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I use my Calphalon Knock-off flat bottomed wok and wooden utensils almost every day. Do they count?

Your question is confusing. Do you mean valuable as in costly or do you mean useful? If the former then my Thermomix. If the latter it depends. If I want to make waffles it's my waffle iron but if I want to make a stirfry it's my wok.

Ive gotten their magazine from the library before its interesting. I got an email that took me here : Its a kikstarter page , but I can't seem to just paste the URL /projects/936865763/the-illustrated-wok-chinese-food-like-youve-never?ref=7vcjtf if you type https://www.kickstarter.com before the partial URL above ' if you type ' it might get you there.

Tender and tasty, indeed! But, if it's time and temperature, it was 24 hours at 125 F. Then I reduced the cooking liquids in a screaming hot wok, added a bit of peanut oil and browned it on all sides and put in the fridge to cool. HC

Hi Kay, Crocodile is soft and delicate when cooked well, as much of the fat is removed before cooking only a small amount is left making the crocodile a healthy protein, however, it's easy to overcook and can become tough -- much like an overcooked squid. So adding a coat to the meat will help keep the moisture in; either coated in starch, fried and briefly wok tossed in a sauce or smoked. As a smoked product the meat can be served chilled with a fruity flavoured emulsion to your liking i.e infused into a mayonaise base. As the use of Australian ingrediants is still new to modern Australian cuisine (can you believe), there is a lot of potential for discoveries concerning their preparations and uses. Since I've only started I'll be keeping my nose and tastebuds open to suggestions. I think Cajun cooking can offer some more insight into 'what works' with crocodile. I've never been but I believe Lousiana is similar to some parts of Australia as places like the national parks of Northern Territory, locals there tend to eat what it can provide and tend to use Asian flavours for their dishes whereas Cajun is French influenced I believe ?

Not sure what to call this. I had half a small pork tenderloin left over from a few nights ago, which I sliced into quarter inch thick slices, pounded out into 1/8 inch thick medallions. I stir fried some peppers and onions and minced garlic in the wok until almost tender, added some sliced Shang high bok choy and stir fried a bit longer, transferred them to a bowl, quickly mixed the pork medallions up with some Korean BBQ sauce and stir fried that up, added back vegetables, Hoisin sauce, chopped green onions and served the lot over jasmine rice. In retrospect, it was delicious, but could have used a bit more heat. If I had it to do again, I would have finely sliced half a jalapeno and added it when I first introduced the pork medallions to the heat. HC

I have come to the conclusion the cut is less important then what it used to tenderize it. And i don't want to hear bs about using a very hot wok and cooking briefly because i have nuked to hell leftover beef stir fry and that beef was still more tender then any thin sliced beef i have made stir fry out of.

It's still too hot for this kind of dinner, really, but it's what I woke up wanting this morning. Had to wait till evening. Steak and kidney pie with simple fried okra and new potatoes. The steak and kidney mix contains onion, celery , carrot and a large white chilli pepper. This was started off in a wok before being transferred to the pie dish and into the oven with its lid. The wok was deglazed with red wine to make a gravy - added after the pics were taken.

I have had mixed success with sous vide Chinese dishes. I have had great success with char siu, Hoi Nam/Hainanese/white cut chicken -- dishes that I make almost exclusively sous vide now because of the superior results -- and various braised pork belly dishes. I've had much less success with vegetable dishes, and have had some really inedible disasters -- I wasted some beautiful spring bamboo shoots a few weeks ago which would have been much better poached or steamed but wound up horribly bitter (maybe from cyanide which won't flash off or dilute like in a wok or boiling water). For beans and greens there is even less reason, as these things cook so quickly. For beans, I "break the rawness" by throwing them in boiling water for a minute or so -- in a restaurant they might do that in hot oil -- before stir frying them. Since you want your beans crisp, I don't see how sous vide could improve the texture of the final dish in any way. If the idea is to do the whole dish sous vide, with the spices and other ingredients in the bag, I don't think there is any way that could work for several reasons, including that the spices would behave in unpredictable ways that are not likely to be good, and also that you would wind up with a watery, unreduced, and unthickened sauce. I'm a big fan of sous vide, and use it also for western simple vegetables (i.e., carrots, potatoes (packed with butter at 90C is a sure winner)) but for Chinese vegetables nothing is easier or better than a wok.

Do an internet search for "exploding pyrex". I had a pyrex measuring cup explode in my hand while measuring cold water, nothing hot was involved, about a decade ago. I have gotten rid of almost all all the glass bakeware in my kitchen, just some Duralex custard cups remain, and almost all of the ceramics (just holding on to a couple of vintage items with sentimental value). Honestly, I use my copper clad stainless pots and pans, plus my beloved wok and cast iron, for almost everything and for baking I use professional sheet pans and hotel pans.

Am I the only one eating lunch? Today, I made it to the local market and my seafood gal sold me these lively beauties. They were, as usual, live, but more energetic than normal.They even survived being carried back to my place in a plastic bag and an hour in the fridge. They were still twitching and jumping when they hit the wok. They had been well purged and not a drop of vein was detectable, so I did them shell on. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but in the end, I simply fried them. The looked so fat and juicy that I didn't think they needed much else. A sprinkling of lemon juice and a sea salt, pepper and chilli powder dip sufficed.

After viewing the garden, we went to one of the restaurants that gets all of their produce from the village - they also have a cooking school: It had a very peaceful setting with an open air, thatched roof. There was a family of British people, 2 adults and 2 small kids - maybe 6 and 8 years old? - who were taking a cooking class, which was done at one end of the dining room. It was interesting to see little kids dropping stuff to be deep fried into a small wok precariously balanced on a small propane burner. No one was injured in the making of their lunch that day. I didn't take a photo of it - I thought that might be rude... but it was a cute scene. Lime juice - by the time we got there, we were ridiculously hot and sweaty from sauntering around the vegetable village - even with our sun umbrellas! So refreshing... Banh Xeo, served with rice papers, lettuce, some kind of sprout, and spearmint (no peppermint this time). Not nearly as greasy as the one at BaLeWell - very tasty. It came with a fish sauce with lots of smashed garlic. Here's an action shot just prior to consumption: Cha Gio spring rolls - not greasy at all ... very good. Bo La Lot (baw lah lut) - beef covered with lemongrass and la lot leaves (betel leaves) and grilled on a banana leaf. This was awesome. The beef was tender and flavorful, and the betel leaves definitely impart a unique flavor that is hard for me to describe. And the lemongrass was actually tender - which was mindboggling since when I use lemongrass at home, the desiccated stalks, even when cooked have the texture of sawdust. more Rau muong stir fried with garlic Off the back end of the dining room was the restroom, and next to it, a small plot of farm land and drying racks for what looked like sweet potato crackers.

The kitchen has accidentally discovered umami or the gods are on my side.for once. Pork ribs with shiitake. (And the compulsory Bok Choy). Some flavour for a change. The cook even waved the bottle of soy sauce in the rough direction of the wok for once.

This is possibly probably the fastest lunch I know of. Live protein readied to entertain my mouth in less than 5 minutes, including prep*, cooking and plating. Garlic Prawns with Capellini. The pasta takes three minutes, so I start that off, then mince one head of single-headed garlic which I add to a wok with olive oil, salt and chilli flakes. When it comes to a sizzle (almost immediately) add prawns** and stir. If it looks like catching at all, a sprinkling of water (from the pasta pot) is enough to prevent it burning. At three minutes, drain pasta and add to prawns. Make sure all prawns are cooked through and pink. Check seasoning and adjust if necessary. Serve. Eat., * except shopping, of course **I threw on a wok lid at this point as the prawns were still alive and felt there were better places to spend a Saturday afternoon than in a red hot wok, so attempted to jump back out. They soon surrendered.

Tonight (and tomorrow's lunch, I suspect.) I prepared diced chicken breast, green chilli, black olives, shallots, black garlic and capers. The roots and stem ends were cut from the coriander leaf, too. All of this was unceremoniously dumped into a wok with S+P and thrown around until the chicken was all nicely browned. Then the whole lot was transferred to a slow cooker and forgotten about till the smell woke me up. Mise 2 was simple. Some rehydrated dried shrimp, a duck egg and leftover rice deposited in the fridge last night. The rest of the coriander was chopped and added to the chicken, then the rice fried by my usual method. First I fry the egg until it thinks it might solidify but would actually prefer to remain liquid. Some sort of lurid poultry erotica, no doubt. The shrimp were fried just enough for colour then the rice was added. Clumps were broken up. Most people do this by using the wok scoop to 'cut' into the rice and all they get are smaller clumps ad infinitum. No! No! No! Whatever are you thinking of? Use the back of the scoop to press the clumps of rice down onto the base of the wok. They split into separate grains easily. Salt and shichimi togarishi added. Like everyone in China, I don't usually salt rice other than in fried rice and not always then. Here are the plated results. That'll do nicely.

After escaping the cameras from hell, I spot that these two burners are busy with something else. A nearby table sports these fine looking creatures. Yes those carp which I saw being deep fried earlier are also "twice-cooked", this time being finished off in a chilli laden sauce. They smell good with a capital OO. Another wok and burner combo is poaching those second chickens we saw being de-feathered. These are chopped to give us "White Cut Chicken, a Cantonese speciality of poached chicken but also popular here. So, it seems everything is ready. We take our places at random. As a VIP, I am offered a seat at a table inside the house but explain that unlike them (the village leaders) I am a real communist rather than an opportunistic jackass and prefer to sit with the great unwashed masses. Well, of course, I don't. But I do insist on sitting outside ("to take pictures", I say). and the food! Carp Chillis White Cut Chicken Potato. Don't be misled. These are wonderful, but very spicy. This unappetising mud is actually the bamboo tube soup. It looks better in the bowl and tasted just fine, if underwhelming. Neither the bamboo or herb added anything I could detect, so really it was just water and chicken. Still I've had worse. Somehow I managed to miss photographing the kou rou at the table. I certainly ate it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Probably the best I've eaten. although the meat is very fatty, not something I generally like, it wasn't at all greasy. It just melted in the mouth. Also, the taro picks up enough of the fat and cooking juices to be very tasty indeed rather than just starchy as I often find it. It took ages to prepare - days if not weeks of planning then hours of hard work. And we demolished it in twenty minutes or so. The Remains of the Day The Team - Thanks. See you next year!

Just a tip on searing. I've taken to using a carbon steel wok on top of my highest gas heat. The very thin steel conducts the heat better than any fry pan I've used and gives a great sear. I simply lightly coat the meat in a high-temperature smoking oil such as grape seed and put it in the pre-heated wok until the desired sear is achieved.

I tagged along with my best friend and her husband earlier this year while they shopped for a new oven and range. This Samsung Flex Duo Oven gave me a serious case case of oven envy. I bought the electric version of this 6 years ago when we remodeled our kitchen. I have liked the double oven arrangement, because within limits you can run the two compartments at different temperatures; on the other hand, you can remove the divider and operate the oven as a single standard-sized oven. This new iteration is a significant improvement over mine in two ways: first, the obvious advantage is that it's gas; second; the door now is articulated so that you can just open the top half if you wish. (The middle hinge is operated by a special latch built into the door handle; it's easy to operate but doesn't seem likely to be operated by accident.) Mine has a single door, so you lose heat to both compartments when you just want to check the upper compartment. The range looks like it would be easy to clean and control; it includes a good low-heat simmering burner and a high-heat burner of impressive BTU's. The grate includes a removable wok cradle to hold a round-bottomed wok over the burner. My friends couldn't see themselves using the double oven option, so saved around $1000 by buying the single-chamber version of this unit. They've had their new kitchen for less than a month, but so far they are delighted with their purchase.

Finally cooked a meal in my new kitchen. Garlic Chicken with Asparagus. Chicken breast marinated in white wine with garlic (lots) and lemon zest. Coloured the chicken in the wok with olive oil then added the marinade, green chillies, capers, asparagus and scallions. I felt it was drying out too quickly, so added a spash of the wine. I had planned to serve this with couscous, but couldn't find it - so rice. And have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

My local supermarkets have taken to selling these "steaks". Back in September, I tried one, as reported here. It was as bad as I expected. Yesterday, I noticed that they have helpfully put up a large sign informing their eager customers how to cook the things. Seems I did it all wrong. According the 8 step instructions I should: 1. Prepare all the ingredients. (Note: they don't tell you what those ingredients are) 2. Immerse the steak in Worcestershire Sauce, making sure the steak is completely submerged. Soak for at least half an hour. (Note: the supermarket does not sell Worcestershire sauce) 3. Place the steak on oiled tinfoil/aluminum foil and place in a preheated oven at 400F (204C) for 45 minutes. Note: a) No one has an oven. b) China, like almost all countries, uses Celcius. No one here would know what F is, but I love the precision of the conversion. 4. Boil an egg. 5. Cut broccoli into small pieces and slice shiitake mushrooms. Boil the broccoli with salt and seasonings and add a little oil to preserve the colour. 7. Heat a wok, add butter and fry the shiitake with garlic, salt and other seasonings. 8. Turn the steak over to avoid burning. Plate it. Serve with A1 sauce. Note: a) yes, the supermarket doesn't have A1 sauce. In fact, I've never seen it in China. b) what happened to the egg and vegetables? The final result. Looks wonderful. I'll get it right next time!

I am thinking of radically changing my cooking layout, and am thinking of using the miele 15" gas wok burner as the centerpiece. I do a lot of wok cooking, but my GE 36" cooktop is not great for this application. I am concerned about flame shape: I really want this to be a focused flame suitable for woks, as a contrast to the unusable wide ring of flame that my existing stove puts out. The GE measures a lot of BTUs, but since the flames shoot out rather than up, only the widest pans capture all of the heat, and this flame pattern is the opposite of the focused heat at the bottom of the wok that you want for proper wokking. Does anyone have the Miele? Can you take a picture of the flame pattern with a wok in place? Any other suggested burners? I am also curious about the wok-mon insert, but that remains kickstarter vaporware for now. Pre-orders only since 2014.

Still suffering from the result of my fall at the weekend, but I managed to stumble and stagger to the nearest supermarket this morning. It took me about three times longer than usual and every step was painful. But, at least, I managed. I couldn't yesterday. Thankfully, my angel friend J brought me some sustenance last night. Tonight, out of necessity, I kept it simple. A starter of salmon sashimi. Doesn't get any simpler. The supermarket I went to isn't my favourite by far, but they were able to provide a de-boned chicken breast and some button mushrooms. I cut the chicken into chunks and marinated those with Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, garlic, chilli and potato starch. Browned them in the wok then added the mushrooms and some chicken stock from the freezer. Left to simmer while I cooked some rice. Finished with some "flowering" garlic chives. Was a lot better than I expected. There was some sauce which I added after taking the picture. Lubricated the rice nicely.

Having gone through three or four hotpot pans over the last few years and had them wear through and develop holes, I'm going to disagree. I have recycled a couple as plant pots - one is full of vigourously growing mint at the moment. Not so. Dry hot pots are very common. There is a recipe for one example here. The author of this recipe cooks it in a wok then transfers the finished dish to a serving plate, but I've never seen that done here in China. It is cooked and served in a regular hotpot pan on an induction heater or burner as normal . Hot pots, dry or wet, are mainly winter dishes and in unheated homes in the south (i.e. most) the food would be ice cold in minutes if re-plated without a heat source. Hot pots are pretty much the only way to get a hot meal in the worst of the winter, Hence their popularity.

If they are Chinese made as you seem to suggest, they will be thin steel. That's all I've ever seen here. Some people do, however, use a wok with their induction cooker or single burner.

In an effort to redeem last night's dinner failure, if only to myself, I fell back on an old favourite tonight. Lemon Pork. Cubed pork tenderloin marinaded for hours (preferably overnight) with olive oil, zest of half a lemon, juice of the whole lemon, chilli flakes, crushed coriander seeds, sea salt, black pepper and garlic. The whole lot is poured into a skillet or pan (I used a wok) and cooked until the pork is done. ( I test one lump to be sure.) Served with a tomato and onion salad which my crack team of photographers (i.e me and a cellphone) forgot to capture. Still, I guess you've seen a salad before. Use your imagination!