KennethT

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?

Tangled up in blue is one of my favorites of his...

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the electric service, but it would have to be pretty beefy to get away with having no gas service. Our building is a 100 year old industrial building - it used to be a tailoring company. It was converted to coop residential units in the late 70s/early 80s. So I imagine that the building already had a powerful main feed to run the industrial sewing machines,etc. Hot water, heat and A/C is included in our maintenance (which is pretty low) - each apartment has a fan coil unit that takes heated/chilled water from the roof - although I gather they'll be changing over to a heat pump system soon. Before I demo'd it, the apartment had a 20 year old electric coil top range. When I was growing up, my parents had a coil top electric range and I hated cooking on it, so I was really happy to get that thing out of there - I wound up giving it to one of the maintenance guys who wanted it along with all of the kitchen cabinets.

Deep fried with salt, they're not too bad, but I wasn't a huge fan of the aftertaste

Hilarious... I just wish there were photos!

My building has no gas service, so everything is electric. A standard US electric oven uses both 240V (for the heating elements) and 120V (for the controls/convection fan, etc). I decided not to get a standard US oven, which typically utilizes a 240V 40 or 50A circuit breaker (I use my CSO - there's only 2 of us - the amount of times I really need a full size oven I can count on one hand, especially since we're no longer having big parties and I'm cooking for liek 12 people at once or apps for 40) - so, instead, I had them install a 240V 30A breaker that just feeds a duplex 240V outlet (with 6-20R receptacles) which I will use for 2 240V induction burners. I got one 3500W cheap one - great for bringing a pot of water to boil, etc. and I'm going to get a Vollrath 2600W fancy induction unit which you can vary the power level in 1% increments or use temp mode and set a temp - it has both a pan sensor (supposedly the most accurate in the industry) and also a liquid probe which will be great for deep frying. it's like a control freak but 1/2 the price. They make it in 3500 and 4600W power levels, but I don't think it's necessary to have 2 super high power ones. I think the 2600W one will still be more powerful than the gas burner in my old apartment. Finally, I got a 15,000BTU butane burner (liek what she uses on hot thai kitchen) and I've used it a couple times - it was great for stir frying in the wok (albeit a little light, so it wants to move around a bit) but was almost too powerful for simmering a curry - in fact, I haven't taken it past 1/2 power yet because it makes so much heat, the sauce splatters all over.

for my mise, I usually put separate piles on a small plate, then use the sled to push each pile into the wok as needed. BTW, speaking of wok, I just got a relatively inexpensive 240V 3500W induction hob. It's not that controllable, but from the little I've used it so far (I've stir fried some morning glory and some bok choy), it's great with my carbon steel wok. I can get a great sear and char on things, then turn it down so it doesn't light the whole place on fire....

@liuzhouI am sorry to hear this, but I am glad you got to see her relatively recently. Like others, I really enjoyed reading about your trip and loved seeing the look on your mother's face when she first saw you.

I use the wok sled all the time. I can't read all of your hieroglyphics, but the middle says Hong Kong.

I used an angle grinder with a 1/16" metal cutting blade. It cut like butter. Then I rounded off the edges using my grinding wheel and wire brush.

Wow... looks great. What is at the bottom of the first pic? Are they mantis shrimp? We had them once in Hong Kong and were very disappointed - hard to peel and not much meat for all the work - but they also might not have been prepared very well.... Also, that's a very interesting example of seafood in the middle... I guess floating on top of the water counts? haha...

It looks to me like a red wax ginger. I think this is one that I saw in the Singapore Botanic Gardens years ago (2012): I always loved the ginger family, but as gorgeous as some of the inflorescences (is that a word?) are, the edible gingers are very plain looking - with the exception of the torch ginger...

Finally made it back to Chinatown...

Finally able to head to Chinatown to pick up one of these (yes, I know they're available online but I wanted to support the Thai store.

Sorry - I didn't mean to ask if it was difficult to follow the instructions, but the GE filter was extremely difficult to insert enough to be able to twist. Difficult as in one needed to be Magnus Ver Magnusson* to be able to do it easily - especially when you have to crawl under the sink to get to it. *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnús_Ver_Magnússon

Interesting - I've gone through a bunch of under sink filters - I used to use a GE single system but if we ever had any turbidity (which could have been often since they were doing construction on the water mains a few blocks away) the filter would clog in no time - a filter that was rated for 6 months would decrease to a trickle in a week). So I'm always on the lookout for a good filter that won't clog on me. The "nozzle" on your filter looks similar to what I had on my undersink GE model - I found it was a real pita to change filters once the system was mounted. I'm curious as to your experience when you get around to changing the filter(s).