July 2019 Recipes

Holy moly its already July! Hope you’re beating the heat and not melting like those of us living in the Southern US, but either way summer is one of the best times to fire up your wok.

This month we’re making:

• Shrimp and Pine Nuts Shang Palace, p. 114
• Mama’s Noodles with Mushrooms and Ham, p. 123

We’ve also got a great giveaway donated by one of our very own Wok Wednesdays members Jason Wong, owner of HCS Food Co. He’s donated TWO jars of delicious Chili Oil Sauce that will go to two lucky WW members at the end of the month.

Make sure to join the Facebook group to enter the contest, join in the discussion, and share your photos!

Thanksgiving Stir-Fry Sides – Charleen Chu

We held another giveaway on our Facebook page before Thanksgiving, and the winner was Wok Wendesdays member Charleen Chu, who served up three stir-fried sides with her turkey day feast! Check out these mouth-watering dishes! Congratulations Charleen, I hope you enjoy your Chinese cleaver from The Wok Shop.

 

Quinoa-Bacon-Squash stir-fried stuffing

 

The stuffing put back into their respective squash vessels – what a great serving idea!

 

Andouille Sausage, Roasted Turnip, Kale, and Brown Rice Stir-Fry

 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Butternut Squash, wok-tossed with Maple Syrup, Pecans, Cinnamon, and Dried Cranberries

 

Giveaway – Melissa’s Produce

It’s time for another great giveaway! Our friends at Melissa’s Produce have generously agreed to giveaway a package of assorted Asian products to TWO lucky Wok Wednesdays members. Melissa’s is fantastic online source for a huge variety of fruits, vegetables, spices, sauces, and more. It’s especially great for those Wok Wednesdays members who don’t leave within an easy commute to an Asian grocery store – they have an entire section of Asian vegetables full of varieties like Chinese Long Beans, Bitter Melon, and Enoki Mushrooms.

Here’s how to enter the giveaway – leave a comment on this post telling us about your favorite vegetable to stir-fry, and how you like to prepare it. Two winners will be chosen at random from the entries. The giveaway will run until 11:59pm EST Monday, August 3rd. Good luck!

Many thanks to the great folks at Melissa’s for helping us with this giveaway! Make sure you check out their website! You can also like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter (@MelissasProduce) and Instagram (melissasproduce).

Note – due to the complications of shipping fresh produce, the winners must reside within the continental United States.

WW Third Anniversary Giveaway!

A little over three years ago Wok Wednesdays took its very first steps. We had a couple dozen members and started off with making Stir-Fried Garlic Spinach from Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge. Three years later we’ve grown to more than 1200 members, have learned about dry-frying and velveting, and have cooked our way through more than half of the recipes in what has become our stir-fry bible!

In honor of our third year we have a very special giveaway to announce. Wok Wednesdays member extraodinaire Jennifer Thomas has sourced for us (directly from Shanghai) a hand-hammered carbon-steel pow wok and a traditional Chinese Kitchen God to keep watch over your stir-fries.

These woks have been handmade in Shanghai for centuries by a long line of expert wok craftsman. As modern manufacturing technology has advanced, the wok men have begun to disappear. Mr Cen is one of the few left who still practice this ancient craft, and his woks are legendary. He has been featured on CNN Travel and one of his woks is on the cover of Grace’s cookbook The Breath of a Wok. He can be a bit tricky to find, but Jennifer tracked him down and procured one of his beautiful woks just for us!

WW member Jennifer Thomas with Mr. Cen

Jennifer has also donated a Kitchen God as part of the giveaway. Keep your Kitchen God in your kitchen and ply him with sweet fruits and alcohol. Every year, on the Chinese New Year, he ascends to heaven to report on your doings, and if you’ve kept him happy (and a little drunk) he’ll only have good things to say! My Kitchen God lives above my stove and watches over all that I cook.

Here is what Jennifer has to say about these Kitchen Gods:

Inspired by Grace Young and her knowledge and history of the Kitchen God, we went in search of a statue for our home altar during our recent two-year stay in Hong Kong and China. This turned out to be a difficult task.  Honoring the Kitchen God is a dying practice, and there is very little memory left in current society. We managed to resurrect the statues from a ceramic factory in Guangzhou, China and had some made in a traditional version as well as a modern Chinese golden statue created.

Here is how you can win this very special Third Anniversary Giveaway:

1. Prepare and photograph your favorite recipe from Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge.
2. Post your photo to the Wok Wednesdays Facebook Group – make sure to include “#entry” in the description.

The giveaway will run through 11:59pm EST on June 10th, at which point a winner will be chosen from the entries. 

Many, many thanks to Jennifer Thomas for the incredibly generous donation for this giveaway. You can follow Jennifer’s stir-fry and travel adventures on her blog, Western Chopsticks. She  also has a limited number of the hand-hammered pow woks available for purchase. If you don’t win the giveaway and are interested in purchasing one, send her an e-mail at sjkthomas[at]msn[dot]com.

Thanks for cooking along with us at Wok Wednesdays, and good luck!

 

Giveaway – Chosen Foods Products

The Chinese New Year is rapidly approaching and we’re in a festive mood, so we’ve partnered with Chosen Foods for another fantastic Wok Wednesdays giveaway!

We all know that stir-frying means high heat, and high heat means you need a good oil, one with a high smokepoint that can take a little abuse. Avocado oil fits the bill, and is one of my favorite stir-fry oils. Chosen Foods brand avocado oils are my go-to for their consistency and quality.

Chosen Foods will give one lucky Wok Wednesdays member a package containing one bottle of avocado oil, one bottle of avocado oil spray, and two finishing sesame oils. All you have to do to enter is a leave a comment on this post answering the following question (inspired by WW superstar member Karen Kerr):

What are the three most important things you’ve learned about stir-frying since joining Wok Wednesdays?

The giveaway is open until 11:59pm EST on Thursday, February 19th – Chinese New Years.

Good luck, and keep on wokking!

Giveaway – Stir-fry Prep Tools

Next month marks the two-year anniversary of Wok Wednesdays and we’re going to celebrate in style. We’re kicking things off with a giveaway for a great set of prep tools – a kinpira peeler, a negi cutter, and Thai julienne peeler. All three tools will help you shred and slice your way to stir-fry perfection!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post answering the following question:

What is your favorite non-Asian stir-fry to make? OR What non-Asian stir-fry would you like to learn? (Example – chicken cacciatore or pasta carbonara)

You have until 11:59pm EST on Sunday, April 20th to enter. One entry per person and the winner will be chosen at random from the comments.

As always, many many thanks to the incredible Tane Chan of San Francisco’s The Wok Shop for providing the prizes for this giveaway.

Year of the Horse Giveaway!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Horse, and we’re celebrating with another giveaway!

When it comes to stir-frying the ingredient prep is just as important as there actual cooking, and one of the most important tools in food prep is a good cutting board. The folks at Bambu have kindly donated a 15 x 11 bamboo cutting board for our Year of the Horse Giveaway! They’re boards are handcrafted and sustainably harvested, and will last for years. I have two Bambu cutting boards and believe me when I say that they hold up against a lot of abuse!

To all enter all you have to do is leave a comment below answering the following question:

What has been your favorite dish you’ve made from “Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge”? OR, if you’ve just joined, what dish are you most looking forward to making?

We’ll accept entries throughout the whole 15 day celebration of the Year of the Horse, so you have until 11:59pm EST on February 14th to enter! A winner will be chosen at random from the responses, one response per person please.

Good luck, and happy Year of the Horse!

Giveaway – Szechuan Peppercorns

It’s the holiday season and we’re in a giving mood, so its time for another contest! The prize this time is a package of fresh, aromatic Szechuan peppercorns straight from Hong Kong! The giveaway is taking place on our Facebook group, so if you haven’t joined yet now is the perfect time!

Here is how you can win: just post a photo of your wok with your favorite stir-fry in it to the Wok Wednesdays Facebook group by December 27th. A winner will be chosen at random from the entries and that winner will receive one package of Szechuan peppercorns, just in time for our first January recipe!

Many thanks to Wok Wednesdays member Jennifer Thomas who procured the peppercorns from her home base in Hong Kong and brought them all the way to New York! You rock Jennifer!

LYL – Stir-Fried Cumin-Scented Beef with Vegetables (AND giveaway winner!)

This week’s recipe is one of my favorites and a great way to welcome fall. Do you love it as much as I do? As always, leave your comments and/or a link to your blog post below.

But more importantly…on to the winner of the Chinese vegetable cleaver! Everyone left some great tips (top ones included reading through the whole recipe first, always setting your mise-en-place, and keeping your wok well-seasoned) or shared what intimidated them (cooking with high heat seemed most popular), but in the end only one can win this fantastic knife. The winner, chosen at random, is….Melissa! Melissa said that she was new to stir-frying and was intimidated about cooking with shrimp. Well Melissa – you’re in luck, because with your new knife and a copy of Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge you’ll learn how to stir-fry shrimp like a pro!

Giveaway – Chinese Vegetable Cleaver

If there is one thing I’ve learned in my road to wok mastery it is that preparation is key. Without a proper “mise en place”, your stir-fry is bound to go awry. There are dozens of gadgets to help you cut, chop, julienne, and dice, but when you get down to brass tacks you find all you really need is a good knife. This Chinese vegetable cleaver is similar to what you’d find in kitchens across the world, with a wide flat blade perfect for scooping and scraping, a well-balance handle, and a razor-shop cutting edge, and…it could be YOURS!

Here’s what you need to do for a chance to win this cleaver – leave a comment on this post answering the following question:

What’s your favorite tip for making stir-frying easier? OR (if you’re new to Wok Wednesdays) What about stir-frying intimidates or confuses you the most?

Many, many, MANY thanks to Wok Wednesdays member Jennifer Thomas for her generous donation of this cleaver. Jennifer picked it up at Hong Kong’s famous cutlery store Chan Chi Kee. Jennifer, you rock!

The giveaway will run until 11:59pm Monday, September 30th. One winner will be chosen from the comments.

– Matt