Woka Woka Woka

I'm doing a stiry fry right now in a heavy All-Clad sautee pan because we have no true wok.  I've never done wok before anyhow so it does not make a big difference. The carrots and onions are already soggy and caramelized.  Somehow the rice noodles got lost in translation - literally.  Immersing noodles in "hot water" for four minutes actually meant boiling water.  I thought something wasn't right about that.

Bex and I did manage to make it to the Asian grocer, finally, at the corner of Bob Wallace and Jordan Lane. We picked up all the goods that you can't find at your local Public or Kroger: oyster sauce, miso, hoison, etc. And then I decided, on a whim, to pick up a pack of stringy rice noodles to make something "Vietnamesish."  You probably have not heard of that word before because you probably know how to cook real Vietnamese food, or any Asian food.  Well this is something that is tangentially "Vietnamesish."  But so far it smells pretty delicious with its blend of oyster, chili and soy sauces along with some stir-fried shiitakes, carrots, yellow onions and chopped chicken breasts from Star Market (best meat in town anyone?).

Ahhh. The noodles are in true boiling water now.

On Sunday I resorted to some burger recipes in a set of excellent cookbooks I bought from Costco.  Don't you just love Costco?  They are from the America's Test Kitchen, a brand that was first introduced to me by my friend Dean Bowden, another amateur cooking extraordinaire.  I like ATK because it appeals to the emboldened beginner as well as the casual and pragmatic enthusiast.  Its not like buying a Mario Batali book and never wondering where to begin or where to get the ingredients.  And its not like buying a simple country cookbook in plastic binder from a souvenir shop.  What is the best brand of ketchup to buy?  How do you properly chop an onion?  How to keep burgers from fattening into balls?  There are all sorts of neat tips in ATK.  As for the "best of?"  They poll their students, and the ingredients are widely available.  There is nothing esoteric called for.

Anyhow, I cooked two sets of burgers from my ATK cookbook: a bourbon and dijon burger with chives, and a chipotle burger with chopped scallions.  I am learning that you must always keep scallions on hand.  I would have tossed some into tonight's dish if I had some, but Becky used the rest in a delicious fried rice dish she made last night.  The burgers were incredible. What I learned from ATK is that I can make my burgers thicker than I normally do by pressing a quarter inch depression into the center of the patty.  I also turned the grill (gas) up extremely high until the temperature read around 550... something I cannot do (controllably) on a charcoal grill.  The burgers came off perfect: beautiful sear marks and a delicious medium rare center!  We also grilled some Grow Alabama corn and we grilled some heads of romaine lettuce and splashed them with balsamic and parmesan (something we picked up from the Cotton Row restaurant).

Anyhow, I finished up the noodles.  Everything was looking good up until I tossed them into the sautee pan.  There were too many noodles!  And they were overcooked.  The noodles became soggy and stuck together. Everything tastes reasonably good, but the noodles were a big failure.  It was worth a try.  I'll get it better next time.