Wat to Wok

Since I am participating in Wok Wednesdays and cooking my way through Grace Young's Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, tonight I am cooking from Grace Young's Breath of a Wok that I can not put down. The information is phenomenal in this cookbook. It isn't really even a cookbook but rather a book with some recipes. You have to read to believe. Any way, tonight is Aromatic Vegetarian Fried Rice pg 123 with the addition of the egg pancake.

Before I got my wok I would make stir fry's in my Le Creuset saute pan, I LOVE my Le Creuset cookware, and the stir fry actually turned out good in spite of the frozen veggies I was using.

I can't remember what triggered me to get a Wok, dang I hate when I can't remember shit (CRS, for future reference). Any way, all I know that that I had the fever, I wanted a Wok and Todd bought me one for Mother's Day, but that's another journal entry.

The stir fry's taste so much better with fresh veggies and when I make a wok full of stir fry there is always just enough left over to put in our lunches the next day.

I recently cooked a chicken lo mein dish too that had the delicious fresh lo mein noodles in it. Stater Bros sells them but I got mine from the Super H Korean market in Diamond Bar. Love that place!

As I write, my rice is chilling in the refridgerator, once it is chilled I will stir rice the rice with chicken and veggies. Yum!

Chicken Tacos!

I don't know what compelled me to blog about the chicken tacos we had last night for dinner but it might have something to do with how delicious they were.
We had decided we were going to a hike so early in the morning I cleaned up a whole chicken and smeared it down with salt and pepper, inside and out, stuffed the cavity with whole garlic, lemon and chopped onion. Then I lathered the outside of the bird with a gob of my homemade red chili mole sauce. I put the the chicken in a crock on a bed of onion and celery then added a little bit of chicken broth (also homemade) then let it cook all day while we went for our hike.
Well, you all know how good the house smells when you've had something in the crock all day, well this wasn't any different. I could smell chili, lemon, garlic and chicken. I couldn't resist sharing one of the legs and thighs with my husband Todd then I put the rest of the chicken on a platter, let it cool then refrigerated it. At this point I didn't have any definite plans for the chicken but I had a multitude of possibilities.
A couple of hours later the idea came to me to make chicken tacos and of course I had to put some black beans in the the pressure cooker to accompany the tacos. When it came time for dinner and the black beans were ready to consume, I started our taco experience by sauteeing up some green onion, orange and red sweet peppers and garlic. Then I added one of the chicken breasts that I had shredded up and let it sautee a couple more minutes. Then came a good portion of my red chili mole sauce and a little chicken broth. I let this all blend and saute while Todd fried up, yes fried, some corn tortillas. He made the best crunchy taco shells, just the way I like them.
Grab a crispy taco shell, add chicken mixture, put sharp cheddar next, lettuce and sour cream and watch out taste buds. Pow!

Stir Fry Garlic Spinach

Wok Wednesdays Willy Wok!! I am so excited to have started the adventure of  woking my way through Grace Young's Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge. I shopped for the spinach today on my lunch break at the Super H market near work. I couldn't find baby spinach so I bought the regular spinach. This was my one mistake but not so bad that it had much impact on the end product. So here we go:

I warmed up the Wok, I'm always amazed at how fast it heats up. Oh BTW I welcome any and all comments on the condition of my Wok. I've been cooking in it for two weeks now and only experience sticking once in a while and it is usually when I sear chicken or beef. Even then it isn't a big deal. I am hoping this is all part of the process..

Next I added peanut oil to the hot wok then the garlic and I was instantly rewarded with the mouth watering aroma of sauteed garlic. Wow does that garlic cook up fast. (The picture go dark on me, sorry about that.)

When I added the spinach it started to wilt almost instantly when it hit the hot wok. I stir fried for the length of time the recipe suggested then a little bit longer since I could tell the spinach was a bit tough. (Next time I will find baby spinach) The taste of this dish was delicious with some plain white rice on the side. This was a fast and easy side dish to make and one that I will use in the future.

Oh I almost forgot to show you the protein portion of our meal. This is a Grouper prepared to be cooked in parchment paper. It turned out so tender and yummy and went so well with the rest of the meal.

How fun was that? I look forward to the next recipe: Cashew Chicken.

Breakfast in my Wok

I cooked our entire breakfast this morning in my new wok.

I started with cooked 3 slices of thick sliced pepper bacon. This is actually recommended by Grace Young as a method to season your pan. I can see why too as I watched the wok start to glow with every swirl of bacon fat. Sinful!

After the bacon crisped up I put it on some paper towels to soak up some of the excess grease. I poured off most of the bacon fat the added an addition teaspoon, or so, of peanut oil in the pan. After swirling that around a bit I added some par boiled cubed red potatoes to the wok. I moved them around the pan a it then let them set to form a nice brown color.

When the potatoes were almost finished I added some green onion to the wok. Swirled them around a bit then removed the potato mixture to a bowl.

Turning the heat down a bit I added another teaspoon of peanut oil, I could have used butter here but decided to save a couple of calories plus I had butter on some corn on the cob last night and I try to ration my consumption as much as I can. Sorry, I digress, I swirled the oil around a bit and poured in some beaten eggs to scramble. 

Just when the eggs were almost finished I added the potatoes back into the wok. Stir fried a couple of minutes then served the mixture with the bacon on a whole wheat tortilla with homemade red chili mole sauce. Now that's another blog.

This was delicious and the wok did not stick to speak of. Maybe a little here and there when I was doing the potatoes but it was quickly lifted off the surface with all of the stirring action. 

My New Wok

 

I did my homework and researched the different kinds of woks and the recommended woks from a whole array of different people and perspectives. I finally made, after about 5 weeks research, made my decision and purchased a wok. This wasn't an easy thing to do with all of the different types of woks that are out there. I knew right off that I didn't want an electric wok or a non stick finish wok and the more I read I knew I wanted an authentic wok.

It only took me a couple of websites to make me realize that I wanted to purchase my wok from the Wok Shop in China Town, San Francisco. All of the reviews for the site were superior and so complimentary that I knew right off the bat that I would make my final purchase from them. Now, not only would I devour all of the information on their website but I would be surfing and goggling everything there was to do with a wok. 

Then came the daily surfing of an assortment of different businesses that offered woks. The price seemed to stay about the same from site to site so that didn't factor into my decision at all. The information was endless but oh so helpful. At the end of each session I would ponder on what I had learned and even made a list of pros and cons for the different types of woks. 

  

I went to different brick and mortor stores that carried woks, not the exact model I was looking for, but I was able to handle the different sizes and handle configurations. I might have made the decision to buy local if they had offered the exact wok I was looking for but they didn't. Unfortunately they cater to the average home cook that wants to do things the easy way, not that there is anything wrong with that. With today's hustle and bustle a lot of men and women alike don't have the time or desire to cook when they get home from work. Not so with me. I'll cook my heart out, Sunday through Monday and love every minute of it. My husband's favorite saying goes like this, "Is this Sunday?"

It didn't take me long to figure out that Carbon Steel was the material I wanted my wok to be fashioned from Then I had to decide if I wanted the regular wok, for lack of a better term, or the Pow Wok which in some of the photos featured a pocked looked surface. I still haven't found much information on the difference between the two but intend to find out somehow and possible purchase one of the pow woks in a smaller size for those side dishes.

I never realized how much there was to know about a wok and the culture behind it but I intend to continue my search for information.

Well the time came to make the purchase, Todd ordered me a 14" Carbon Steel Wok with wooden handles, one which was long and the other an "ear" handle as it seems to be called.

I couldn't be happier with my Mother's Day present. When it arrived we dived right into seasoning our new wok. After more reading on what to do this involved scouring off the sticky finish that it arrives with, rubbing it inside and out with a thin layer of oil then baking it in a 450 degree oven to reach a golden brown color. It was beautiful.

So far I have stir fried chicken and broccoli, pork and veggies, veggies and potatoes and garlicky veggies in it and everything is really tasty. It does seem to be sticking a bit so I will need to do some more reading and figure out if I need to retreat the pan to try and achieve a better patina. Rust is said to be common when the patina is not good and I do not have any rust so maybe I am trying to rush the process of seasoning to a point that it doesn't stick at all. It is said to happen over a period of time. As usual I want to perfect it immediately but I know these things come slow sometimes.

Now to reach wok hay!

Joey's Special Day

Joey’s Special Day

January 16, 2010; the day our first born came out of the closet. He not only came out he came out full flame.

The day began with Todd and I going to JandP's house to begin an adventure on the Little Morongo Canyon trail. It was an overcast morning as we drove out to the beginning of the trail in Palm Desert. We had Joey with us and he was excited as usual to be going on a jeep trip. The girls, Lucy Liu and KoKo were left back at camp in the RV where I'm sure they were happy as larks.

We spent the day geocaching and having a blast. The trail took us all the way to Yucca Valley and the 5 hour trip was a blast. The end of the trail left us close to Paul's mom and dad's house and since we hadn't seen their new house we went over to visit them. After a brief visit we went over to Paul's brother Rob and Carol's house.

This is where the story begins all else before was only a lead up to this very special moment.

When we got to Rob and Carol's house we could hear their dogs barking.

We kept Joey on his leash when we first got there but when we all moved to the backyard to visit we decided to let him play with Skippy and his brother. OMG Joey was instantly enamored with Skippy. Skippy was a male so it worried us a little that they might fight but that wasn't the case at all. They played so nicely together but occasionally Skippy had to let Joey know he needed to back off. This was usually accomplished by Skippy turning all Rambo on Joey or by Skippy disappearing into the house via a doggie door.

Joey would come to a dead stop at the entrance to the doggie door every time Skippy would disappear into it. He nor any of our dogs have ever used a doggie door so be was totally perplexed with the whole concept. Joey would stare right at the doggie door until Skippy would come back out. Skippy was greeted by Joey who was breathlessly waiting for him to re emerge from the abyss, and then the chase was on again. I've never seen two dogs enjoy themselves so much. It was pure joy. Joey had truly found his soul mate in Skippy.

Unconditional love is certainly apparent when it comes to not even blinking an eye when your studly Beagle has revealed that he fell head over tail in love with another male dog.

Simply said: Joey loves Skippy!

The photo was taken by me. Joey is laying outside of our RV in Barton Flats campground, San Gorgonio, CA

Auburn with JandP

I had to wait until after we celebrated my sister Janice and her husband Paul's 40th anniversary in Big Bear California, to post this story. Their daughters asked us all to share a favorite story or memory of their mom and dad for a scrap book. I wrote the following story but there are many many more that remain in my memory cache.

Auburn with JandP

One of my favorite memories of time spent with Janice and Paul (aka JandP) has to be when we took a trip to Auburn Ca to attend the GeoWoodstock VI event in 2008.

Todd and I drove our motorhome to Auburn and got set up in a beautiful RV park just outside of town. JandP drove their jeep up and booked a room at a hotel not very far from where we were staying. Then the fun began.

Between geocaching our way around the area and watching the beaver in a pond at the campground, we packed every day with a new adventure. One day we took an awesome hike to a small town called Cool, had breakfast then hiked back. On yet another hike in Cool we almost got trapped by a wild fire. How exciting is that? Then there was the day that Janice, Joey and I spent on the American River with our lawn chairs in the water, drinking beer and munching on snacks. It doesn’t get much better than that. The guys were on a whitewater rafting expedition so we spent our day relaxing on the river. That was such a cool day.

The GeoWoodstock VII event was so worth attending. What a blast it was to see all the crazy geocachers in one spot. The event was held in Wheatland Ca, not too far from Auburn, on a big farm. They had booths with vendors, workshops, contests and awards for best caching related activities. We spent the whole day there then had a bbq dinner that was prepared by the hosts.

We had the opportunity to spend time walking around Auburn which was full of history and fun sights to see. We enjoyed meals and drinks at a number of the restaurants in town and Joey even joined us on the patio of one of them.

When we left Auburn we all vowed to go back and we look forward to making that happen.

Happy Anniversary to a Great Couple

The photo was taken by Todd and it was when we were visiting Sutter's Mill in Coloma California within the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park