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Thread: Wok This Way

  1. #11
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    I set the kitchen on fire ... twice. Cooking for me is not that much fun, but a great way to meet the local volunter fire comapny :-)

    My hat is off to Dread and others who can make it look so easy and taste so good!

    Brian
    "I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way."
    - Franklin P. Adams

  2. #12
    Dreadbelly is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    I bought the sunflower bread at Publix of all places. I love the stuff. And it's the only store down here in the South where I live that sells it. If I knew how to make it, and had the equipment to do it, I would. That said, if I were to venture a guess, I would say that it is a pretty standard french bread recipe, with a touch of sunflower flour and maybe a cup or so of sunflower seens kneaded in to the dough. And if you love cooking over an open fire, get a wok! They were made for cooking over an open flame.

    Glen... I accept your pun, and offer one in return. This kilt was made for wokking... And that's just what'll do.

  3. #13
    Dreadbelly is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    Oh. In case anybody wants their own molcajete, tortilla press, or comal, they can be found in a package here.

    Which is quite a good deal actually.

  4. #14
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    OK I have only been on this board a short while and it is costing me a mint. Between the choice kilts and accessories, and now cookware If I had any extra cash I have is gone. (Note to self sell more blood) That wok looks great and I will have to place an order.

    Dread, I agree you should have a cooking show. Your description of the eggplant hovering on the cushion of steam was something I have experienced many times but never had the words to express. Pure poetry.

  5. #15
    Dreadbelly is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    Quote Originally Posted by millar
    OK I have only been on this board a short while and it is costing me a mint. Between the choice kilts and accessories, and now cookware If I had any extra cash I have is gone. (Note to self sell more blood) That wok looks great and I will have to place an order.

    Dread, I agree you should have a cooking show. Your description of the eggplant hovering on the cushion of steam was something I have experienced many times but never had the words to express. Pure poetry.
    Make sure you get the wok soon... I had it on pre order just to make sure I got it. If rumours are true, and Lodge discontinues this model, it would be a real loss. They already discontinued the camp wok, with the long handle and little tripod iron feet built in so you could set your wok over hot campfire coals. The problem is, there are lots of cheap woks available. Like carbon steel and such, which is all fine and good. Nothing wrong with them. Some of us have a die hard love for cast iron though. Lodge, being an American company, just can't compete with cheap low cost Asian imports, and they are pulling out of the wok making business. There are Asian cast iron woks available, but they are not the same quality. Sharp edges, thin spots, thick spots, and they must be seasoned. They are nice over time, but you have to do a lot of work it seems to make them kitchen ready, while Lodge is kitchen ready right out of the box. Both steel and iron have their good points and bad points. That said, I plan to build my kitchen on iron. I'll keep some steel goods around for specialty jobs. As an aside, as a budding (haha! pun) vegetarian, I need the iron in my diet that cast iron provides.

    I am not pretty enough for tv. I have serious doubts about that whole idea. Plus, I would have to be "discovered" somehow. That, and I am low tech. While a motorised food processor is fine and good, I am more apt to use a stone grinder or a molcajete. Or even the side of my knife blade to smoosh my veggies, which I have been doing lately. I am sick of my food processor. It screeches and disrupts the harmony of my kitchen. Instead of caphalon annodised aluminium cookware, I am migrating back to cast iron. I have thrown out all of my old pans. I am all about getting back to simplicity. Something sharp, something blunt, something hot, and something to poke with.

    I cooked before. Don't get me wrong. It was food. It was mostly delicious. But since I changed my diet around and moved toward vegetarian ideals, I have been totally on fire again with my passion for cooking. It's like something woke up. Instead of the same old chicken, taters, cornbread, and whatever side dish I could muster, everything is all exciting and new and different. My creativity has been tweaked. Been cooking and eating to survive, and get by, and I think I was caught in the dolldrums there for a while.

  6. #16
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    Simplicity

    Keeping it simple is what good cooking is all about. Nothing better than a plate of fresh tomato with basil garlic and olive oil and salt and pepper. I treat my Italian cooking much the same way as the stir fry. Just a hot pan, olive oil garlic one veg and pasta. Mix and there is a meal. Zucchini is really good this time of year and my tomatos are coming in.

    Thanks for the tip on the ordering. I will get it in when I get home tonight.

  7. #17
    Dreadbelly is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    Quote Originally Posted by millar
    Keeping it simple is what good cooking is all about. Nothing better than a plate of fresh tomato with basil garlic and olive oil and salt and pepper. I treat my Italian cooking much the same way as the stir fry. Just a hot pan, olive oil garlic one veg and pasta. Mix and there is a meal. Zucchini is really good this time of year and my tomatos are coming in.

    Thanks for the tip on the ordering. I will get it in when I get home tonight.
    Simplicity rocks. And so does harmony. Lately, I have been in to this whole ying and yang thing. I think the wok fumes have disrupted my brain somehow. I hope it gets worse. While I plan a meal, I start thinking; broccoli is crunchy, I should add something tender. Beansprouts! Red wine vinegar is a little sour. But not sour enough. What would happen if I put a little natural orange juice in there, along with a touch of lemon? To sour. I'll pour in a daub of honey. I don't know what it is, but I find my self trying to balance things out. Ying and yang. Light and dark. Sweet and sour. Hot and savoury. Hot and sour. And it has lead to CRAZY things happening in the wok. Like, the other night, I did the whole orange juice and lemon thing. And a daub of honey. And on a whim, I just had to add a touch of heat. So I sprinkled everything with a strong dose of McIlhenny's chipotle tabasco. Which is, it self, both sweet and hot. And a dash of McIlhenny's jalapeno green tabasco, which isn't hot at all, but tangy. I sprinkled in a little corn starch and presto... I had a delicious glaze with all these harmonised flavours. And the veggies were so good... Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, water chestnuts, beansprouts, and bamboo shoots. Tender, crunchy, chewy, and sticky, all in one meal. Oh, and there was marinated tofu in there too. Bar-b-fu.

    I am not sure, but I think I am reinventing my self in the kitchen. Reinventing? Rediscovering? Recreating? Hell, I don't know. All I know is, a fire has been lit inside of me. I am back to doing something I love. While I have been cooking this whole time, it was just going through the motions. I am back to being an artist, and I think my wok has become my canvas. I have all kinds of crazy ideas... Fusions of food. Like using tortilla strips in a wok in place of noodles, and adding zesty Latin flare to Asian cooking. Stir fried South Western veggies with a twangy kick. Right now in my mind I am tossing ideas around for a sweet potato and black bean stir fry... I ADORE sweet potato, black bean, and spinach enchiladas. Roast the tater till it's black on the outside to carmelise the sugars inside, smoosh it, and mix with whole black beans, laid on a bed of spinach and rolled in a tortilla, smothered in enchilada sauce, some cheese, and baked till bubbly. I have eaten those since childhood. It's a comfort food for me. And now I am wondering if I could rearrange those flavours in a stir fry. Maybe matchstick the sweet taters. Small thin pieces to cook quickly. Some black beans. Some spinach. And instead of an enchilada sauce, I am wondering if I can make a wok glaze of some sort. Using tomatillos and since they are tart and tangy, making some sort of sweet and sour glaze.

    I just had to wipe drool off my chin.

    :mrgreen:

  8. #18
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    Doc Hudson is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadbelly
    I am not pretty enough for tv. I have serious doubts about that whole idea. Plus, I would have to be "discovered" somehow. That, and I am low tech.
    You didn't really think Julia Childs was pretty did you? Nor are Emeril LaGasse, or Chef Paul Prudhomme my idea of handsome. Granted Rachael Rhea is cuter than hell, but that doesn't make her cooking any better.

    Fact is, your rough looks, and retro cooking style might well catch the attention of both producers and the public.

    Let me suggest that you talk to some of the local business you frequent, and a local TV station about the possibility of starting a short cooking segment on a local morning show. I think that is how Mr. Food got started in the TV cooking business.

    If you don't ask, you will never know if it could happen. Let's be blunt, your health will no longer hold up to make your laundromat-dinner a reality. You might have some fun and make some money with a cooking show, even if it was only a five minute segment of Greenville This Morning.

    Hell, you can call yourself the Chef Ogre, or The Kilted Chef. The novelty of a kilted cook might be a selling point, as could be what others view as your disability. Give it some thought.

  9. #19
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    Develop a scottish accent and call yourself Chef Shrek

  10. #20
    Dreadbelly is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    While I doubt that TV is my thing... I have often pondered about writing a cookbook. But I don't know how to get that wheel rolling. Publisher? Who would I even submit a book like that to? And what sort of theme? The shelves are way to crowded with gimmicky preachy cookbooks already.

    And there is no "Greenville in the Morning" show. People around here, well, how do I say this kindly... Strange food scares them. They want a chicken with a beer can stuffed up it's butt and left on a BBQ. They most certainly would not want to look at some ugly guy in a skirt with strange hair on tv. They definately wouldn't want vegetarian cooking in a wok... They would want "How to grill at your next tailgater at the NASCAR track."

    I kid you not. When my first wok was delivered, I stood at the door and said "Oh boy, my wok!" The delivery guy was confused, no earthly idea what a wok was. Had to explain it to him. He had a confused, befuddled look on his face.

    You know... You could get a 35,000 BTU burner and probably turn out some good chow with a wok at a tailgater. But, I have no tailgate. I have no transportation what so ever. And I never go to tailgaters. So I am not qualified to delve in to this subject.

    I don't know about any of this stuff... For now, I just want to get re-aquainted with my art.

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