Wok this way. The Chinese food thread.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Wok this way. The Chinese food thread.

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

Apologies if this has been covered, but I don't recall seeing it up thread: Any recommendations for Taiwanese recipes (especially comfort food) or basic cook books?

# ¿ Dec 12, 2014 21:13

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 01:22

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

ascendance posted:

So when should you throw out a typical cast iron wok?

Where's the :pedantic: emoticon when you need it?

Typical woks aren't cast iron, they're either pressed mild or carbon steel. Cast iron woks do exist but they probably don't transfer heat as well as carbon steel. Dunno how true this is, my cast iron addiction isn't bad enough to buy one just to try.

Whatever. Treat your carbon steel wok like cast iron and throw it out when it gets nasty. I don't think this happens often on a typical kitchen range.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2014 21:09

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

GrAviTy84 posted:

teflon wouldn't even survive the preheat on my burner when I cook.

185,000 BTU by gtrwndr87, on Flickr

MMMMM PTFE/PFOAs

Somewhere, a blacksmith is missing a vital part of her forge.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2015 06:08

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

caberham posted:

Anyways, go old school : dual wield butcher cleaver and chop that poo poo up. The meat is actually nicer that way. It's got this smooth gelatin texture

Now you've done it. My CCK #2 slicer is my favourite knife. And now I feel like I need more...

# ¿ Feb 4, 2015 03:25

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

shaitan posted:

One of my cookbooks explains it... pretty much as you suspect, they just sat on huge clay stoves with hot coals heating up the woks. If I had to guess, today's expectation of "perfect" wok-hei didn't really evolve until the invention of the gas cooker.

So, basically a kamado / big green egg?

# ¿ Feb 8, 2015 09:31

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

ascendance posted:

I remember those Chinese charcoal stoves growing up in Malaysia.

They look like little clay chimneys. If you want to give it a shot, I think you can improvise one out of a clay pot. Or order one online.

http://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stove_Thailand.jpg

That's basically a kamado without the lid. It fits the wok better than North American kamados where the wok tends to disappear into the stove.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2015 18:17

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

Holy crap! I had no idea they used actual coal dust to cook with. I wonder what that does to smoked meat?

Neat pellet design though. It's giving me impure thoughts about hacking my kamado to cook tandoori.

Or smelt iron.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2015 08:08

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

Bit of a niche thing, but a tablespoon in the marinade makes really good beef jerky.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2015 06:57

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

Steve Yun posted:

Do century eggs ever go bad? I found some in the back of my fridge that are like a year old

Iron bird eggs only lasted three weeks in the back of my fridge.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2016 05:45

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

I'm jealous. I've had no luck trying to grow gai lan over the past year. It stays small and stringy and seems like it bolts shortly after the plants push out of the soil. I think my soil might be too low in nitrogen.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 15:45

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

Grand Fromage posted:

It's a Chinese vegetable, so try adding cadmium or cesium to your soil.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 22:57

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

Jhet posted:

Yes, or when you make your own soy sauce and miso and your basement and house smells of koji fermenting soy beans for a month. There are a lot of stinky things out there. I'd make black garlic, but I think my family would hate me forever.

The soy sauce and miso are coming along nicely. I open fermented the soy on my porch for a few days to capture local salt tolerant yeast and bacteria, and the fermentation is still active. From the consistency the pediococcus is still active, so the zygosaccharomyces that I hope I captured should also be working slowly. It's a fascinating process, and the soy sauce is starting to smell nice. I don't bother the miso often, and it's changing to a nice shade of red.

Additionally, I made some doubanjiang with thai chilies about a year and a half ago and it's doing okay finally. Not really great and the beans didn't break down well. I think I under cooked them. I have nothing to lose leaving them to keep going under oil and salt, so maybe they'll turn out eventually. I'll grow a better pepper for it next summer and try again.

By the time I get these all figured out someone will have made a gluten free version of all these things (save the soy and miso of course they do that already), but I hope that mine end up tasting good too.

Apologies if you posted this already and I missed it during my search - any chance you could post the recipe you're using for fermented soy sauce? I'm getting deeper down the rabbit hole of home fermenting and this sounds intriguing.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2018 06:08

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 01:22

Hexigrammus: May 22, 2006; Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

Jhet posted:

I don't know that I did. Basics are pretty easy.

Cook your soybeans
Innoculate with koji mold, I used koji rice and ground it into a powder
I mashed and formed into 1" discs to get good coverage for the mold
Leave to grow/ferment for 3 days. Then dry out the white mold. It will turn yellow
Toss into a 17-20% salt brine and leave in a dark place stirring every couple days. I left it outside on my porch covered with a cloth to capture whatever I could. I didn't get a ton of activity, but I did get some. I added a couple tablespoons of unpasteurized miso to get it going quicker and it responded.
You want to encourage oxidation with the stirring, which you'll be doing every 3-7 days at least if you're keeping it covered with an airlock.
You would do it more frequently if you left it open to the air entirely to keep the koji from starting to grow on the top.
Stir regularly for somewhere in the range of a year. I haven't gotten past there, but I will probably pasteurize a bunch and keep some alive just to see how it changes.

There are probably better ways to do it, but this is what I've cobbled together for a process at home.

Thanks. I think I have just the fermenter for that...

# ¿ Aug 24, 2018 15:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Wok this way. The Chinese food thread.