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Asparagus and Carrot Paruppu Usilli Serves 6 as Side. Hi: I'm a new member of the egullet community. This is my entry for the asparagus - in - Indian - cooking recipe contest. The contest inspired me to join this board. The recipe is an adaptation of a common South Indian side dish veggie preparation, called "paruppu usilli" that's made with any common veg: green beans, carrots, etc. It works REALLY well with asparagus. I've read some of Monica Bhide's cooking writing, and enjoy it very much. Milagai 1 c baby carrots 1 bunch of fresh asparagus 1/2 c masoor dal (red lentils) 1/2 c chana dal (like yellow split peas) 2 dry red chillies 1/2 tsp hing powder, divided into two 1/4 tsp turmeric (haldi) powder 1 tsp black mustard seeds 1 sprig of fresh curry leaves 1/2 c freshly grated coconut (optional) salt to taste 1 squirt fresh lemon juice 2 T veg. oil for cooking 1. Soak the masoor dal and chana dal in 2 cups warm water for a few hours, or even overnight. Rinse, drain, and grind to a coarse paste with a little fresh water as needed, in a small food processor, along with the dry red chillies (USE MORE OR LESS CHILLIES TO TASTE, BUT THIS IS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT, IT IS THE *ONLY* 'HOT' SPICE THAT IS ADDED, AND THE OTHER INGREDIENTS ARE ALL VERY BLAND AND SIMPLE) and half the hing powder, turmeric, and salt to taste. 2. Heat the veg oil in a deep skillet or wok, add the remaining hing powder, then mustard seeds, as soon as they pop, add the curry leaves and saute briefly. 3. Add the dal paste, and keep stirring for a longish while on medium - low heat until the paste dries up and becomes a nicely sauteed dry-ish powder and stops clinging in lumps. 4. In the mean time, slice the baby carrots vertically in half. 5. Cut off and discard the woody bottom of the bunch of asparagus. Cut the remainder into thirds, roughly similar in length and diamater to the carrots. 6. Steam these veggies to the desired done-ness, more or less al dente depending on your taste. Steam them separately because they take different times to cook. I begin steaming the carrots first, then add the asparagus bottom and middle pieces half way, then the tips last of all, so that nothing gets either too mushy or too raw. This is the only tricky part to the recipe. Add a little salt here if desired, remember that you added salt to the dal paste so be cautious. 7. When the veggies are done, drain them (if needed), and add them to the dal paste, WHICH SHOULD HAVE FINISHED COOKING TO A DRY CRUMBLY POWDER. If the dal paste has not reached this stage yet, then keep the veggies waiting for a few minutes till the dal is done. Don't hurry the dal. 8. The dal will turn pasty-ish again because of the moisture in the steamed veggies, and will cling to the veggies. Saute on medium-high heat until it dries up just a little. It won't turn 100% dry again but that's OK. 9. Turn the heat off, and add the shredded coconut if desired and mix well. The white coconut flecks look attractive against the golden-brown dal paste, and the orange carrots and green asparagus. 10. Add the squirt of lemon juice if desired. This step is not very traditional but I find it adds a good dimension to the flavors. Serve hot with the other components of the meal: dal, rice / chapatis, yogurt, etc. You can make this ~ 1 day beforehand and reheat, though fresh-made is better. This dish can also blend well with any multicultural / multi cuisine buffet ..... Keywords: Side, Vegan, Intermediate, Indian ( RG988 )

Asparagus and Carrot Paruppu Usilli Serves 6 as Side. Hi: I'm a new member of the egullet community. This is my entry for the asparagus - in - Indian - cooking recipe contest. The contest inspired me to join this board. The recipe is an adaptation of a common South Indian side dish veggie preparation, called "paruppu usilli" that's made with any common veg: green beans, carrots, etc. It works REALLY well with asparagus. I've read some of Monica Bhide's cooking writing, and enjoy it very much. Milagai 1 c baby carrots 1 bunch of fresh asparagus 1/2 c masoor dal (red lentils) 1/2 c chana dal (like yellow split peas) 2 dry red chillies 1/2 tsp hing powder, divided into two 1/4 tsp turmeric (haldi) powder 1 tsp black mustard seeds 1 sprig of fresh curry leaves 1/2 c freshly grated coconut (optional) salt to taste 1 squirt fresh lemon juice 2 T veg. oil for cooking 1. Soak the masoor dal and chana dal in 2 cups warm water for a few hours, or even overnight. Rinse, drain, and grind to a coarse paste with a little fresh water as needed, in a small food processor, along with the dry red chillies (USE MORE OR LESS CHILLIES TO TASTE, BUT THIS IS AN IMPORTANT INGREDIENT, IT IS THE *ONLY* 'HOT' SPICE THAT IS ADDED, AND THE OTHER INGREDIENTS ARE ALL VERY BLAND AND SIMPLE) and half the hing powder, turmeric, and salt to taste. 2. Heat the veg oil in a deep skillet or wok, add the remaining hing powder, then mustard seeds, as soon as they pop, add the curry leaves and saute briefly. 3. Add the dal paste, and keep stirring for a longish while on medium - low heat until the paste dries up and becomes a nicely sauteed dry-ish powder and stops clinging in lumps. 4. In the mean time, slice the baby carrots vertically in half. 5. Cut off and discard the woody bottom of the bunch of asparagus. Cut the remainder into thirds, roughly similar in length and diamater to the carrots. 6. Steam these veggies to the desired done-ness, more or less al dente depending on your taste. Steam them separately because they take different times to cook. I begin steaming the carrots first, then add the asparagus bottom and middle pieces half way, then the tips last of all, so that nothing gets either too mushy or too raw. This is the only tricky part to the recipe. Add a little salt here if desired, remember that you added salt to the dal paste so be cautious. 7. When the veggies are done, drain them (if needed), and add them to the dal paste, WHICH SHOULD HAVE FINISHED COOKING TO A DRY CRUMBLY POWDER. If the dal paste has not reached this stage yet, then keep the veggies waiting for a few minutes till the dal is done. Don't hurry the dal. 8. The dal will turn pasty-ish again because of the moisture in the steamed veggies, and will cling to the veggies. Saute on medium-high heat until it dries up just a little. It won't turn 100% dry again but that's OK. 9. Turn the heat off, and add the shredded coconut if desired and mix well. The white coconut flecks look attractive against the golden-brown dal paste, and the orange carrots and green asparagus. 10. Add the squirt of lemon juice if desired. This step is not very traditional but I find it adds a good dimension to the flavors. Serve hot with the other components of the meal: dal, rice / chapatis, yogurt, etc. You can make this ~ 1 day beforehand and reheat, though fresh-made is better. This dish can also blend well with any multicultural / multi cuisine buffet ..... Keywords: Side, Vegan, Intermediate, Indian ( RG988 )

What a great picture. Be still my growling stomach! Looks like you got everything right in that dish, gus. Is the brown of the greens (bok choy, what?) staining from the oyster sauce or does your stove actually generate enough heat to char/caramalize wok-fred veggies? If the latter, I'm insanely jealous. hey carswell and Steve W-- i am happy people seem to enjoy this--i want to do a walk through Little Italy next. --re: the browning of the vegetables, i let my cast iron wok pre-heat on high (consumer electric stove from the 70s) for like 10-15 minutes, add oil, garlic/ginger/chilis/whatever, then "shock-fry" them. i add any sesame oil, oyster/soy sauce towards the end. so it's a bit caramelized and a bit stained from soy. like 50/50. --re: Chinese vegetables in general, i am always buying them and have no idea what they are called. i mean, i know Napa cabbage, i know Chinese broccolli (like rapini with little yellow flowers), but most of them, i have no idea. (was it maybe pak choy?) is there some online pictorial guide to Chinese vegetables? (i should go ask this in the China forum.) jo-mel: i'd like to hear about different Chinatowns where you've been! feel free to start new thread if necessary... regards, gus

coconut spiced asparagus this is a simple recipe for monica's indian style asparagus contest. when i first made this recipe i blended my coconut paste to an ultra-smooth paste; big mistake. the coconut should be coarsely pureed to add textural contrast to the tender asparagus. it goes quickly, so have everything ready before you cook. chop 2 cups asparagus into 1/4 inch rounds (snap off woody stems first) prepare a coconut paste of: half a cup of finely shredded coconut half a sprig of curry leaves 4 small cloves of garlic 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp red pepper powder (or to taste) just enough water to make everything blend next to your kadhai/wok, have on hand: water, salt, brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, dry red chilis, curry leaves, coconut oil. method: heat coconut oil (i use over a tablespoon, but then i'm decadent that way)until very hot but not smoking. splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, covering pan if necessary and when almost done popping, add 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp urad dal and 4 whole dry red chilis. when the dal is colored, add another 1/2 sprig curry leaves, let them fry a bit and add the asparagus, a little water and salt to taste. toss this around for just maybe 15 seconds, then add your coconut paste. cook until the asparagus has reached its desired tenderness, adding water and stirring as needed. for me, this is around three minutes. i like all the water cooked off, and the asparagus just cooked through, but there's no reason not to cook it longer. adjust salt if needed. that's it. serve as part of a thali. Keywords: Side ( RG987 )

coconut spiced asparagus this is a simple recipe for monica's indian style asparagus contest. when i first made this recipe i blended my coconut paste to an ultra-smooth paste; big mistake. the coconut should be coarsely pureed to add textural contrast to the tender asparagus. it goes quickly, so have everything ready before you cook. chop 2 cups asparagus into 1/4 inch rounds (snap off woody stems first) prepare a coconut paste of: half a cup of finely shredded coconut half a sprig of curry leaves 4 small cloves of garlic 1/4 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp red pepper powder (or to taste) just enough water to make everything blend next to your kadhai/wok, have on hand: water, salt, brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, dry red chilis, curry leaves, coconut oil. method: heat coconut oil (i use over a tablespoon, but then i'm decadent that way)until very hot but not smoking. splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, covering pan if necessary and when almost done popping, add 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp urad dal and 4 whole dry red chilis. when the dal is colored, add another 1/2 sprig curry leaves, let them fry a bit and add the asparagus, a little water and salt to taste. toss this around for just maybe 15 seconds, then add your coconut paste. cook until the asparagus has reached its desired tenderness, adding water and stirring as needed. for me, this is around three minutes. i like all the water cooked off, and the asparagus just cooked through, but there's no reason not to cook it longer. adjust salt if needed. that's it. serve as part of a thali. Keywords: Side ( RG987 )

Asparagus Pakoda Serves 4 as Appetizer. 20 asparagus spears each cut into 4 inch pieces 1/4 c besan or chick pea flour 1/4 c unbleached all purpose flour Salt to taste cold water, as required 1/2 tsp pa-fried and crused cumin seeds 4 c vegetable, corn or canola oil for frying Combine besan flour, all purpose flour, cumin and salt in a large mixing bowl and add water slowly while beating with a whisk. The mixture should have the consistency of pancake batter so that it will leave a thin coating on asparagus. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan or wok to 350° F (180°C). Dip the asparagus pieces in the batter, slide into hot oil and deep fry till they are golden brown and crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Serve hot with spicy chutney and/or salsa. Or serve over mixed baby greens tossed with a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, minced garlic and fresh grated ginger. Keywords: Appetizer, Vegetables ( RG985 )

Asparagus Pakoda Serves 4 as Appetizer. 20 asparagus spears each cut into 4 inch pieces 1/4 c besan or chick pea flour 1/4 c unbleached all purpose flour Salt to taste cold water, as required 1/2 tsp pa-fried and crused cumin seeds 4 c vegetable, corn or canola oil for frying Combine besan flour, all purpose flour, cumin and salt in a large mixing bowl and add water slowly while beating with a whisk. The mixture should have the consistency of pancake batter so that it will leave a thin coating on asparagus. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan or wok to 350° F (180°C). Dip the asparagus pieces in the batter, slide into hot oil and deep fry till they are golden brown and crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Serve hot with spicy chutney and/or salsa. Or serve over mixed baby greens tossed with a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, minced garlic and fresh grated ginger. Keywords: Appetizer, Vegetables ( RG985 )

Ohhh, I forgot an old favorite. I was making a gigantic wok full of stir-fry, in preparation for packing up a week's worth of brown-bag lunches, and it was time to mix in the cornstach to thicken it up. I duly reached for the familiar yellow box, stirred a big spoonfull of the powder into a slurry with some water, stirred the slurry into the wok-o-veggies....and watched, in horrified fascination, as the mixture began to burp and bubble to the rim of the pan, over the rim, flowing like lava (mixed with broccoli and snow pears) across the stovetop, down the front, across the floor....I had grabbed the wrong yellow box. Bicarbonate.

Hi AnneW! Cataplana is hard to pull off if you don't have the tool to make it in (usually 14" copper wok shaped deal that clamps shut). Something I made the other day that is close is a Mussel dish w/typical portuguese ingredients: EVOOil 1/2 sliced vidalha onion one diced chorizo sausage one diced tomato (or half a can diced w/juice) one or two clove garlic one bay leaf a sprig each oregano and thyme 1 & 1/2 cup decent WWine 2 lbs mussels Use a stock pot with a tight lid. Get all but wine and mussels to a fragrant simmer, dump in your wine, swirl and stir, then dump in your mussels and close tight. By the time you slice up a baguette, your mussels are probably open. SHAKE POT, give it a good stir, serve in pretty, deep bowls with lots of broth. If you find some "Vinho Verde" (Casal or Almeida is only $6 up here in NewEng.) you'll be a hero. I found a very involved website with a Caldeirada recipe: http://www.honestcuisine.com/archives/cooking/000668.html ...but your friend, who is no doubt familiar with the simple approach to fresh ingredients the Portuguese are fond of, might prefer the mussels. Your Call

Potentially, this could be made into the Mother of Woks! I wonder who decides merchandising questions like that? BB

What a great picture. Be still my growling stomach! Looks like you got everything right in that dish, gus. Is the brown of the greens (bok choy, what?) staining from the oyster sauce or does your stove actually generate enough heat to char/caramalize wok-fred veggies? If the latter, I'm insanely jealous. Interesting observation Carswell, regarding 'the brown' of the greens. -Steve

What a great picture. Be still my growling stomach! Looks like you got everything right in that dish, gus. Is the brown of the greens (bok choy, what?) staining from the oyster sauce or does your stove actually generate enough heat to char/caramalize wok-fred veggies? If the latter, I'm insanely jealous.

Well, I don't have anything to say about what to do with crab in any type of Indian cuisine, but as far as the differences between dungeness and blue crabs go, the blues do seem to hold up better against stronger flavors. I've been living in Seattle, WA for the past decade, but grew up in New York City, so do have some basis of comparison that way. We always got blue crabs fresh, live and thoroughly pissed off at us (and who could blame them?) from Chinatown on Sundays. Was always a pain trying to lug them home on the subway because they'd always poke out whatever spikey bit they could manage from the bag they'd been unceremoniously stuffed into 12 at a time. A little dangerous when you were carrying them while wearing shorts! My mother would prepare them one of two ways, the first being steamed live and whole in a wok until they stopped scrabbling and had turned red, then serve with a dipping sauce of soy, minced ginger, sugar, garlic, pepper, and so on. The second way was to flip them onto their backs, chop them in half with a cleaver (how she managed to always do this without getting pinched is still a mystery to me), then dip the cut part into corn starch. Then they got sauteed in a wok in a savory gingery brown sauce until it stuck to the crabs, which provided for flavor when you cracked them between your teeth to get at the meat. Don't know what it is about Dungeness that doesn't hold up as well under strong sauces. They're great when prepared simply, because you get big chunks of succulent crab meat to chew on with much less effort than with blue crabs. I suppose one way to think about them is to treat them similarly to lobster, and not do anything to mask the taste of the meat. Pat

Brooks, That gumbo recipe and all its pictures should be bronzed! I can only hope it can get cut and lifted into an eGCI class for posterity. It is truly a thing of beauty and an art unto itself. And that pot is wonderful! Those nice angled sides remind me of those flat bottomed woks all the stores are hawking. Everything old is new again, isn't it?

I've never tried it, but I'm thinking an asian-style Matzo brei, cooked in a stir fry oil in a wok with lots of chopped scallion, chinese leeks and some mushrooms with a dash of dark soy would be really good.

The Butter Pepper Garlic crab was 'invented' at Trishna about six years ago. Trishna is a Mangalorean eatery at Kalaghoda, Fort, Bombay which started off by serving 'home' food to their homesick brethren who used to be employed in this commercial hub of Bombay. The restaurant became famous for it's sea food notably Crabs which were immediately lapped up by the Parsi community of South Bombay. The Parsis are quite known for their Crab eating habits and are often called 'Kekda Khau'. Next to follow were the Members of the Royal Yacht club nearby. But, their Crab had only one style and that is the 'Ghashi' gravy. At some stage they added Punjabi cuisine to their Menus and the Tandoor was also put to use in grilling this Crustacean. This heavily spiced Crab ( the Tandoori worse than the Ghashi) soon lost it's novelty factor and somebody thought it ought to go well sauted in Butter and Garlic. As an afterthought Pepper was added to add some zing to it. Trishna and it's ilk - Mahesh, Apurva, Modern.... soon discovered that this niche market attracted the well heeled glitterati and decided to go upscale. The restaurants were renovated and airconditioned and the menu prices raised. And thus was born this version which is now famous throughout the country. Recipe: Take a large crab, give it an orange colour makeover ( Boil), crack it at sections and put it in a large wok with 100 g butter. Saute, tossing it with the lid closed for a few minutes and then add 2 tbsps. chopped Garlic and freshly cracked Pepper as per your taste. Toss it for another minute and serve it hot. There is nothing new to the recipe, it's just that Crab became more fashionable in these small joints rather than the five star Hotels. One would have thought that it should have been the other way round. Some new variations include the use of Tirfan, Basil, Ajwain instead of Pepper.

Ben Hong: Yes, of course, your post of Mar 27 2004, 06:04 AM was most for cooking on kitchen stoves. My outdoor propane burner is a bit unusual. We seem to be taking different views of weights and volumes: In the US, one 'quart' is two pints, and one 'pint' is 16 fluid ounces or 2 cups. For something based largely on water, 1 pint weighs about 1 pound and one quart, about 2 pounds. One of my goals in this dish is to fill a 2 quart Pyrex glass casserole dish, and, thus, I would have about 4 pounds of food. I my area, New York State in the US, the local Chinese carry-out restaurants most commonly sell their dishes in 1 quart -- two pound -- portions. Thanks for the description of harmony in Chinese cooking and 'Wok Hei'. Some people can look at a list of ingredients and imagine accurately what the result will taste like; so far I cannot do this. Instead, I keep getting very different flavors just by changing proportions of a fixed list of ingredients. For me, an analogy would be how the three additive primary colors red, green, and blue can, just by changing proportions, combine to form, within the limits of the human color vision system, all the subtle colors and shades in nature, art galleries, etc. For "Project, you must keep on experimenting and eating", I'm trying. Big Bunny: Thanks for the suggestion. I hope eventually my results are good enough to deserve your suggestion of "cold beer"! I agree that cold beer usually goes well with Chinese food; for why, I don't have a clue. chengb02: Thanks for the suggestion of freezing green onions. While the texture may suffer, I can believe that the flavor mostly will not. As long as I am mincing the aromatics, the flavor should be enough. Samhill: Thanks for confirming the suggestions of oyster sauce. As part of trying to 'envision' flavors, I took most of my bottled Chinese sauces and for each took 1 T, dissolved in 1 C of water with 1 T of vinegar and 1 T of sugar, boiled, and tasted. I concluded that I can't envision what the effects would be. Or, I am sure that in Chinese carry-out I must have eaten oyster sauce at least dozens of times, but I cannot guess which dishes had it. So, as part of keeping the experiments simple and keeping down the number of changes between trials, so far I have not tried oyster sauce in this dish. Thanks for the suggestion of a cast iron wok. Yes, cast iron would hold heat much better than my wok of sheet steel. For "This leads me to believe your wok is not nearly hot enough. When I stir fry, the heat is such that liquid is reduced very quickly. No boiling.", it looks like I was not very clear: In the trials I described, I was using 2 C of sauce mixture -- soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sherry, water, etc. I am not trying to reduce (evaporate, boil away) any significant fraction of this volume, just apply heat enough to cook, sterilize, and thicken with a corn starch slurry. For my wok being hot enough, I should be more clear: The manufacturer of my propane burner says that the thing can put out 170,000 BTUs per hour. It's easy to make the thing roar like a jet engine and send flames 2 feet high without the wok present or 6 inches over the top of the wok with the wok present. It can be scary. Before I put chicken pieces in, the wok is smoking strongly. I leave the chicken pieces in the oil just long enough for the surfaces to become white; then the whole wok contents get dumped into a colander set in a bowl. I'm using enough oil that the pieces cook very quickly and nearly uniformly. Then the oil goes back into the wok; heating the wok boils away any water left from the last batch of chicken; I get the oil smoking again, and do another batch. Once all the chicken has been in wok and is draining a colander, I put about 2 T of oil in the wok, add the aromatics, spread them around, and put the wok on the burner. In just a few seconds the aromatics are very fragrant and I dump in the nearly 3 C of sauce mixture. So, at that point I am essentially 'deglazing' the wok. I intend to try a more traditional 'stir-fry' technique with the chicken. Then I will use less oil, and water from the chicken may evaporate on contact with the wok. In my most recent trial, I did try the onion suggestion -- I included 2 T of minced shallots and believe that I like the effect. I increased the chicken breast meat to 8 pieces, about 41 ounces as frozen. Still, 16 ounces of green beans is a lot for the chicken; if the green beans are to be only incidental, then 8 ounces would be more appropriate. I did the brining more effectively: Put the 1 gallon Ziploc bag with the frozen chicken and brine, sealed, in a dishpan of room temperature tap water until the chicken was defrosted (about 2 hours) and then put the bag in a bowl and set in the refrigerator overnight. I concluded that this more effective brining did do more to help the chicken be juicy in the end dish. Since my top priority is to make some progress on the flavor for minimum effort otherwise, 'velveting' the chicken is still in the queue of things to try. My latest, and best, effort at the sauce has 1/2 C of each of Pearl River Bridge Dark Soy Sauce, distilled cider vinegar, and sugar and, then, French style chicken stock to make 3 C. I use about 1/3 C of this mixture to make a slurry with the corn starch. Since I have 3 C of sauce liquid, I have stayed with 1/4 C of corn starch, but 3 T might be a little better. During the cooking, the sauce smells a little like some BBQ sauces. With the leftovers in the refrigerator, opening the door quickly convinces one that there's Chinese food in there. But, the flavor still has a long way to go.

"You may notice that in my steps, I cooked the aromatics, added the sauce, boiled, added the green beans, boiled, etc. So, I did 'blanch' the green beans in 'water' but, also, did keep the 'blanching water' in the final dish! So, this blanching of the green beans in the sauce may have hurt the final flavor of the dish -- may have been the cause of much of the "uninteresting" flavor I'm concerned about." This leads me to believe your wok is not nearly hot enough. When I stir fry, the heat is such that liquid is reduced very quickly. No boiling.

My humble 2c. The thing that glared at me from your sauce recipe is the lack of oyster sauce, lee kum kee premium is my fav, and the excess of oil, as mentioned. You definately should not be making the sauce first, it's a "deglaze the pan" type of thing. Also, I've never had much luck with the thin woks on my (gas/home) stoves, I find they cannot keep the high heat needed. This type of wok was a revelation to me. https://secure.lodgemfg.com/storefront/prod...?idProduct=2770 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=46273 I have the lodge, but if you plug - cast iron wok - into ebay's search, many like this come up, hopefully you should be able to find a seller that minimises your shipping costs, if you choose to get one. Best luck.

Hi fif! Caramelize your onions as usual. Then put them in a smoker. Thats it. I'm not familiar with a Weber, but I use a wok smoker and smoking pellets that I buy from Walmart or HEB, as I can't seem to locate a person locally in Texas that sells different woods for smoking. I do the same with leeks. If you intend on putting them in mashed potatoes, you can knock'em dead by adding white cheddar cheese, sour cream along with the other ingredients you would use for mashers. The onions get a strong, smoky flavor, so a little goes a long way. I also stuff prok with this alonf with thyme, cheese and other ingredients. The reduction is simple, 10# sweet onions to 2 gallons water, thyme, garlic and bay leaf. Sweat onions for 456 minutes on low heat until caramelized, add water and aromatics, and reduce to 2 cups. Hope this helps......

I found his personna very condescending. His food hit or miss. Hot Wok, cold oil..any Chinese chef with four words of English could say as prophetic a message.And there was one episode where he came THISSSSS CLLLLOSE to losing it that I just wrote him off.

Mock duck (made from pressed tofu skin) is actually pretty good but I wouldn't want to eat it constantly. You could also try hiyyakko tofu (chilled cubes of silken tofu, topped with slivered scallions, bonito flakes and a light sprinkle of soy on the side). This is absolutely divine served alongside soba noodles. The thing with tofu is to keep it as simple as possible. It's when you start to add things that the potential for gunkiness increases drastically. A dessert such as steamed tofu with honey is wonderful: steam a block of silken tofu in a wok or bamboo steamer and top with honey or honeycomb. Soba

I will never...never...never...again add chopped dried Thai chilis as the first ingredient to a hot wok...and I do not care what the recipe says...My family and I chuckle about it now that our eyes and lungs have healed..... Mark

Garlic and Black Pepper Pork Serves 4 as Main Dish. One of my favorite Thai dishes, Mu Kratiem Prik Thai. It's not authentic but I always add broccoli or snow peas to this. Serve with steamed jasmine rice. Add more garlic and black pepper for more heat. 3/4 lb pork tenderloin, sliced into thin pieces (cut when partially frozen this is easiest) 3 T peanut oil (or vegetable oil of choice) Seasoning Paste 20 large cloves garlic 1 T black peppercorns Sauce 1/4 c plus 1 tablespoon sweet black soy sauce 2 T palm sugar or light brown sugar 2 T nam pla (fish sauce) 1 head broccoli, cut into florets Seasoning Paste 1. Mash the garlic and peppercorns together in a mortar and pestle or chop the garlic and mash into a paste with the side of a knife and then mix with pepper ground in a spice mill. Cooking Method: 1. Place the garlic paste in a bowl. Place the sweet black soy in another bowl. Mix sugar and fish sauce in another bowl until sugar is mostly dissolved. Move all ingredients close to the stove. 2. Heat a wok or large pan on high heat. When hot add the oil. When oil is hot, add the garlic-pepper mixture and fry until garlic is golden and fragrant. Do not burn. 3. Add the pork. Fry about 1 minute, stirring constantly, until pork is about halfway done cooking. Add the broccoli. 4. Add the sweet back soy sauce. Cook about 30 seconds then add the nam pla and palm sugar mixture. 5. Cook just until the pork is done and broccoli is crisp-tender. Check seasonings for balance and adjust. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Pork, Dinner, Hot and Spicy, Thai ( RG959 )

Garlic and Black Pepper Pork Serves 4 as Main Dish. One of my favorite Thai dishes, Mu Kratiem Prik Thai. It's not authentic but I always add broccoli or snow peas to this. Serve with steamed jasmine rice. Add more garlic and black pepper for more heat. 3/4 lb pork tenderloin, sliced into thin pieces (cut when partially frozen this is easiest) 3 T peanut oil (or vegetable oil of choice) Seasoning Paste 20 large cloves garlic 1 T black peppercorns Sauce 1/4 c plus 1 tablespoon sweet black soy sauce 2 T palm sugar or light brown sugar 2 T nam pla (fish sauce) 1 head broccoli, cut into florets Seasoning Paste 1. Mash the garlic and peppercorns together in a mortar and pestle or chop the garlic and mash into a paste with the side of a knife and then mix with pepper ground in a spice mill. Cooking Method: 1. Place the garlic paste in a bowl. Place the sweet black soy in another bowl. Mix sugar and fish sauce in another bowl until sugar is mostly dissolved. Move all ingredients close to the stove. 2. Heat a wok or large pan on high heat. When hot add the oil. When oil is hot, add the garlic-pepper mixture and fry until garlic is golden and fragrant. Do not burn. 3. Add the pork. Fry about 1 minute, stirring constantly, until pork is about halfway done cooking. Add the broccoli. 4. Add the sweet back soy sauce. Cook about 30 seconds then add the nam pla and palm sugar mixture. 5. Cook just until the pork is done and broccoli is crisp-tender. Check seasonings for balance and adjust. Keywords: Main Dish, Easy, Pork, Dinner, Hot and Spicy, Thai ( RG959 )