I should probably stock up on shoe laces

[plonq]

atara and I have never really discussed the distribution of chores, but we each seem to have fallen into complementary routines. One of the splits that has happened is the cooking and clean-up after. She does most of the cooking, and I do most of the dish washing. It's not that I am a bad cook, rather she is a slightly better one and (more importantly) she hates washing dishes. I don't love washing dishes either, but I have come to not hate it like I once did. It is a very Zen activity if you approach it right, and I treat it as a bit of quiet time.

A couple of cooking exceptions involve stir-fries and grilling. I don't lay any territorial, macho claims to the grill (ME MAN; COOK WITH FIRE!) but atara seems quite content to put me in charge of outdoor cooking. Likewise she has little interest in using the wok - though in that case, I can understand her reluctance to get spattered with hot oil. Eh. A few grease burns here and there on the arms builds character. It seldom spatters unless I am sloppy about ensuring everything is dry before it goes in.

I took a picture of the wok after I used it yesterday. I can remember when this thing was clean and bright, but I suppose this black circle of despair in the centre is a sign that it is becoming well-seasoned.

I should probably switch to a wooden utensil when I am using it. It came with a metal spoonula that I have never bothered to replace. I guess it is a little late in the game to try and avoid scoring the surface of the wok at this point.

I regard the dark centre as being similar to the darker coloured belts one earns when training in Judo. The blacker this wok turns, the more experience I have gained, and (in theory) I am a better cook for it. By the time the wok has turned completely black, I will be a master of stir-fry. I will be able to tell the difference between a carrot and a finger, and julienne appropriately. I will be able to produce perfect zucchini sticks without risking any digits or other extremities, and will be able to deconstruct onions without shedding a tear (other than tears of manly pride in my accomplishments).

Some day I will hold up this wok and gaze into its stygian depth, seeing no reflection of me, but only of my mastery of the wok. And I shall think, " How much more black could this be?" And the answer is none. None more black.

One of the reasons I like doing stir-fry is that I don't have to follow a recipe. Having made enough bad ones over the years, I have learned important lessons in what not to do. Once you have eliminated the nots, the world is your oyster.

Meat ✓
Carrots ✓
Marshmallow ✗✗
Soy Sauce ✓
Thin Mints ✓ ✗

When I noticed that Safeway had marked down their pork tenderloins this weekend past, I grabbed one of those and a napa cabbage, and worked from there. Usually I will also add bell peppers, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and whatever we need to use up in the fridge. I was going to make my own stir-fry sauce for it this time around, but we had a vegetarian mushroom sauce that has been gathering dust in the pantry for months.

The sauce was quite delicious, and now we are both wishing we could remember where we bought it.

Comments

[dronon.livejournal.com]

I've never quite gotten the hang of stir-frying; my attempts with thinly-sliced vegetables usually come out more soggy than crispy. I think it's a combination of trying to cook them for too long, and that an electric stove just doesn't provide a constant, high temperature.

Love the photo; I thought it was a close-up of a bird's eye at first!

[plonq.livejournal.com]

>an electric stove just doesn't provide a constant, high temperature.

If the previous owners of this house had not been a bit greedy, I'd probably still be cooking with electricity. When I was closing the deal on this house, I made an offer on the appliances as well. They weren't in great shape, but I figured they would carry me through the first few years until things settled down.

I admit that I probably low-balled my offer for them at the time, but I knew that the home's owner was selling the house with the intent of moving in with her grand kids, and my thinking was that they would probably be glad to not have to deal with the appliances.

They said no. They apparently felt they could get more for them by selling them separately, so I went out and ordered a new fridge, stove, washer and dryer. I had always wanted a gas stove anyway, so I also arranged for a plumber to show up on possession date to run a gas line to the kitchen.

Eventually the previous owners figured out that the appliances were not worth as much as they had hoped, and three days before I took possession, they contacted the realtor and asked if my offer on them still stood. I told him in no uncertain terms that I needed the old appliances out before possession date. Also, I did not want to get stuck with the cost of having them removed. I was a little terse and annoyed at that point because I had already given them a two-week extension on the date at that point.

Anyway... on the subject of stir-frying.

I admit that one of my reasons for wanting gas was because of my frustration of using a wok on an electric stove. The wok that I have is actually designed for an electric range, as evidenced by the flat bottom. If your wok does not have a flat bottom, that might be part of your problem with the heat distribution. You can also get a metal ring that sits on the element and helps channel more heat to the bottom of the wok.

Even on gas, heat retention is still an issue, but it is something that I have learned to work around. Sadly, our home stove tops just don't push out the BTUs to do a proper stir-fry.

What I do is cook things in stages, then recombine them at the end. I cook the meat first, and then take it out of the wok and set it aside. Then I start adding the vegetables in order of which ones need to cook the longest. I will start with something like carrots, then add onions once the carrots look like they have enough of a head start. I work my way down the list through celery, peppers, cabbage/bokchoy, until I get to the things like bamboo shoots or bean sprouts, which cook almost instantly. Adding them piecemeal helps ensure more even cooking, but also gives the wok a chance to heat up again between additions.

Finally, once all the veggies are in, I reintroduce the meat and toss it with the noodles or rice, and whatever sauce I have at the ready.