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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.

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.

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.

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.

@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.

Here is where you can buy all kinds of accessories for the BGE including 1/2 moon ceramic baking plates, wok holders and double racks. https://ceramicgrillstore.com/collections/big-green-egg-medium-accessories-by-ceramic-grill-store

So I did an experiment in the end. One tagine with direct heat from the stove on low. And one with the wok support and then the tawa on top, and finally the tagine. Slightly higher heat. I can confirm that the diffused heat method....... (drum roll) took longer to do the exact same thing. Taste wise they were both incredible!

How much of a price difference is there? If it is less than $200, I would definitely go for the KJ - you aren't going to replace it any time soon and accessories that come with it are well worth that premium. I don't know what they are now, but in the summer of 2016 the large KJ was $780 at the roadshow. Pro-tip - you can get a smoking deal on the units they have unboxed for display. Around here people are lined up at the opening to try to get the display models. The down side is that you have to pay for it, then come back in the last hour of the event to pick it up. It isn't boxed up so you really have to pack it carefully. Bring 2X the padding that you think you will need, a large vehicle and at least one strong friend. We were there in the last hour and the person who had bought the large display model got talked into upgrading to an XL in the box. My buddy was right there to snap up the large. I know they they threw in a wok rig, cast iron grates and some other stuff, but I don't recall if that was in addition to a price break.

Ah. Well, if it isn't too wobbly you can put the tawa atop the wok support. :-) Actually, given what you say about the respective sizes of the tawa and the tagine, I think the tawa would be sufficient. In my experience gas hobs seem to heat more evenly than electric coils, and the tawa should provide enough heat conduction to even it the rest of the way. You still need to be careful to change temperatures gradually, so that thermal shock doesn't crack your tagine.

I'm using gas. The wok support is too big for the tagine pot to just sit directly on it.

I think that the wok support would be better than the tawa, because it will allow the heat to diffuse itself more evenly. If there really are hot spots on your burner I'm not sure the tawa would even them out; it looks rather thin to be an effective diffuser. Is your stove gas or electric?

I don't have anything cast iron. But it's a mini tagine pot for one person (I got two of them for free in a cooking class). It's about 10 inches across and the tawa is 12 inches. So no problem there. I'm using gas so it's a direct flame. I don't have a wok ring but I do have one of these wok supports that I can rest the tawa on (it's too big for the tagine pot itself). Would this be better? It's just further away from the heat: On a side note, if autocorrect changes 'tagine' to 'tagging' one more time I'm going to start throwing clay pots at the computer

If you have a wok ring, that will also work. For what it's worth, I've used my clay tagine directly atop the stove - both the electric coil type and the smooth-top ceramic type - with no ill effects. I am very careful to change heat slowly, though: low heat at first, then higher - and just as careful not to shock the tagine later by adding cold liquids.

Hi Kay...My kitchen and it's menu? ...that's a long story! Talento restaurant is 15 years old and it started as a 60 seat THAI restaurant. I spent six months in Thailand and when I came back I opened the restaurant with my partners, the restaurant did very well and we moved to a bigger place... in this new location we started getting more families as customers, not only people looking for fine dining, so, I got a charcoal grill (Argentinian style) and I added to the menu beef cuts and burgers... and it was a success for a while, then we moved to an even bigger location and now I cook traditional Mexican too... but the problem is that a lot of people still craves many menu items from the very opening, so now I just call the place "an international cuisine restaurant" because: how can you call a place where there are phad thais, wok sauted food, Argentinian beef cuts, burgers...and Mexican food in the menu? Thanks a lot for the question Kay and best regards from México! Luis

Hi... My name is Luis Jiménez, I'm 43 years old and I'm very happy to join this community, I've been here before, but only as a lurker and I just decided to take the plunge and become a member. I like to cook and I like to learn, so, this seems to be the right place to be. I've been cooking professionally for the past 25 years and I'm the author of a book called "Pero querías ser chef..." (only in Spanish but hopefully soon in English too), I'm a blogger too but my main thing is to run the kitchen of a 200 seat restaurant in my home town, and as you know that is overwhelming sometimes but very rewarding too when things run smooth...wich is not easy, and I have to confess, as we say in the cooking world: "I'm in the weeds" more often than not. I'm a chef but I prefer to be considered a cook because that is what got me in the kitchen, my love for cooking and the love for the food that my mother cooked for me and our family. I like to sharpen my knives, to cook on the charcoal grill, the wok and the griddle, but also to cook with technology like rational ovens, thermocirculators and thermomix too. I'm an avid reader, a curious, and friendly guy that loves photography and motorcycling too. I'll be reading and learning as much as I can from you all, and if there is a question that I can answer correctly, I'll do so very gladly. Best regards from México amigos!

It's not actually a wok. It's a northern Chinese/Mongolian hotpot chafing dish. A soup is cooked elsewhere then added to the outer ring. Various ingredients (lamb/mutton and vegetables) are added by the diners, who essentially cook dinner themselves in the soup - fondue style. Very popular in winter. In fact, I hate winter food in China. It's the same every day. Here in the south we don't have the dishes with the central funnel/pot. The central pots seem to have various uses. I'm not sure which is most traditional. (Your chip and dip analogy may not be so far off. I confess I had to Google 'chip and dip'.) I will consult wiser people than me in the morning. You caught me at bedtime - I'll add more tomorrow, unless someone chips or dips in first.

Please, I need your help. I can't imagine what this wok would be used for. That piece in the middle is welded to the wok. Do you have any idea how this would be used? I saw this in my Chinese restaurant supply place and the young man that owns the store wasn't much help. The wok is about 14 or 16 in. wide. It looks like it would make a heck of a good chip and dip dish but I can't imagine the Chinese sitting down to a feast of chip and dip. Much less, eating them out of a wok. I'm sorry, I can't get the second picture out of this post

Why do Chinese recipes call for adding dried peppers directly to hot oil in the wok? When you add dried Japones or Thai Peppers directly to hot oil in wok they end up being like dried out shoe leather and have to be picked out of the stir fry! Many Hunan or Schezuan recipes call for this. I ask because in Mexican cooking dried peppers are reconstituted in boiling water first and then usually put in blender to make sauce. What am I missing?????

Thanks! It used to be available down here in So Cal but no longer. I was told that it was due to a family dispute but I didn't know if that was just the long distance distribution or if it was still available locally. I'll look forward to your wok adventures! And back on topic, I posted my lunch over in the Six Seasons thread. Radishes with Tonnato, Slivered Almonds (subbed in for the recipe's sunflower seeds) and Lemon: