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A dinner I made with leftovers from the care packages that went to the kids. Black Bean Garlic Beef & Bitter Melon over Ho Fun. Good fresh Ho Fun is hard to find. At our local store, they are packed so tightly and vacuum sealed that they basically crumble when they hit the wok. Now, I use the dried noodles that I hydrate before cooking. They retain a bit of chew and so easy to stir-fry. I love the fresh noodles when I can get into the big city Chinese grocery stores. Had tofu and bell peppers in the fridge that needed using up. So, it was spicy tofu. ground pork, onions, and peppers in spicy toban sauce. Tossed in some ground up Szechuan peppercorns for that extra zing! A former colleague is married to a Chinese lady who has not done much Western cooking, like his favourite - lemon meringue pie. They were coming into town for apptns, so I made him a pie last night for pick up today! I only gave them half a pie as his wife is keeping close tabs on his calories!🤪 It helps us out too as we don't want to eat a whole pie!

I did the 25 minutes @ 194F then i put it into a 132F bath for probably 30 minutes, Then into the Wok i sauteed the mushrooms and shallots in ( i luckily had them reserved) until the liquid was evaporated. (about 10 minutes). Again, i would not recomend this chefsteps recipe, and i will stick to tradtional, and at least try the instant pot recipe. I might bump this thread when i do. I just don't want people to see my results and assume chefsteps had anything to do with the final results because their results were laughable.

"This is my rifle wok. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My rifle wok is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle wok is useless. Without my rifle wok I am useless. I must fire my rifle wok true. I must shoot cook straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill out-cook me. I must shoot out-cook him before he shoot out-cooks me. I will."

I have a phony All Clad wok I'd love to get rid of. It's probably about 15 years old and used maybe twice. I haven't touched it, but since it's been hanging on my pot rack for all that time, I'd assume it has a very healthy layer of settled aerosolized oil mixed with dust on it. In fact, I can practically guarantee it. It was quite expensive when I got it - do you think anyone would want to pay to take it off my hands or should I try to donate to some sad sap? OTOH, I got a Joyce Chen carbon steel wok relatively recently and have already used it a bunch of times. It lives on my stovetop since it (was pre foot burning) is the most common thing I use lately.

A few nights ago: Scallops, duck-fat and chicken stock "broasted" creamer potatoes, Belgian endive in the style of puntarelle, with anchovies and vinaigrette. My food stylist sucks. I jogged walked over to Chinatown (wait, I live in Chinatown, I walked west on Grand Street to Ken Hing (by the way @KennethT - they don't have that refrigerated curry paste you mentioned)), to buy some stuff for dinner. Though this stuff was in inventory, and pickled the day before: Cucumber pickle, Szechuan style. Cabbage and carrot sweet and sour pickle (Cantonese style?). In the freshly cleaned and seasoned wok... Shanghai bok choy. Simple stir-fry. Lo mein, with chicken, shitake, cabbage, snow peas, scallions, etc. Very good.

At this point, pandemic confinement is bringing out all sorts of weirdness (in me, the cat, et al.), I decided this needed to be used... Since I'm cooking a fair amount of Asian cuisine, why not? It was on a top shelf, kinda filthy as it hasn't been used in years, a nice scrubbing and re-seasoning did it proud. It's a Joyce Chen carbon-steel (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), probably heavier than I remember, cause when I went to do some flipping, I almost broke my wrist. I moved a phony All=Clad wok to where this one was...I'm going for authenticity!

Knee deep in house moving day, so no cooking. Where's the wok? Packed. So delivery lunch. Actually not too bad. Stir fried beef with pickled baby bamboo shoots. Nicely spiced. Rice and a negligible soup.

Moe's breakfast (I'm taking to work for lunch). Beef Black Bean and Black Pepper stir fry. Thinly sliced a thick NY strip steak that I had planned to grill last night for dinner and didn't. Instead of using the wok, I used this big round cast iron griddle pan that covers two burners on the stove. I forgot about this pan, probably because it is so big and heavy. I like it better than my Wok. Seared the beef, removed and then added the vegetables, onions, peppers, red and green, and thai chili peppers, fresh garlic, julienned ginger. Finished with a little broth, black bean sauce, pepper sauce, tossed the beef again to coat and served over rice.

Usually in January and into February I bring back some of my favorite Asian dishes, starting with this BBQ Pork Lo Mein. I love making it at home so I can be creative, mixing up the ingredients but always keeping the same noodles and sauce. I'm not constrained by a menu, don't wait for delivery, and the leftovers are delicious cold. For breakfast! 12 oz. fresh Chinese egg noodles 3 tbsp. soy sauce 1 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce 1/2 tbsp. Chinese rice wine or dry sherry 1 1/2 tsp. honey 1 tbsp. vegetable oil 1 tbsp. sesame oil 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tbsp. grated ginger 3 green onions, cut in 1" lengths 6 shiitake mushrooms, stem cut off, sliced 8 oz. Chinese BBQ pork, cut in strips 1 1/2 cups fresh bean sprouts Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add the noodles and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain the noodles and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese rice wine and honey. Heat a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat and add the vegetable oil and sesame oil. Add the garlic and ginger and quickly stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the green onions and mushrooms and stir-fry for another 1 minute. Add the Chinese BBQ pork and the noodles and stir-fry another 1 minute. Add the sauce and the bean sprouts and toss so to coat the noodles. Serve hot.

Mushrooms and parsley were a different matter. Actually my younger son is a picky eater, as I've mentioned many times before. My older has a friend from China and enjoyed many non-western delicacies at his mother's table. The friend dined here. He described his mother's cuisine as "burnt wok food".

Hey all, chicken wing R&D time! Kenji writes that double cooking is the way to go for the crispiest wings. In his method, he "confits" the wings in oil, lets them cool, and then flash fries them very hot. He also writes that Danny Bowien does something similar, but freezes them and fries the par-cooked wings from frozen. I tried doing Kenji's confit thing but it ruined my wok (but produced great results once fried). In the second round, I par-cooked the wings in a circulator (at 150º? for 2hrs? Don't remember precisely), froze them, and fried from frozen. In both cases, the end product was really good. I know that commercial kitchens fry frozen already-cooked wings all the time - but when I did it, I got volcanic levels of oil bubbling and spattering in the first 10-20 seconds (which honestly didn't surprise me), and had I used a straight-sided pot rather than a wok, I probably would've had a grease fire. Is there something different about a commercial fryer that prevents such a violent reaction? I will be doing these at my bar in standard commercial fryers, so I'm curious how commercial kitchens avoid crazy oil flare-ups

Picked up 2 pkgs of lamb chops - price reduced by 50% - gotta love my Safeway down the street! Trimmed the meat off the 7 chops, marinated with salt, pepper, and cumin in the fridge for the day. Heated the cast iron wok to smoking and seared the bones first, added chunks of onion, then the slices of lamb. Eaten with curry cauliflower and gingery bean sprouts. I REALLY enjoyed gnawing on the crispy bits on the bones.

Got a new wok today so of course I had to try it out! Char siu with young bok choy, snap peas, mushrooms and onion in a sweet sauce of hoisin, soy and cream sherry.

@David Ross, I looked at a number of recipes and most were similar with minor differences. I went this this one from The Woks of Life website - Cantonese Soy Sauce Pan-Fried Noodles. I toasted some sesame seeds to garnish with, and I adjusted the seasoning slightly, adding more sesame oil and a little more soy sauce. And I used more green onion. I would definitely make this again. Sooner rather than later. Really enjoyed it. The fresh noodles are sold in just about every grocery store as @Okanagancook mentioned. There are a number of brand names. This is the brand I bought.

Dinner last night was a package of Yakisoba frozen noodle/veggie mix (Costco), thawed. Added mushrooms, green beans, cabbage and chicken with a little extra soy and hoisin sauce and stir-fried in my new Helen Chen wok which I am really liking a lot.

I'm baffled as to why why cast iron would be difficult to clean? I have more problems cleaning my teeth. I clean my cast iron woks and skillet more quickly, but have a few more than four teeth..

Agree. I only have one non-stick pan, which I only ever use for scrambled eggs, but as I rarely make them, it doesn't get much use. Had it for years and it's still as new. All my other pans are cast iron - three woks and one skillet. If properly seasoned and cared for, they become totally non-stick very quickly without the negative attributes of non-stick coated pans (high temperature sensitivity, wear and tear and particularly, possible carcinogenics.) The only exceptions are a stainless steel casserole dish (also seldom used) and a dirt cheap, small stainless pan for boiling or, more often, poaching eggs.

@ElsieD Whenever you want a recipe of mine, just click on the blogspot at the bottom of my post. This one is from a couple of Koreans and is for two differnnt meats so I hope it snt too convusinig. BULGOGI FOR BEEF OR CHICKEN WINGS notes from Jung Ja, My sons mother. i deleted most of the part for beef. 1/4 cup sesame seeds toasted 2 cups soy sauce 3/4 cup sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce 3/4 tablespoon ground black pepper 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger 1 tablespoon garlic minced 1/4 cup sesame oil 1 tablespoon corn starch 1/4 cup water 1 tablespoon brown sugar Notes 1 T. pineapple juice. Grind onions with soy sauce. Add a couple packs mushrooms. use 1 T soy sauce & 1 T. water. use hot sauce for chicken, not beef. Use meat cut for Shabu shabby because it is thin and tender so you don’t have to marinate tougher meat over night. Blissfully wed also adds Caro syrup (1T) and 1/4 C. coca cola. Sesame seeds. MIx cornstarch and water; dissolve brown sugar in water. Add all other ingredients and simmer in pan briefly to thicken slightly. Store, refrigerated in covered glass container until ready to use. Cut beef into very thin slices or cut wings into sections. Pour sauce over meat and mix until well coated. Let stand 10-15 minutes. sauté, cook in wok or grill until done but not browned. Bake chicken wings @ 350º 45- 60 minutes. Cover with foil if they begin to brown too much.

Ok I have been taking notes, I'm going to cook spicey food naked, in an apron, occasionally outside, with a splash guard over a wok and serve side salad. Jeez. We usually have a weekly visit from the (lovely) J Witness group with the latest pamphlets. They might not want to come see me no more! Jokes aside I am finding all input very helpful. Thanks for starting the topic TropicalS.

Here in the tropics, the temps rarely drop below 23ºC/73ºF apart from about a month (usually February, but earlier this year). Today is 23ºC. In July -August we are looking at between 35ºC and 40ºC / 95ºF and 104ºF. Thanks to stir frying, we survive. OK. stir-frying in wok is high temperature, but only for minutes at most. Salads are rare in Chinese cuisine.

After washing, I spin it dry in a salad spinner. Then I take a few cloves of garlic and give them a rough chop. In a wide pan (if I had a wok, I'd use it but I don't), I fry the garlic in a little bit of grapeseed oil on high heat - just for a few seconds until you can smell it. I add a few grinds of Vietnamese peppercorns (that's what I've been using lately) and then dump in the bok choi. I flip it around until they're all coated with the oil - maybe about 30 seconds or so. Then, if I'm lazy, I'll add about 1/4C water with maybe 1/4t salt mixed in... if I'm not lazy or want something a little better, I'll use about 1/4C chicken stock that I've simmered garlic and ginger in and then froze. In addition to the 1/4t salt, I might add about 1/8t MSG. Anyway, once the liquid is added, I'll stir it around for about 30 seconds and it's done.

My best heat beaters are my IP, freezer and microwave. When I make soups, stews and sauces I always make more than enough for one meal and put it in the freezer. Then when it's hot, I can thaw out the extra meal in the microwave and it's quick and cool. I also have the advantage (?) of getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get breakfast for my housemates before they go to work. I do a lot of cooking and baking then and just reheat it at dinner time. For frying things, I use my electric skillet and I do make a lot of stir frys in my wok. I don't have much luck serving salads. My housemates are from Central America and to them, a salad is a side dish. They would never say anything, but the times that I have served salads I can sense the puzzlement, as if to say “is this all we get”. Soups and casseroles that I can finish up at the last minute as they come home from work seem to be more practical. I do wish that the idea of cooking naked would work for me, it would save me a lot on laundry.

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.