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Decided to give the oven a bit of a test with Modernist Cuisine's low temperature steak. Seared it first in a cast iron pan over the wok burner on full whack. Verdict is that the burner with the broader outside ring going as well as the focused flame is great for this. The ample smoke was handled very well by the exhaust fan with very little smell in the room. Put the oven's temp probe into the meat along with my needle thermocouple probe. Then into the oven at 60 C, which turned out to be too low so I bumped it to 65 then 70. However, the meat temperature stalled well beyond supper time and it barely reached 55 C. The temp probes in the meat were a couple of degrees apart, which is a bit of a problem if you were really wanting to have the oven turn itself off at temperature. Probably better for a roast where the oven's probe could be inserted all the way into the meat (I think it is an RTD). But the oven temperature was rock steady and within a degree of a separate thermocouple I put in. The oven temperature can only be set to 5 degrees but goes down to 30 C. I think that is sufficient. Don't know why I had so much trouble getting the meat to temperature since the oven was holding the proper T. Anyway the meat was great cold today. A couple of pictures. Sorry about the spill on the door. Spock gave it the seal of smell-approval.

The 2 biggest issues I had with frying were the thermometer and what to do with the oil. I tried all kinds of thermometers that clipped on to the side of the pan, but sometimes I used a wok, and they wouldn't work. And they would sometimes suddenly shift and be in danger of falling into the hot oil. Once I got the hand held IR thermometer, that issue went away. I like to use peanut oil. I have 2 jars, I keep the used oil in. A 2 quart jar for frying fish and a 1 quart jar for frying vegetables. Once the oil is cool, I filter it through a wire sieve and it goes back in the jar. I top each jar off with fresh peanut oil, before I use it again. I like to heat the oil up to 375 F and try to only add enough of whatever is being fried such that the temp does not fall below 350 F. One of my favorite things is fried zucchini. I think those would be an instant hit as a bar food just about anywhere. So easy to make, but yet so very good and crisp. Add a little salsa or a bit of spicy ranch dressing dip or lemon and garlic aioli and they would please just about any crowd. I think they also go very well with breakfast. The French fries are a different method, I learned from @Shelby. Starting off with cool oil and gradually raising the temp until they acquire a golden brown color. I do remember the Florence Henderson bit. I hardly ever fry chicken though.

Busy day today. There were some scheduling issues with people showing up unexpectedly. I think my partner who has been at a conference asked the sparkies to come out because our evaporative cooler wasn't working - a breaker up in the attic on the unit had flipped. The bench tops came early in the morning and were installed. Then some remaining electrical work and installing appliances. So almost everything major is done. Still to do: A little trim work that had to wait for the bench tops The exhaust fan needs to vent up through the ceiling. Plumber forgot that. Backsplash. The cabinet guy got a little testy with me because I forgot that we wanted holes for the knife rack, and made me do the measuring. Hope I got it right We will do the painting. We haven't even picked out flooring but are going with vinyl that will be installed on top of the old floor. We probably will have to plane a bit of the bottom of the door to make it fit. I need to install a pot rack that was over the cooktop, but will now be over the window. Then there's figuring out where everything is going to live. Bench tops were in by 9:00 AM. I tried to go to work for a few hours but it wasn't meant to be. I don't really like the microwave there but we will give it a try and see how it goes. Don't know if the induction plate will stay there. I wish they had mounted the oven a few cm higher. The cooktop and oven are made by Asko and they seem really well designed. I'm so excited to try the wok burner, and hope it has enough oomph. Dishwasher is a Bosch.

Restaurant woks are. And red hot, so you want a long handle to prevent roasted chef syndrome.

Must be a big ass wok

Not unknown, but certainly unusual. Near my home is a small kitchen equipment store, selling mostly domestic non-electric stuff (apart from a few rice cookers. Recently, it announced a closing down sale. Yesterday I popped in to have a look. I wasn't intending buying anything; I'm well-equipped. Among the items on offer were two pro bits of kit that surprised me. They were the equivalent of $11.50 USD for the two, so more out of amusement than anything else, I bit. I'll probably never use them, but they make an interesting ornament for the kitchen. Professional wok scoop. Regular, domestic size at top for comparison. Professional wok ladle. Ditto. The scoop is 74 cm / 2 feet, 5 inches long and the ladle 62 cm / 2 foot.

I've tried a couple of turkey recipes this week. The first bird got the treatment as outlined in Chefsteps procedure for crispy, confit turkey legs and breast. The parts get a pre-sear followed by sous vide of the leg/thigh for 12 hours at 149 F then add the breast with another 12 hours at 131 F. A final sear and it was ready for the plate. I'll probably repeat this for Thanksgiving dinner. The meat was moist with a nice texture and will make a nice presentation. Here's a picture of the pre-seared and seasoned turkey prior to the hot water bath. Last night I prepped a 16# turkey with the breast and tenderloins prepared for sous vide and the remainder into the pressure cooker for stock and meals for our dog. The breast were prepared following Serious Eats Turchetta recipe and the tenderloins were bacon wrapped. I used transglutaminase to bond the skin and meat in both items. I cooked the tenderloins for 4 hours at 130 F and the Turchetta for a total of ~14 hours. I finished both items with a quick fry in the wok. The taste and texture were great for each. This is an earlier photo using chicken breast and finishing the dish by browning in a skillet. And here's a photo my set-up. I use an Anova cooker in a 12 qt. pot. To minimize heat loss I set the pot on an old Styrofoam cooler lid with blanket around it. I top it with a piece of foil and it will go for 24 hours without adding any water. For larger items I use a conventional cooler that I set-up in the garage.

Glycine max I can't really mention China and beans without mentioning soy, or soya beans. In Chinese 黄豆 (Mand: huáng dòu; Cant: wong4 dau6), yellow beans or 大豆 (Mand: dà dòu; Cant: daai6 dau6*2), large beans. regular and black soy beans Most of China's own production, and the huge amount they import, goes into soy cooking oil - 大豆油 (Mand: dà dòu yóu; Cant: daai6 dau6*2 jau4), tofu - 豆腐 (Mand: dòu fǔ; Cant: dau6 fu6); soy sauce - Mand: 酱油 (jiàng yóu); Cant: 豉油 (si6 jau4/4*2), etc. A large amount also goes to livestock feed. Soy Bean Paste (L: Spicy R: Regular) However, there are some uses as vegetables. 毛豆 (Mand: máo dòu; Cant: mou4 dau6*2), literally 'hairy' or 'furry beans' are the immature bean pods, which many know as 枝豆 edamame, the Japanese name. raw cooked Also available are soy bean sprouts - 大豆牙 (Mand: dà dòu yá; Cant: daai6 dau6*2 ngaa4), raised and used just as any other bean sprout. There is also a black strain of soy bean, 黑豆 (Mand: hēi dòu; Cant: hak1 dau6*2). These are salted and fermented to make 豆豉 (Mand: dòu chǐ; Cant: dau6 si6), fermented black beans as used in many dishes. Note that bottled black bean sauce is not available in any stores here; people make their own using the beans directly in the wok as they cook the dish.

1. Do y'all get corn meal over there? If so, mix it half and half with flour, season it to your liking, toss sliced okra in it, and fry it in a wok. 2. I think the next post after this one answered my question, but I presume most green beans are used in stirfries?

Thai red curry duck. Served with onion raita - yes, not Thai, but I had some home made yoghurt and why not? Served with wok-wilted spinach and rice.

I love those little butane single-burners. I had four that I used for catering and farmer's markets, and have kept two of them (the other two went to my daughter and my GF's daughter). They're great to have for when the power goes out, and I usually throw one into my vehicle before any long highway drives in winter, just in case. I also pull one out for wok cooking, every once in a while.

First time posting on these forums, I dunno if something like this would be what y'all would be interested in. I usually post on Reddit over on /r/cooking, but sometimes these sort of hardcore 'food nerd' sort of recipes don't get a whole lot of traction. Oyster sauce is a classic ingredient in Chinese (and Asian in general) cooking, but there seems to be a lot of FUD out there concerning how its made. The English internet is almost barren of proper recipes for oyster sauce, so I thought it might be helpful to fill in the gap a bit. Traditional oyster sauce is the by-product of making dried oysters. When making dried oysters, generally what you’ll do is blanch the oysters for 15-30 minutes first and then leave them out to sun-dry. The old oyster sauce origin story goes that a man in Macao named Lee Kum Sheung was making dried oysters, but forgot that he’d left the poaching liquid on the flame. He found it hours later reduced into a brown gloop… trying it, he found it was delicious, and so oyster sauce was born. And while these sort of stories are almost always apocryphal, that is the essence of oyster sauce. Yet over the years, the popularity of oyster sauce skyrocketed while the usage of dried oysters flagged. This has led to a conundrum: oyster sauce could be sold cheap when it was the previously unused byproduct of dried oysters. But it makes no sense with the roles reversed – dried oysters as a by-product of oyster sauce? For those unfamiliar with Southern Chinese cuisine, dried seafood (while awesome) can get fucking expensive, and dried oysters are no exception. So in modern times, producers tend to take one of two shortcuts. First, many don’t reduce the poaching liquid nearly as much, then add a mix of caramel (to color) and starch and celluse gum (to thicken). This is actually the method that produces good oyster sauce, and is what smaller manufacturers do here in Guangdong. The second shortcut? Simply using oyster extracts and combining it with a shit-ton of sugar and additives. This is what larger producers do, making for a product that barely has any oyster flavor. What we’ll do today though is keep things old school, as the traditional method is easiest to recreate at home. But word of warning: the yield isn’t very large (~1/2 cup or less) so it makes very little sense to make oyster sauce at home unless you’re sun-drying oysters anyhow. So I’ll also let you know how to sun-dry the oysters, and because you might be unfamiliar with the ingredient (awesome ingredient btw), I’ll also list out a recipe for a classic homestyle Cantonese dish – oyster braised pork ribs – to give an idea on how to use up dried oysters. I do have a video to go along with this, but let me know if linking YT vids is frowned upon here and I'd be happy to edit it out. Ingredients, Sun-dried oysters and Oyster Sauce: Shucked Pacific Oysters (生蚝), medium sized, 1.5-2kg. So we’re using oysters that we bought pre-shucked at our local market. If you’d like to wash and shuck enough oysters to get 1.5-2kg of them that’d obviously be best, but that feels (1) extraordinarily painful and (2) like it’d cost a fortune abroad. Water, 4.5L. For blanching the oysters in. Sugar, ½ tbsp. Added near the very end. AFAIK the super traditional version wouldn’t contain sugar, but modern recipes (ours included) are balanced around oyster sauce with some sweetness to it. Plus, it helps give a little thickness and color. Light Soy Sauce (生抽), 1 tsp. Optional. Some producers add soy sauce in with the oyster sauce, some don’t. I like adding a little bit, helps with the color. Bog-standard mass produced oyster sauce (蚝油), ½ tsp. Super optional. I like adding a touch in order to make use of their thickeners – it’s a lot easier to buy Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce at the supermarket than it is to buy cellulose gum. Helps everything come together a bit. This is really only my personal approach though, obviously. Process, Sun-dried Oysters and Oyster Sauce: If using pre-shucked oysters, give the oysters a quick rinse. Transfer the oysters in a ‘dangling’ motion over to a pot with a bit of tap water. Rinse the oysters for ~3 minutes. You don’t have to go too crazy here – we’ll be filtering the sauce later, and we do want that brininess. If you’re using clean fresh oysters, you can skip this step, simply toss the oysters together with their brine in a big bowl. Get a pot of water to a light simmer. Transfer the oysters over in a dangling motion. The ‘dangling’ motion is to minimize dragging over any sediment from the oysters. Poach the oysters for 30 minutes, stirring periodically. Make sure the water isn’t boiling. Rapidly boiling water has the potential to destroy the integrity of the oyster. Think something that’s roughly ‘poached egg’ heat. Fish out the oysters and place in a strainer to drain. If you have one of those cool bamboo strainers, that’s awesome as you can both strain and sun-dry in the same thing (plus, you get super authentic bonus points). I like straining it over the pot that I’ll eventually be cooking the oyster sauce in, so as to not waste any of the liquid. If not using a bamboo strainer, transfer over to a baking sheet. If it is sunny out: place the bamboo strainer in a location with lots of sunshine. Sun-dry for a day, flipping the oysters once around noontime. If you’re living in a city like us, it’s a good idea to hang the strainer in order to avoid bugs or cats getting to your oysters. Note that if it’s partly cloudy, the oysters might need two days to dry out completely – simply bring them inside and store in the fridge overnight. If it’s not sunny out: place the oysters on a baking sheet and toss in an oven. Put the oven on its lowest possible temperature (100C for us) and crack the door. ‘Bake’ for six hours, turning the oysters once halfway through.Sun drying is preferable because (1) it produces a better dried oyster in the end and (2) doesn’t waste energy like the oven method. But hey… sometimes you were planning on sun-drying and the weather’s just not cooperating. Better to waste a little energy than a lot of seafood, yeah? Lightly oil a stainless steel pot, and pass the leftover poaching liquid through a fine mesh strainer lined with a tofu or cheesecloth. So the vessel that we used here was a stainless steel wok (very convenient for this particular job), but anything stainless steel will work great. Why stainless steel? Not overly sure actually, my best hypothesis is that as it’s a stick surface some of the liquid will caramelize and brown as its reducing. Cast iron would also work. Just don’t use something like a non-stick or a claypot. Lightly simmer the liquid for 3-4 hours to let it reduce, scraping the sides down with a rubber spatula every 5-10 minutes. This reduction is undeniably annoying, so the million dollar question: why not just toss the thing at a heavy bowl and let it reduce much quicker? The answer is that you’ll lose way too much oystery goodness to the sides of the pot and your final yield will be much, much less. The more paranoid you are during this stage, the more oyster sauce you’ll get. That said, if your primary goal is making sun-dried oysters, you might be cool with a yield of a couple tablespoons. In that case, no need to be so paranoid. Once it’s bubbled down into a brown liquid with consistency that’s roughly akin to a very thin pan sauce, add in the sugar, the soy sauce (if using) and the oyster sauce (if using). Let it cook together for ~2 minutes. Once its come together, jar it up. You should be looking at roughly ~1/3 cup oyster sauce by the end. Store in the fridge. Again, I understand that this is not a very large yield from 1.5-2kg of oysters. The rule of thumb for traditional oyster sauce is that it yields 1g of oysters sauce from every 100g of oysters, so I was already relatively happy with the yield this approach gave. Your final product will be something with a very clear and obvious ocean-y taste. My recommended use for it – to get the most bang for your buck – is to use it in recipes in conjunction with the standard mass produced stuff. Adding a ½ tsp or a tsp per tablespoon to your store bought oysters sauce will give you the flavor of something that is roughly equivalent to a good quality Guangdong-locally-produced oyster sauce. And now… how to use those dried oysters: Ingredients, oyster braised pork ribs: This is a relatively simple homecooked dish that is very similar to a Cantonese banquet dish, oyster braised pork knuckle. We went with this one because it’s the sort of thing that’s easy enough to whip up on a week night. Pork ribs, cleaved across the bone into 1 inch pieces (排骨), 500g. Marinade for the pork ribs: ½ tbsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp cornstarch (生粉), 1 tbsp rice wine (米酒), ½ tbsp light soy sauce (生抽), 1 tbsp oyster sauce (蚝油). Mix the cornstarch together with the rice wine and add it in as a slurry – this will coat the ribs much more evenly. Note that this is basically a bog-standard marinade, with two exceptions: first, the cornstarch ratio is a touch less, as this will be braised in the end; second, we’re adding some oyster sauce in in order to repeat that ‘oyster’ flavor a couple times in the dish. We’re using rice wine in this dish as it’s really nice with pork ribs, but you could use also use Shaoxing wine or even sake. Dried oysters (蚝豉), 50g reconstituted with one cup hot, boiled water. We’ll be reconstituting this with hot water – we did want this to be an easy-ish dish after all. You could alternatively use cool water and leave it to reconstitute for much longer (6+ hours in place of the 45 minutes we did here here). Garlic cloves, 3. Lightly smashed. Seasoning for the braise: 2 tsp light soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp dark soy sauce (老抽), ½ tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp oyster sauce (蚝油). The mix of light and dark soy sauce is mostly for color. Rice wine (米酒), 1 tbsp to use when stir-frying and 3 tbsp to top off the braise. Again, feel free to use liaojiu/Shaoxing wine or sake (which is a type of rice wine) instead. Process, Oyster braised pork ribs: Give the dried oysters a quick rinse, then add the one cup of hot, boiled water. Let it reconstitute for at least 45 minutes. Again, you could alternatively use cool water, adding it in the morning and coming back to it for dinnertime. Rinse the pork ribs under running water for 10 minutes. Rinsing the pork ribs extracts the myoglobin, giving the pork a cleaner look and flavor. Feels like it makes it a touch more tender too, but I have nothing to back that claim up. Add the marinade ingredients to the pork and mix well. Marinate for at least 30 minutes. Remember to make a slurry with the cornstarch so that things don’t clump. Stir fry, then braise: As always, when stir-frying first longyau (huaguo in Mandarin): get your wok piping hot (around steak searing temperature), shut off the heat, add in your oil (here about 1 tbsp), then give it a swirl to get a nice non-stick surface. Heat on high now: Garlic cloves, in. Fry for ~15 seconds. Pork ribs, in. Fry for ~1 minute, stirring only periodically. We do want the pork to develop a bit of browning. ~1 tbsp of rice wine, in. Pour over your spatula and around the sides of the wok to let it sizzle and quickly reduce. Reconstituted oysters, in. Stir fry for ~15 seconds. Soaking liquid from the dried oysters, in. Pour in through a strainer so that it’s not grainy. Give everything a quick stir. Seasonings, in. Give it a quick stir. Heat off. Transfer over to a claypot or some other suitable braising vessel, making sure that you get all the liquid. Top off with the 3 tbsp of rice wine. Adjust the ribs to be relatively even. Some will be peaking out, that’s ok. Flame on low. Cover, cook for 20 minutes. Check on the pork ribs, making sure things aren’t bubbling too rapidly. Flip the ribs. Cook for 10 more minutes. Enjoy some braised pork ribs. The dried oysters are my favorite part of this dish. Note on economic considerations when making this outside of China: I know oysters are expensive in the USA. One of my frustrations in the US is that food is generally (A) absurdly cheap processed shit or (B) absurdly expensive hyper-premium fare. Oysters are a perfect case – you either pay a pretty penny and get some (admittedly) really nice oysters, or turn to the can. The way I would approach this is using frozen shucked oysters. I know those also aren’t cheap, from what I could find online they seem to run ~24 bucks per 16oz. That puts the cost of this recipe at ~72 dollars. Maybe I’m just poor, but that’s still… really expensive (by contrast, the cost of this recipe in China is CNY 135, or ~$20 US). Still, the way to think of this isn’t $72 for a third of a cup of oyster sauce. The way to think of this is $72 to get a bunch of dried oysters, which are a great ingredient and pretty expensive if you bought them straight up. Then you get a bit of traditional oyster sauce on the side, which you can mix in with your standard bottled oyster sauce as I recommended above.

You have to laugh at this line I wrote, "It can be used not only as a sauce, but added to mashed potatoes and baked as a casserole; it salves the appetites of vegetarians, or better yet, simply served as a warming cream soup." Prawns in Cauliflower Curry Sauce Serves 4 Although this recipe appears to have a large number of ingredients and seemingly endless number of preparation steps, it is worth it in terms of flavor and opportunity. This Cauliflower-Curry Sauce opens up a myriad of possibilities for other dishes. It can be used not only as a sauce, but added to mashed potatoes and baked as a casserole; it salves the appetites of vegetarians, or better yet, simply served as a warming cream soup. Once the garlic is roasted and the sauce prepared, the actual cooking of the prawns is a quick, hot wok stir-fry with the sauce added just before service. M Easy Roasted Garlic Cloves 5 cloves garlic, peeled Olive oil Salt and black pepper M Cauliflower Curry Sauce 1 medium size head of cauliflower ½ tsp. tumeric 2 tbsp. salt 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (or to taste) 1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped ½ tsp. coriander 2 tbsp. butter 1 cup heavy cream 2 tbsp. olive oil 1 tbsp. curry powder 2 cups chicken stock 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. cardamom 1 tsp. black pepper ½ tsp. mace M 16 large raw prawns Salt and black pepper 2 tbsp. canola oil 1 tsp. sesame oil ½ cup chopped chives (substitute sliced green onions) Fresh lemon wedges for garnish M

I have now been using my Kenmore five burner induction cooktop for about three years, one of my best decisions. I am a keen cook (I even finagled my way into a professional course at La Varenne's cooking school in Paris many years ago). I did quite a bit of research before installing the cooktop, including buying two individual induction burners to try it out. Burton makes cheap ones that work perfectly well. I bought the Kenmore when I realised that it was exactly the same as the Kitchenaid. Buying a separate five burner cooktop is the way to go because the increased area gives you much more freedom to move pans around, plus I use the surface for prep and serving. A double oven on the wall is much much more convenient than a range (providing that you can find one that works properly, do not buy any US made double oven, Whirlpool makes most of them under different names and their design, service and warranties are disgraceful). Do not worry about flatness of pans, the magnetic field that does the heating (through hysteresis) does NOT need a close contact (in contrast to electric burners). Speed of heating is faster than gas and cooling down much faster. Safety is also a consideration, you can put your hand down next to a boiling pot of water and simmering much easier. Where woks are concerned: there are induction woks but they are prohibitively expensive. Many people swear by gas for Asian cooking but that is a mistake since you still don't get enough contact with the whole of the wok's surface to heat the pan to searing temperatures. After some research I found that an ELECTRIC wok is the solution. This may seem counter intuitive (since using a normal wok on top of an electric burner is a disaster) but the best electric woks have the heating element built into the wall of the hemispherical wok and temperatures can get up to 450 degrees. Breville make the best ones and on sale they are quite reasonably priced, I ended up buying two of them (and another one for my brother)

I liked induction at my old house (actually 2 induction and 2 radiant burners for flexibility). Planning a remodel here, where I have natural gas, which is actually more expensive (don't get me started on the politics of energy). I think for induction, having lots of power levels is really important. The high-end brands here didn't have fine enough adjustment imo, although there was one cheaper one that looked ok. In the end I decided to stick with gas so I could have a wok burner, although it appears some induction burners pump out enough heat.

The cruellest ordeal I was put though during my primary and secondary education was the regular serving up of liver and onions at what we called "school dinner" which was lunch in the canteen. This dish consisted of liver of unknown origin, unseasoned and boiled to death then drowned in an onion "sauce" powerfully seasoned with charcoal. And that is me being polite. I didn't eat liver from the day I left school at 18 and headed to university until many, many years later after I arrived in China. One day, dining with friends and being somewhat distracted, I grabbed something nearby with my chopsticks and absent-mindedly put it into my mouth. It was delicious, so I had some more. Naturally, I enquired as to what this might be. Chinese liver and onions! Rather than boil it overnight as my school canteen apparently did, the onions were just nicely caramelised and the thinly sliced liver was melting in the mouth from a rapid, brief toss in the wok with green onions and red chillies. After that, I often ordered it in restaurants around town. Always delicious. Then, one day, I thought "What would happen if I tried to recreate my school child nightmare dish, but using Chinese techniques." Damn! I liked the results and have cooked and eaten it many times since, Including this evening. Pig liver thinly sliced. Red onion thinly sliced. Onions fried slowly in the wok until just beginning to caramelise. Liver added along with any blood. Fried at high heat for one minute and served with thinly sliced cabbage fried in bacon fat with chillies and buttery rough mash. Not the prettiest dish you'll have seen, but very tasty if I say so myself, which I do.

That's a good question yet I'm not much of an expert. When I do similar dishes I just add the squid at the very last minute but don't coat it in starch. And we're talking just a few seconds in a very hot pan/wok.

Thanks. The chips are commercial and I don't have the package but these are really 'shrimpy'. Not a lot of rice flour mixed in. I tried to find a picture of the packaging on line but to no avail. Here is a picture of them. They are about 3 inches by 2 1/2 inches and quite thick. The package is clear with yellow writing and an image on the front. The package is just a little bigger than the chips which are stacked up. I use my air fryer to cook them. No grease and a lot easier than doing themin a wok with oil. They only take a minute each once the machine is warmed up. They are about 4" x 4" once cooked. I cracked a few and served them with peanut sauce along with spring rolls for pre-dinner snacks and then put the rest on the plater.

Pork tenderloins keep going on sale and I keep buying them and looking for different things to do with them. Last night, I cut half of one into sea scallop sized pieces and pounded them out into half inch thick cutlets, marinated them in a mixture of oyster sauce, dry sherry, gochujang, garlic (home grown), brown sugar and chopped green onions. Then I stir fried them in a wok with Shanghai baby bok choy, zucchini, sliced cauliflower stems, sugar snaps and sweet onions and served them with cilantro and lime jasmine rice. It was pretty good. Deb went in for seconds, always a good sign. HC

I remembered this Thai Green Curry with Prawns that I had posted over in the Dinner thread back in 2015. I was working on it for a class I taught at a local kitchenware store. It's a good recipe for those of us who are entering into the world of curry cookery. In this photo I grilled large prawns in the shell. I actually prefer head-on prawns. Sometimes I stir shelled prawns into the sauce. Lots of ingredients but a tasty green Thai-style curry. Pickled Vegetable Salad- ½ cup julienned carrot ½ cup julienned daikon radish 1/3 cup julienned green onion 2 tsp. sliced Thai pickled bird chilies ¼ cup rice vinegar 3/4 cup water 2 tsp. sugar 1 tsp. salt Place the carrot, daikon, green onion and Thai bird chilies in a bowl. Add the rice vinegar, water, sugar and salt and stir to combine the ingredients. Cover and chill the salad until ready to serve. Thai Green Curry- 1 tbsp. canola oil 1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil 1 tbsp. minced garlic 1 tbsp. minced ginger 1 can coconut milk 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms 3 tbsp. Thai green curry paste 3 tbsp. Thai yellow curry paste 2 tbsp. brown sugar 1 tbsp. fish sauce 1 tsp. dried red pepper flakes 2 tbsp. fresh lime juice 1 tbsp. lime zest 1/3 cup chopped cilantro 1/3 cup chopped basil 1/3 cup chopped mint Salt and fresh ground black pepper Heat the canola and sesame oils in a wok or saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry briefly to release the flavors but not letting the garlic brown. Add the coconut milk, mushrooms, green and yellow curry pastes, brown sugar, fish sauce and red pepper flakes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and stir the curry to combine the ingredients. Let the curry cook for about 30 minutes for the flavors to come together. If the curry is too thick add some water. If you want to thicken the curry, add a slurry of 1 tbsp. cornstarch stirred into 1/3 cup water. Once the rice is steamed, the prawns grilled and the naan bread ready, finish the curry sauce. Add the lime juice, lime zest and cilantro, basil and mint. Add more lime juice as needed and season with salt and pepper. Steamed Rice- Basmati Rice Black and white toasted sesame seeds I prefer long-grain Basmati rice for it’s earthy flavor. The grains cook really well and don’t stick together. The key to perfect steamed rice is to rinse it before steaming. Place the rice in a colander and immerse it in a bowl of cold water. Swirl the rice around with your hand. You’ll notice the water turns cloudy as the starch is washed off the rice. Drain the water and add fresh water, stirring and draining until the water is clear. It will take about 3-4 washes to drain off most of the starch. The general rule of thumb for steamed rice is a ratio of 1 cup rice to 1 ½ cups water. I use the “knuckle” technique. Put the washed and drained rice in a rice cooker. Fill water up to your next knuckle. In other words, if the rice reaches halfway to your first knuckle, add water to bring the line up to the knuckle. It works out to be about the 1 cup rice to 1 ½ cups water ratio. Add salt or other flavoring after the rice has finished cooking. The rice will keep warm In the steamer while you finish the Thai green curry sauce. Garnish the rice with black and white sesame seeds. Grilled Naan Bread- Frozen naan bread, thawed Olive oil Buy prepackaged Naan bread in the frozen section of Asian markets. It’s also available at some local grocery stores. Thaw the Naan bread. Prepare a grill pan over medium-high to high heat. Brush both sides of the Naan lightly with olive oil then place in the hot pan. Grill the Naan until it’s slightly charred and heated through. Cut in wedges and serve with the Thai Green Curry and Grilled Prawns. Grilled Prawns- 16 large tiger prawns, shell and tail on, deveined Toasted sesame oil Chopped fresh mint Chopped fresh Thai basil Chopped fresh cilantro Chopped dry-roasted cashews Fried Garlic As the green curry sauce simmers and the rice finishes steaming, grill the prawns. Toss prawns in sesame oil. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the prawns and grill until pink and grill marks appear, about 2-3 minutes. Turn the prawns and grill the other side about 2-3 minutes. To Serve- For individual servings, place some rice in a small glass dish and lightly pack the rice down. Flip the dish over into the center of a serving plate. Place 4 of the grilled prawns around the rice. Spoon the green curry sauce around the prawns. Garnish the top of the rice with black and white sesame seeds. Place some of the pickled vegetable salad on top of the rice. Garnish the dish with chopped mint, basil, cilantro, cashers and fried garlic.

These are two contrasts. Prashad seems very 'authentic' to me. There is no index. The recipes are divided into categories such as "Handi" or casseroles; "Kadhai" or Wok (recipes using a wok); "West Coast Foods", etc. The recipes are very involved but absolutely amazing flavours. The Indian Family Kitchen is authored by the daughter of the Pathak family who are famous for their curry pastes. This is an excellent introductory book. The recipes are very good with not too many ingredients and simple preparations.,

This didn't photograph well. My fault, not the food's Some people here are probably glad they can't see it so well. Pig liver and onions, Chinese style. With very non-Chinese buttery mash. There was a side of wok-wilted lettuce which I forgot to photograph. How offal!

I wish I had bought a wok with a handle...good choice. Mine has two little useless hoops at either side and are a 'bit...h' to hold on to and shake the wok. Not buying a new one at this point in life...but jealous none the less. ps love gas cookery...and in these parts a very cheap source of energy....$16 a month for my stove and BBQ.

My old wok got sold in a garage sale a couple years ago. It had not been used in a long long time. It did not do well on an electric stove. Now that I have a gas stove with a large burner, I thought it was time to get a new one. I broke it in today with some marinated steak. We had it with some roasted vegetables and rice.

Bought me a fish. I was thinking I'd steam it Chinese style, but then thought "I can eat that any time. Do something different." In the end I did it the same and different. I prepared it for steaming as if it was going to be a Chinese dish. You have to creep up on these critters. Gutted and de-scaled it then washed it in Shaoxing wine and stuffed it with garlic and ginger. Decorated the top with ginger "scales", chilli and carrot. Just to confuse it, I used two scallions to act as an honour guard on either side. Then I steamed the baby for 12 minutes. before After 12 minutes steaming in the wok, I removed it, after let it cool a bit then removed the top fillet. That confused it. It's usually served whole, Chinese style. Plated the one fillet with orzo and asparagus. In case it felt like a fish out of water, I added the two now steamed scallions to give it a feeling of security in this bizarre foreign environment. Then I ate it. Then went back for the lower fillet., more orzo and more asparagus. The fish was nicely spicy from the ginger and chilli and I think it went well with orzo. I'm likely to revisit this.