seabream

dcarch - That video helps me grasp what 200K BTU means heidih - Agreed. Wok shape/material is very important. I have two woks at home, with different materials (cast iron and carbon steel) and different shapes (round bottomed and flat bottomed). Even though I have a favorite wok, I would say that even with my least favorite wok I can get decent browning on the outside and an interior that is not overcooked. But yes, point taken, it's not just about the stove, having the right wok has a huge impact in the results.

225K! Crazy. Yeah, I saw similar numbers when I searched online, but was wondering how much of that was real or common. (People always like talking about extremes.) What about Chinese cooking at home? Do people have higher BTU stoves than we do in the West, or do they just settle for less heat? And do they feel they're compromising in flavor compared to going out to a restaurant? (Any Chinese people on eGullet?)

Ah, yes, sorry, I meant 200K BTU So you say 125K is a more accurate number.

I frequently hear that true Chinese stir-fries can't be cooked in home stoves because they aren't hot enough. I'm curious to hear what fellow egulleters think about this. I often cook Chinese food at home on my 20-year old average gas stove and I think that I am getting good results. I am able to get brown spots on veggies and proteins without overcooking the interior, on medium-high heat. I find that when I turn the heat all the way to high, I need to move faster and because precise timing is more important, I'm more likely to make mistakes (e.g. sometimes the oil will overheat, or veggies get a bit too scorched). In other words, I don't feel limited by the heat level of my old gas stove. I understand that in Chinese restaurants they have crazy hot stoves - I heard 200 BTU (is this even possible?) I have no doubt that professional cooks can handle the speed and precision of 200 BTU, but I'm wondering if that's really necessary to achieve the "wok hai" that we associate with a good stir-fry. There is no controversy in the fact that home stoves are capable of causing the Maillard reaction in western cooking. Meaning, we can all cook a thin piece of fish or meat that browns on the outside without overcooking on the inside. I don't see how this is different from wok cooking. Or am I not thinking correctly? Would love to hear your thoughts!

I got back from Portland yesterday, and I must say I am seriously envious of all of you Portlander foodies. I don't know of any other place like Portland. Portland people demand local, organic, non-GMO everything. Often restaurants have a large billboard on the wall stating that all their ingredients are local and organic, and listing the farms they use to source their ingredients. We even saw organic beer. We also saw some restaurants that had food gardens in the back where they grew the basics. I got the feeling that in Portland, using lower-quality cheaper ingredients would actually result in financial losses for the restaurant/cart because no one would buy from them. It proves that if enough people demand good food made with good ingredients, even businesses selling cheap snack food adapt. Chris - Here are some noteworthy places from my week in Portland: * Food carts downtown. You can't go to Portland without going to the food carts. Cheap and good. Some of my favorites are Nong's for the Thai steamed chicken and rice, Kargi Gogo Georgian food (Georgia the country, not the state) for almost everything (I don't have a favorite between the kachapuri, lobiani and badrijani), and The Whole Bowl for a healthy rice and beans bowl with toppings. * Pok Pok. One of the very few truly authentic Thai restaurants in the US. Everything we had there was excellent. * Andina for Peruvian food. I really like Peruvian food in general, and Andina does a solid job. * Ox. Technically, it's a Argentinian-inspired grilled meat restaurant, but we had several non-meat dishes that were excellent (we went there with vegetarian friends). * Tasty n sons for brunch. Standard brunch fare, but very well executed. * Simpatica. Fantastic meal with mostly local ingredients. Only open Fridays and Saturdays, and Sundays for brunch. * ... I hesitate to recommend Tanuki, unless you're the adventurous type. It's a sake bar, with a large sign at the door saying "No minors. No sushi. Dark." I would add to that "no vegetarians", "no parents" (depending on what kind of parents you have) and "no coworkers". This place is out of the way. They were playing distorted metal music and Japanese cult movies, and there were pinball machines in the back. They serve Korean-inspired drinking food (small plates). We thought the food was susprisingly good, and the sake selection was impressive. I'm curious to know what you Portlanders think the best place for donuts is. We went to Blue Star donuts and Voodoo, and each place had its fans. Nuvrei bakery was also really good, especially the chocolate almond croissant. But for me the highlight of my time in Portland was the farmer's market on Saturday morning. Enormous and full of interesting ingredients! It beats our biggest farmer's market in Seattle. We planned our trip so that we could load up on ingredients just before our drive up to Seattle. We got sea beans, morels, porcinis, maitakes, fresh peas, fava beans, garlic scapes, chard, mustard greens, two kinds of kimchi, goat cheese, blueberries, cherries, Spanish chorizo, pasta, and more. We also had some really yummy snacks for lunch there. I hope you have a great time in Portland. We certainly did. Would love to hear about your food discoveries, so please report back! Thank you everyone for your recommendations. We'll be back soon for sure, so any places mentioned that we didn't have a chance to hit are very welcome for the next trip.

Thank you both for the fantastic ideas! NadyaDuke - Simpatica sounds amazing. I made a reservation for Friday next week. The farmer's market seems like a fantastic way to pick up some local cheeses and chocolates without driving to all the different food artisans. I'm in for that too! Although Rogue creamery and the farms could make for a nice day out, perhaps in addition to the farmer's market. Portland dining month sounds good too, but I'll all booked for dinners. It may work for lunches though - it will be between that and the food trucks... Does anyone have recommendations about particular food trucks in the downtown area?

I'll be in Portland next week for a conference, and I was planning to extend my stay by arriving there a few days early. I'd like to spend the extra time I have there doing something food related. Does anyone have recommendations for food experiences in Oregon, preferably not too far from Portland? We already have a fairly complete wishlist of Portland restaurants to hit, but if there's any restaurant that you think is a must, please do tell. We'll have a car, so restaurants outside of Portland (that can be reached as a day trip) interest us, Visits to creameries, chocolate makers, farm meals, and any kind of food artisans are also interesting. Wine makers and brewers are less interesting. Thank you in advance for any replies!

Thanks for your reply, Bojana (and sorry I missed your earlier comment). I made the carrot soup with less butter than the recipe calls for, and I thought it came out great! Oil is a good idea too.

Thank you Lisa. As usual, a fantastic and detailed reply.

Thank you Tri2Cook - this really is valuable info!

Also, I get lecithin granules from non-GM soy. I doubt that Pam's lecithin is non-GMO.

Yeah, I would rather avoid the BHT. If I make small batches and store them in the fridge, I'm pretty sure I'll use them up before they go bad. I noticed that "Pam for baking" contains TBHQ as a preservative, also a derivative from petroleum, but "Pam olive oil" doesn't. They both (obviously) contain "propellant" - propane and/or butane I assume? I'm also not comfortable with the "palm oil" in "Pam for baking" - an ingredient I avoid as much as possible, equally for health and environmental reasons. I would also rather not cook with GMO canola oil in "Pam for baking", and I don't trust the quality of the "extra virgin olive oil" in "Pam olive oil". And I wonder what scary stuff goes in "artificial flavor" in "Pam for baking". There are some other ingredients that I don't know much about: phosphated mono- and diglycerides, dimethyl silicone, silicone dioxide. Lecithin is known to be safe though, and luckily is also the ingredient that makes Pam non-stick. So I see no disadvantage to the homemade technique. In fact, I think it's safer than the highest quality oil used on Teflon. Although please speak up if you think my logic is flawed

I am wondering if the caramelized carrot soup really needs over a stick of butter... has anyone tried to make it with less butter?

Great - I had just placed that exact mold in my Amazon cart. Good timing. I was trying to find an equivalent for the Dow but was not getting anywhere with that, so thank you so much for the info. What source did you use to figure that out? Yes, I realize the recipe is completely different, but it sounds absolutely irresistible, and I just have to make it. I am not giving up on my quest for a reliable molten chocolate cake, just making a small detour I may make a side-by-side comparison of chocolate cakes including regular ganache and spherified ganache in the center. Although I tend to agree with you that the spherification may be overkill in this case, if I can get the regular ganache to work well.

I'm curious which kind of molds/pans you prefer to use for baking, metal or silicone (or something else), and why. There's also Flexipan, which I hear combines advantages of both but costs a premium... Any opinions?

I just realized that the recipe does say the size: mini doughnuts. It seems like using regular silicone would be just fine, no? From what I understand, Flexipan is better than silicone when baking/browning, but in this recipe we're only using the pan to freeze the dough, so I think silicone is fine. Although Flexipan may be a better investment...

Thanks Bojana. I will watch that video and try their recipe. Tri2Cook - What kind of mold did you use for the donuts? The recipe doesn't specify the size. Did you use flexipan as the recipe specifies, and does that make a difference? Also, the recipe calls for Methocel SG A16 DOW but I can't find that at Modernist Pantry. Where did you buy yours?

Quick update: I fried an egg using lecithin + peanut oil and the pan was as non-stick as using Pam. Very cool. Lisa: how do you mix the lecithin granules with the oil? I tried two ways: * For the first batch, I blended the granules and oil in the Blendtec. * For the second batch, I powdered the granules in the spice grinder and then blended them with oil in the Blendtec. The second batch was much better mixed. The granules in the first batch sunk to the bottom of the jar after a few minutes. The powder in the second batch was still well dispersed after half hour or so. I can imagine this solution would work well for greasing pans when baking.

Thank you - both replies are brilliant! I plan to try both Johnny Iuzzini's doughnuts and the ganache center molten cakes.

Thank you everyone for all the great answers! I am going to try the lecithin+oil and the butter solutions to fry eggs on my stainless steel pan in the coming days.

Thank you all for the very helpful replies!

For fried eggs, I heat the pan and cook the eggs in the lowest gas my stove allows. I don't like the brown bits in the egg white, and this helps avoid that. I add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, plus a tsp or so. If I use just oil without lecithin, little bits of the egg white will stick to the bottom of the pan every time. Good point about cast iron being less responsive to heat. A simple fried egg would take much longer to make compared to using stainless steel. Good to know about the lecithin+oil mixture. A spray is not necessary in my opinion. How long does the mixture keep in the fridge? Do you notice your baking pots becoming sticky or dirty over time from the lecithin?

For high heat cooking, I find that I am able to use the stainless steel pan with little to no sticking. If I heat the pan dry until it's pretty hot before adding the oil, meat/fish don't usually stick. My problem is with fried eggs. For those I keep the stove on the lowest heat setting throughout, and the eggs stick consistently on my stainless steel pan, regardless of which fat I use. I also make Spanish tortilla often enough (in fact, I just made one), and I would be afraid of making it without Teflon or Pam. If the eggs stick even just a little bit, the tortilla won't be so pretty after being flipped. But you mention something that may be the answer: cast iron. I own a cast iron pan but have never used it for eggs because it's so big. But I'll have to try it. If it's non-stick enough, I would buy a small one to make eggs. How do you make your fried eggs?

I find that making chocolate molten cakes in a regular oven doesn't produce consistent results. I am wondering if there are modernist improvements in this space. I would imagine that cooking them in a combi oven would produce more consistent results, but I don't own a combi oven. Is there any other trick or technique that increases consistency of results when making this dessert?

I am wondering why caramel over flan (or creme caramel) stays liquid at room temperature. If I make caramel by cooking sugar until golden brown, and add nothing else to it, then cool it, it becomes solid. However, if I pour it at the bottom of a flan or creme caramel mold, cook the dessert, put it in the fridge, then invert it, the caramel flows as a liquid over the sides of the dessert. Why is that? I have a guess: the caramel mixes with juices from the flan batter, which prevent it from crystallizing even at cold temperatures. Is this right?