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Wok wins!

That makes two of us. My wok can be turned upside down, over a fire, with the convex top used as a grill. Tip it over and you can boil, fry or whatever. The long handle gives you the heft for a weapon and the thin edges can be formidable. Turned upside down, it can be a rain hat. The other survivors might want it for themselves, -----so sleep with it, using the round part as a pillow.

Nope, I haven't seen it either, but I assume I'd be stranded somewhere remote. I'd bring either a dutch oven or my wok.

My wok.

jo-mel: You REALLY like cats and understand them. Of course, the TV Sagwa was created by Ms. Amy Tan and crew; someone there, likely Ms. Tan, knew very well what a total sweetheart little girl kitty cat would be like. Good to see that such sweetness crosses oceans well. "Current kitty cat sounds lucky to have you. When she realizes that her life is now for real, you might have her eating minced chicken --- if it is served on the proper plate, of course!" She was hungry at the back door, came in, and stayed. My vet got her shots up to date and said that she was altered and healthy. Mostly she just realizes that if the TV is on, then she can climb on my chest, get covered up with the sheet and blankets, and do her best to block my view and breathing. Or, if I am working at my computer too long, then she can come to the stairs, say "meow", and get me to follow her back to the TV. I just got back from grocery shopping with two 7 pound Perdue Oven Stuffer roasting chickens. Tomorrow I will cut them up, brown them in oil in a Chinese wok outdoors over a 170,000 BTU/hour propane cooker (King Kooker, from Louisiana intended for heating large pots of seafood at beach parties), brown some onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms, stew all of it with white wine, parsley, thyme, pepper corns, and water to cover, separate and chop the meat, keep the onions, carrots, celery, and mushrooms, discard the skin and bones, strain, defat, and reduce the stock, combine with roux, milk, cream, S&P, and lemon juice, combine with the chicken, vegetables, and some blanched little peas, heat through, and keep for dinners next week. It's 'Blanquette de Oven Stuffer' except not intended to be delicate; it's really meaty, with lots of flavor, including some browned flavor. So, my kitty cat will get the livers!

Chilli Mud Crab cooked in a wok, over a fire, on the beach in Cairns

Saar Hor Fun is the Cantonese name for flat rice noodles. 'Char' means fried in Hokkien. The seafood hor fun you've described is the Cantonese style of cooking saar hor fun. You might like to try browning the garlic lightly first before adding the seafood and veggies - I think cooking the garlic last does not allow its flavours to quite develop. I'd also use a combination of salt and soy sauce in the gravy and not just soy sauce alone as Cantonese style noodles are always lightly coloured and shouldn't be too brown. Edited - forgot about the egg - yes add it last, give it a couple fo quick swirls in the wok and serve. What we cook at home usually won't taste exactly the same as what's served in the restaurants - wok burners at home aren't as powerful as the commercial ones so we can't get the same wok hei ... and there's always the missing ingredient - MSG .

Ondine, or anyone on this board, do you have a favourite recipe for the sauce for Saar (also called Char?) Hor Fun? Living in Melbourne, and working in Footscray, I'm lucky to have literally dozens of Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian shops, bakeries and noodlemakers all around, so the fresh noodles are easy to come by. But I’ve yet to find a recipe for the beautiful eggy gravy in seafood hor fun. I’ve gotten very close just replicating by taste. After I give the noodles a quick wokking with a bit of soy, I’ll take them out, cook a bit of seafood and veggies, then add a sauce of chicken stock, a bit more soy, white pepper, cornflour/corn starch and after that’s cooked and thickened, a bunch of minced garlic at the end, so that it doesn’t cook too much. And the beaten egg… but I’m unsure when to add. I’m guessing also at the very end, so that it doesn’t cook too long and stays somewhat ‘liquid’ for want of a better word. Like I said, it’s close, but something’s missing… anyone suggest anything? And Steve, on the noodles, it still sounds as if they’re not getting a proper ‘breakdown’ in the hot water. I always found the packaged rice noodles far more rubbery than fresh, as if they’d been ‘preserved’ somehow, or reconstituted at best. All I can suggest is, rather than hot tap water or microwave, try dunking them in rolling boiling water for a minute or two at least. I reckon that the frying part of fresh noodles is to coat them in flavour, not really change their texture substantially. So, if they’re not soft and supple and slippery before they go in the wok, they’re not going to be when they come out. You may want to experiment with different noodle-softening techniques, and dispense with the rest of the dish until you’re happy with your noodles. BTW, I’ve found this book, Noodle, by Terry Durack helpful in noodle technique and description, plus lots of good recipes (but not for saar hor fun!) Good luck mate

That flavor could very well be from dark sesame oil. I will have to sample it again. My nose tells me when sesame oil is present, then the flavor. I am not sure it is sesame. I would love to watch a master wok cook at work. As noted somewhere else in this forum, when I need really high heat, I take the wok ouitside and use a separate burner on my grill. Hmmm...I should take the opportunity to finish the scallion bread with the grill surface.

Well, I'd have to say that the results of my latest rice noodle experiment were disappointing and frustrating. I tried running hot tap water over the noodles, but they remained brittle and stuck together. I then tried the microwave technique for one minute. I was only able to dislodge bits and pieces of the noodles. I nuked the noodle mass for another minute and the heat had its effect, as the noodles softened but were very hot. Still I was able to separate the individual noodles after much tedious work (about 15 minutes for a pound of noodles). It's worthy of a note here, though perhaps everyone else knows this. A pound of fresh noodles does not equate to a pound of dry rice noodles. Dry has no water, ergo more noodles per pound, D'oh! So with all that work, I really didn't end up with enough noodles. Anyway, I heated the peanut oil in my wok to the smoking point, and dumped in the noodles. After about four seconds, they began sticking and clumping, even with my stir-frying like crazy. To prevent the inevitable congealed mass of rice I knew I would get, I turned off the heat and poured in my already prepared sauce with stir-fried pork and vegetables. Done. The result was good, but the noodles were not what I wanted. The rice noodles themselves were too thin and silky, no better than dry rice noodles and nowhere near the chewy resistance that wide restaurant noodles have. So I remain perplexed. I presume there is some technique improvement that would improve my results, but I don't think the noodles I got were anything like the noodles that every Thai restaurant in Portland seems to be able to get. And I'm sure they don't spend 15 minutes per pound to prepare them for frying. So I still seek the secret of home made Pad Kee Mau and Pad See Ewe noodles.

StellarWOK-----That 'illusive smoky flavor'---- Next time you are in a Chinese take-out, watch the cookers. They are using very high heat. They will take that wok and tilt it, using arm control. It shift the woks contents so that the high heat will come in contact with the oil vapor/fumes in the wok. It will flare briefly, then die out. The wok contents gain in flavor, and the wok itself takes on its own special something --usually called Wok Qi -- Wok spirit --- that is then transferred to the food in the wok. It is not something that can be attained on our regular kitchen stove. They are not hot enough. Maybe others can explain it better than I.

I have found that "Squab", prepared Baste Saute Style, similar to the way it's been prepared in Shatin, Hong Kong at the restaurant across the Railroad Tracks where after trying the Pigeon, Craig Claiboure at a review in the NY Times said that it was the best he'd ever eaten [He ate 3 Whole Squabs]. Coat the dressed Squab with Dark Soy Sauce, Pepper and a Sugar Glaze. Place a Skewer, or hold with a Steel Fork thru the bird. In a Wok with a layer of Peanut Oil, heated under a High Flame place the Bird laying it into the hot oil, rotating and basting it with a ladle with the Hot Oil allowing the Pigeon the brown evenly on all sides. During Cooking allow the Bird to Rest several times in a large bowl or pan standing on it's side to let the heat penetrate and the juices to flow upto the surface. The Bird will generally be cooked in about 16/20 minutes, several may be prepared, rotating and cooking them in the oil during the same period. Traditionally Squab is not cooked as well done as Chicken or Turkey, should you prefer to cook it longer it will still taste good but not as juicy and delicious. Irwin

This topic and all the posts, has sparked a realisation on an aspect of my culinary preferences and indeed, an ongoing passion in my life, that I’d never before really noticed or considered; Growing up in Wichita, Kansas, U S of A, is very likely the single most diametrically opposed spot on the world’s map from China –certainly culturally, if not geographically. Yet, only now have I realised that the love I have – culinary lust, at times, even – for Chinese and Asian foods and culture may well have been spawned by those garish, bland and weirdly-packaged-two-cans-taped-together-veggies-in-one-beef-gravy-in-the-other, yes you guessed it La Choy (or was it Chung King) "Beef" "Chow" "Mein". Yeah, I ATE the hamburgers. The Spaghetti. The Jello "Salad." The fried chicken. The chicken fried steak (d’oh!). But what I always wanted to have was the Chow Mein! Initially, just the stuff out of the (well, both) can(s) – but it grew from there. I remember once, there was a little tipped-on Recipe Booklet, so you could throw your very own "Chinese Party" (featuring, of course, La Choy – or was it Chung King? – products in each and every item – can’t remember what product they tried to push when it came to Drinks). Anyway, one La Choy thing led to another, and pretty soon, I was pressing Mom for a wok, like the Recipe Booklet suggested. She got me one, and soon I was stir-frying pretty much anything that I imagined might be "chinese." In time, I discovered Chinese restaurants, cookbooks, Chinatown, and travel to Asia. Silly story, but it is interesting to reflect on how one crappy tin of "Chow Mein" may have been the origin of a passion that I’d later investigate, experiment with, and travel widely for – even if I’d now never dream of unwrapping tape between the two cans, let alone consume the contents. Anyone and everyone who enjoys, loves, craves, cooks and cares about good food surely has their own version of The Spark, painful as it may be to admit. Thanks Eddie, and everyone, for the occasion to contemplate. (Note to La Choy or Chung King Corporation, if you still exist: permission denied to use this anecdote for claims of authenticity, inspiration or any other promotional means.)

There is another thread titled "range finder" that i remember recently on this board My input was: i bought a flat in feb & we spent quite alot of time looking at ovens. I thought the smegs were nice until i looked up close. My boyfriend is a chef and we are very happy with our rangemaster Toledo, ours is the 90 dual fuel. It has 2 ovens (one normal and one slim,good for rib roasts and plate warming) , 5 rings (one which has a wok cradle or griddle attachment) & a seperate grill which alot didnt seem to have,we found it to be a simple yet smart stylish design... I am no good to advise on the technical aspects except the fact that i can use it !! I could check with my fella though We paid £1175 http://www.rangemaster.co.uk have fun sarah x

Stir-fried vegetables : One of our favorite parts of the meal are the stir-fried greens and the variety of different greens available to stir-fry are seemingly endless. We generally choose whatever looks best to us at the farmers' market and then use it during the week. Sometimes we’ll have gai lan (Chinese broccoli), or Shanghainese bok choy, spinach, dau gok (long beans), ong choy (water spinach), dau miu (pea shoots), long cabbage (Napa), or even just plain old bok choy. What you’ll see in the photos goes by the name choy sum, flowering Chinese cabbage or yu choy. Some people have trouble telling it apart from gai lan when it gets older. In general, it will have yellow flowers while gai lan has white ones. These were so young they had no flowers at all. While the home cook cannot mimic the feet-tall flames of the restaurant stoves used to stir-fry vegetables and impart that delicious smoky “breath of the wok”, we’ve come up with something that comes very close. We use a flat bottom frying pan because our home stoves do not have a large enough output to use a wok. There are a few tricks to getting this right, and it takes a little practice, but it’s a very satisfying pursuit. The first trick is to make sure your greens are as dry as possible. If you don’t think to wash them hours before you’ll use them, spin them several times in a salad spinner and then lay them out on a towel. The second trick is to be fearless when it comes to how hot your pan is, both during the preheating stage and when you heat up the oil. We're talking a minute short of a grease fire, here…keep the lid handy in case you wait too long and remember, oil fires need suffocating! Do not pour water on an oil fire. You need an oil suitable for hot temperatures, preferably peanut oil, or if you don’t want to use that, then safflower oil. Please don’t use canola oil, it tastes like crap and makes your house smell bad when you heat it up this high. For the garlic, it’s worth hunting down the smaller, purple, hard necked type. We’re buying a Korean one from the farmers' market that is just great…lots of spicy garlic goodness. I’ll also note that I may be advising you to let your pan get hotter than the manufacturer recommends. We feel it’s worth replacing a pan in 10 years to have delicious vegetables. You may feel differently. The last trick is to be very fast. I’ve timed what we show in the photos below, you may find that your stove needs more or less time to preheat your pan enough to get the desired flavor. 1 lb of greens, washed, cut or torn to manageable sizes and dried 3 cloves of garlic, smashed 1-1/2 T of peanut oil light soya to taste Heat a large frying or sauté pan over high heat. For the aluminum pan shown, we heat it for 3 1/2 minutes on full blast. A cast iron pan would take longer. Add the oil to the pan and heat it until it just begins to smoke, about 2 minutes further. Add the smashed garlic and stir it around while it browns and blackens. Add the greens all at once and do not stir. Wait 30 seconds, pressing down on the greens to let as many come in contact with the pan as possible. This is your best chance at getting that nice smoky flavor. The rest of the greens that come in contact with the pan later will not sear because the greens will begin releasing liquid. Begin to stir and toss, about 1 minute for these, a little longer for more mature greens. Once they have mostly wilted, splash in soya sauce, stir for 40 seconds and then put on a plate, fast! As you might have noticed, it takes longer to preheat the pan than it does to stir-fry the greens. Don’t worry if a few pieces of your vegetable are black or dark brown that means you’ve done it correctly Keywords: Vegetables, Chinese, eGCI ( RG760 )

Stir-fried vegetables : One of our favorite parts of the meal are the stir-fried greens and the variety of different greens available to stir-fry are seemingly endless. We generally choose whatever looks best to us at the farmers' market and then use it during the week. Sometimes we’ll have gai lan (Chinese broccoli), or Shanghainese bok choy, spinach, dau gok (long beans), ong choy (water spinach), dau miu (pea shoots), long cabbage (Napa), or even just plain old bok choy. What you’ll see in the photos goes by the name choy sum, flowering Chinese cabbage or yu choy. Some people have trouble telling it apart from gai lan when it gets older. In general, it will have yellow flowers while gai lan has white ones. These were so young they had no flowers at all. While the home cook cannot mimic the feet-tall flames of the restaurant stoves used to stir-fry vegetables and impart that delicious smoky “breath of the wok”, we’ve come up with something that comes very close. We use a flat bottom frying pan because our home stoves do not have a large enough output to use a wok. There are a few tricks to getting this right, and it takes a little practice, but it’s a very satisfying pursuit. The first trick is to make sure your greens are as dry as possible. If you don’t think to wash them hours before you’ll use them, spin them several times in a salad spinner and then lay them out on a towel. The second trick is to be fearless when it comes to how hot your pan is, both during the preheating stage and when you heat up the oil. We're talking a minute short of a grease fire, here…keep the lid handy in case you wait too long and remember, oil fires need suffocating! Do not pour water on an oil fire. You need an oil suitable for hot temperatures, preferably peanut oil, or if you don’t want to use that, then safflower oil. Please don’t use canola oil, it tastes like crap and makes your house smell bad when you heat it up this high. For the garlic, it’s worth hunting down the smaller, purple, hard necked type. We’re buying a Korean one from the farmers' market that is just great…lots of spicy garlic goodness. I’ll also note that I may be advising you to let your pan get hotter than the manufacturer recommends. We feel it’s worth replacing a pan in 10 years to have delicious vegetables. You may feel differently. The last trick is to be very fast. I’ve timed what we show in the photos below, you may find that your stove needs more or less time to preheat your pan enough to get the desired flavor. 1 lb of greens, washed, cut or torn to manageable sizes and dried 3 cloves of garlic, smashed 1-1/2 T of peanut oil light soya to taste Heat a large frying or sauté pan over high heat. For the aluminum pan shown, we heat it for 3 1/2 minutes on full blast. A cast iron pan would take longer. Add the oil to the pan and heat it until it just begins to smoke, about 2 minutes further. Add the smashed garlic and stir it around while it browns and blackens. Add the greens all at once and do not stir. Wait 30 seconds, pressing down on the greens to let as many come in contact with the pan as possible. This is your best chance at getting that nice smoky flavor. The rest of the greens that come in contact with the pan later will not sear because the greens will begin releasing liquid. Begin to stir and toss, about 1 minute for these, a little longer for more mature greens. Once they have mostly wilted, splash in soya sauce, stir for 40 seconds and then put on a plate, fast! As you might have noticed, it takes longer to preheat the pan than it does to stir-fry the greens. Don’t worry if a few pieces of your vegetable are black or dark brown that means you’ve done it correctly Keywords: Vegetables, Chinese, eGCI ( RG760 )

Massaman Nuea (Beef Massaman Curry) This recipe looks daunting, but I promise it will be the best Massaman Curry you have ever tasted. Even if you opt for the canned paste rather than using this recipe, the process of marinating and simmering the beef in coconut milk and the addition of spice during the cooking will improve the taste dramatically Massaman Paste 15 medium pieces of dried chili, soaked, seeded, chopped 1/4 c sliced garlic 1/3 c sliced shallots 1 T lemongrass, chopped 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp white pepper 1 tsp coriander seeds 1 tsp galangal, peeled, chopped 1 tsp kaffir lime zest 1 tsp cilantro roots, scraped, chopped 1 T salt 1 tsp shrimp paste, roasted Beef and Marinade 1 kg beef (I use the Chuck cut) 1 tsp ginger, julienned 2 c coconut milk* 2 T fish sauce To finish the curry 2 T oil 2 c coconut cream* 1 T whole cardamom 1 inch piece of cinnamon 150 g peanuts 5 whole shallots, peeled 1/4 c palm sugar 1 T tamarind, mixed with 1/3 cup warm water and strained 2 T fish sauce First you marinate the beef: Cut the beef into large chunks and marinate them in the coconut milk and julienned ginger. Set aside for at least 30 minutes before proceeding to the next step. Simmer the beef chunks in the marinade in for another half an hour. Next you pound the curry paste: (Note: This step is optional. You could just skip it if you opted for a commercial canned version. The resulting Massaman won't be as good, of course, but still quite acceptable.) While the beef is simmering, grind all the Masaman paste ingredients together in a blender until the paste resembles a fine puree. You can add a little water to the paste if it became too thick to be processed. Take care not to add too much water or the paste will create a nasty splash when cooked. Now you make the curry Heat up a large wok or sautee pan with 2 Tbsp oil, add the massaman paste and cook for a few minutes, stirring vigorously. Add a cup of the coconut cream to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until the paste is completely dissolved into the coconut cream. Let the mixture bubble for a few minutes until a layer of oil begins to separate from the mixture. Add the rest of the coconut cream and let it bubble away for another few minutes until the oil begins to separate again. Add the whole cardamoms, shallots, peanuts, palm sugar, tamarind water, and fish sauce. Add the contents of the beef pan, and continue to simmer until the beef is tender. Be careful not to let the curry boil too vigorously at this stage or the coconut cream will curdle. Just let the pot simmer gently until the beef is tender. Check the seasoning before turning off the stove. The taste should be spicy (not too hot, but very spicy), salty, sweet, with an ever-so- slightly sour aftertaste, in this order. Do not let it be cloyingly sweet. Serve with freshly steamed Thai jasmine rice, or Naan bread. Keywords: Thai, eGCI ( RG757 )

Massaman Nuea (Beef Massaman Curry) This recipe looks daunting, but I promise it will be the best Massaman Curry you have ever tasted. Even if you opt for the canned paste rather than using this recipe, the process of marinating and simmering the beef in coconut milk and the addition of spice during the cooking will improve the taste dramatically Massaman Paste 15 medium pieces of dried chili, soaked, seeded, chopped 1/4 c sliced garlic 1/3 c sliced shallots 1 T lemongrass, chopped 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp white pepper 1 tsp coriander seeds 1 tsp galangal, peeled, chopped 1 tsp kaffir lime zest 1 tsp cilantro roots, scraped, chopped 1 T salt 1 tsp shrimp paste, roasted Beef and Marinade 1 kg beef (I use the Chuck cut) 1 tsp ginger, julienned 2 c coconut milk* 2 T fish sauce To finish the curry 2 T oil 2 c coconut cream* 1 T whole cardamom 1 inch piece of cinnamon 150 g peanuts 5 whole shallots, peeled 1/4 c palm sugar 1 T tamarind, mixed with 1/3 cup warm water and strained 2 T fish sauce First you marinate the beef: Cut the beef into large chunks and marinate them in the coconut milk and julienned ginger. Set aside for at least 30 minutes before proceeding to the next step. Simmer the beef chunks in the marinade in for another half an hour. Next you pound the curry paste: (Note: This step is optional. You could just skip it if you opted for a commercial canned version. The resulting Massaman won't be as good, of course, but still quite acceptable.) While the beef is simmering, grind all the Masaman paste ingredients together in a blender until the paste resembles a fine puree. You can add a little water to the paste if it became too thick to be processed. Take care not to add too much water or the paste will create a nasty splash when cooked. Now you make the curry Heat up a large wok or sautee pan with 2 Tbsp oil, add the massaman paste and cook for a few minutes, stirring vigorously. Add a cup of the coconut cream to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until the paste is completely dissolved into the coconut cream. Let the mixture bubble for a few minutes until a layer of oil begins to separate from the mixture. Add the rest of the coconut cream and let it bubble away for another few minutes until the oil begins to separate again. Add the whole cardamoms, shallots, peanuts, palm sugar, tamarind water, and fish sauce. Add the contents of the beef pan, and continue to simmer until the beef is tender. Be careful not to let the curry boil too vigorously at this stage or the coconut cream will curdle. Just let the pot simmer gently until the beef is tender. Check the seasoning before turning off the stove. The taste should be spicy (not too hot, but very spicy), salty, sweet, with an ever-so- slightly sour aftertaste, in this order. Do not let it be cloyingly sweet. Serve with freshly steamed Thai jasmine rice, or Naan bread. Keywords: Thai, eGCI ( RG757 )

An easy tamarind sauce to jazz up fried eggs sunny-side up. To go with say, 4 eggs. Being rather experimental in my cooking, I'm not very scientific in my recipes - sorry! 4-5 shallots - sliced 1 red fresh chillie - cut into 1/2 inch lengths tamarind juice from about 1 inch cube of tamarind from your block (ie. soak the tamarind pulp in 1/2 cup hot water for a couple of minutes, and squeeze the juice out of the tamarind pulp) sugar and salt to taste 1-2 tbs cooking oil Heat the oil in a wok or shallow pan, and fry the shallots till transparent. Toss in the chillie pieces and stir around for a couple of seconds. Pour in the tamarind juice (be careful of splatter!), and turn the flame to low. Let the tamarind juice simmer for a while (about 2 mins) till the chillies and shallots look wilted. Add sugar and salt to taste - aim for a nice combo of sour, salty, slightly sweet and slightly spicy. Pour sauce over eggs and serve with white rice. This is probably a Nyonya recipe (Nyonya = straits chinese in parts of Malaysia like Penang, Malacca, as well as in Singapore). You can also substitute the eggs for fried fish, or fried pork belly slices, or even salt fish if feeling adventurous!

you really like the mix as much as from scratch BB? Yes. The batter is ready in five minutes and the Dosa is done in another five. Most South Indian homes make the Dosa batter in larger quantities and keep it refigerated ( it dries up a bit but you reconstitute by adding a little water) refrigeration keeps it from fermenting excessively too, its ready whenever you are. In India and in some Indian stores in the US now, you can get ready to use dosai batter in polybags which is kept refrigerated. I spent some time in Kerela and Tamil Nadu. The first time I was invited to a locals house for dinner this Punjabi expected the crisp Dosas( just like Vinod made) but when we sat down for the meal what we were served for bread were soft 'rice & lentil crepes' the thickness of tortillas. When I quizzed the host on what this was, he told me that these were the real South Indian Dosas and the crisp 'paper' dosas popular in the north and elsewhere were not the real thing. Almost like the authentic Italian pizza being so different from the popular versions touted by the chains here. Perhaps Chef Vinod or monica can enlighten us on this. Now when I make my dosa stuffing I go the easy way there too Make some instant mashed potatoes ( 5-7 minutes) while the water is boiling make your tempering. heat oil, preferably in a wok, when hot add a pinch of fenugreek seeds and a little channa dal when they begin to brown add mustard seeds, when they begin to start popping add some shelled peanuts or cashews and sliced coconut if you have some handy add curry leaves and when they start turning color add salt and a little turmuric cook a minute to ensure turmuric does not stay raw but do not burn it add the mashed potatoes and mix well. Wow, I got carried away tryska, all I wanted to say was, Yes.

ah yes, didn't notice you mentioned dumplings in particular. as jo-mel said, do some fried things as well. the wok is very good for that. especially if you're not using it for its limited steaming capacity.

My smallest (practical) steamers are 9 inches in diameter. I usually use them in a 12 inch stainless wok that I reserve just for steaming. I use my 14 inch stainless wok for my larger steamers. The 8 inch pot, you spoke of, just won't serve you well. I usually stack just 2 at a time. When I have stacked 3, I usually invert the top with the bottom, half way through, and add an extra 5 minutes. Too high a stack, the steam just isn't that effective. At least I've found it to be so with my regular kitchen stove. May I ask what your menu is? You can have a good dimsum party without all steamed foods. Pot stickers, scallion pancakes are pan fried. You can deep/fry shrimp toast,or mini egg/spring rolls, taro, fritters, wontons, or turnovers. You can bake buns, braise ribs, braise beef balls --- there's so much to dimsum than dumplings, altho they can be a highlight. Or as herbacidal suggested, let your dumplings spotlight a larger meal. Have we helped or hindered?

you're saying that your pot is 8 inches in diameter, and you're planning on steaming everything in it, probably in steamer baskets stacked within it? first, 8 inches seems to be too small a diameter. haven't really measured, but you probably would want something at least twice that diameter. second, if you have a wok, you can steam in that as well. as far as removing the bottom one and adding the top one, you're assuming they all take the same amount of time to cook. assuming you've made them all the same size AND they have similar densities, you've got a chance at that. anytime you have a lot of hot items at a party, you're always serving them in a staggered fashion. although in your case, you may have created a bottleneck at the steampot, making it more difficult. bottom line, get something else to steam in. use that steampot and at least 1 other pot. it probably would be best if the dimsum party spotlighted dimsum, and not was restricted to it.

Using a $2.50 5lb container of dark soy I bought from a local chinese supermarket, we made this fried rice this evening using chopped up leftover roast pork loin we made for the cubano sandwiches we had this week using the Toast N Serve: The rice was fried up in a chinese commercial wok oil blend. The rest of the stuff in it is scallion, julienned carrots and frozen peas and 2 eggs. A little bit of sesame oil was added at the end. This tasted a lot closer to the one you get in a old-style American chinese restaurant. The type of soy sauce used is clearly half the equation and the high intensity wok burners (and restaurant-made roast pork with tons of MSG) is the other.

Just recently installed a 460CFM 10"H/30"W viking hood for $700. So far after 3 weeks it's held up quite well in a variety of cooking styles (wok frying, curries, steaks etc) . For the money, I've been happy and covers 70% of my needs. Cooking smells have been reduced to a minimum and tolerable level. Looking back, to allay ALL fears probably a 1000+cfm 36" unit over my 30" range would be ideal to vent all steam and smoke overflows my current unit does not handle. By the way I had a vent a hood 300cfm unit installed by mistake prior to the Viking which surprisingly was not as sturdy and did a fairly poor job for the money $630.