KennethT

I miss him too - he gave me great advice before a trip to Hong Kong. But I find it odd that the recipe doesn't have any doubanjiang, which I always thought was an important ingredient in ma po.

I have a flat bottomed wok. It works fine. From what I understand, flat bottomed woks are pretty common throughout Asia, unless you're a restaurant.

This is what I got: It was about $300 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016XY88AA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 There's a lot of inexpensive induction units on Amazon - lots of them with really bad reviews, mostly about longevity. This one seemed to have a better ratio of good/bad reviews. Also, once I get the other, more industrial strength, hob, I won't be using this one as often - it's purpose will be bringing pots of water to a boil and lighter duty stuff that doesn't require much finesse.

The Vollrath I'm looking at supposedly has an expanded magnetic field which allows you to lift the pan while staying within the mag field to replicate cooking on gas. It's commercial equipment which I like. That's not the primary reason why I'm looking at it, but it's certainly a nice feature. The primary reasons are the fine power control with knob, temperature probe which can get it to act like a sous vide setup (even though I already have a few DIY ones that work fine) or make deep frying idiot proof (which I need) and also supposedly one of the most accurate pan temp sensors available,

I've really enjoyed using this lately (while only briefly each time): It's a relatively inexpensive induction hob - 3500 Watts!!! It brought about 12 quarts of water to a rolling boil in just under 12 minutes. It doesn't really like it when I lift the pan - it beeps at me when I do so, but at least it doesn't shut off. So far, I've only had time to use it to bring the stockpot to a boil (as a test) and to stir fry a few veggies in my carbon steel wok, which was an absolute pleasure - so much easier than when I used to use my crappy underpowered gas stove. One of the thing

I've had some birds in SE Asia that could have used a long braise - one in particular was in Indonesia, a kampung chicken (considered a delicacy) - which is basically a yardbird that eats all sorts of grubs and whatever else chickens love to eat, all while seemingly running a marathon every other day. I don't think it was actually that old, but it had tons of flavor, and was quite tough - especially the joints. I couldn't cut through the leg/thigh joint with whatever utensil I could find.

Is it really a braise? No, probably not to the classical definition, but I just called it that because it is meat cooking half in/half out of liquid in a covered pot, so what else would you call it? Simmered chicken half in/half out of liquid in a covered pot is quite a mouthful. Then again, do you really have to braise chicken thighs? Or any piece of chicken that isn't the gizzard or something?

OK - I guess I wasn't clear for what I do though... my braise in the tamarind liquid would be for about 15 minutes tops... I don't know if I'd do a 2 hour braise in the seasoned wok, but most Asian wok braising doesn't take that long. I'm going to attempt it teh next time I make that dish... I'll report back my findings.

Related to our discussion in the wok-cooking thread, how do you cook the orzo? Do you just use a pot on another burner? Also, how many burners (hobs) do normal Chinese kitchen have? I'd think there would be only 1 since everything is usually cooked in the wok anyway...

Interesting.... I guess it doesn't really matter - especially since you don't use that much water anyway, and the wok is already hot - you rinse with hot water regardless of the initial water temp!

Main vessel... or only! But the good thing about the wok is that it cleans fast (just a quick rinse in hot water) and the stir fried veg cook super fast, so you can plate your braised dish (typically family style), clean the wok and cook the veg and the braised dish will have barely cooled down. That's my experience anyway..

Thanks. I'll try it one day and think of you, whether the results are good or bad.... hehe 🤣

One question for wok users about braising things - one of the curries I make has tamarind in it, which is acidic. I'm concerned about cooking this dish in my well seasoned carbon steel wok because I'm nervous that the acid will break down my seasoning and A) make me have to reseason every time I make that dish and B) will taint my curry with dissolved seasoning! Are my concerns unfounded?

My recently purchased wok came with a solid aluminum lid with wooden knob... not that I've used the cover yet... lately, anything that needs steaming gets done in the CSO

@liuzhou What is the difference between cooking and eating chopsticks? I assume they're longer - but a different material? What about tongs?