fantastic fries and a great omelette. Napizza - http://www.na-pizza.com/ Decent pizza, fabulous location to eat a Saturday lunch. Dobson's - http://www.dobsonsrestaurant.com/ They got a new chef 3 weeks ago, no idea if he's still cutting his teeth or what. The burger was terrible.

Awesome, thanks. I've got time to hit Tre Trattoria and Biga for dinner and Liberty for lunch: I could stand one more lunch option in that general vicinity, if you've got any other ideas.

Any updated San Antonio recommendations, particularly places downtown? I'm going to be in town for a day or so next month.

Any lunch recommendations within walking distance of Broadway and 6th (Downtown/Gaslamp)?

I don't actually use a Super Soaker, but I do use one of those pressurized plant misters, which is more or less the same thing. I haven't blown the oven up yet....

How are you measuring the pH? It turns out to be notoriously difficult to do well.

Good timing here: Kenji Lopez-Alt over at Serious Eats just posted an article about "The Ultimate Beef Wellington".

Have you done a tartare, or a carpaccio? Those are my preferred uses for filet.

No.

Interesting: I thought Salumi was excellent, especially compared to the utter crap that was available before it.

I don't recall what brand they are, but my go-to dome mold is #6024 in someone's catalog. It's about the largest size I think would be acceptable for a bonbon, anything larger is too much.

Sam, did you find that this resulted in something more "onion-y" than the original stock? I tried it tonight and while it's clearly got other flavors going on, the onion is the one that comes through clearest, to the point that I'm going to have to treat it like an onion stock rather than a vegetable stock, I think.

Farro with Chicken, Artichokes, and Black Olives This is one of the "risotto" variations in the book: I really enjoyed both the flavors and textures here. I skipped the chicken and served this as a completely vegetarian dish.

From a food safety perspective you are probably fine, I'd be more concerned about the texture of repeated frozen and thawed meat.

This discussion continues in this topic.

This is a continuation of the original Lunch! topic, started in 2003, which grew too large for our servers to load. Carry on!

After 6 years, this popular topic has so many posts our database server can no longer handle it! This discussion continues in Confections, Part 2!

This is a continuation of the original Confections! topic, which was so popular it grew too large for our servers to load! Carry on...

After 7 years, this popular topic has so many posts our database server can no longer handle it! This discussion continues in Your Daily Sweets, Part 2!