Wok This Way

[Dreadbelly]

I just bought a new cast iron Lodge Logic wok... From Amazon.com for 39.99 with free shipping. Normally, they are 65.00 bucks, and the shipping eats you alive because it weighs a ton. Get them now folk, supplies are limited, and I have heard rumours that they are discontinuing this particular wok model, which is quite unique and very good. It's flat on the bottom, for electric stoves, but inside the wok it's a perfectly rounded bottom. So basically there are a couple of inches of solid cast iron on the bottom of this thing, which makes for astounding heat retention. Go get one! :grin:

I dunno, I just had to have a cast iron wok. I am totally in love with wok cooking... I learned how to use a wok in cooking school, and used a wok like pan when I worked as a cook. But that was work. Since I got my carbon steel wok, I have gone batty with wok cooking. And I NEED a second wok on my stove. So I can do lo main in one and fried rice in the other.

Why, just tonight, I used my wok to make Italian food... And it was so much easier than using a skillet. And it tasted better. I made a nice pasta dish. I started out by stir frying some veggies... Fresh tender peas, some fresh white sweet corn, broccoli and cauliflower, and a lot of garlic. Some vidalia onions. Stir fried them and got hot wok flavour in to the veggies... I think it's called Wok Hee. Anyhoo, a nice toasty flavour in my veggies. Lowered the heat down a bit, poured in some half and half, a little ricotta, some parmesan, a little basil, thyme, rosemary, and oregano, some olive oil, a dash of fresh ground pepper, and simmered it a bit. Was able to beat it with a wisk with out making a mess on the stove, which is a big freaking deal because every time I try to wisk my sauce in a skillet, no matter how hard I try, it gets bloody everywhere. Not one splatter on the stove when I did this in a wok. Which was great. I seared a little salmon in the cast iron skillet. I had some whole grain pasta and tossed that with my sauce in the wok. Served it with a nice fresh loaf of sunflower bread, which is really very delicious... It's made from sunflower flour, and it has toasted sunflower seeds all through the dough and crust. Bread wasn't buttered or smothered in cheese or garlic or anything... It's delicious just the way it is. Although it is mighty good to mop up leftover sauce. Mmmmm. Anybody's mouth watering yet?

It was so good and so different that my wife asked why the pasta tasted different.

Is it possible to fall in love with a cooking pan? I think I have. I have rediscovered my love of cast iron... It had been far to long since I had worked with my favourite type of pan... But now that I have rediscovered wok cooking... And been experimenting, I HAD to get a cast iron wok and combine my two loves.

The best part isn't even the taste... But the cooking. I love working over a hot pot... The steam, the aromas, the sizzle, the hot sweaty feeling of anticipation... It's a lot like being in love with a woman. Fickle and dangerous, you could get burned at any time, but oh so rewarding in the end.

[macgreggor]

why dread,

you wax absolutly poetic about cooking!!!!

it is grand to see a man passionate about something other than football or sex.

if i ever get down that way i will do my best to talk, bribe, beg you into cooking a meal. if it tastes as good as you make cooking it sound i can die a happy man.

macG

[Dreadbelly]

it is grand to see a man passionate about something other than football or sex.
macG

I don't watch football. I don't get it. It bores me to tears.

Now, about sex. A good hot meal will get you that. And a whole lot more. Women are completely powerless to men who cook. A kilted cook is a double threat.

Cooking is my joy. It is, other than extreme violence, one of the few things I am truly gifted at. We all have to eat. It is an inescapable fact of life. So it is a good thing to be gifted at. Food is art. It is it's own music. The colours, the smells, the sounds of cooking are all part of the experience. The love. I love to hear a good sizzle. Music to my ears.

I would be a much happier cook if my tortilla press, my molcajete, and my comal would hurry up and get here.

Happiness is a hot fresh tortilla. With a little fresh salsa smeared on it, some guacamole, and a little pepper jack cheese. Mmm.

Edit.

Forgot to add, if you ever get hungry, come on down my way. There is a Holiday Inn Express right next door.

And free warning. I have been known to make food a little hot. People are sissies.

[Rob Wright]

I hear you dread, I love what cast iron cookware I have, handed down to me from relatives. Right now I'm grilling my veggies on my bbq grill, fresh stuff from my dad's garden mostly, a little olive oil sometimes and or some fresh herbs and spices sprinkled on top, man good stuff.

I love to cook, I just hate dealing with people, especially ones who should knowbetter and just keep their mouths shut. Or customers who think they know how they should be doing my job. It doesn't help their dispositions that the owner always backs me. But that's getting way off topic.

When I cook, it's like I hear the music, the whole day is a symphony, with the individual orders little parts that create the whole. And the music has it's own dance, one that you have to let into you and flow freely so that every move is in synch and the dance and the music meld.And nothing is fixed, you have to adjust and adapt to keep the flow and the rythem going.

Rob

[Archangel]

beautiful: peace, love, harmony, it all comes together.

(respect)

[Dreadbelly]

I hear you dread, I love what cast iron cookware I have, handed down to me from relatives. Right now I'm grilling my veggies on my bbq grill, fresh stuff from my dad's garden mostly, a little olive oil sometimes and or some fresh herbs and spices sprinkled on top, man good stuff.

I love to cook, I just hate dealing with people, especially ones who should knowbetter and just keep their mouths shut. Or customers who think they know how they should be doing my job. It doesn't help their dispositions that the owner always backs me. But that's getting way off topic.

When I cook, it's like I hear the music, the whole day is a symphony, with the individual orders little parts that create the whole. And the music has it's own dance, one that you have to let into you and flow freely so that every move is in synch and the dance and the music meld.And nothing is fixed, you have to adjust and adapt to keep the flow and the rythem going.

Rob

So do you see the beauty too?

Ever watch a slab of eggplant or a slab of meat actually slide across a searing hot griddle because the explosive power of the instantly boiled water vapour lifts it ever so slightly and allows it to hover? Every time I see that, even if it only moves an inch when I flip something on to a griddle, it takes my breath away.

It's free form poetry. From the 'thwup thwup thwup' sounds of a cleaver hitting a wooden cutting board as you dice veggies to the slight clicking sounds of a mandolin slicer, to the thrumming hum of a grater being used... Cooking is more than food for the mouth... The ears man, the ears get it too. The rhythmic sounds that cooking makes... All in perfect timing. The mechanical clicking of a stainless steel spatula ticking over a griddle, scattering onions, chili peppers, and potatoes. The sound of a bubbling boiling pot with something thick inside of it, like a good soup or stew. Blub blub blub.

Did you know... You can tell when a slab of salmon is done by how it hisses. When it starts out, it has a high pitched steam hiss. When it's almost done, the pitch changes... To a dull flat hiss. Ya yank it off a grill and get it on a HOT plate. And it will finish cooking it self because of the stored heat. Mmm. Eggplant too!

Hmm I bet a bunch of you think I am crazy for waxing poetic about food... Maybe I am.

Edit. Found a typo.

[Rob Wright]

Oh I see the beauty, food is sight, smell, sound, taste, and feel, I just wish more people were appreciative.

Rob

[Dreadbelly]

Oh I see the beauty, food is sight, smell, sound, taste, and feel, I just wish more people were appreciative.

Rob

Rob... A vast majority of people happily stuff their faces with McDonalds or whatever slop they get through a drive through. People don't have time to cook in this day and age. Look all around the web and read about how they are dropping cooking from many home ecc classes because in the modern age, it's no longer needed, unless as a career option. There was a big article not to long ago about a generation of mothers and fathers that never learned to cook well, and now their children that are turning 18 and entering the adult world don't know how to cook at all, and the dependency on fast food establishments to feed themselves. Or you can find articles about how major fast food chains are researching and developing machines to cook bloody everything in the store because many of the employees there don't even have the basic cooking skills needed to prepare fast food.

It made me sad.

Now a wok, that's fast food. And it's not to terribly difficult. Get wok HOT. Add a dribble of oil. Toss in veggies or whatever floats your boat. Stir veggies with wok shovel vigorously. Serve with rice. Or noodles. Or whatever. They even sell stir fry veggie packs in the produce department of grocery stores.

I can't think about this no more.

[Doc Hudson]

Dammit Dr. Douglas!!! You ought to have a cooking show!!!

I can see it now, one part poetry, one part philosphy, one part cooking, and one part how to beat the crap out of the produce man who supplied wilted herbs.

Jokes aside, I think you could make a most entertaining cooking show. You have the passion that most TV Chefs lack, and it would be infectious.

BTW, did you make that Sunflower Bread? If so, would you care to share the recipe? I love to bake bread and I love sunflower seed.

I also have a great fondness for cast iron. I'm not in your league by any means, but I'm something of a camp cook myself. I love to cook over an open fire even more than in the kitchen.

[GMan]

OK I will WOK on the wild side (groan).

Yes after reading your description of what and how it was cooked really says alot about the love and joy you put into cooking.

Thank you for letting us know about those bargains, now if only I could wax poetically while cooking!