Search the Community

I have one, only used it a few times and it's been in a drawer for many years. I use my wooden "spoontula" (a word I just made up) that I bought at an Asian grocery years ago for stir-fries, but II use it for almost everything in a pan or wok.

I live in what is arguably one of the most culturally diverse, high quality food neighborhoods in NYC, possibly the US and maybe the world - NYC's East Village. Within a few blocks of me is a decent representation of food from almost any country (or region) you can think of, all of whom will deliver to my door (actually, the front desk in the lobby due to covid restrictions). With that being said, after roughly 6 weeks of eating almost nothing made by my own 2 hands aside from a salad (due to packing/moving/unpacking/and rehabbing the old place so I can get as much of the security deposit back as is possible after living in a place for 15 years), I was so happy last night to finally make a homemade dinner - and one I've been especially jonesing for - a Nyonya chicken curry called Ayam Buah Keluak - chicken in black nut curry. Well, sort of - I have no access to the keluak (the black nuts) that I'm aware of, and I certainly don't yet have the week it requires to process the keluak so it's not poisonous. The curry has no coconut milk - it's made with water or stock, and a paste made from the SE Asian kitchen sink - lemongrass, galangal, chillies, curry leaves, shallots, candlenuts, tamarind just being the beginning and one of the dominant flavors - shrimp paste, called belacan (pronounced bla-chen) in Malaysia/Indonesia. I make a large batch of the rempah (the spice paste) since it's time consuming, then portion and freeze - I usually get about 8-9 meals for 2 out of 1 batch of rempah, and had 2 meals worth left in the freezer. I also don't have the new kitchen fully set up yet - there are still boxes everywhere, as well as a partially assembled kitchen cart (thank you Wayfair for sending 2 of one piece and 0 of another) so it took twice as long to make as normal, but I am already loving being in this kitchen. I don't even have my induction hobs yet (there's no gas service in this building), but I did get a 15,000BTU butane powered camping stove that I used for the first time last night. Holy crap that thing is powerful! It is a lot more powerful than the largest burner in my old apartment. Most of the time I had it barely on to keep a perfect simmer, but was able to crank it up when stir frying the veggies in my carbon steel wok.

More than a few years ago I looked out the window to see my older son and his Chinese born Iberophile accomplice moving suspiciously about the tennis court across the street. When I went to enquire of their intent they informed me they were acquiring the bunny for the night's paella. The bunny proved too fast for them. That particular paella lacked nothing without the bunny. Be it known my sons won't even eat fish they have caught themselves. The friend described his mother's cuisine as burnt wok food.

I buy them live. Sometimes, they do jump out of the wok! But these ones were dead before I cooked them. When I cook them shell and head on, it can be fun in the kitchen catching the more energetic ones who object to being tossed into hot oil.

Just finished our reno. New cabinets, new sink, new gas range with powerful hood fans, stamped tin backsplash, new stone island countertop, new range-side laminate countertop. Whole thing took two weeks - bought a new carbon-steel wok to celebrate!

Well, that's fair. I've never had it. I grew up with parents who really had limited cooking abilities. My mother grew up Kosher, my dad? Hard to know what he did before he became my dad. We ate a lot of local Chinese and local deli food. Then I moved to Wisconsin for a year and lived on soup mix and A and W burgers and root beer. Then I moved to New Mexico and survived happily on great cheap family restaurant food: bowls of red and green chile, beans, enchiladas. In those days we wouldn't be caught dead at Taco Bell. Then I moved to CA, lived on the border of SF Chinatown and discovered some basic wok cooking, mine and others. Then I married a native CA boy with a mainly vegetarian family that lived on veg lasagne,strange tofu casseroles and big salads that were also strange. Except for my husband, who ate everything and still does, even as I've become finicky. So, mincemeat pie? What exactly is it?

Main reason I brought my wok out of retirement; even though I was always cooking some Chinese style stuff, it seemed like the right thing to do. Also - it works better for certain stir fries, since I tend to make a mess.

I’m retired with lots of time to both garden and cook. Canning is a bit of a hobby, and we especially cook a lot of Mexican food (imagine that) and steaks—charred surface and true rare centers. Besides me in the kitchen are my son, DIL, and granddaughters. Two are amazing Hispanic cooks—the third does vegetarian fare, so wok-cooking is a new passion. I also bake quite a bit, so from pies, cakes, and cookies to bread, my oven gets a workout. With all this going on, a new LP gas range is up for consideration. It will replace a JennAire downdraft range, and my island’s current configuration will go away, in favor of some simpler stations. I’m impressed by Blue Star ranges, but need a downdraft vent, so I’ll be browsing appliances for a while. Hit me up with any ideas of how to incorporate all this into a dream retirement kitchen. A 36” range is as big as my kitchen can handle. Can I use a downdraft vent with a free-standing range? Thanks for having me here. Can’t wait to look around! mjhtx47

Yesterday I did a last load of laundry for this trip. The laundromat shares a building with an Oriental Gift Shop that I visited years ago. When I could walk away from the laundry, I went into the gift shop, which carries quite a bit of food and cooking implements as well as a boatload of non-culinary items. The window displays are inviting. I love ornamental fans and pottery. These vases are beautiful, I think, and none was over $50. I wasn't tempted: wouldn't fit in the Princessmobile, nor would it go with our house decor. But I could enjoy looking. I could also see woks, rice cookers, skimmers, scoops and so on inside. Inside, there are scarves and dresses and a wild array of makeup and doodads - false eyelashes, wigs galore, beads - and toys and...well, I could have spent hours, but I only had minutes. Given the inexpensive cost of the vases, and the cavelier way they'd stowed the Zojirushi rice cooker, I thought I might find a real bargain. Nope. $235. They know what they have. On to the frozen and refrigerated food sections. This is just a very small sample. Can you make out the frozen octopus? I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I'd run out of rice. I stopped here and considered, but left it alone. There was a fine selection of sauces and oils and spices, and many curiosities for me. If I'd had any idea of its quality, I might have tried this one. But I don't, so I didn't. Here is the one thing that tempted me. I have read so much on eGullet about Kewpie mayonnaise, and I've been curious about it. Here was my chance! Then I decided that I wasn't $6.65 curious. Maybe some other time, some other year. Maybe I'll get a chance to try it without buying a whole package.

Kung Po Gai for supper last night, using up the leftover Crudités from the princesses' visit Then I put my life at risk making dim sum style braised chicken feet! Luckily, I had a huge wok with a big lid as the feet splattered like crazy even though I fried them really well first. I remember then why I deep fried them outside on a turkey fryer in the past! The fried feet were dunked into ice water, then braised in black bean garlic chili sauce in the Instant Pot. They were maybe over cooked at 30 minutes and natural release, but so lip smacking delicious!

@Kim Shook: Your char siu from the freezer looks great! After the multi-pot cooking marathon yesterday, it was single wok Spicy Udon noodles with fresh Shitaki mushrooms, been sprouts, char siu for supper. My bowl had extra fresh beansprouts...fresh and crisp!

Played in the kitchen yesterday! De-boned and stuffed chicken wings. man! Tedious job as the wings were smaller than what I'd like, but better portion control 😏 I made a bunch and cooked up 5. Put the rest into the freezer. Still had filling left. Stuffed some large shrimp and wrapped them in egg roll wrappers. Too big for wonton wrappers. Still had a bit of filling left, so I did the rest with wonton wrappers. Deep fried in a big wok! The assortment The stuffed wings Had Moo Gua soup earlier And did up a pack of country-style ribs as Char Siu for baos later...

As @liuzhou and @MokaPot said, abalone needs to be tenderized or slow cooking. I shucked, cleaned, and blanched the little abalone in hot water for a few minutes. The 10 little fellas and re-hydrated Shitaki mushrooms went into the liner pot of the Instant Pot with sauteed garlic, ginger slices, mushroom soaking liquid, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and cooking wine. The whole lot was cooked for 50 minutes on high pressure. Everything was just tender, and each abalone was 2 bites! I also had some scallops on the shell to cook up. These were steamed on a rack in the wok with the Shanghai Bok Choy . The liquid from the abalone was perfect, thickened with cornstarch slurry. There wasn't much flavour to the abalone other than from the braising liquid. I was dreaming about the fresh baby abalone we enjoyed at a seafood buffet on the 15th floor of our hotel in Soeul, but alas, the ones I cooked didn't quite measure up.😉

Followed by wok hei'ng?

This was on sale/posted back in 2018. I am posting it again in case someone missed it... Grace Young's "The Breath of a Wok: Unlocking the Spirit of Chinese Wok Cooking Through Recipes and Lore" Kindle Edition $1.99US (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Use the "Look Inside" feature to see the list of recipes. I am a US Prime member and the price you see may vary.

Still working the chow fun jonesing. Yesterday, stir-fried with some pork shoulder strips and green pepper. Stir fried choy sum alongside. I will note that the rice noodles are probably best used within a day or two of purchase, or maybe frozen? These were a few days out, but still worked, though I had to smush them around in the wok more than when I first bought them.

I hung onto one of those portable butane burners when I stopped doing catering and farmer's markets, just to have on hand. Primarily it's a winter-storm backup for cooking purposes, and I toss it in my van during winter road trips or summer camping trips for similar reasons. Haven't had to use it yet, except for camping. Also, one day I will find myself a wok with a rounded bottom*, and my butane burner will then become the wok burner. *I know, I know, I can order them online. It's been a low priority, and I haven't gotten to it yet. Someday, when the time is right, I'll need to top up an order to get free shipping...

I have been jonesing for chow fun for quite a while. There was a vendor in Chinatown who would sell 3 or 4 different types of rice noodles; one could get a sackful for like $2. But when I went for a walk the other day, she was no longer to be found. Other stores I stopped into led to no success either. So I asked around, and found out a place called Kong Kee sells them, and I took another walk in that direction yesterday... I don't know what those characters translate to in English, but the address matched the one I googled. And sure enough, rice noodles! More expensive than before, but a few bucks netted me about 3 or 4 lbs. of them... As discussed elsewhere, wok hei is not happening too often at home. Now Serious Eats has figured out how to do it, (they call it torch hei) but I'm not in the mood for firing up the torch, and or burning down my apartment. So - I just stir-fried them, with a little beef and greens... They hit the spot.

A dinner I made with leftovers from the care packages that went to the kids. Black Bean Garlic Beef & Bitter Melon over Ho Fun. Good fresh Ho Fun is hard to find. At our local store, they are packed so tightly and vacuum sealed that they basically crumble when they hit the wok. Now, I use the dried noodles that I hydrate before cooking. They retain a bit of chew and so easy to stir-fry. I love the fresh noodles when I can get into the big city Chinese grocery stores. Had tofu and bell peppers in the fridge that needed using up. So, it was spicy tofu. ground pork, onions, and peppers in spicy toban sauce. Tossed in some ground up Szechuan peppercorns for that extra zing! A former colleague is married to a Chinese lady who has not done much Western cooking, like his favourite - lemon meringue pie. They were coming into town for apptns, so I made him a pie last night for pick up today! I only gave them half a pie as his wife is keeping close tabs on his calories!🤪 It helps us out too as we don't want to eat a whole pie!

No. Unless to store it. (And unfortunately I don't think it would fit.) I was looking for an induction compatible, dishwasher safe, low-sided pan that I could use on my Paragons as well as on the stovetop. All my existing frying pans are either non-stick or non-induction. I have been searing in a wok-like stir-fry pan from Thailand but the sides are really too high for the application. Speaking of bargains, that $30 stir-fry pan was possibly my best pan purchase ever. I use it often. I used it last night. It is getting all dented up but it doesn't seem to care. Anyhow I have a spare still in the box, waiting in the living room.

I did the 25 minutes @ 194F then i put it into a 132F bath for probably 30 minutes, Then into the Wok i sauteed the mushrooms and shallots in ( i luckily had them reserved) until the liquid was evaporated. (about 10 minutes). Again, i would not recomend this chefsteps recipe, and i will stick to tradtional, and at least try the instant pot recipe. I might bump this thread when i do. I just don't want people to see my results and assume chefsteps had anything to do with the final results because their results were laughable.

I don't remember ever being served ketchup as a sub for duck sauce. Duck sauce involves vinegar, soy sauce, apricot or other fruit jam and maybe garlic and ginger or something that approximates that combo. It was sweet, but not tomato-like. As for books the two I relied on when just learning to use my wok living in SF about 40 years ago,were Regional Cooking of China by Margaret Gin and Henry Chung's Hunan Style Chinese Cookbook. Those were the days when the original hole-in-the-wall Hunan Restaurant had just opened in Chinatown. I don't think there was much more than a counter for service. I lived three blocks up the hill on the cable car route.

"This is my rifle wok. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My rifle wok is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle wok is useless. Without my rifle wok I am useless. I must fire my rifle wok true. I must shoot cook straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill out-cook me. I must shoot out-cook him before he shoot out-cooks me. I will."

I have a phony All Clad wok I'd love to get rid of. It's probably about 15 years old and used maybe twice. I haven't touched it, but since it's been hanging on my pot rack for all that time, I'd assume it has a very healthy layer of settled aerosolized oil mixed with dust on it. In fact, I can practically guarantee it. It was quite expensive when I got it - do you think anyone would want to pay to take it off my hands or should I try to donate to some sad sap? OTOH, I got a Joyce Chen carbon steel wok relatively recently and have already used it a bunch of times. It lives on my stovetop since it (was pre foot burning) is the most common thing I use lately.

A few nights ago: Scallops, duck-fat and chicken stock "broasted" creamer potatoes, Belgian endive in the style of puntarelle, with anchovies and vinaigrette. My food stylist sucks. I jogged walked over to Chinatown (wait, I live in Chinatown, I walked west on Grand Street to Ken Hing (by the way @KennethT - they don't have that refrigerated curry paste you mentioned)), to buy some stuff for dinner. Though this stuff was in inventory, and pickled the day before: Cucumber pickle, Szechuan style. Cabbage and carrot sweet and sour pickle (Cantonese style?). In the freshly cleaned and seasoned wok... Shanghai bok choy. Simple stir-fry. Lo mein, with chicken, shitake, cabbage, snow peas, scallions, etc. Very good.