What Did You Have For Dinner?

[rockouthippie]

Just too much Dinty in college to ever appreciate it again.... cheap was mac n' cheese.... or can cream of mushroom soup, peas, noodles, left over chow mein noodles... you know... glop... Hell. If I had enough money for Dinty, I was stylin'

I should compile my college memoir and publish a new cookbook titled:

"It tastes like shit, but you can live on it"

[Widdykats]

Originally posted by fc*uk
This one is easy:

2 tbl dark sesame oil
2 tbl soy sauce
1 tbl ginger
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1 sliced green onion
1 tsp lime juice
1 yellowfin tuna (6 - 8 oz)

Whisk ingredients together in a bowl and marinade yellowfin for at least one hour, though six to eight is optimal.

Thinly coat the bottom of a wok in sesame oil. Heat the wok so hot that the devil runs in fear of the heat.

Sear tuna for 1 minute on each side.

Gobble it up like a kid in a candy store.

Excellent!
@ROH Of course Daisy's jealous..stuff looks a little like ..well..you know

[fc*uk]

Ted, about the only yellowfin I can find in these parts is frozen as well. It works great for the recipe I posted. Coil electric stoves will also work well and so will that wok you linked.

I'll be honest though, I've got a beef with those woks you linked. Not specifically yours, but that style in general (I had a Calphalon for years and now I've got an All-Clad d5. I was hoping the d5 would be better than the Calphalon due to the layered construction; but it's not really. My beef with both is one and the same). See, those types of woks are great at most everything they do. However, when it comes down to searing something, they seem to be a little lacking.

If you take the time to get one of those types of woks hot enough, then you can get away with searing a small food item. Make sure you use a refined sesame oil so you can get the oil hot enough without exceeding it's smoke point (sesame will get you to about 450F before breaking down, few common oils get you hotter than that). Probably one six to eight ounce yellowfin would be your max, then you would have to give ample time to reheat.

That's my problem with those type of woks. They are so big and their construction is so heavy, that dropping too large/too much/too frequent food in them causes the wok to lose massive amounts of heat and the range's heating element can't heat it back up quick enough. Before you know it, you don't have the heat you need to properly sear something anymore.

That's where those cheap ass carbon fiber woks really excel. The carbon fiber woks are so darn thin that the heat source from your range can get it back up to hotter than the fires of hell temperatures in seconds. Other than a quick good sear, those carbon woks suck.

[swingdjted]

The aluminum [supposedly] transfers and distributes heat faster than stainless or carbon fiber, but because of the thickness/weight, I could believe what you describe happening. The bigger potential problem is likely the other thing you mentioned - the coil element, which takes significantly longer to change temps when compared to an open flame. For this reason, I have to sear my steaks one at a time in the same pan (after allowing recovery time) or in different pans - or the grille outside, which is under a few feet of snow for now.

The one very good thing about that wok (along with other items in the "contemporary nonstick" line) is that usually you don't need any oil at all for searing. Just heat the mofo up and slap the meat/fish on, and it slides off like a pancake after a quick blackening. You do lose the added flavor that the oil sometimes gives though, although sometimes that's a good thing.

I would like a basic round-bottom wok though. Some day I'll be back with gas or propane, where the rounding spreads the flame better.

Today I kept things pretty simple again, just heated up some of that chili I made a few posts back. I froze a couple gallons of it in a bunch of small portions, making it go from freezer to microwave to spoon in a little over 3 minutes. I'm almost out of it already though, which means maybe Sunday I'll have to make something else big that I can portion out.

[fc*uk]

I've got a great cassoulet recipe (It actually comes from Thomas Keller's French Laundry in Napa) that I could post if you are interested. Need a slow cooker and two days time. Boat load of meat goes into it, but you will be eating off it for weeks...

I've used heavy aluminum/stainless on both coil, ceramic, and gas.Though alone it's properties do suggest heating faster than carbon fiber, due to their thickness, they just can't do it. In my opinion, nothing beats carbon fiber for searing quickly. I've got a Joyce Chen classic nonstick wok (http://www.amazon.com/Joyce-Chen-Cla.../dp/B002AQSWK2) that has a flat bottom that I have really liked. Granted, I have had two of them and am working on a third. The high heat just beats the hell out of the nonstick coating and eventually it breaks down and your food sticks like glue. Granted, each wok has lasted me about 5 or so years and I do use it once or twice a week. Overall, I am happy with it though it is replaced often. I have read that is a problem with most nonstick carbon fiber woks if you are a heavy user.

This can be eliminated with a traditional wok, but then you have to deal with sealing the wok every so often and conditioning it. I had one of those too in my younger days. If you don't seal them well enough they rust, which mine did after many years. Hence the switch to the nonstick...

As for the no oil, I have honestly never tried that route. I've always added about a tablespoon of sesame to the oil just in case....

It seems as if you already know how to deal with the problem of which I am speaking because you have been down that road before. So you should not have any problems if you wanted to try that tuna.

[swingdjted]

Well, if it's Teflon non-stick it might not work well; but the better brands have non-stick stuff that is great. Before I had this cookware, I used to sometimes accidentally pick up the pan when trying to flip a steak. I just might look for some yellow-fin after work tomorrow, and let it do some swimming (marinating) overnight after it's thawed. I'm still curious as to why to use a wok rather than a pan, is it just because your flames hug it better on a gas stovetop?

[fc*uk]

Well, not really (I've got a ceramic range myself.).

The reason for the wok is simply for the rapid heat transfer from the range's heating element to the wok to the food.

Now it's time for the chemist in me to come out. Please bear with me.

When something cold hits something hot, the hot thing is going to loose heat in a hurry as the energy is transferred into the cold item. As this happens, a cold zone is going to be formed on the surface of the hot item.

Now, take a thick pan. The heating element makes that pan hot. That heat is on the outside of that pan. As you go in layers of the pan, the heat reduces and dissipates. The heating element can only get the outside of that pan so hot and the outside needs to drop in temperature before more heat will be transferred back into the inside of the pan.

If you've got a thick pan, chances are good the outside of that pan is not going to drop much in temperature when you drop cold food inside the pan. Therefore, the heating element is not going to kick back on and the inside of the pan just gets cooler over time.

Clearly this is a bit of an exaggeration as you won't have a hot outside of the pan and an ice cold inside, but you get the idea.

Apply that to a carbon fiber wok that is thin and can't retain heat worth a damn. The heating element of the range is always heating the outside of the wok. Because the wok is so thin, nearly all of the heat from the element gets transferred to the inside of the wok. Thus, when you drop cold food into a hot wok, the wok stays hot and maximum thermal energy is transferred into what you are cooking.

That is what searing is supposed to be right? Hot and fast.

[swingdjted]

^ I understood what you meant, I guess I just didn't know that there would be as much difference as there is. Based on what you said, could it be deduced that your wok is a lot thinner than your pans (in addition to having no thin carbon fiber pans), and therefore that's why you choose to use it? In that case I understand your choice quite well.

The other thing - ceramic cooktops - it seems that pans need to be PERFECTLY flat-bottomed for them to work optimally. With coil, you have a little bit of flexibility and margin for error (but probably not much), and with flame, it could be deformed and still heat mostly well. That's one of the reasons I would like to go back to gas/propane. My pans are in pretty good shape now, but I don't want to throw them out later if they lose their perfect shape over time and abuse, and I'd like to prolong the need to take advantage of the warranty.

Is the carbon fiber at all flexible to circumvent this issue, or is it pretty rigid? I don't think I've ever cooked with it.

[fc*uk]

For pans to heat well on a ceramic surface they do have to be nearly perfect in shape, that is true. I've got a few slightly warped pans that I still do use than they have cold zones in them due to not actually resting on the heating element/creation of air between the heating element and pot.

Carbon fiber is fairly flexible. You could change the shape of the wok with your hands. At least I can slightly bend mine if I so try.

[Widdykats]

I made this two nights ago
Shell Steaks
Shell Steaks With Parsley Rub
Ingredients
• 2 pounds 1/2-inch to 3/4 inch thick shell steaks
• 4 large cloves garlic, cracked from skins
• 5 to 6 sprigs fresh rosemary, stripped
• 1/4 cup, a generous handful, flat-leaf parsley
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 rounded tablespoon steak seasoning or pepper (recommended: Montreal Seasoning for Steak by McCormick)
• Extra-virgin olive oil , for drizzling
I actually mashed ingredients and rubbed and let the two steaks sit with the rub covered in a pan. I let the steaks come up to room temperature..natch, then broiled med.
had a pear arugula salad and potatoes.
Prrrrrrrrrrrr

[fc*uk]

^^^^^ Yum!!!!!

[swingdjted]

Originally posted by Widdykats
I made this two nights ago
Shell Steaks
Shell Steaks With Parsley Rub
Ingredients
• 2 pounds 1/2-inch to 3/4 inch thick shell steaks
• 4 large cloves garlic, cracked from skins
• 5 to 6 sprigs fresh rosemary, stripped
• 1/4 cup, a generous handful, flat-leaf parsley
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 rounded tablespoon steak seasoning or pepper (recommended: Montreal Seasoning for Steak by McCormick)
• Extra-virgin olive oil , for drizzling
I actually mashed ingredients and rubbed and let the two steaks sit with the rub covered in a pan. I let the steaks come up to room temperature..natch, then broiled med.
had a pear arugula salad and potatoes.
Prrrrrrrrrrrr

Shells?
fresh Parsley?
Lemon worthy of zesting?

You coastal people think you're soooooooo special with your real food.
I have to wait until July before I can feast on such delicacies (I'll be in Cape May, NJ for a week or so with family).

[Widdykats]

^ I'll make some special salads and meet you near...
What?

[fc*uk]

Chicken and dumplings. Recipe upon request, if needed.

[fc*uk]

lamb sausage from Cumbraes in Toronto, ON. If ever in the area and you have the means to cook it, I would highly recommend getting some. Tasted just like it did in Greece five years ago ... When I go to visit my wife, we generally make a habit of stopping by that butcher to get some for dinner that night.