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3 Non-Traditional Ways to Prepare Your Holiday Turkey
Deep-Fryed Turkey
3 gallons peanut oil for frying, or as needed
1 (12 pound) whole turkey, neck and giblets removed
1/4 cup Creole seasoning
1 white onion
In a large stockpot or turkey fryer, heat oil to 400 degrees F.
Be sure to leave...
Garlic Lemon Chicken, a healthy break during the holiday season
Garlic Lemon Chicken is a wonderful dish during the Holliday season. Christmas and Thanksgiving often mean spending a lot of time in the kitchen; this tasteful but easy dish is great for those other days during this cozy family season.
Your...
Kitchen Pantry
A well stocked kitchen pantry is a cook's secret weapon.
Prepare your next dinner with style and never run out of ingredients, herbs, spices, extracts, sauces, and all kinds of foodstuff.
Doing any job is easier when you have the right tools on...
The Inn At Kristofer's In Sister Bay Wisconsin Offers A Great Dining Experience
Door County, Wisconsin is a popular destination for tens of
thousands of travelers every year. Small villages with
populations of less than 500 people swell to large crowds during
the summer weekends as people head to Door County for some...
The Ultimate Peanut Butter Sandwich: Chunky Peanut Butter Twisters
1/2 cup Smooth peanut butter 125 mL
4 tbsp Maple syrup 60 mL
2 tbsp Each dried figs, dried apricots, 25 mL dried cranberries, chopped finely in food processor
1/4 cup Shredded sweetened coconut 50 mL
1/8 tsp Ground cinnamon 0.5 mL
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Wok this Way! (Part 1 of 5)
Introduction
Woks have been synonymous with Chinese cooking since the emergence of Chinese cuisine. They have been used for some 3000 years in China for a variety of cooking methods, including stir frying, boiling, and steaming. A wok is a large, thin-walled, round-bottomed, metal cooking pan, and shaped like a shallow bowl with handles. The addition of a wooden rack and cover transforms the wok into a steamer. Although woks come in sizes ranging from 10 to 32 inches in diameter, a wok that's 11 to 14 inches should suffice for use in a household kitchen.
With the increasing popularity of Chinese cuisine, there are now many “Westernized” versions of the wok. There is the addition of a metal ring, which is set on top of a gas or electric stove to hold the wok to prevent tipping. Some have a small flat bottom instead of the traditional round bottom, for the same reason. The new versions will get the job done, but the "traditonal" large round-bottomed woks are still, by far, the preferred wok of choice.
Since the essence of Chinese cuisine is to achieve food tenderness through quick cooking to retain the natural taste, flavor, and color of the ingredients, the wok's ingenious unique design makes it a perfect fit
in Chinese cooking. Its bottom concentrates heat to achieve 2 objectives: 1) to direct the heat at the food, while sealing in the flavors and allowing food to be cooked evenly, and 2) to allow cooking food quickly with very little oil. The stir fry cooking technique shifts food around the wok quickly, coating it with oil during cooking, as opposed to using a flat frying pan where a lot more oil is required. Consequently, cooking with a wok is essential for a healthy diet. It also has curved sides to keep in food that is being tossed and flipped during stir frying. Food, when cooked, may be moved up the sloping side of the wok to stay warm without cooking further, while other food is cooked at the bottom. It is also ideal for deep frying as it requires less oil than any other kitchen cookware to do the job.
Next, in Part 2 of Wok this way!, we'll go over selecting a wok.
About the Author
Helen Fan grew up in a family that has owned various Asian restaurants all over North America, from Vancouver (Canada), Houston (Texas), Decatur (Illinois), to Chicago (Illinois). She, and the rest of the Fan family are now sharing their decades of knowledge on the art of Chinese cuisine at http://www.ChineseHomeCooking.Com
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