Woks

[Dogman]

Seeing that I rediscovered close to 80 lbs of rice that was hiding in my freezer that I posted about. I started to do a very dangerous thing.

Thinking !



Been in a semi rut as far as meals go, in that most of my cooking is just to fill the belly and make it to another day then repeat!

But that rice was bothering me, some I did refreeze for bug control and all, but dam it ! I just could not stop thinking of rice and some recent posts that I made that forced me to think of the past.

Then I remembered I did have a wok that seems to got hidden or was hiding from me for many years, that I stalked and then found. It is one that I got shortly after I returned from Thailand while in the air force because I did develop a taste for Asian cooking , with Thai and combos of Thai/Chinese/Burmese/Cambodian/Laos/Vietnamese and Indian cooking.

Very good eating and the sky is the limit when it comes to food combos.

Mine was sadly neglected for more years than I really can not be sure of in that some rust on my wok developed (carbon steel hammered) that I have and will spend hours getting it back into shape and seasoned correctly. (carbonized oil and fats for a slick finish)

Woks are not just for stir fry but for sure stir fry is tops in what they can do!

There is a problem, because of their shape, they are awkward to use, for a round bottom, one needs a wok ring or modified stove top grate, (years ago I cut out the center of one of my grates, works fine of all pots and pans) that allowed the round bottom to sit over the burners.

But at least for me there is no way to store one like pots and pans can be done, other than hanging on a wall or off a ceiling.

Memory is returning as I am posting this, seems that when I got married to my one and only wife (evil woman, but I did try) did not care and even hated my wok ! (side note I still have the wok, she is history, but out of sight out of mind) My wok survived, it was up in the attic.

Anything and everything can be cooked in one, as long as meats and vegs are cut small so everything can cook evenly, tho true wok use is the bottom is hottest and the sides give temp control.

Wok cooking is eyeballs on and very fast, that demands the cooks full attention, get distracted even for a short time things will burn.

Wok care if steel is work up a good seasoning, (black) just like cast iron, never never wash it nor scrub it, unless there has been a major screwup that only scrubbing will cure , and then start over with seasoning it. (Same with cast iron)

To clean just like cast iron, (my way) is to use newspapers after cooking to wipe clean while the wok/cast iron is hot with the stove burner is still going and re-oil under high heat then a final wipe and let it cool down.

The heat will kill any micro critters and helps build up the seasoning.

Sorry to say I have no recipes ...Yet..Still in the process of getting my sadly neglected wok back into shape and ready to go.

The only downside , as stated above is their shape when it comes storing when not in use.

Thoughts?



Edit: Flat bottom ones ? never used one!

Round is traditional an at least for me the only way, I have also made charcoal stoves out of coffee cans for cooking out side with my wok, tho when I learned to use one most were made out of hardened clay!

Ever seen a charcoal heated iron for ironing clothes?

Hoot !

[Glass]

like woks. I threw my last 2 out due to rusting. One was very good. Had for years. Cheap from chinese supermarket. Other one was a western copy of a wok. Too heavy and unwieldy. Never liked it.

Our gas changed here and it no longer has the intensity for woking. Which is why mine fell into disrepair as did my diet. Many dishes not being cooked any more.

[Dogman]

like woks. I threw my last 2 out due to rusting. One was very good. Had for years. Cheap from chinese supermarket. Other one was a western copy of a wok. Too heavy and unwieldy. Never liked it.

Our gas changed here and it no longer has the intensity for woking. Which is why mine fell into disrepair as did my diet. Many dishes not being cooked any more.

your gas changed?

Sounds like the difference between acetylene and mapp gas! Not sure if you call it the same where you are, seeing you guys are upside down. but the same can be said about us/me from your perspective.



Where there is a will there is a way!

Yes carbon steel sadly will rust, I thank that my old wok had a great seasoning built up to protect it and is was hidden in a dry area.

Carbon steel as you probably have learned when it comes to cooking pans and such just need to be wiped out and then oiled while hot then wiped again and let them cool.

Scrubbing until they are shiny and you see the metal , is a major mistake, stainless is another story sadly, one major mistake with anything that is used to fry and or cook is going overboard with cleaning them so the are shiny, they will look good but never at their best when it comes to flavor.

Dirty.....No...!

If done right using hi heat and wipe outs and re-oiling is all that is needed. Any thing that can harm you was killed (sterilized ) during heating and again while pre heating before the next meal.

But for clean freaks, bare metal and shiny is their god.

I love my cast iron and carbon steel cooking stuff, yes it does take a tad more care than stainless , but at least for me as my feelings about carbon steel knifes vs stainless.

Carbon steel rules !

But can not be neglected as that other metal, and for me the end result as taste goes there is a difference!

I regularly cook on a old carbon steel frying pan that has been in the family for at least 100 years and more, think it was my great, great grandmothers!

Stamped steel between 1/16 or now a tad less wall thickness, outside of the pan, major black crust buildup all over. The cooking surface has a black very smooth seasoning that is non stick, that in my memory was screwed up in my time of use and had to be redone over several years of cooking.

That is still in use, and is my go to fryer because it can handle acid foods better than my cast iron one. Tho acid foods , well the are what they are ! But the steel base finish is smooth, vs my cast iron that remove the seasoning and it is semi rough, but is babys ass smooth with the seasoning.

You burning natural gas?

Or LNG, which should be the same ?

Weard that the heat changed.?

My only thought is they are diluting your gas with an inert gas, same volume but burns colder.

[milehi]

I love my wok. It's from the sixties and I found it in my mom's kitchen while helping her move. I even found the ring. It's the hammered style. Before that I had a cheapo wok and before that, a Teflon coated wok that I sand blasted the Teflon off but it sacked for cooking. With the seasoned hammered wok, my Thai basil comes out perfect.

[Dogman]

Whoo Wheeee!

Major smoke out !

Gots to love it !

Just finished my first round of getting my old/new wok seasoned, it is the first of many to be done until I am satisfied with the coating. Using lard to do the very smoky deed. Almost got a uniform coating maybe 70% or so but had to let the house air out !

For the unwashed !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasoning_%28cookware%29

Had to open all the windows and doors, Plus turn off the fire loop on my security system, plus removing the batterys from my smoke alarms.

Fun Fun Fun !

But worth it !

Could have done it outside on my crayfish/turkey fryer burner, but did not want to waste the propane, since natural gas is cheaper and what the hay, my stove gives me a bit more control.

Anyway that is my excuse !

This job will take several days since I am in no real hurry at this point, I do have a good start in the main heating area, now just working on the sides for this initial coating.

It will take time to really make a uniform black seasoning coating bottom to rim all around with no ripples/splotches or visible break. And achieve the baby ass uniform smoothness I am looking for!

Later today will do some fried lice with eggs and some chopped up steak/tomatoes/green onion with ? to be decided! With a soy/Thai fish sauce mix with a few other spices and hot peppers combo for my meal of the day later.

The Thais made a fast dish that we called cow pot, (sounds nasty doesn't it ) that was great! Several kinds, beef, chicken, shrimp, and pork , come to mind, but not all of them. I kick my ass in a way because I used to do a fair job duplicating all of them here, but time and not writing anything down sorta pisses me off but with the net and with the fun of relearning as I go that is not a problem..All good eating I you like Asian style fried rice dishes.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=thai+cow+pot

Anyone that buys good used cast iron and carbon steel cookware and scrubs the cooking surface down to bare metal needs to be shot or shunned forever + a week if they think the black coating inside those pans is nasty, they are just showing their ignorance! Which can be cured, stupid tho can not be! Which reminds me of my X !

Hoot !

More later..

[Dogman]

Speaking of fish sauce!

Anyone here uses it ?

We are what we eat!

When I first set foot overseas, the first thing I noticed is the people smelled different, and also have we westerners smelled different to them in Asia.

It took me a while to figure it out that it was because of the different diets people/regions have.

And I suspect fish sauce has a hand in the way most Asian people smell to us westerners. I went mostly native while in country and figured if they can eat it I can also, (was a major learning experience) with a very few exceptions. Fish sauce was part of everything I ate and in time maybe because of smell memory and we (humans) can odor adapt to the point that odors at first noticed in time are not anymore.

Anyone go to a open Asian market will know what I mean ! (Will make your nose melt and eyeballs glaze) ! That after being in country a tad I never noticed while shopping for the days food, (refrigeration was not big there, ingredients were bought daily if perishable)

But the real clue is when I came back to the states, my family at first commented that I smelt different, not in a bad way but different for a month or two. I am sure it was the diet I had while overseas.

Just a side note, and memory's finding and dragging my old wok back into my dietary use, and the dishes that I used to really like.

Going to see where I can find a Asian store in my local area, for finding spices and such.

[Dogman]

I will agree with you abt store fish sauce in most stores here!

They are crap!

While in country I went native when not on the job (12 hour 7 day week) and lived off base! Was there more than one year unlike the standard 12 months! Got Fair with the language and reading it!

Learned watching my assorted telocks preparing and cooking our meals, plus watching and asking questions to other cooks when I could! Then cooking and using what I learned while still in country (Thailand, but with a very strong Laotian/Cambodia/Vietnam twist with a major overtone of Indian (depending) )

Street food with major home cooking. And regional blends, that all used fish sauce/rice as a base! One of my gal's was from Chang mi and her bent was Thai/Burmese and heavy southern china, dishes that were everyday staple's!

I imagine most of what you learned was the high end eats that 99% of normal people in county could not afford!

Soy sauce and fish sauce plus rice and Asian style cooking with my own twists is soon to be a major part of my diet after many many years again. Because it is tasty/filling/in general healthy and very affordable!

Finding a good fish sauce locally it seems will be a problem here, unless I travel 70 or so miles to a real Asian market, or amazon buy it!

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Dogman]

I've used the same wok for like 15 years now. I got it when I was young and experimenting with food and still use it. Basically I just cook with lard in it a lot and burn the living hell out of it. It has a thick crust on the bottom.

I do a lot of wok cooking and do all my deep frying in my wok unless its like potato tacos or something, then I do it in a cast iron skillet.

Lard is my basic fat for cooking!

Depending on what I am cooking, but it is always my fall back.

Seems you do understand what I mean about seasoning, I never scrub the outside nor as stated the insides of my pans!

High heat is a very good friend in keeping everything healthy and flavorful!

And people wonder why with some dishes they can taste have metallic overtones when they scrub down to bare metal all of their frying and baking cookware?

Boiling is a different color cat because the temperatures are much lower, so metal leaching is not much of a hazard, that is why a good seasoning is so important to develop for higher temp cooking because of the carbonized barrier (seasoning) prevents that along with sticking that food will do with bare metal cooking.
(If not deep frying, which has its place with some foods, but not so healthy, ((maybe) depending on the oil used)

Wok/cast iron cooking high acid foods, can be done but it does try to remove the seasoning from the pan be it a wok or cast iron surface, the trick is to have a thick seasoning coating to began with and then later make a point to thicken up the seasoning coating on that pan/wok.

Easy pleasy, as long as one keeps on top of what is going on.

Imagen that !

Side note:

For several years now I do not use aluminum in any thing cooking because of the hazard of leaching, tho there is a set that my grandparents have used for years and both of them made it into their 80's. Not sure if it was age or the aluminum cookware, they used for years (still have the set and used it myself for years) but easy to see the pitting on the inside, were it leached into the food.

Stainless, I thought at one time, was the answer, but not not so sure anymore, because of the chromium used to make it.

Boiling probably not a problem, but at high heat, I think the chances of it leaching chrome into the food is high and that at this point of my life is not worth the worry.

If you burn a stainless steel cooking what ever pot or pan, ever notice it will rust?

The reason is the chrome has been totally burnt off, so if it can do it at extreme high heat, what happens at frying temps?

Going back to carbon steel and ignoring any aluminum or stainless stuff, tho will use stainless for boiling. The aluminum is retired forever here, and only kept around for memory tokens and reminders of past meals shared with long gone family.

Cast or carbon steel , overall methinks is more healthy in my current thinking and logic.

[milehi]

I'm using "Lucky" brand fish sauce from Thailand, sourced from an Asian Market. I'd been using "Kimlan" dark soy sauce but lately I've been using Bragg Liquid Aminos soy sauce substitute. I have everything to make Thai Basil with chicken tonight, so that's what I'm making.

[Dogman]

I'm using "Lucky" brand fish sauce from Thailand, sourced from an Asian Market. I'd been using "Kimlan" dark soy sauce but lately I've been using Bragg Liquid Aminos soy sauce substitute. I have everything to make Thai Basil with chicken tonight, so that's what I'm making.

Dam my memory!

But I cannot remember any English names on the sauce's just pictures one had a squid am sure was a squid sauce. When I got back and was stationed at carswell afb (sac) there was an Asian market I used that I stocked up from and then used my stock for many years!

My basic learning was based using that squid? And one or two other sauces, ? One may have been based on sardines?

?

Then as all things in life my basic life changed and took other tangent's!

If possible avoid C.R.S it does come with age or un use in time!

Tho real Thai sauce's for me are a good starting point on my future journeys using my old wok!

Note!

Around any military base stateside there will be an real Asian market!

Dammit you sure sound smug!

#$$##5-+-$#!

Grin!

Dammit !

Basil?

I used to grow most of my herbs, been using dried longer than I can remember!

You gave me another reason to cuss you!

Easy pleesy for me to setup a indoor herb box inside for the winter and outside in warmer weather! Another thing I used to do but life changing left behind!

Had a true love, but my mistake not going her way that was a German/Russian that taught me on how to do!

Seeds once bought need not be bought again!

And nothing and I mean nothing beats fresh when it comes to herbs! As long as they can be grown inside or outside depending!

Which brings to mind growing my own mushrooms which I have done and is easier than most think!

But that is another thread to be made!



Sent from my Nexus 7