victoriousI suspect a few of the burn marks I currently sport may lead to mild permanent scarring. It's something I pretty much expected when I decided to cook with an actual wok; I've gotten enough grease marks from using a skillet, so being scalded doesn't even bother me that much anymore, which is kind of disturbing. It's nothing too severe, but it'll sting for a few days.
I used what I learned the other two times I tried to make General Tso's Chicken: About.com's recipe is good except it needs over twice as much sugar to actually taste right, and I still don't keep any alcohol so I had to make a completely inappropriate substitution (of more chicken broth) for the specified wine. It worked anyway- in my opinion, and that of Rakeela, and that of
jmac32here, our dinner guest for the evening.In two hours, from scratch, I cooked something nontrivial and it came out restaurant-quality. Not cheap fast-food-Chinese restaurant quality, good high-end sit-down Chinese restaurant quality.
I rule.
You _do_ rule, my friend. Thanks for having me over.
A couple things: on the oil--I store my deep-fry oil in the fridge, keeps it MUCH longer. That way, you can also keep them separate--savory vs. sweet (I've got a couple timbale irons somewhere...).
Also, chicken broth is a very common substitution for white wine in savory dishes. :) You just need to watch that it's not too salty, if it's large quantities. But a small bit, it'll be fine... so I'm totally not surprised it turned out fine... You can also try the alcohol free version if you like--you can then freeze the leftover wine--freeze as ice cubes so you can just grab a bit (with wine you can freeze but it never gets past the "slushee" stage, so it's scoopable). I think, depending on the dish, you could also try apple cider or grape juice...
Sounds yummy. I hope to try some of your General Tso's sometime!!! And really, I'll cook... if things get back to more "normal" for me, I even make sourdough bread from scratch.
Oh and I ALMOST got the screen doors finished today--and it took a LOT more fooling around--needed to cut boards to fit under the sill plates, and I will need to carve a groove for the locking mechanism for the fixed door, as the door/frame/house is somewhat crooked, and therefore the track is going out too far when I try to fix it in place. But it's ALMOST done--I need daylight at a minimum to finish that last little bit. And with the exception of maybe this little eyeballing fix, the rest really didn't need a second person. :) But boy, I got to use a bunch o' tools.
Cheers!
It's a substitution I know well, which is why I made it- especially since the recipe already called for chicken broth. It was a 2-teaspoon substitution, so I don't think it would've done massive damage. I have no alcohol, even just for cooking, partially because I have no idea how to handle it; I was raised in a household with none at all, with a family chef (my mother) raised in a household that had no alcohol at all. So I really have nothing to learn from. In this case, though, chicken broth worked out great.
I'll have to cook it for you some time! Hopefully with less in the way of personal injury and, as a result, less in the way of obscene language. (Although I cursed more at the designer of the cable layout of my television when setting up an input switcher this evening.) I understand how scheduling gets- it didn't work out last time, but I'll get to try your cooking eventually; I suspect I've got quite a bit I could learn from you in culinary ways!
Glad the screen doors are going okay for you, despite the limited assistance I could provide- glad to hear it was at least enough. Have any of your cats peed all over the couch again yet?
Woo and likewise Hoo!