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Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star Style

December 7, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh 2 Comments

The three elements to delicious food are flavor, texture, color in that order and this Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star style is the perfect dish! Impress your friends with this dish…

TECHNIQUE IS KEY…
So, I wanted to do a festive dish for the holidays and of course squash came to mind. I love the orange color of the squash and lends itself to so many different ways of preparing it. I immediately surf the net for how to make a stuffed squash, my go to site is The Kitchn, I love this site, it’s all about technique.
If you’ve read my blogs, you’ll know I don’t follow, use or teach recipes. Cooking for me has always been about creating a dish from scratch and building on those three elements I mentioned. Recipes are good for inspiration, possibly ingredient combinations and new flavors. Technique for me is the most important element to cooking.
SHAPE YOUR BRAIN TO COOK…
Last night as I was cooking, I was listening to a TED Talk by Dr. Lara Boyd, her talk solidified my philosophy totally! She described how neuroplasticity gives you the power to shape the brain you want! This means, the more you do something, the easier it becomes and you’re exercising your brain. I found this so fascinating because it’s what I’ve been promoting all these years. If you keep training your brain to create a dish, you’d be amazed what dishes you come up with. It’s also a lot of fun because you come up with something new every time, no repeats.
TIPS FOR ROASTING SQUASH…
I find out you have to roast the squash first BEFORE you put your stuffing in. I wanted my stuffing to still have crunchiness and colors, so naturally, stir frying them is the answer! I find when you roast vegetables, the colors are more grey and dull. Do you see where I’m going with this? Don’t just follow a recipe blind and do everything they say.
A good example of this is most Chinese recipes will ask you to make a ‘flurry’, a mix of cornstarch and water to give your dish a nice glaze but I find it’s just one extra step, so I include the cornstarch when I make sauce. Ta Da, eliminated a step.
USE RIGHT CHEESE…
A mistake I made was using hard goat cheese. My husband uses goat cheese in our omelets and it melts beautifully but it didn’t melt as well in this dish. I suspect the heat wasn’t hot enough, only 350. Use cheese like cheddar, Parmesan or any sharp cheese.
VERSATILE DISH…
You can make it totally vegetarian or even vegan and leave out the cheese. It’s a great side dish to go with anything! Add meat to it and you’ve got a one dish meal. If served as a main, you will need a half per person.
You can use whatever vegetables you have lying around but try and get a contrasting color in there to make it pop. Even leftover roast potatoes or rice.
I loved putting together the stuffing for this dish because I had many ingredients I thought would be perfect.
celery for color and texture
chestnuts for festive component
mushrooms for flavor
cooked quinoa for texture, protein and good for you
multi colored bell peppers for color
cilantro for color and flavor

HERE’S HOW TO DO THIS STUFFED SQUASH…
1. Cut squash in half, swish a little olive oil, salt and pepper on the inside. Place on baking tray and roast at 350 for 45 mins. – 1 hour depending on how big your squash is. Give a little fork test to see if it’s soft enough.
2. Chop all your vegetables and leave on chopping board. Grate your cheddar cheese ready
3. Stir fry chopped vegetables with usual, grape seed oil, garlic and ginger, dash of tamari and sherry, I added Flavor God’s dry rub, Everything Seasoning, you can add dried herbs but not both, too much.

4. Remove squash and crank up to 425. Fill squash with chopped stir fried vegetables, add cheese on top and return to oven. Squash is ready when cheese has melted and smells amazing in there! You’re welcome.

I found half was way too much to eat in one dinner, so you might want to even only have a quarter of it. I cheated and grilled some bacon wrapped scallops to go with it, yummy!
There you have it, looks colorful and festive! Stuffed Squash Good a la Wok Star Style! It’s a great dish to serve as a side or a main when you have guests for dinner.
Here are some other festive dishes for the Holidays to try…
Wok Charred Brussels Sprouts
Ginger Honey Brussels Sprouts
Grilled Duck with Stir Fried Brussels Sprouts

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

WokStar-StuffedSquash-redplate — Stuffed Squash a la Wok Star Style!

How to Tame a Smoky Wok

June 7, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

Six reasons why your cast iron wok gets smoky and how to tame it! I’m only referring to the lightweight cast iron woks that folks have purchased from me, so you’ll know what to do. No cause for alarm.
Here are possible reasons why smoking can happen…
1. fermented ingredients like tamari when it touches the wok and caramelizes
2. anything that’s sweet like onions can caramelize
3. any food particles that are stuck to your wok if not washed properly
4. if you use oil that can’t handle high smoke point (another post to discuss oils) but coconut oil is one that is supposed to handle high heat but can get smoky, turn it down a bit!
5. if you use a wok whose material is not a good conductor of heat
6. if you use teflon (NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER use on high heat! I’ll post something about this horrible material in another post!)

CoconutOil-castironwok — I only took this photo to show what a smoky wok looks like. That’s coconut oil which is supposed to handle high heat but I would turn down your heat a bit!

When nos.1-3 happens, they caramelize and or harden and forms a crust. If you don’t scrub off properly and cook with the crust stuck to your wok, it will make your wok smoky and it will form a thicker and thicker crust. This makes it difficult for the heat to reach your food. So, please scrub off any hardened crusts completely. Dry off with paper towels and then just zing on your stove on medium heat to dry off completely.
Check out my short 2:34 minute video that shows you exactly how to clean the crust and restore your cast iron wok! It’s easy and takes a few minutes. Please do it so you’ll have a superb experience when cooking.
For no.4) I’ll be posting oils good for high heat cooking and their temperature chart soon.
I hope this helps, let me know in comments if you have any questions, had other smoky incidents or zing me an email.

Tips For Using Wok on a Gas Stove

December 3, 2014 By Eleanor Hoh 8 Comments

You want SIZZLE not FIZZLE! I think I coined a new phrase.

A gas stove is ESSENTIAL for wok cooking because you need HIGH HEAT!
Electric stoves do NOT generate enough heat and because the round bottom cast iron wok shape only gets a small contact area, it won’t work!
However, now there’s an induction wok stove for those who are not able to use gas in their building!

Wok Stars, it’s a no brainer to use your wok on a gas stove, right? Well, I’ve got 3 tips below to help you succeed even more if you’ve got a residential gas stove and not my Iwatani portable butane gas stove which fits PERFECTLY with my 15″ cast iron wok.

Wok Stars, if you’re frustrated with your gas heat output, please take 2 photos like the ones below so I can help you figure it out!
1) take a photo from the front with your wok sitting on the gas burner you currently use
2) take a photo of your whole gas stove from above without wok so I can see the sizes of your burners and what kind of grid you have.

So, I asked two Wok Stars, Mary and Carla to take photos of their gas burners to illustrate their specific problems with their heat output and grid situation and below are my findings! Oh, notice how their cast iron woks have beautiful patina!

Mary's GE gas stove's grate allows her to set wok directly on the grate so heat is closer which is great! However, the bigger burner's flames are again wide apart and the smaller burner doesn't give out enough BTU and she's experiencing some soupiness in the bottom of her wok! So, Mary and many others end up buying my Iwatani portable butane gas stove. — Mary’s GE gas stove’s grate allows her to set wok directly on the grate so heat is closer which is great! However, the smaller burner doesn’t give out enough BTU and she’s experiencing some soupiness in the bottom of her wok!

This higher btu burner is wider so heat is not focused at base of Mary's wok where she needs it! — This higher btu burner is wider so heat is not focused at base of Mary’s wok where she needs it!

Viking Gas Stove with horizontal grate. Notice the middle burner is biggest with left burners at 12,000 btu and right burners at — Here’s Carla’s Viking Gas Stove with horizontal grate. Notice the middle burner is biggest with left front burner at 12,000 btu and right front burner at 6.000 btu.

This wok ring is too deep so Carla's wok is further away from the heat. To remedy this, I've suggested getting a shallower ring or a Viking wok attachment. — This wok ring is too deep so Carla’s wok is further away from the heat. To remedy this, I’ve suggested getting a shallower ring or a Viking wok attachment.

Lightweight, thin walled, round bottom cast iron wok sits on wok ring on top of Viking gas stove with horizontal iron grate. — Here’s Carla’s wok which sits on a wok ring on top of Viking gas stove with horizontal iron grate. We tried it without the grate but then the ring is not deep enough to balance the wok!

Viking manual with BTU output for burners. Carla was using the middle biggest burner which everyone automatically assumes bigger is better. However, the flames are leaping up sides of the wok and not focused at base where it's needed most! So, I always suggest using a smaller burner! However, Carla's right front is only 6,000 till Carla sent me manual and I see left front is 12,000! Twice as powerful than the left front burner, so that's what Carla should use! — Viking manual with BTU output for burners. Carla was using the middle biggest burner which everyone automatically assumes bigger is better. However, the flames are leaping up sides of the wok and not focused at base where it’s needed most! So, I suggest using a smaller burner! However, Carla’s right front burner is only 6,000 and I see left front is 12,000! Twice as powerful than the left front burner, so that’s what Carla should use!

COOKING TIPS FOR GAS STOVE OWNERS:
Residential gas stoves are typically 7,000 to 10,000 btu which is still a bit low for wok cooking.
If you have an electric flat glass cooktop or coil, you won’t be successful. I’ve laid out all the reasons why here.
1) USE SMALLER BURNER
You may get better results using a smaller (lower btu) burner on your stove because the higher btu burners have the gas jets spaced wider apart so the heat is on the sides of the wok and not focused at the bottom where you need the heat most.
2) SET WOK DIRECTLY ON GRID
You can set your wok directly on the metal grid of your gas stove. Depending on the type of grid, the wok may wobble a bit. That’s OK because when you stir fry you should be using your left hand in the wok mitt to steady the wok (lefties reverse it).
If the wobble bothers you, check with your stove manufacturer for a “wok attachment” especially designed to handle the wok.
Another alternative is to buy an inexpensive wok ring from your Asian market but it makes your wok further away from the flame. Best is to flip the ring so the wider diameter is at the top and the smaller at the bottom, this allows your wok to sit closer to the heat.
3) HIGH HEAT FOR OPTIMUM RESULTS
Remember, high heat is ESSENTIAL so the closer you are to the heat, the more success you will have with stir frying.

This Iwatani, 12,000 BTU portable gas burner is PERFECT for the 15 1/2 " cast iron wok. The heat is focused at the base where it's needed most. I leave it sitting on top of my electric coil burner all the time so it's convenient so I end up using it for cooking most everything. This helps to build patina faster. — This Iwatani, 12,000 BTU portable gas burner is PERFECT for the 15 1/2 ” cast iron wok. The heat is focused at the base where it’s needed most. I leave it sitting on top of my electric coil burner all the time so it’s convenient and I end up using it for cooking most everything. This helps to build patina faster.

If you’re like Mary and tried all the above and still getting soupy veggies and not enough sear with your meats, a simple solution is to purchase my Iwatani portable gas stove which is 12,000 btu! Yes, Mary is treating herself to one, once you get spoiled with this high heat, you cannot go back to using mediocre heat!
The stove comes in a handy briefcase so you’re completely mobile and can cook outdoors or take it camping, boating or visit friends to show off your wok skills! Click here for more details or to order your Iwatani Stove!

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