Cooking Asian Food?

[kitkit]

Hi, I'm doing my thesis on kitchenware/serveware/cookware. Just wondering if you think of cooking Asian, what's in your head? What type of Asian food do u cook or you are familiar with?
Do you own a wok or ricecooker?

Singles out there, do you eat from your pot?

thank you so much... your comment will be really useful for my research

kitkit

 

[Ishbel]

I am not sure whether you mean 'Chinese' type Asian food or Indian/Pakistani types of food - I love and cook both!

I own two woks, my gas cooker has a specialised wok burner on the stove top and I like Chinese, Thai and Singaporean types of food.

I have a rice steamer, too.

 

[GB]

I have a rice cooker that I don't use. I have a non-stick wok, which really does not count as a wok. I would count it more as a wide mouthed large pan. someday I will buy myself a real wok (carbon steel), but right now I don't have the space or enough heat to put it to good use.

I like to make stir fry and I have just started making curries. I have also made sushi before. Actually that was the one and only time I used my rice cooker.

 

[jkath]

I don't make that much asian food, but when I do, it's fried rice with egg and veggies, egg drop soup, egg rolls with veggies and beef & broccoli.

 

[eric]

Hi, I'm doing my thesis on kitchenware/serveware/cookware.

Kitkit
What is your thesis about? The food or the cookware or all? Are you just concentrating on Asian food? The cookware and serveware by themselves, in Asian cooking, are really interesting. The Asians thought it was BARBARIC for normal people (we are talking Asian aristocracy here) to "mangle" food on their plate with a knife or poking holes in it with a fork or similar object. If you notice, there is very little muscle movement when using chopsticks. The diner, should do very little, when eating. It should all have been done by the cook (that's why you see everything cut up in Asian cooking).

Also, the WOK is an increadible cooking device. You can cook for a lot of people stacking the food up with steamers. So a large group of people, with very limited food, can use very limited amounts of heating material (coal, cow dung) and cook a lot of food. 1 pot, 1 source of heat, use all the heat that is rising to cooking many things. Very brilliant.

Spices, are also interesting cause many of the spices that we think are "Asian" today, did not grow natively there until after 1500's. The potato and hot pepper is one example. Cinammon, in the current Asian 5 SPICE, was originally from the middle east.

Keep us updated on your thesis.

 

[htc]

When I think Asian food, the first things that come to mind is Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Korean or Laos. I don't honestly think too much of Indian or Pakistani, not sure why though...And if I am thinking about eating at home, I think chop sticks, rice bowls, big ole table to eat family style.

Cooking: wok, steamer, rice cooker, big cooking chopsticks & bamboo cake thingy are items I couldn't live without.

 

[buckytom]

i have started to cook asian style stir fries over the past coupla years, since i discovered a korean supermarket near my house, and i recieved a steel wok.

my uncle passed away, and i was given the unenviable task of cleaning out his apartment in brooklyn. almost all of his possesions were spoken for (by greedy friends and neighbors who said that they were promised this and that), but i found a box in a closet which contained a steel wok. it was one of the original hand hammered woks "as sold on tv", by that hyperactive english dude with the white moustache, circa late 70's. it was still covered in some kind of grease or dried oil, i guess to keep it from rusting during shipping.
i took it home, took forever to scrub off the dried oil/grease, and then cured it by heating small sections at a time over a burner until the metal started to change colors, then wiped it with crisco and reheated. it took some time, but the wok eventually took on a blackish shellac which works as a non-stick surface.
with the korean supermarket, i am able to get fresh asian produce, like bok choy, bamboo shoots, and fresh water chestnut root for my wok. one trick i do to make my dishes taste better is when i order take out chinese food, i get a few dishes steamed with the sauce on the side. then i use the leftover sauce when i wok some veggies and meat, and everyone i've made it for always comments that my food tastes just like to the real stuff from chinese restaurants.

 

[jennyema]

I cook asian all the time. I have a rice cooker, which I dont use and a stainless stell wok which I use all the time. But we also cook asian food in regular stainless and/or nonstick skillets. Not eveything need be cooked in a wok. IMO, the ingredients and technique are often more important than the cooking vessle.

 

[buckytom]

the vessle with the pessle has the pellet with the poison, but the chassle from the castle has the brew that is true... (lol, anyone remember this?)

a stainless steel wok? hmmm, never saw one, i think. every wok i've ever seen was blackened. is it shiny on both sides jennyema?

 

[jennyema]

Oh no! My bad.

I meant CARBON STEEL. She is black and shiny!!

 

[GB]

I actually just saw a stainless steel wok today at Williams Sonoma. It was an All Clad. I didn't check the price, because I would never buy it. It looked pretty, but I will find myself a $20 carbon steel wok when I am ready.

 

[ironchef]

I actually just saw a stainless steel wok today at Williams Sonoma. It was an All Clad. I didn't check the price, because I would never buy it. It looked pretty, but I will find myself a $20 carbon steel wok when I am ready.

I have the All-Clad wok at home, and it's great especially for those who don't have a gas burner. All-Clad products heat and retain heat well, so it's a good way to go if you're looking for a flatbottomed wok to use on a electric stove.

I agree with jennyema however in the sense that it's the quality of the ingredients, the technique employed, and the skill of the cook that makes the biggest difference. The majority of the time, when I'm making a quick stir fry or fried rice, I use a saute pan, mainly because there's no wok handy.

Other than a wok, the only Asian type of cooking tools that I may use are steamer baskets, a "spider" when blanching or deep frying foods, and a bamboo sushi mat. I guess a santoku would count as well, and I do use some Asian inspired chinaware when plating, but that's about it.

Regarding ingredients, I use everything from Amaranthus (Chinese Spinach) to Yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit). I don't think there are any Asian ingredients that begin with the letter Z.

 

[Ruth]

the vessle with the pessle has the pellet with the poison, but the chassle from the castle has the brew that is true... (lol, anyone remember this?)

No! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!

I remember I showed that movie to a male friend of mine a while back and he walked around all day the next day in shock, shaking his head and muttering to himself "Angela Landsbury was hot?!?" I think I killed his *** life for the next few months!

 

[Ishbel]

Indian and Pakistani are probably the most common 'Asian' foods in the UK - in fact, they say that curry has overtaken roast beef as the national dish...

I have smaller balti dishes and find them invaluable - they go in the oven, can be used on the burners too...

'Indian' restaurants in the UK are generally staffed with Bangladeshi chefs - so that's why I mention Pakistani cuisine!

 

[buckytom]

No! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!

I remember I showed that movie to a male friend of mine a while back and he walked around all day the next day in shock, shaking his head and muttering to himself "Angela Landsbury was hot?!?" I think I killed his *** life for the next few months!

ROFLMAO!!!!!! ruth, that is too funny. poor guy...

 

[jennyema]

Indian and Pakistani are probably the most common 'Asian' foods in the UK - in fact, they say that curry has overtaken roast beef as the national dish...

I have smaller balti dishes and find them invaluable - they go in the oven, can be used on the burners too...

'Indian' restaurants in the UK are generally staffed with Bangladeshi chefs - so that's why I mention Pakistani cuisine!

The Indian food I had in London was incomparable!

 

[kleenex]

Woks, panko bread crumbs, soy sauce, NATTO,

 

[Zel]

I cook a lot of E. Indian food. My mother was raised in India, so we had a lot of it growing up. My 2 grown kids like it, too. Also do some Chinese and Filipino cooking. Have a grandson who lives in China and is a vegetarian. but I like some kind of meat in mine, so is a problem cooking when he visits. I have a rice cooker and use it a lot, as when I am cooking that is one less thing I need to watch.

 

[Lugaru]

Im glad you have a rice cooker... no quality is lost and it's just the most practical and lazy gadget I own, I use it on a nearly daily basis. Might I recomend at least one or two clay pots? Things stewed in them gain an amazing flavor, be it a good indian chick pea, greens and meat stew or some mexican "frijoles de olla". Im with these guy's on the wok, good knives, sushi mats and so on because they are all pretty cheap. Bamboo or pro steamers cost a tiny bit more but steamed veggies are really worth it.

For filipino cooking I recomend a nice paella pan (like a very flat and large cylinder) where you can stuff rice into with your seafoods and stock and let it do it's thing. Also a few tamarind packets really go a long way.

For chinese I cant live without my frying net.

 

[-DEADLY SUSHI-]

Singles out there, do you eat from your pot?

Sometimes.

ANd I do cook Asian food. No, I dont own a rice cooker.