SC - cooking times

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Elaine Koogler wrote:
> 
> We found also that doing stir-fry is a very quick, good way of
> preparing a filling and period meal when camping.  We take the meat,
> cut into chunks and in a marinade and frozen in a double-baggie,
> vegies mostly cut up, except for those that turn brown, Chinese
> noodles, and seasonings with us so that all we have to do is the
> actual cooking.  Given the very definition of a stir-fry, this is a
> minimal amount of time...and you only have one pot to cook. Once the
> meat and veggies have been stir-fried, you add a little Chinese wine
> (or sake), some soy sauce, seasonings and let that stew a few
> minutes.  Then you add the noodles, and once they have reached the
> al-dente stage, you have a complete, one-dish meal.

My only cavil about that is the noodles cooked in just  a little bit of
liquid. This isn't because I'm period-persnickety (which I probably am)
but rather because I am pretty definitely Chinese-food persnickety.
However, I also know that when we camp we sometimes do and eat things we
might not, ordinarily. Actually, there's a lovely type of Cantonese
noodle that will respond to this type of low-liquid treatment. Actually,
two of them. One is a steamed egg or eggless noodle, form,ed into a sort
of patty, steamed till sort of puffy, then dried. These cook quickly in
a minimum of liquid without getting gummy. This, BTW, is very similar to
the processing treatment ramen noodles are subjected to before going in
the little plastic packet with the little enveloope of whatever that
stuff is... . The other is a very thin vermicelli made with eggs, and
very lightly fried in oil, just enough to seal the surface so they don't
stick together. These are a classic wonton-noodle-soup noodle, and also
an excellent choice for real chow mein and lo mein. These noodles come
frozen, but keep for several days in a cooler as long as they stay dry.
You could cook the vegetable and meat garnishes as described above, then
put them in your serving platter or in a bowl, then cook the noodles in
the same pan, either with a little oil as a sort of browned patty (you
add a little water or stock and cover after the noodles are brown,
rather like fried dumplings, and let the liquid cook away), or you can
stir-fry them with oil and  a little water added periodically until soft
and done. In either case, you then add the other stuff back again,
either on top if you've browned a noodle patty, or mixed in if you've
stir-fried the noodles soft.   
> 
> I have to admit that we are not period "persnickety" to the point that
> we cook over an open fire for something like this, but it certainly
> could be done that way.

Indeed it could. BTW, I believe I've mentioned before that I've seen
these spiffy wok furnaces that will presumably burn anything that will
fit inside (assuming it is combustible). Essentially it is a chimney,
with notches on top so that your wok can sit directly on top, but air
and perhaps smoke can vent out. It also has openings on the sides near
the bottom to let air in, and a big mouth in the side to stick kindling
and other fuel in. I've wanted one for years. The last time I saw one
was in a Thai grocery store on Mosco Street in NYC's Chinatown.

It occurs to me that various Eastern European and Balkan cultures use a
pasta that cooks very quickly, directly in your soup or stew. It is
generally made by making a very firm dough (with eggs, I think), and
then grating the dough on a large-holed grater. Your shavings are then
dried. The only name I can think of for this (there are several) is
tarhanya, which I think is a name used in both Hungary and Greece. This
is believed to be a very old nomadic staple, along with the
reconstituted proto-gulyas of meat slowly stewed until completely dry...

Adamantius  
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com