dcarch

You can in fact get some very decent stir frying done using normal home stove and wok. Here are my techniques: 1. Have your wok with oil smoking hot on your stove. Meanwhile, microwave your ingredients very hot (but not cooked). 2. Dump the hot ingredients in the hot wok. IMPORTANT, DO NOT STIR! DO NOT STIR! Until the food almost start to burn, and then just stir a little, and then again. Stirring encourages evaporation and evaporation loses a lot of heat. Stirring also gets the cold food to make contact with the wok before the wok has a chance to catch up. Resist the temptation to stir! For foods which generates lots of liquid, such as seafood and bean sprouts, I also have a cast iron frying pan going at the same time. Just when the wok is getting behind, I dump everything into the smoking hot frying pan, and let the wok get hot again. That’s right, try not to stir when stir frying. dcarch

The ubiquitous Chinese take-out box. It's in NYC's Museum Of Modern Art's permanent exhibition. dcarch http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hPqlNACc-u0/S7y1uV5bxqI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/KnWZjFeuLKU/s1600/Photo0368.jpg

An exhaust fan will remove smoke, oil fume and oil mist, but it cannot remove oil droplets/splatters. dcarch

When I have to do a lot of messy frying, cooking, I cover my stove with silicone bake sheets. Silicone bake sheets are not that expensive. You can cut them to fit your stove and burners. They can take very high temperature. I just wash them in soapy water after they get greasy. Works great. dcarch

I have been dumping boiling water in my PVC drain system for over 30 years. dcarch

I disagree. Pot racks and wall mounting really waste a huge amount of volumne. You save a lot of space by stacking the pots into each other. Spatulas, stirrers, use up a lot less space in drawers. Cabinets with shelves stores the most. dcarch

Just crank up you PID controller when your meat is half done. dcarch

I never do. Fat, grease, scum, growth, slime------ tend to collect in the sink's plumbing line. Pouring boiling hot water down the drain can help melt the nasty stuff away. dcarch

I think only activated charcoal filters can filter out the smell of smoke. I don't think any other filter can filter out the smell of smoke. dcarch

I read that. Interesting opinion. I respect his opinion, after all, he is a Pulizer price writer. But you can't argue about taste. I don't feel the same way is all I can say. As I am writing this, I am having a bowl of ice cream. Damn! every spoon is exactly the same as the next. And the wine I had with my dinner, borrrrrring! dcarch

Panaderia Canadiense – thank you for your tilapia filets baked in banana. I am running out of ideas for tilapia. percyn – Elegant plating for a delicious Surn 'n Turf dish. robirdstx – Lovely Chicken Fajitas. Amazing Fried Crawfish Tails rarerollingobject – After seeing your Chinese style risotto with flowering chives, I ran out to the farmer’s market and got some garlic scapes. I didn’t run out to get kobe beef. Too expensive. I will have to save up for it. :-). Kayb – Aftyer seeing that beautiful sliced tomato, I went out to my garden to check on my tomato plants. I should have a few ripe ones in another three to four days. Kim – Nice fresh, green, healthy, interesting chef’s salad. I like those cute fancy cocktail picks. The lamb chops looks superb. SobaAddict70 – Beauiful rainbow trout, served over rotini. avaserfi – I am a big fan of black garlic, duck breast and duck skin. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I had sous vide strip steak with garlic scapes, Israeli couscous and Kabocha squash for dinner. dcarch

Saw this: "--Tomato eggs is a popular Chinese recipe–a humble dish that is often served at home. Called 蕃茄炒蛋 or 西红柿炒蛋 in China, tomato eggs is basically egg omelet with tomatoes. As simple as it sounds, tomato eggs is hard to master. I have seen many tomato eggs that are not properly cooked–too runny, watery, or simply overcooked.--" dcarch

That is a very simple machine. I think it has a set of blades which look like an electric fan. The blades are driven by gears by a slow RPM motor. The motor also turns the tray. dcarch

I am impressed with the contestants' plating skills. I can't believe they are all just home-cooks. dcarch

I did make it a few times, but that was such a long time ago. I am not sure what recipe I used. I also made another strange flavor, taro ice cream. It actually tasted pretty good. dcarch

Red bean ice cream is a popular ice cream for the Chinese. dcarch

Thank you everyone for your extravagant compliments. The mold for the Jello was made by me. I found a plaque with that floral pattern. I thought it could make a wonderful mold for the kitchen. I got some food-grade silicone rubber compound and cast the mold. dcarch

It's nice to always have plenty of dry clean towels in the kitchen. I got from HD (Costco also has) 100 shop cotton towels. They are about 12" x 12" and very long lasting and absorbent. They come in two colors. I have them folded in a nice pile in a cabinet. One color for clean use and one for dirty general use. When the towels get a little soiled, I just rinse them with a little soap in the sink and microwave dry them for about two minutes. The heat basically sanitizes them. When they get really soiled, they go into the clothes washer. I seldom need paper towels. dcarch

For those of you who prepare whole fresh fish, stainless steel locking hemostats are IDEAL for clamping on to the tail while you scale the fish. dcarch

LOL! Thank you. Wonderful looking cheesy, stringy, yummy meal. There is no magic in making that. Just one layer at a time. However, because of the design of the mold, I didn't want the layers to be very distinct. So I time the setting of each layer to kind of melt into each other, not on top of each other. dcarch

I have not cooked a whole pig before. I have seen it once done in Canada by a Chinese place, and many times on youtube. It seems to me there is never any problem in cooking a pig until the meat is done. It take time, a big enough fire pit and a lot of muscle. The biggest challege is in how do you cook the meat and have perfectly crispy skin on the entire pig. You will agree the Chinese really have perfected the making of roasted pig for centuries. dcarch

I made jello. dcarch

Actually you get very delicious simple poached chicken, similar to what you can get from a Chinese store, plain poached chicken done to perfection, with dipping sauce. dcarch

Don't know, haven't seen it in person yet. The motor doesn't need to be that big to maintain speed. A 5 cu ft cement mixer only uses 0.5 HP motor. A heavy duty clothes washer also uses around 0.5 hp motor. A 1/4 hp motor is plenty to rotate a pig. dcarch

You get chicken soup? dcarch