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I actually can't see how a wok is great for popcorn. A flat bottomed pan will heat much more quickly and evenly over the bottom, which is what I think I want for popcorn. Like that old Revere saucepan and lid.

Just picked up a new wok. Zwilling wok Mixed feelings about the purchase having a sentimental years old one. Handle split about ten years ago we planned to replace but it has bicycle handlebar tape on it that makes it ok to use without a wiggle. (too many projects). I don't really need the flat bottom but a countertop single induction unit at the beach home will be nice to have a wok I can use outside. Kenji reviewed a couple outdoor propane units but they get pricy and doubt we will use it that often outside.

The whole water, salt, corn kernel cold start is intriguing as a seasoning mechanism. The suggestion that the result might be moist and chewy and require an oven to dry is totally off-putting. Edited to add that a wok is great for popcorn but I don’t keep the lid handy so usually default to an ancient Revere saucepan that earned its warped bottom to many batches of the stuff.

Pretty classic marinade for the beef - Shaoxing, soy, dark soy, potato starch. Cooked briefly and removed. Ginger, garlic, Szechuan crushed red pepper, scallions, Szeuchan bean paste - into the oil. Vegetables into the wok. Sauce was stock, soy, vinegar, Shaoxing, a little sugar. Covered for a minute to cook the veg. Beef added back. A little slurry to thicken.

Most dishes containing Shaoxing wine only have about a tablespoon of the wine in a marinade, or even just a splash to deglaze the wok and add a bit of flavour. However there are two classes of dish which use much larger quantities of the wine - up to 2½ cups or 250 ml per serving. These are the "drunken" dishes and the "hong shao" dishes. Often said to be of Shanghai cuisine they are certainly popular there, but also in a wider area. What they have in common is Shaoxing wine. These are examples of when you really need to splash out on a good 5 year minimum huadiao wine to do justice to the dish. I use an 8-year old. Your cheap every day Shaoxing isn't going to work well. The classic "drunken" dish is "drunken chicken" or 醉鸡 (zuì jī), a cold appetizer. However, there are almost endless variations such as drunken fish, drunken shrimp, drunken tofu etc. The drunken chicken is simply cooked in boiling Shaoxing wine for a few minutes, then the heat is turned off and the bird left in the hot liquid until cooked through. There are many recipes on the internet, but I can't really recommend any that I have read. I suggest Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe in Land of Fish and Rice (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is your best bet. Drunken Chicken The second group are 红烧 (hóng shāo), literally red-cooked. Again pretty much everything can be red-cooked, which means simmering in a stock coloured with soy sauce. The peak of inventiveness in this group is 东坡肉 (dōng pō ròu) from Hangzhou near Shaoxing. 2 inch cubes of fatty pork belly with skin are fried, then red cooked for about 2½ hours in a mixture of soy sauces and a copious amount of quality Shaoxing wine. The resulting dish is rich and unctious. This dish is best made the day before eating and left overnight to chill. Remove the fat on top of the chilled meat. Again I recommend Ms. Dunlop's book rather than the internet. Dongpo Pork There are other dishes using Shaoxing in large amounts, but these are the two classics.

I've made black pepper shrimp in one form of another occasionally but it's never been the same twice. Last night's version was a keeper, so I'm putting it here so I can do it again. Black pepper shrimp exists in both Singapore and Vietnam (and I'm sure elsewhere as well) - this version is basically the Singapore version with added herbs. Recipe is for 2 people, to be had with rice. The sauce is really thick and strong, so you only need a bit with the rice - it goes a long way. 12 Extra large shrimp, peeled and deveined, then sliced 3/4 of the way through from the back. You could also use shell on shrimp (how it's done in Singapore) but then the sauce clings to the shell rather than the meat. Season with a little salt and let sit while prepping the other ingredients 1 T whole black peppercorns (I use Vietnamese) pounded or ground coursely, dry fried to release the aroma 1 small handful medium size dried shrimp, soaked for 20 minutes in water, then drained, chopped and pounded - not to a paste, but small pieces 1 normal size shallot, finely chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 Thai chilli, minced 1 sprig curry leaves 2 garlic chives, cut into 1/2" lengths 2 t oyster sauce 2 t sweet soy sauce 1 t dark soy sauce 1 t light soy sauce Pinch salt slightly larger pinch sugar small handful cilantro, chopped a few sprigs laksa leaf (rau ram), picked and chopped 10 Thai basil leaves, chiffonade Rice bran oil (or other high temp oil) for frying, plus maybe 1 t butter later 1) in a hot wok, at a few T of oil and sear shrimp on both sides, then reserve saving the oil 2) in the same wok with same oil (add a bit more if needed) on low to medium heat, fry the pounded dried shrimp until golden brown and crispy. Drain, reserving the oil. Clean the wok to make sure you don't get any burnt bits 3) Heat the wok over medium heat, add back a couple T of the shrimp oil plus the butter and sweat the shallots until translucent and just starting to brown 4) increase the heat a bit and add the garlic/chilli/curry leaves/chives plus the dry fried black pepper. Stir fry until fragrant 5) add the fried dried shrimp and mix thoroughly 6) add the sauce and mix to combine - it should boil pretty furiously when added and turn thick and syrupy fast 7) add the seared shrimp and mix to coat evenly and just reheat 8 ) turn off the heat and add the herbs

Trust me, @rotuts: 107F, even as a dry heat, is too hot. I get very cranky and/or tired if I have to do ANYTHING in that temperature range, even though I grew up with it in Central California. My heat tolerance is long gone. But maybe I'm kidding myself about being able any more to cope with Minnesota's winter; I've missed out on it for quite a few years. So, since this all began with a discussion about the meat-smoking experiment, I'll jump out of the blog time sequence and tell about it. I'm a regular reader of and dreamer over Hank Shaw's website, Hunter-Angler-Gardener-Cook. I get his newsletter. I read it, and bookmark recipes, and sometimes (rarely) get around to cooking them. This one caught me eye a while ago: Smoked Venison Backstrap. Look at the cover photo for that recipe! Source: Hank Shaw's recipe for Smoked Venison Backstrap, linked above and again here. The backstory: My daughter-in-law bestowed a backstrap and some other deer meat on us...well, this is embarrassing but it was fall of 2020! It sat in our deep freeze. It made the round trip with us last year. It sat in our deep freeze again this summer, then came along with us on the road. This is no way to treat good meat no matter how rare or common. Indeed it's a way to turn good meat into bad. The difficulty is that my darling looks askance at ANY deer meat, and I have to find the right treatment for it. Given his penchant for pork, sausage and burgers, and my penchant to be very busy much of the summer, I never got around to using it. Guilt, guilt, guilt trip. This fall I packed it along again in the Princessmobile's freezer, and promised myself to do something with it. I decided that the salt cure in this smoked venison recipe might be just the ticket. I thawed it at our last stop, checked for freezer burn (none), measured the salt and rubbed it in. Then I wrapped it again and let it cure in the refrigerator. "What is that meat?" he kept asking. "Backstrap," I'd say. We had that conversation many times, each time with him looking skeptical. Finally, the day of the cook, I told him the source of the meat. He's good about eating whatever I cook, but I saw him flinch. Next up was working out a smoker. I've never tried smoking over an open fire pit (more on our firepit later) and didn't particularly want to smoke inside the Princessmobile. I set up our little portable barbecue grill, got the coals going, soaked some mesquite chips and added them, then spent the next few hours trying to regulate the temperature. The best method seemed to be the old indirect method: coals and wood ships on one side, meat in a foil pie pan on the other. There wasn't much clearnace, given that the whole grill is maybe 18" across. But I persevered. It was either that or smoke up my wok on the campstove outside. While it was smoking, I worked on the necessaries for tacos. Chopping up tomatoes and lettuce is no big deal, but I also needed to deal with some roasted chiles I'd bought at our last stop. I also wanted to make the quick-pickled red onions to which @liuzhou introduced us some time ago, and that meant breaking out the mandoline. And finding the right vinegar. (The sugar was in another cabinet like this one, and the onion in a basket atop the cabinets. The mixing bowl was also high up, as was a pickling container. I did a lot of step-ladder work for this meal!) There were also the tasks of shredding cheese, and later on warming the tortillas and digging out some of our salsa. It was all worth it. I thought the salsa overkill, but he liked it. And now you know how 107F was not intolerably hot around here!

Yes, no issues from Ian. The water was choppy yesterday with a lot of seaweed and some flotsam washing up, but today it is flat calm and the water is clear from debris. I can see through my binoculars that a big milk crate washed up overnight, so I am going down to clean up the beach by filling it with plastic this morning if nobody else on the bay gets to it first. I have not actually eaten the sushi rice here to my recollection! My niece usually orders some but I am more drawn to the local fish if it's available. We are going to New York City next weekend and I think all of our reservations are at sushi restaurants so the odds of my trying any this trip are pretty slim too. Bermuda fish sandwiches do not typically have cheese. It's fish (fried or grilled, but usually fried), and slaw on raisin bread. Sometimes extra slaw sauce and/or hot sauce are added. Most places offer the option of getting regular bread rather than raisin bread, but I like the raisin bread. Yesterday we went out to breakfast. We normally would not, but we have been unable to find any butter on the island for the bread I bought! Granted, we have not looked too many places, but the market within walking distance does not have any, and I had groceries delivered from the large market in Hamilton yesterday, and they did not have any butter either! So we walked over to the Reefs hotel and had breakfast at their restaurant Aqua Terra. Here's the view And the menu. They also offered a buffet, but we opted for a la carte. Three of us ordered the avocado crush. Nicely poached eggs My niece got the coconut french toast She also ordered a side of bacon. Do you think they brought her enough? 🤣 The day was very uneventful and spent swimming in front of the house and reading. For dinner, we went to Blu at the Newstead Hills golf course. Here's the view My sister and husband both got the same cocktail, a cucumber margarita The menu was eight pages long, so no pictures of that! We ordered a wahoo carpaccio to share. It was beautifully presented: We also ordered some fried calamari. Well, we ordered a Thai-style wok stir-fried calamari, but they brought us this one instead. Oh well, it was still tasty. My sister ordered the fish special, which was pan-seared local snapper with lemon risotto Husband had local lobster thermidor I ordered the seafood mixed grill (clams, calamari, snapper, wahoo, shrimp, and scallops) and, despite the large and delicious sounding sushi menu, my niece chose Mongolian beef The sun went down as we enjoyed our entrees They brought out some cookies while we contemplated the dessert menu My niece chose the chocolate souffle and the rest of us got the lemon soufflé to share Overall, it was a lovely (though expensive) evening, and some of the best food we have had in Bermuda.

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

Those who've read my Singapore (and other) food blogs might know how much I love (Old) Lai Huat's sambal pomfret. They take the whole fish and fry it, then cover it with this crazy savory sambal. The fish is basically just a sambal delivery mechanism. I'd be happy eating their sambal with just some rice, or even just licking it straight from the plate like a dog. Needless to say, I've been trying to recreate it at home for years and never really been happy with it. This is the closest I've come - it's pretty close. Makes 2 meals for 2 people 100g medium size dried shrimp 10-15 (depending on size) dried puya or prik chee faa chillies - or other mildly spicy chilli 160g shallots, chopped 1 head of garlic, deskinned and crushed 200g spur chillies - mildly spicy long red chillies, deseeded 2-3 Thai chillies 30g belacan (shrimp paste), toasted then crumbled Rice bran oil or other high heat oil for frying 1) Soak the dried shrimp for about 20 minutes, then drain 2) chop then pound them in a mortar and pestle - you don't want it too fine 3) Destem the dried chilli and snip into short lengths removing the seeds and soak for about 20 minutes, then drain discarding the soaking water 4) In a food processor or blender, grind the shallot and garlic together to make a paste 5) Separately, grind the drained dried chillies and fresh chillies together to make a paste 6) In a wok, heat about 1/4 - 1/3 C oil, then fry the shallot/garlic paste until quite fragrant - about 3-4 minutes 7) Add the chilli paste and stir to combine, fry for a minute or two 8 ) Add the pounded dried shrimp and crumbled belacan, stir to combine 9) Keep frying over medium heat, stirring to prevent scorching 10) When the oil first starts to come out of the paste, turn the heat to medium low and keep going until the sambal is quite dry It should look kind of like this - or maybe even a little drier.... Try not to splatter your wall like I did... 11) Season - it should only need a little salt (both the belacan and dried shrimp are salty) and maybe a little sugar, then reserve and keep warm 12) season your fish (I used mahi mahi which worked well) with some salt, then coat in 50/50 cornstarch/rice flour... or all rice flour... or wondra flour.... 13) Heat some oil in the wok and shallow fry the fish until done 14) Drain the fish, then top with a generous coating of sambal. Serve with rice/stir fried veggies Edit: increased the amount of dried shrimp

My new built in oven finally arrived after 2.5 months wait, then 2 weeks waiting for electrician to come, install, and hook up. So I've run a few tests, but mainly baking. First thing was a roast chicken as my s-i-l dropped off 2 fresh ones. Just tucked in Kaffir lime leaves, a cut up lime in the cavity, salt and pepper. I don't have a veg garden but I did plant some Romano Beans along the back of my flower bed. They were successful. I had lots of wonton filling left after making 2 doz for our electrician who was a former customer in our restaurant. He and his Dad also did a lot of work in the restaurant and our house. Rick was moaning about missing the deep fried wontons, so I made him some as he showed up on the day and time he said he would! Bribery? You bet! With the leftover pork, shrimp, and waterchestnut filling, I make Tofu Skin pork rolls. They were deep fried then steamed, with oyster based sauce added after steaming. They were easy to eat. Left over pork rolls were added to chicken broth, egg noodles, lettuce, and shrimp for a soup supper next evening. Superstore had bone-in cooked ham on sale. I picked one up and baked it in the oven, with a marmalade, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, and rum glaze. It was way too big for the two of us, and we can only handle a couple of meals, so the big portion, along with the bone, went to our son's house. Also made scalloped potatoes. Forgot I had another fresh chicken still in the fridge. Cut it up, used half to make Spicy Chicken and "clean out the fridge" mixed vegetables. Simmered with Toban sauce and eaten with Jasmin rice. Love these one wok meals! Dessert, a couple of hours later: my "3rd ever in my life" buttermilk biscuit and black cheery jelly from my neighbor. The biscuit turned out well. My previous attempts, years ago, were golden hockey pucks!

My laksa/rau ram/vietnamese coriander plant is out of control. It has become a jungle after just a couple months after clipping 5 small sprigs off my last plant and rooting them. It drinks about 2.5 liters of nutrient every couple of days! 14" wok shown for scale....

That's not what I call a wok. My woks are only ever washed by hand with simple water. You can never build up the all-important seasoning washing them any other way.

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

Indeed, my Williams Sonoma cooking vessel was never marketed as a wok. Technically it is a stir fry pan. I love it though.

This could have gone into several different topics, but it's been fun for us...so here it is in this topic. The story begins with my husband's passion for hash, and his insatiable desire to perfect it to his tastes. The potatoes must be crisp but not oily. The sausage must be cooked, and slightly browned. The onions must keep their crunch. I could go on, but that tale has dragged on in the Camping, Princess Style topic for years. A year or three ago, his daughter gave us (him) a used pan that met most of his needs. it had a huge base. It had straight sides, so he could run the spatula under the ingredients and turn them. He is not of the "do that pan flippy thing with the contents" persuasion, so rounded edges are contraindicated. Two problems: the interior non-stick became sticky, and -- much more important -- the bottom was no longer flat. When he put oil into it for his beloved hash, he had to deal with an interior island. Think of a reversed wok, and you'll have it about right. I loved this pan. I loved its (original) shape, its very long and strongly angled handle. it was a wonderful traveling companion, and it hung without complaint on the wall of our house when we were home. But its contents stuck, and its warped bottom made an island in the oil. I looked for Vollrath (the parent company) and Ameriware, and various offshoots, to no avail. I looked at World Market, where I'd purchased a smaller but similarly excellent pan. No luck. Enter Amazon, of course. I found several candidates, based on size and shape. I ordered several candidates. For this purpose, GreenPan (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) won.* Our GreenPan skillet made its debut tonight. The sides are right-angled. The bottom is flat. The entire interior is as slick as an Antarctican ice rink in winter. My darling is used to measuring oil with the interior island in mind, and there may need to be adjustments. Still. The potato layer perfectly spread across the bottom of the pan. There was a bit more oil than necessary, but not much. All went well on this maiden voyage. "All went well" is, in truth, an understatement. He's in ecstasy! *The other candidates found homes here too, but they won't be his hash pans.

Screw Kenji and Voltaggio. I could not decide between my Scanpan non-stick saute pan and my Berndes non-stick wok. I grabbed my trusty Williams Sonoma stir fry pan and stir fried sliced mushrooms. Transferred the mushrooms to a bowl. Added fresh oil and rosemary to the pan and browned the chicken all over. Keeping it moving with the wok shovel. Added vinegar then wine and garlic, and cooked down till the liquid evaporated. Removed the chicken from the pan, then added water to deglaze and make a sauce. Returned chicken and mushrooms to the pan for just a moment before serving. I have been making chicken cacciatore almost fifty years, or maybe more. One of my best ever. Accompanied by last night's baguette and Boursin.

Who would want a stainless steel wok? And for that price you could get 10 of my carbon steel woke plus a down payment on a captains bed to keep them in!

I have a cast iron wok that is unlikely to ever warp. However it was quite expensive. What I almost always reach for is the Williams Sonoma one, which is tri-ply steel/aluminum and which goes in the dishwasher.

Since my Williams Sonoma is no longer made, for an induction wok you might consider Falk. https://www.copperpans.com/all-products#/specFilters=3!#-!18!-#!10m!#-!99 They should be quite responsive. I assume you have a bed?

Since the library is closed for our move, and I can't get a copy of The Economist to read at dinner, I've been making my way through The Wok. I haven't gotten that far yet but I see Kenji has a section on frying naked. I am so excited! Not sure if he counts a pinafore or not.

I'm always amazed when someone manages to mess up dumplings — they're so easy to get right! But so many supermarket ones are terrible. In the grand eGullet tradition of enabling, I am obligated to point out that Mala Market sells that same (excellent) doubanjiang and a lot of other high quality versions of Sichuan ingredients. I have been using their 10 year Baoning vinegar as a sort of finishing vinegar for a lot of Chinese dishes or dipping sauces lately and have been very impressed. (Expensive, but it's quite a big bottle.) Their Sichuan peppercorns are notably better than the ones I've gotten from supermarkets as well — and it's the only place in the US I have ever seen caiziyou (unrefined rapeseed oil, traditionally used a lot in Sichuan). A few things they sell are a bit ridiculously priced (like the zhacai and yacai) — I don't begrudge a small business the markup, but I can get those easily elsewhere. All of this is making me want to cook more Sichuan food — think it will be on the menu this week! Might be time to finally set up the outdoor wok burner...

"Help!" I yelped to a friend who knows much more about cooking game and about sous vide cookery than I do. "How should I cook this? Sous vide time and temperature???" It was still frozen in its package as I typed. I'm trying to work my way down through treasures in the freezer. In this case it involved a smallish roast provided by my DIL. I thought it was labeled "back roast" but today realized it was labeled "buck roast". I thought it looked a looked like a tri-tip roast, but really didn't know the precise cut. I should add, by way of background, that my husband distrusts deer meat in almost any form. That doesn't stop his daughter (to whom I refer as my DIL although that technically isn't correct) from donating some to us. I think she does it mostly because she knows I like it. Perhaps annoying him is a side benefit. While I waited for an answer from my friend, I threw the frozen bag into a 120F bath. It sat there for several hours, thawing and beginning to cook. In the meantime, I heard from my friend, who apologized for not having answered more quickly (she does has a life!) and who pointed me to Hank Shaw. He said, in essence, that sous vide isn't generally a good choice for venison. There are exceptions, but my cut wasn't one. Well, heck. By that time I was committed, both in terms of timing and scheduling. I stuck with the plan, and let that roast bathe for several hours at 120F. Then I emptied its bag of the ozmasome and added a prepackaged marinade. Other dinner preparations involved cleaning and slicing or chopping a red bell pepper, two jalapenos, half an onion, a nice bunch of garlic scapes, and assorted salad greens. When it came time to cook I oiled the peppers and onions and cooked them over a barbecue wok, and seared the deer steak on a high-heat grill to develop a crust. After I pulled the meat from the grill, I sliced and cut it for our salads. Below is the (quite unappetizing, no wonder my friend has a separate life) picture of the still-frozen roast, then what happened after it had been sous-vided, marinated and grilled. The funny thing about this salad was that I got the fisheye from my DH at the very thought of venison, but he liked this. On the other hand I wasn't crazy about the spices in the marinade -- and a decade ago he wouldn't have liked them either! Nonetheless it was an overall success. The times, temperatures and materials are reproducible, but I can freewheel on the meat and marinade without fear of a dud. 120F in the water bath for about 4 hours, then idling as the water cools down, then a sear on the grill when the time comes. The meat is tender, not mealy, not tough. Yes, I know there's some redundancy in these collages. I hope you enjoy the images anyway.

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.

Sometimes I make steak balmoral, which consists basically of steak braised in whisly (or rather what remains of it after setting it on fire). It has a nice color, good flavor and a tender texture and, like most such preparations, you can keep it on the stove for a while if you are not ready to serve the meal (it's useful for when I'm not sure at what time the missus is going to be back from work, so I can have it ready to serve at a moments notice). For this recipe, you need a lean cut of meat (it can be pork or beef, and maybe chicken, although I'm not a fan of it), mushrooms, honey, whiskey, pepper, butter, stock and cream in undetermined quantities. You should mix the honey and the whiskey in advance. First, sautee the mushrooms with butter on a pan or a wok with crushed peppercorns. Once they are done, set aside and cook the meat. Sometimes, if I want the result to be less oily, instead of sauteeing the meat with cooking oil, I use the fat of the meat itself to coat the wok. It might be more carcinogenic, but it's less oily. Once the meat is cooked, toss in the mushrooms, pour the mixture of whiskey and honey and set it ablaze while stirring. This is the perfect time to take a picture for Instagram, but be careful not to drop the phone on the pan. After the flames die out, add the stock and cream, and stir until the texture looks good. Usually I season it with rosemary and tarragon, and maybe fresh parsley if I have it. So there you have an example of a recipe that includes whiskey and meat. Maybe it's not technically braising, since the meat is cooked before tossing whiskey on it, but it's tasty nontheless.