Chinese WOK cooking

 

I’ve been using a WOK for twenty years now, ever since I retired into a bachelor life in Monte Rio.  Ten years ago, I bought a second 0ne, exactly the same (at Whole Foods).  This allowed me to WOK-cook two nights in a row without having to clean up [bachelor mode].

I’ve focused more, in recent years, on home-grown vegetables and herbs, and followers of me know that I have a totally organic garden.  So, now with the Pandemic keeping me away from restaurants, I often fall back on my WOK skills to create an entertaining meal quickly, and from items on hand.

Two things came together tonight, prompting me to write this discourse.  I had a friend stopping by downstairs to do their laundry.  She complained about pains and ill health, after switching from a meat-based diet to a Vegan one.  I offered to share my planned dinner of tiny lamb chops [see Safeway-1]

with a massive 

stir-fry vegetable

 side [see Safeway-2]. 

I use a big scoop

 of Classico Basil Pesto, 

a lot of fresh ground pepper, copious splashes of Trecini Merlot, and a splash of Knudsen’s “Very Veggie”. 

While my friend was folding her laundry, I was turning the lamb, et al, in the WOK.  I had started earlier with some garden beets, which were now candied with red wine.  The meal came out perfectly, the lamb rare, tender, and delicious; each of the vegetables were amazingly good, fresh and chewy.

I drove my friend and her dry laundry home, and on my way back, listening to KQED on the radio, I heard

This week we sit down with Grace Young, one of the greatest culinary historians of Chinese American food to talk about her career and her mission to save Chinese restaurants in the age of Covid.

She explained wok hei.

Wok hei translated into English means 'wok thermal radiation' or, metaphorically, the 'breath of the wok'. ... In fact, creating wok hei is so tricky to get right that often it is used as a measure of a Chinese chef's skill, and these chefs often spend years trying to perfect the art.

I experienced wok hei tonight in that informally brought together meal.  It was indescribably perfect.