Enjoying My Woks More

Yes, I would have to say... since this "Shelter In Place" order from our Governor, I have been enjoying using my woks a lot more!

While I do enjoy cooking on my cast iron skillets, the wok seems more versatile to me.  Cooking up fried rice (seems I've been doing this at least every other day or more), frying up chicken or egg rolls, browning beef for beef stew or cooking up blue crabs... it works for everything it seems!

The wok heats up very quickly too whether it is on the outside burner or on the stove.  I'm very glad we have a Samsung stove that has an attachment that allows round bottom woks to be used easily!

Does it stick?  Nope.  At first, my rice sticked to the wok.  But after using it so much, the seasoning is building up on the small wok making it virtually non-stick.  Sure, if food is left for a while without stirring or not enough oil placed in the wok, it will stick.  But I'm not talking putting so much oil that it is essentially frying your food.  Just a very small amount in the wok keeps most food from sticking.

Also, when I put oil in the wok, I don't just drizzle it in the middle.  I drip it around the pan's sides so that it eventually just lands in the middle.  This way, the wok has an even distribution of oil on its surface and I don't need to hold the handle and try moving the oil around by rotating the wok.  It's so much easier than putting oil on a skillet!

Looking forward to the next cook with my woks!

America's Test Kitchen Recipe For Chinese Char Siu Pork

I decided to try making Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork) using America's Test Kitchen's recipe as seen on this video: https://youtu.be/eRWvWV0UtJI

Turned out pretty good!  If you follow it as I've described here, it works great.  I changed their recipe by moving the oven to 350 instead of 300 degrees though.

Here's the recipe:

America’s Test Kitchen Char Siu

Marinade:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup dry sherry (I used Rice Wine)

6 TBSP Hoisan Sauce

2 TBSP Grated Ginger

1 TBSP Sesame Oil

1 TSP Chinese Five Spice

1/4 TSP White Ground Pepper

Reserve 1/2 cup of marinade for making a glaze

To make the glaze:

Add 1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup Ketchup

Medium heat for 5 minutes to make glaze

Marinate meat for at least 30 mins to 4 hours in a big bag (I did 24 hours)

To cook, use a rack

Line pan with aluminum foil and spray the rack

Put 1/4 cup of water in pan

Cover with foil

Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees (I did it at 350 degrees) and put foil on top of the pan

Take off foil after 20 minutes and then continue cooking for the remaining 40 minutes.

Remove pan after the one hour and turn on broiler.

Put the meat back in broiler now for 7 minutes to dry out the meat a bit.

Take out meat and then glaze and broil again for 5 minutes.  Repeat for the second side for 5 minutes.
Keep an eye on this process with the broiler as it can burn fast at this point due to the sugar in the honey.

Rest for 10 minutes at least

Instant Pot Beef Stew While Sheltering In Place

I've made Instant Pot Beef Stew before, but this time it was quicker because I knew what to do.

I used beef that was precut for stewing purchased from Costco.  It is a cheaper cut, but it doesn't matter since the pressure cooking tenderizes the meat really well anyway.  The beef was first browned in a 14" wok on the stove rather than using the sauté option on the Instant Pot since there was so much meat.  It's just easier that way.

I added a large can of diced tomatoes, celery, baby carrots and potatoes (most were wrapped in foil before placing in the Instant Pot so that they would not become too mushy).  Seasoning included salt, pepper, parsley flakes, 3 bay leaves.

I set the Instant Pot to Pressure Cook and set the timer for 30 minutes.  After pressure was reached, the 30 minute countdown happens.  After it was done, I allowed it to sit in the pot for another 12 minutes under pressure before doing a quick release.

Rice was cooked in a rice cooker.

Easy and fast, it tasted great. The meat was so tender as well!

Fried Rice During The Shelter In Place Order From The Governor

It seems Fried Rice has been our staple since the order from the Governor to shelter in place.  Almost every other day, I've been making it for lunch.

For the first several batches, I had been using rice that was made on the same day and so it tended to be too sticky.  I learned that making the rice a couple of hours in advance and using less water than I usually do worked better.

I cooked up about 4 scrambled eggs and just before it totally firms up, I tossed in the rice. After several hours of just sitting around in the rice cooker, the rice was cooled down and hardened up enough to use. 

I tossed the rice in with the eggs and cooked it up until the rice seemed to be a bit drier than it was when it was in the egg slurry.  I then added soy sauce, salt (not too much), chicken bullion powder (small amount) and kept cooking the rice until it was drier again. I also added a small amount of white ground pepper.  I tossed in char siu pork (already precooked and cut up) and tossed in mixed frozen vegetables. When it was almost all done, I put in just a few drops of sesame oil. A few drops goes a long way with sesame oil. You just want a HINT of the flavor here. Doing sesame oil too early isn't good. Under heat, you lose its flavor. That's the one ingredient that has to be at the last moment.

My wife said I'm getting better at making fried rice.  I guess doing it over and over pays off!  By the way, I've enjoyed using my small 14" wok lately.  Having a removable ring made specifically for the Samsung stove is really handy!  Still, I prefer cooking outside on the big propane burner with my huge 22" wok, but it's been too cold outside lately!

Instant Pot Chicken Soup and Rice During The Shelter In Place Order

Being stuck at home amidst the "Shelter In Place" (stay at home) order in Illinois, my wife said, "Let's make Instant Pot Chicken Soup with Rice"!  So that's what we did!

We put chicken breasts cut into squares and potatoes into the pot and seasoned it with salt, pepper, oregano and other seasoning.  The potatoes were placed in aluminum foil inside the Instant Pot to keep it from falling apart during the pressure cooking and then added into the soup after the pot was done cooking  I cooked the soup using the program button labeled "Stew" for about 35 minutes after the pot hit pressure and then manually released the pressure after 5 minutes.  After removing the aluminum foil for the potatoes, I added frozen peas, two cans of corn, two cans of mushrooms and one can of kidney beans along with corn starch to thicken the soup a bit.  The soup was then heated up again with the Saute button until it came to a boil.

Scooping the soup over some rice made it complete.  Tasted great!

Two Pork Butts For Pulled Pork During The Covid-19 Coronavirus Order To Stay At Home

 

 

While it was tough walking with a cane to set up my 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker, it felt good to get out and finally do some smoking!

I have 13 lbs of pork butt on the smoker to make pulled pork to last us for a while. I went to Costco today at 8 AM for the early shopping reserved for those 60 years old and / or disabled (I qualified for both) and purchased the meat. Wow, the line to get in was out the door and all the way down as far as you can go! The Costco building is the farthest building you can see in the photo.

I rode my own mobility scooter this time because it moves a LOT faster than Costco's scooters. Besides, I figured there might be some in this group of people who might need it and my own scooter is always in the trunk of my car.

It was the first time I wore an N95 mask (it fogs up your glasses when you try to breathe!) and I wore disposable gloves. I got in quickly as the line to get in moved fast and I was one of the first to get out too in the checkout line (no waiting) since I was zipping by everyone faster than they can walk and I knew exactly what I needed to buy.

The pork butt on the top grate finished in 6.5 hours... cooking mostly at 220 degrees and then ramping up the temp to 300 degrees at the tail end. Wrapped at about 3 hours into the cook. Placed in an aluminum pan with some apple juice for moisture. The pork butt in the middle grate was moved up to the top grate. I find that middle grate meats always cook slower. It took about 9 hours to finish cooking.

Pizza From A Kit

My wife doesn't like cheese, so we made only my side of the pizza with cheese!  The kit includes the crust and sauce only.  We had to add our own cheese and pepperoni.

She did not like this pizza because she said the dough tasted too "yeasty".  She also thought the pepperoni that was purchased had some kind of after-taste to it.  For me, I was fine with all of it.

Banana / Chocolate Chip Bread

My wife and I are stuck inside as we go through the 2020 Covid-19 Coronavirus "Stay At Home" order by the Governor of Illinois.  So, to make things more tolerable, she made Banana / Chocolate Chip Bread!  Tastes great!

McAlister's Deli

My wife and I went out to McAllister's Deli for Valentine's Day dinner.

She had the Savanah Chopped Salad with Fat Free Raspberry Pecan Vinaigrette Dressing and I had the Southwest Chicken and Avocado Salad with Honey Mustard dressing.

I really liked my salad (I took out the red onions) but needed more dressing, so I took some of hers.  She never finishes her dressing anyway.  Her dressing was very good!

This is the second time I've been to McAlister's Deli and I ordered the same salad.  My wife goes there more often and usually gets the same salad as well.  A coupon deal got us free soft drinks (or flavored ice tea).  Overall, we think these salad might actually be a better deal than the all you can eat salads at Jason's Deli since you get protein (Chicken) with the salads.  Recommended!

One Year Old Birthday Party at Maggiano's - Schaumburg, IL

I attended my nephew's daughter's one year old birthday party yesterday at Maggiano's Little Italy in Schaumburg.

The photos of the food are posted above.

What's nice at Maggiano's for these types of events is that they will bring out more food for you if you request it.  So of course, our table kept requesting it!

I think my favorite was the Pork Loin and Mashed Potatoes, although all of it was great.  I had plenty of food to eat and even brought home the extra salad since several of my table-mates did not eat the salad.  Why let it go to waste?  Besides, I liked it.  Avocados, goat cheese (I believe), and more... what's not to like?

The calamari is always a favorite and the fried zucchini (not pictured) was nice as well.  Several people asked for more fried zucchini without the added parmesan cheese sprinkled on it.  Everything here seems to have cheese, but that's common at Italian restaurants.  But if you don't like cheese, it's hard to like the offerings here.  Luckily for me, I like cheese!

The Profiteroles (cream puffs) with ice cream was good too!  Nice dessert.  Fruit was also there for those not into cream puffs.

Overall, it was both a nice party and great food.  Recommended!