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These have been mentioned a couple of times recently on different threads and I felt they deserved one of their own. After all, they did keep me alive when I lived in Xi'an. Rou jia mo (ròu jiá mò; literally "Meat Sandwich") are Chinese sandwiches which originated in Shaanxi Province, but can be found all over China. Away from their point of origin, they tend to be made with long stewed pork belly. However in Xi'an (capital of Shaanxi), there is a large Muslim population so the meat of choice is more usually beef. In nearby Gansu Province, lamb or mutton is more likely. Stewed Belly Pork Rou Jia Mo When I was living in Xi'an in 1996-1997, I lived on these. I was living on campus in North-West University (西北大学) and right outside the school gate was a street lined with cheap food joints, most of which would serve you one. I had one favourite place which I still head to when I visit. First thing I do when I get off the train. What I like to eat is Cumin Beef Rou Jia Mo (孜然牛肉夹馍 zī rán niú ròu jiá mò). The beef is stir fried or grilled/BBQd with cumin and mild green peppers. It is also given a bit of a kick with red chill flakes. Here is a recipe wrested from the owner of my Xi'an favourite. So simple, yet so delicious. Lean Beef Fairly lean beef is cut into slivers Sliced Beef Chopped garlic I use this single clove garlic from Sichuan, but regular garlic does just fine. The beef and garlic are mixed in a bowl and generously sprinkled with ground cumin. This is then moistened with a little light soy sauce and Shaoxing wine. You don't want to flood it. Set aside for as long as you can. Mild Green Chilli Pepper Take one or two mild green peppers and crush with the back of a knife, then slice roughly. You could de-seed if you prefer. I don't bother. Chopped Green Pepper Fire up the wok, add oil (I use rice bran oil, but any vegetable oil except olive oil would be fine) and stir fry the meat mixture until the meat is just done. Frying Tonight Then add the green peppers and fry until they are as you prefer them. I tend to like them still with a bit of crunch, so slightly under-cook them In with the peppers You will, of course, have prepared the bread. The sandwiches are made with a type of flat bread known as 白吉饼 (bái jí bǐng; literally "white lucky cake-shape"). The ones here are store bought but I often make them. Recipe below. Bai Ji Bing Take one and split it. Test the seasoning of the filling, adding salt if necessary. It may not need it because of the soy sauce. Nearly there Cover to make a sandwich and enjoy. You will see that I have used a bunch of kitchen paper to hold the sandwich and to soak up any escaping juices. But it should be fairly dry. The final product. Note: I usually cook the meat and pepper in batches. Enough for one sandwich per person at a time. If we need another (and we usually do) I start the next batch. Bread Recipe 350g plain flour 140ml water 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast Mix the yeast with the flour and stir in the water. Continue stirring until a dough forms. Knead until smooth. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and leave to rise by about one third. (maybe 30-40 minutes). Knead again to remove any air then roll the dough into a log shape around 5cm in diameter, then cut into six portions. Press these into a circle shape using a rolling pin. You want to end up with 1.5cm thick buns. Preheat oven to 190C/370F. Dry fry the buns in a skillet until they take on some colour about a minute or less on each side, then finish in the oven for ten minutes. Allow to cool before using.

Regarding rice noodles, I've posted about this before but I saw Martin Yan, in one of his PBS cooking series, make rice noodles in a basket steamer over his wok. The batter was relatively thin and he poured it onto what looked like a large banana leaf in a steaamer basket. The way he poured the batter reminded me a lot of crepe batter where the object is to not make it too thick. He then covered the basket and in a short while he had a rice "pancake" that he cut into noodle strips. He certainly made it look easy. I'm not sure if he put the noodles into a stir fry. This makes me wonder how fragile the fresh noodles are. If anyone attempts making rice noodles, please post your results.

Well then just serve them with ham. When I was growing up we always ate our scrambled eggs with jelly, and the Welch's grape stuff turned the eggs green. I still eat them that way occasionally, but I've moved up to red raspberry preserves. I sometimes cook my eggs in oil, as well, but in a wok. I discovered that I really liked the way the eggs turned out when I scrambled them for fried rice. Just heat a bit of oil in the wok until a teeny bit of the egg mixture sizzles, then pour in the eggs. Tilt the wok to cover the bottom with the egg mixture and scramble with a chopstick. They get browned in spots but it's a nice crispy brown. Sometimes I throw in some cabbage, too, and eat them with soy sauce.

I've occasionally heard "tender-crisp" used to describe the consistency of properly stir-fried vegetables, and it seems like an apt term for vegetables that have been nicely browned on the outside in a really hot wok while still crunchy on the inside.

Pea shoots are a staple at our house: heat some schmaltz (chicken fat) or lard in a wok on high heat, pinch of salt, quickly brown some minced garlic, and then add the shoots, tossing constantly until barely wilted. Add a few tablespoons of chicken stock and serve. Simple and tasty.

For "regular" saute items, I just watch to see the oil "ripple" which indicates to me that it is time to add the food. I've been doing this for more than 60 years and it works ok for me. For wok stir-fry I took a tip many years ago from a friend who owned a restaurant up the street from me when I lived in Reseda, CA. He showed me that they add oil that is already hot to the woks and so it is instantly ready. I put the oil I'm going to use in a small tea kettle and keep it over a low flame so it is hot but not smoking and then pour a bit into the heated wok. Instantly ready to add the meats and then the vegetables.

The only time I allow oil to get to the smoke point is when I stir-fry in the wok with peanut oil. I can't think of any other dishes that I cook on heat that high.

A comprehensive list of the smoke points on various oils can be found here. Note that some grapeseed oils have a higher smoke point than others. I believe I mentioned earlier in this thread that I have been using REFINED safflower oil for frying. I like it because it does not have an unpleasant odor when it gets really hot when a scant amount is used over high heat (in a wok). I like the flaxseed oil for low temp saute and also for use IN baked goods. I routinely use it in my breads with great results.

True enough. I certainly use animal fats for cooking/frying/stir-frying as occasion or desire arises, but for *routine* use I would go with one of the "liquid at room temperature" oils as largely discussed here. I've made many a dish using chicken fat, duck fat, (pig) lard, and so on...but no longer do so as a routine manner - for myself. Certainly in various cuisines or circumstances animal fats would be more of a routine oil for cooking. They were in older times too, of course. Some dishes cannot be made (or at least made correctly) if animal fats were not used. Confit, for one. KL Hokkien Mee, as another** - where pig lard is NECESSARY for the dish to be called "KL Hokkien Mee", and also certainly requires the addition of a generous amount of pork fat lardons into the dish at the end. ** which is one of the most delicious dishes in the world, IMO and that of many other folks, I am daring to say. :-) Oh, wok-hei needed, of course.

Veg or canola oil for deep frying. (which ever is on sale when i need it) I honestly can not tell much difference when deep frying fries, wings..ect. I prefer using peanut oil for all other cooking where oil is needed. (asian wok cooking..ect) If my deep fryer did not require a gallon of oil i would probably use peanut oil but in my area it cost 3x as much as Veg oil. My turkey fryer requires 3 gallons of oil.

Just a word about health upsides and downsides. If you read various testimonials by doctors, homeopaths, seemingly level-headed people and nut cases it is clear that no one oil is going to be all purpose useful or healthy. There is one site in particular that cautions against rice bran oil, as it has no omega 3's and lots of omega 6's, suggesting that if you use rice bran oil a lot, you might want to supplement your diet with omega 3's. I have no idea if this should be taken seriously; at a certain point my mind fogs over and I just concede to the benefits of moderation and variety. For baking it seems that any oil that has a flavor you like (or has no detectable flavor) and no objectionable transfat, corporate or GMO factors--if that matters to you-- can be appropriate, and you don't have to worry about a high smoke point for that. There's a lot of swooning over coconut oil for baking these days, touting its health benefits, but it seems to me the benefits might be sweet taste and the fact that it is solid at room temp, so often suggested as a sub for butter, although we all know nothing tastes like real butter. For high-heat cooking such as stir fry or deep fry, it sounds like refined vegetable oils work well, as do rice bran oil and peanut oil. I always assumed that the best oil for wok cooking is peanut, but maybe that isn't a slam dunk.The most recommended peanut oil around these parts is Golden Lion, but it does have a distinct flavor, so you have to like that. Rice Bran oil is suggested for tempura. I don't like peanut oil (or olive oil) for popping corn, so I am going to find myself some rice bran oil and see if I like it for stir-fry as well or for whenever I would have reached for corn oil, which I don't want to buy any more. Truthfully it has been so long since I bought safflower or sunflower oil I don't even remember what they taste like; I associate both of them with the 1970's and tasteless salads and casseroles. Unless I start baking a lot, my oil money is tied up in olive. This has been a very useful thread.

You can avoid all risk of botulism with the chinese method: Heat peanut oil or any of the safer high temperature oils such as grapeseed, in a wok until just smoking. A high BTU gas burner (30-50,000 BTU's) is preferred, and it is better to do this on the patio, as there will be plenty of acrid fumes. Drop in two or three handfuls of chopped dried red chiles, or as much as the oil will take, and fry at high heat for a few minutes. Cool and drain. The resulting oil will be very hot, and last for several weeks stored at room temp.

You can avoid all risk of botulism with the chinese method: Heat peanut oil or any of the safer high temperature oils such as grapeseed, in a wok until just smoking. A high BTU gas burner (30-50,000 BTU's) is preferred, and it is better to do this on the patio, as there will be plenty of acrid fumes. Drop in two or three handfuls of chopped dried red chiles, or as much as the oil will take, and fry at high heat for a few minutes. Cool and drain. The resulting oil will be very hot, and last for several weeks stored at room temp. ← This is even easier in the microwave as long as you have a big enough bowl for it to not splatter everywhere.

Hi I had this dish in HK (Shui Hu Ju in lang kwai fong) its chilli chicken or its mostly chillis with a little chicken it hurt so good!! basically they used black chicken and they probably tossed it in flour, fry it then stir fried it with a wok full of chillis and other seasoning. This was so hot that after the first piece you really couldn't tasty anything and for my friends it burns on the way in and the way out but hell we masochists! But the first bite tastes really nice a flavourful and then you get overwhelmed by the pure heat and you down a glass of lemonade to each bite!! so has anyone got a recipe for this? as not sure if they deep fried it in chilli oil if they used fresh or dried chillis etc so if you know how to make this please post a recipe so i can torture my indian friends who think they're the pope of chilli town

Pretty simple - hand tear or cut up cabbage - I used half a head of regular (organically grown) cabbage. About a pound+. Garlic, ginger, scallions into the hot wok/pan. Seasonings were about 2 T chicken stock, 1.5 tsp. soy, 1.5 tsps. black vinegar, 1/2 tsp. sugar. Couple shakes of some Szechuan chili pepper. Add cabbage, add seasonings, cover for about 2 minutes. Taste. I like to uncover and let the liquid reduce and I don't thicken for this. Barring any of that, I imagine you could just sauté the cabbage and finish it with a few teaspoons of everyone's favorite chili crisp stuff. Mala Market is my favorite for many of the ingredients. I find their stuff to be nice, fresh, and of high quality. Albeit expensiver.

Beautiful wok action shots. I had the pleasure of a wonderful Thai woman (90 pounds soaking wet) manipulating woks like that at a local take -outplace. Watching her in the open kitchen was poetry in motion.

Hand pulled noodles with pork and okra. Marinaded the pork with garlic, ginger, garlic and Shaoxing wine. Stir fried the okra and Chinese celery then added the meat and its marinade. Blanched the noodles then drained them and added to the wok with some soy sauce. Mixed through and ate.

It is not really a sauce. Boil noodles (whatever is there) in salted water. Drain. Fry some proteins, veggies (again, whatever is there) plus spring onions/garlic/ginger as aromatics, then return the drained noodles to the wok and add dark soy sauce (maybe 2-3 Tbsp), same amount of sweet cooking wine, some MSG and a little fish sauce. Give it a good stir, close the heat and give it a minute more to mingle. Stir again and serve. They are “dry” after that, so no puddle of liquid at the bottom of the pan. I like to add some Sichuan peppercorn oil and some chili crisp on my portion.

In the mood for mala on Monday, so cracked open Kenji’s Wok book and made some mapo tofu

Charlie made kimchi stew yesterday which is what he does when Kimchi starts to get too soft. He said we were going to need some more red pepper paste, so I went to the Korean market and got some and some fresh kimchi and a few other things for dinner. We had spicy pork bulgogi and some radish kimchi. I didn't know we were out of laver or I would have had some with dinner. I cooked it in the wok which is the easy way. It tastes better on the grill but it is wet and cold so I wimped out.

That is beyond "wok hei"! I have a knife making furnace using charcoal and an electric fan. If I am not careful, not only it can melt steel, it actually can turn bricks into glass. Nice food photos. dcarch

Not able to grab the dim sum take out we'd hankered for for several days, i.e., long lines, early closures, a kitchen wok of strip steak, broccoli, mushroom, onion. Not like your Amah made, but probably better than mine might have.

Amazing. A good friend has enjoyed her food and praised it as well. You can see the wok-hay oozing from that dish. Unreal. But with a volcano like that powering things, not surprising!

Beef and Broccoli from Kenji’s Wok book. Had a bit a Wagyu left over from Monday, so this version was a bit decadent…

Dinner tonight was a disaster. As soon as I started to cook, it became very clear that my constant companion over the last ten years of cooking was gone forever. Dead. Tragically. As soon as I poured my oil into the hot wok, I got this massive flare up underneath the wok. It took me what seemed a long time to work out what was going on. When the oil hit the hot wok, it went through a crack in the pan and onto the burner. Somehow the pan had developed this four inch long crack in the base. It was too late to go out and give it the funeral it deserved or to go buy a new one. So I was forced to replan and make an emergency dinner. I had some braised pig's tongue in the fridge, some dried morels and the usual aromatics. Cooked me up some penne rigate and added the aforementioned along with chilli and coriander/cilantro. Guess what's my shopping plan in the morning.