For fish cooking I find steaming/poaching the easiest
and most foolproof, and these are easily done in the
microwave. For browning I'd use a handheld torch, but
Rosemary's is the only kitchen I regularly cook in
that has one, and she's mislaid it.

About the only fresh/frozen fish we cook is salmon and most usually it

I'm okay with cooking fish, with some caveats.
One, it stinks up the neighborhood. Two, if you
use a method that requires flipping, you have to
be more dexterous than I am to be successful. My
friend Rosemary has a fish cage for grilling, but
she's giving it away to the church rummage sale,
because it hasn't been used since her husband
passed away, so that's probably 15 years.

is baked in the oven. As to the torch -- we have a butane lighter that
was sold as a cigar lighter, but also recommended to light the sawdust I
use for smoking. It claims to be usable for brulee, but we have never
tried that.

Rosemary's is between 3 and 4" tall and looks
kind of puny as a kitchen tool. It was given her
by her colleague Ken or his ex-girlfriend Nancy
or his current squeeze Jane, whose recipe below
doesn't use one, but I thought the peppers could
do with a quick roast before use (wear goggles
and a face mask).

I used to have an infrared paint stripper that
worked quite nicely, though slowly, as a broiler;
sadly, that is long, long gone.

Title: LIANG BAN ROU (TWICE-COOKED PORK)

A wonderful dish, if you're into salty and
fatty or have limited resources and need to
flavor up a large amount of rice.

ADD TO LARGE POT of boiling water: bacon or pork belly, scallions,
ginger, salt. Cover tightly; simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Remove meat with
slotted spoon and drain well. Discard liquid.

That may be necessary for a piece of pork
that has boar taint (male pig hormone taste),
but for normal modern pork, I'd suggest
blanching for a shorter time, either that or
saving the liquid for another use (many
Chinese soups are based on pork broth).

When bacon or pork belly has cooled, cut it into thin 1/4-inch slices.
Cut scallions into 3-inch pieces.

I'd prefer thicker slices, perhaps thick 1/4"
slices (that's sort of a joke). With thinner ones,
the impression is of bacon. Restaurants of the
lesser sort sometimes take supermarket bacon and
blanch it, as that's cheaper and easier - the
problem is the slices are generally too thin,
and also sometimes careless technique doesn't
get rid of all of the smoke flavor, which is
kind of okay but gives the diner a false
impression of what the dish should taste like.

Heat wok or large saute pan until hot. Add oil and pork and stir-fry
for 10 minutes. Drain any excess oil.
Add garlic and ginger; stir-fry 10 seconds. Add scallions and stir-fry
3 minutes. Add the other ingredients; stir-fry 3 minutes, mixing well.
Serve at once.
KEN HOM - PRODIGY GUEST CHEFS COOKBOOK ...downloaded from: Salata

The dish as customarily served in restaurants
over here also has sliced onions and red and/or
green peppers. Sometimes cabbage. Of course,
until recently these vegetables were cheaper
than pork. Now that the prices of peppers and
pork have equalized, things may change (perhaps
we will get twice-cooked cabbage and onions
with a little meat).

Mexican Style Pepper Steak
Serves: 4
Categories: main, beef, Mexicanish, Rhode Island, New York, hot

2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
1 md onion, halved and sliced
2 md tomatoes, chopped coarsely
1 md red bell pepper, julienned
4 jalapeno or habanero peppers
- sliced crosswise and seeded
1 c unsalted chicken broth or stock
1 lb steak, sliced 1/2 to 3/4" across the grain
8 bay leaves
2 Tb cilantro, chopped

In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium-high
heat, add onions, tomatoes, bell peppers and chilies,
season with salt and pepper, stirring until slightly
softened, about 2 min \.

Add the broth and bay leaves and bring to a simmer.
Season beef with salt and pepper and lay beef slices
over the top turning once, until it loses its pink
color, about 3 min, remove the meat to serving dish.

Simmer pan juices and veggies until sauce coats the
back of a spoon, and spoon over beef. Sprinkle with
cilantro and serve.

Jane Sigal, NY Times
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