Search the Community

Maybe it's because I haven't been inundated with winter weather like y'all in the rest of the country, but I'd go for the traditional dinner and not the island theme. You'll pay dearly for out-of-season ingredients that won't be that fresh and great anyway. What about a pork tenderloin with a pomegranate/red wine glaze? Cornish game hen? Get fancy but stay seasonal. Candlelight and tiny white lights might transform your room into something romantic and beautiful. Strew rose petals on the table? Gussy it up! We had a dinner last night that I probably should have saved for Valentine's Day, but I was celebrating an income tax refund. A dozen and a half Miyagi oysters (with a cilantro/jalapeño/rice wine vinegar/lime vinaigrette) with a bottle of Mumms, then a salad of mache with Niman Ranch bacon, Mini-Pearl tomatoes and Vidalia onion vinaigrette and an Australian Shiras (can't remember which one), followed by Cornish game hens (in an herb crust) and microscopic baby potatoes, par-boiled then wokked over high heat with kosher flake salt and EVOO. We had a DeLoach Zinfandel with that course. All very romantic, while watching a tape of "NFL Tonight" (the Superbowl edition).

But of course much depends on where your hood is. New Mexico does indeed have a wonderful old culinary culture. But I can see how you would get tired of the sameness after awhile. And what would you do if you lived in Flint, Michigan, a city where I once searched for hours for ANY non-chain restaurant and couldn't find one. New York, Los Angeles and Houston, on the other hand, are enormous multicultural cities where you can never cover it all. (John are you in London?) For example, I went out to get my kids croissants stuffed with Indian curry at an East/West fusion bakery out of Madras called Hot Breads this morning. (My kids call them goat donuts, and they love them.) While I was there, I noticed that a new Halal Chinese restaurant called Halal Wok has opened in the shopping center. Indo-Chinese food is a fusion style that is popular in India and Pakistan. The style and seasoning is Chinese, but there isn't any pork of beef. Chili chicken is the favorite dish. Then on the drive home, I saw a Honduran restaurant I had never noticed before. It is endless. It doesn't make me want to stay home though. Now I want to go to India and find out about these Chinese muslims who supposedly invented the halal Chinese style.

I don't think it is (though it certainly could be cultivated here). But that's not really the point. What's being banned is the importation of the harvested, dried buds, which travel from importer to retailer to end user to the wok. Where's the mechanism for infecting live citrus stock, of which we have plenty in California? Time to bombard the Citrus Lobby, and F whateveritis A, with letters?

I don't think it is (though it certainly could be cultivated here). But that's not really the point. What's being banned is the importation of the harvested, dried buds, which travel from importer to retailer to end user to the wok. Where's the mechanism for infecting live citrus stock, of which we have plenty in California?

This was in the Herald, and in a piece in Stuff at Night, they went into great detail dealing with the chefs "quirky"-ness and the afct that he has dined at El Bulli. His amuse is poprocks and powdered popcorn served in a test tube. what do you say to that? Louis changes name for L of it By Food Briefs Wednesday, December 17, 2003 The latest change at the cafe in Louis, Boston goes further than a new chef and a new menu to attract the retail store's power clientele. Under owner Debi Greenberg, the recently reopened cafe has been renamed L. Transplanted New York chef Pino Maffeo (formerly of AZ and Pazo) is in charge of the kitchen. Gone are the pasta and celebrated pizza from onetime supervising chefs Johanne Killeen and George Germon of Al Forno in Providence. Maffeo turns out Asian-influenced prawn tempura and green papaya salad, wok-fried Manila clams and tea-smoked chicken. Several wines and champagne cocktails are offered by the glass. L serves lunch, with dinner to be added this week. Call 617-266-4680.

Good Day, All- I have a few comments and questions about cookware for Sam and Boris and anyone else who might care to comment. The Mauviel commercial-grade copper saute pan I bought recently, 28 cm in diameter (11 inches), which has a stated capacity of 4.6 liters, but which measures out closer to 5 liters (5.5 quarts), is a joy to cook with, and the vertical sides, which are higher than American saute pans have, seem to add versatility and ease of use. However, the saute pan, though very, very heavy to lift, is still not extremely large, in terms of cooking volume. I don't think I'd find a smaller one as useful in the 9.5 inch diameter, let alone 8 inch. Recently, I stopped into a Sur La Table store, here in Chicago. Sur La Table is a yuppie store with high prices, and they carry Mauviel. They now have in stock a couple of Mauviel curved sauteuse evasee pans, the larger being 9.5 inches in diameter. I can see how versatile this pan is, but the 9.5 inch diameter seemed small. I would think that the 11 inch diameter pan, made only by Bourgeat and Falk, as Sam Kinsey mentioned in a post some weeks ago, would be the only sensible choice, given that most of us would have a much smaller pan, perhaps 1 quart or 1.4 or 1.8 liter, something like that, for reducing sauces. Also, Sur La Table, the Chicago store, anyway, now has a few 30 cm frypans (12 inches). This size is, of course, wider, and just as important, deeper, than the next smaller 24 cm (10 inch?) Mauviel frypan. I'd be far more inclined to buy and experiment with the larger frypan. Any comments? Boris, you mentioned recently buying smaller Mauviel saute pans. Am I paying too much attention to size here? The 9.5 inch Mauviel saute pan seems like it would accomodate two pieces of meat or fish, with not much room to spare, but I can't imagine that pan holding enough pasta, with sauce, for two hungry people. Any thoughts? I welcome your comments, because a stitch in time always saves nine. My Calphalon wok and 12 inch saute pans have been gathering dust for years because I bought them without knowing all the facts, and I always welcome comments from professionals who can caution me ahead of time. By the way, separate and apart from cooking specifications, these copper commercial-grade pans are beautiful, and their striking appearance, alone, is exciting. I can't imagine anyone regretting ownership of one or two. Best wishes to all. Greg in Chicago.

Dinner for the guest will be stir fried spaghetti (I have some fresh, not dried spaghetti that should be good) with stir fried chicken (strips of breast). Maybe some ginger, garlic, lime zest and lemon grass into the oil in the wok, with a few pinches of Chinese 5 spices. Stir fry the cooked pasta until coated, add in some soy sauce and Nam Pla. Keep warm. More oil into the wok. Add lots of ginger. Stir fry the chicken. Generous amount of coriander over the pasta topped by the chicken. Hmmm...this is sounding sort of Thai-ish. I am very, very weak on oriental cooking and just have no idea of the flavour balance of Thai food. Maybe less of the orient. I dunno. Maybe I'll just make it up as I go along. I really do not agonize lengthily about every dish I make. But this is, after all, a blog and I am honour bound to share my thoughts. The above thought process would normally occupy only a few seconds in real time. In any event, something will be cobbled together and duly reported upon.

My poor kids. They are going to grow up with a distorted view of Chinese cuisine. Because I take any protein leftover, steam some snow peas and carrots, add it all to a hot wok with some aromatics, then thicken with soy and cornstarch/chicken broth slurry, a package of success rice...Mom's special stir fry! I never actually realized how much leftovers I have until my mastiff died this past summer...she had been making a dent in the extra food! It's still hard to throw out the fat trimmed from a sirloin...I think of her every time. Great thread, Rachel..I suspect there is going to be some very interesting and inspiring replies..though I must admit I don't know waht a boggle is.

About two years ago I got a nonstick Caphalon knock off for about $50. This is the most beautiful pot/pan that I own. I use it for everything. Soups, stews, braising, pasta for one, boiling eggs and as a wok. Cleaning is a snap. Will it last forever? No, but I know that and use the hell out of it. I do not worry if I burn it or scratch it. For now I am just mastering my craft and my pots are paying the price. Besides, someday someone may buy one for you

You'll find nearly every kind of ethnic market you need... just not a lot of choices. For Chinese (and most Asian stuff), the big market is 99 Ranch, at the 202 Freeway at 44th Street (Copco Center). Lots of fresh -- and live! -- fish, plenty of ingredients, super prices. Their produce is uneven; the prices are very good, and when the produce is fresh it's wonderful, but I've often gotten stuff that was of poor quality. So check 'em carefully. My other choice for Chinese market is House of Rice, on Hayden at Osborn. Much smaller, and half the store is given over to supplies (such as woks and serving dishes), but the quality is always top notch and they even have (excellent) cooking classes. Recommended. There's a good Indian market on Camelback and 3rd Street. Best place in town to buy spices, even if you aren't an Indian food fan. Another favorite ethnic market is Edelweiss, the German deli and market on Cave Creek road. They stock all the things I need for Eastern European cooking, such as double smoked bacon. Plus a few tables right there, if you can't wait for your sausage lunch. When it comes to Mexican ingredients, the place you want is Food City. There are a few of 'em around town, though the one I go to is at Greenway and 32nd Street. Want buckets of chiles? Stacks of tortillas? Fresh lard? That's the place. How's that for a start?

Ovens: Electric convection ovens are preferable on account of their evenness and precision, especially for baking and pastry, and many ranges are available in a gas-burner/electric-oven configuration. Modern gas ovens, however, perform almost as well so if fuel cost or other issues need to be considered it's no great loss going with gas. In my apartment building, we don't get a gas bill (it's a building expense so it's factored into the rent but it's de minimus) whereas electricity in New York City is ridiculously expensive. So there's no way I was getting an electric oven, not to mention you might have to install a 220 volt outlet for an electric oven (although you probably already have that wiring). My gas DCS convection range does a very good job. Were I trying to accomplish professional-level pastry feats, though, I'd want electric. Rangetop: Higher power (not that the BTU rating tells the whole story on power) is always something that's good to have on demand. The boiling water example may sound trite, but it is in fact a huge convenience to be able to get a big-ass pot of water up to temperature in half the time. Live with a powerful pro-style stove for a couple of years and then go make some pasta at a friend's house on a regular consumer-level stove. See how much hair you pull out waiting for the damn thing to boil. Boiling also includes activities like reheating soup from the freezer -- the difference is remarkable. Higher power is also useful in several other types of cooking: putting a hard sear on a piece of meat, stir-frying (especially in a wok, where a consumer-level burner is totally inadequate), cooking with a grill-pan, etc. For other types of cooking it's completely irrelevant: eggs, pancakes, bacon, caramelized onions, most classic sauces -- there's no need for high power there. One thing you may find is that with a better stove and better power availability you change the way you cook in order to take advantage (your experience with electric is not indicative; the slow responsiveness of the coils makes them pretty much unusable at high temperatures). You also may find that as you cook over time you'll want that extra power. You're going to have the range for a long time. I think money spent on a range is the best money you can spend in your kitchen: for an extra $1000, you get a totally different, superior category of product. Think about the utility of the upgrade to this central piece of equipment versus the utility of an equivalent upgrade to, say, cabinetry, where an extra few grand can get eaten up by an insignificant uptick in materials or finish.

Off premise catering is a nightmare. The old adage of Murphy's Law never rings more true. No matter how exhaustive your walk throughs and planning meeting are, you will always be searching for something and attempting to pull a rabbit out of your hat at the last minute. One of the hardest things to execute? Coffee. Especially for huge quantities of people, and generally in these old catering mansions with terrible electrical systems. You need a dedicated 20 AMP breaker for each coffee maker, so you will find yourself brewing coffee in virtually every nook and cranny of the place. And you really need an electrician, because the outlets NEVER work like a client tells you. I used to test sockets with one of those $20 little testers at walk throughs, but even that wasn't a sure thing. I never left the restaurant without a full case of sterno, an empty Cres-Cor, Extra sheet pans, and three cinder blocks? Light 10 Sternos and throw them in the Cres Cor and presto, you have an oven. I have actually melted the doors off of these things! Why the cinder blocks? Arrange them side by side, with a sterno in each, and you have the hillbilly version of a Viking range! The minutae involved in planning a sit-down dinner for 400 is mind numbing. And no matter how much you plan, and label each equipment box, one server will take the box with the doilies and salt and pepper shakers and inexplicably place them ON THE ROOF, then forget he has done this. One of my favorite moments was when I was planning a wealthy clients holiday party, and he wanted to have his favorite Vietnamese noodle place do some of the food. So we go and meet the owner to discuss the set-up and his equipment needs, and he starts in on the refrigerators he will need, and the pasta cooker, and the gas fired woks, etc, etc. I leaned over the table and said to him, "Have you ever been camping?" He looked at me quizzically, as the term "camping" did not quite resonate I proceeded to explain to him that he was going to have to figure out how to feed his delightful noodle dishes to 500 people out of coolers and from ONE electric oven with an 8'table for prep. Oh yeah, and you'll be cooking on the loading dock. "That," I explained to him, "is why you can charge someone $10K for noodles." On busy weekends, when we had multiple events going on the same day, I would generally throw up from the stress somewhere around 11AM. And I was GREAT at the job, but I just could not take it anymore. Maybe the old deli tray kind of drop off catering is easy, but full service, fine dining catering has got to be a reasonable facsimile of the seventh circle of hell.

Boston Globe -- January 21, 2004 A recipe for luck: Chinese families dine on foods that will bring good fortune By Alison Arnett, Globe Staff When it comes to the Chinese New Year, preparations start early and food items have a purpose. Pan fried noodle cake with beef recipe adapted from “China Express.” --------------- Her success has been easy as pie: A bright, little Somerville shop showcases Renee McLeod's specialties By Clea Simon, Globe Correspondent Renee McLeod started making pies when she was nine years old and never stopped. Chai-spiced apple pie recipe adapted from Petsi Pies. --------------- A couple's gourmet dreams put on hold: Legislative hurdles delay store opening By Erica Noonan, Globe Staff Winchester, Massachusetts is the future home of The Spirited Gourmet -- neighborhood wine and specialty food store – if owners Chris and Elena Benoit can jump over one big hurdle. --------------- SHORT ORDERS FOR THE YEAR OF THE MONKEY 'Dim Sum' makes Chinese food kids' stuff I want my baby bok, baby bok Ravioli raves Wok this way ---------------

I have tried atleast 1000 versions of this south indian soup. I do like the westernized 'Mullaghatawny Soup' as well. The best cure for common cold. :) Atleast that's what the southies claim. Here is how I make it. If you have a different version, please post. Boil a third of a cup of Thoor Dhall (yellow gram?) until smooth. In a wok, add 2 tbs oil under medium heat. Add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds wait till they all pop.. Add 1 tsp cumin seeds, 5 pods of crushed garlic, 3 dried red chillies 1/4 tsp crushed coriander seeds. Let it all roast for 30 seconds. Add 3 large diced tomatoes and a pinch of asafoetida and pinch of turmeric. Wait till the tomatoes are soft and well integrated with the rest of the spices (5 min). Add 1 tsp tamarind paste or juice of one lime. Add 2 cups of water. Increase the heat to high. When it starts boiling, add the cooked dhall. Add salt to taste. (1.5 tsp?) Before it start boiling again, remove it from heat. Add 1 tsp crushed black pepper. Garnish with coriander and curry leaves.

I am in your camp when it comes to cooking things that are very greasy and smokey. Outdoors is the way to go. That said - I have read some interesting articles about kitchen design for people who do lots and lots of wok cooking (which most people don't want to do outdoors ). This is a custom design problem in most parts of the country. But in areas of the country with large Asian-American populations - standard builder houses are designed for the way most of the people who buy those houses cook. A hunt on the internet might turn up some of those articles. Also - if someone is going to do the kind of cooking indoors which requires a commercial quality hood - it would be a good idea to look into commercial or high quality fire extinguishing systems. They can be important. I once worked on a case where a BBQ place put in all kinds of fancy new stuff in its kitchen. First night they fired up the stove - it caught fire. The fire system failed - and the restaurant burned down. Needless to say - it was a good case and settled quickly. Robyn

Neither actually. Right now Portland, OR is home base, but I visit friends and family in SF and Sacto often. I don't, sorry. The best guides I've found have been for vegetables, not seafoods. Beef, bitter melon and black beans are a classic combination. I think it's more much more common to eat it on rice than with noodles. You can get beef and black bean chow fun all over the place in SF, but you have to ask for fu gwa (bitter melon) to be added. You'll only get it about 50% of the time. I don't have an exact recipe for it like I did for the dishes in the lesson, but I can tell you briefly what we do and if you have specific questions I'd be happy to answer them. The beef (usually flank or tip sirloin roasts I've cut along the muscle lengths and then thinly cut along the grain) is marinated in dark and light soya, shaoxing wine and a little potato flour. The bitter melon is cut in half, the seeds and pith scooped out and cut crosswise (a little thicker than the beef) and very briefly blanched in boiling water. You could skip this step if you're a diehard bitter melon fan, the blanching removes some of the bitterness. I think we use about 1 large or 2 small melons per lb of beef. We basically want equal weight from each thing, but that's personal preference. Prepare the black beans as mentioned in the lesson for the clams, except I like to smash them up with garlic and a little minced ginger instead of leaving them whole. I think for 1 lb each of melon and beef I would use around 3 - 4 tablespoons of dau see (black beans) because it will end up on 1 lb of rice noodle, but again, it's to taste. I like to have two pans going to cook the noodles and the stuff that goes into them in seperate pans at the same time. My stove sucks and I don't have enough fire power to do it all together and get that nice smoky wok hay going. Frying fresh rice noodles at home can be a little tricky, there are good tips in this thread. The noodles hit a really hot cast iron or steel pan/wok with some hot peanut oil, get stired around a little and some dark and light soya added. The bean/garlic/ginger gets stir-fried in another pan (very hot, again) and then the beef is added, tossed around, and little more shaoxing splashed into the pan, more tossing, and the the bitter melon. This happens really quickly, and before you start the noodles, your aim is to have the noodles slightly fried and softened at the time the beef is done, then you toss 'em together in one of your hot pans to let the noodles finish cooking. Hmmm. I guess I better try this one of these days. regards, trillium

My husbands family has a tradition of having "Kachmauli" at celebrations. This is a whole Goat slow roasted over an open fire. I am told Kachmauli means slightly raw / rare met. the meat is then taken of the cooking goat and mixed up with raw mustard oil, hing (asafeotida), salt, raw chili powder and served up. It is delicious. Could the same results be achieved on a smaller scale with the help of a rotisserie in a small oven. ? I also have a very interesting recipe I foundfor smoking chicken in a wok. will post it if I can find it. Might work for smaller game. Rushina

I second, third, and fourth the advice from Bond Girl et al regarding using a carbon steel wok. I have had the same one from the Pearl River Dept store on Canal Street for around ten years. Indespensible. Like a Lodge cast iron frying pan, or a cast iron dutch oven, why spend extra money for something more expensive and doesn't do the job half as well - Le Creuset for Asian food? Pah. Oh and when you buy the wok, spend another three dollars on the bamboo cleaning brush - it works great for the Lodge type frying pan as well, no soap, gentler than steel wool and never rusts.

You can use a nonstick or a well seasoned pan (wok). Still seems like a misuse of the term. Give it a new name. "water sizzle"?

You are very correct in that not everything works for everybody. In responding to Marlene's query, I offered a cheap simple solution that works for me. She may find out she doesn't like it or may find out it's perfect for her needs. I am looking forward to hearing the results of her quest. This makes me wish I had one of those new fangled digital cameras. My cheapo (sheet metal) wok is of the Big-Ass variety (okay, it didn't say that on the shelf in the Asian market where I bought it, but it's an appropriate description ). Because of its size, I usually make too much food for one sitting which I don't mind since I love leftover chinese food. How do I know the wok is hot enough? I put a drop of water in the empty heated wok. If the water drop immediately starts dancing around like a whirling dervish, I know it's ready. I'll wipe up the drop (if it doesn't evaporate from the heat), add my oil and "wok on". I'm also beginning to think that the real key to making homemade chinese food taste like what we get in a chinese restaurant is mostly in the sauce. The pot sticker dipping sauce I found in one of my chinese cookbooks tastes exactly like what you get in the restaurant so that's one little victory.

I dislike non-stick for another reason; I like being able to push what I'm cooking up the sides of the wok to isolate certain ingredients that may not be cooking as fast as others or to let something brown or, if there's too much lliquid, to let some liquid evaporate quickly. Can't do that with non-stick without everything falling back down. Excellent point! You're also supposed to push the food up the sides and be able to use the exposed center to add your sauce and then thicken it. Once thickened then your bring your food back down and incorporate it all. This can't be done as easily with a non-stick wok.

Well, I don't know about authenticity Eric, but I just loved the unthickened broth and unadulterated, focused HOT and SOUR flavors of this soup (though I also like a good bowl of the brown stuff, I just don't think of it in the same way). We had bugged the wok-jockey at this place, where we ate dinner every day, for hot and sour for months but they never had pickled cabbage on hand. One day it showed up on our table, and it was fabulous! This was the early 80s and things were still pretty lean (and dishes very unadorned) in Sichuan, but I imagine that if he'd had any dried mushrooms or cloud ear fungus he would have thrown it in.

We use our le creuset frying pan that has matte black enamel (it isn't acid reactive but doesn't scratch up like the ivory) or an all-clad saute pan to do all of our stir-frying. We had a wok (please...it was the real kind) for a while but found we couldn't cook enough food in it at a high enough heat, and you lose that nice smokey flavor. The deal with woks is that they are really easily overloaded. And before I get a lecture on what all the grandmothers do, it was an grannie that told me not to bother with a wok on a US stove, she didn't. I'm not saying you can't use woks on them but just that the volume of food you can cook in them is trickier than when you use a big, flat pan that has more contact with the flame or burner. I hate to sound like I'm from Northern California, but not every solution is right for every person. What works for you may not work for someone else. There's more than one way to stir-fry a chicken. regards, trillium

I dislike non-stick for another reason; I like being able to push what I'm cooking up the sides of the wok to isolate certain ingredients that may not be cooking as fast as others or to let something brown or, if there's too much lliquid, to let some liquid evaporate quickly. Can't do that with non-stick without everything falling back down.

Great! Follow Mudbug's advice (see the post above) and treat it like a cast iron skillet. Get the wok home, wash it, then dry it and season it on the stove. And like Mudbug stated, when cleaning it after cooking make sure you put it back on the still-warm burner to dry out any residual moisture. Rust is a bad thing! In addition to the above-mentioned brush, make sure you have a good wok spatula, too (like the one pictured in the middle here). Over time, the more you use your wok, the better seasoned it will become. I could have sworn when I just did a stirfry in my wok a couple nights ago that is was like cooking in a non-stick pan. But that's also the nature of wok cooking: stirring ingredients quickly enough that they won't have time to stick. That's where mis en place comes in so very handily, as you know. Over time, if used enough, the wok should also develop a blackness starting in the bottom middle (again, as Mudbug pointed out). This is just evidence of the seasoning of your wok and should be left alone. Let us know how your wok shopping went. As for those who have non-stick woks, given the recent eGullet threads on the toxicity of non-stick coatings when exposed to high heat (like in wok cooking), personally speaking, I wouldn't recommend using a non-stick wok for cooking.