Right on schedule, Kenji comes through. Click for the recipe, stay for (a) the discussion of woks in home kitchens vs restaurants (higher powered burners) and (b) images of Kenji tossing the food with one hand while operating a blow torch with the other with a gopro attached to the wok.
A bar here used to make this recipe which was copied from Joe Jost bar in CA. They are no longer open but once I found the receipe I make them a few times a year.
So now I need a wok AND a blow torch? Damn
i will pay infinite money for a kenji show with Babish editing/production. this gopro shit is torture.
and if we’re on that continent, anyone has a tom yum soup recipe he tested and approved?
There’s something very wrong with either Kenji’s food or his dog.
@Yuv, how does one transfer shakshuka from the pan to a dish without making a royal mess of everythying?
Eat straight from the pan.
Simple answer is you don’t. Thats why its so popular to serve it in a small pan.
Where is the process going wrong for you?
Fuck me, I’ve been doing it wrong this whole time.
Keep in mind that residual heat means you might need to take it off the stove a minute earlier than you would otherwise
Since Wookie never answered I decided to go ahead and get a wok anyway. Unfortunately all the woks at the Asian grocery did not meet Kenji’s standards (either non-stick or single pieces of stainless steel) so I ordered one online and wasn’t able to use it for my stir fry. Instead I used my usual wok-like pan, which I think is fine but definitely not optimal for high temperature cooking.
My plan was to go to the store and freestyle some stir fry with whatever I bought there but I realized pretty early during the cooking phase that coming up with my own dishes is not my forte. Luckily it came out somewhere between fine and actually pretty good, perhaps boosted by the seared short ribs I used for the protein (I also realized these were not optimal for this use after seeing the marbling but they were already defrosted so what are you gonna do). I ended up doing the veggies (bell pepper, snow peas, green beans, and carrots) in the “wok” with vegetable oil, garlic, white pepper, red pepper flakes, and dark soy sauce (I also tried to educate myself on different soy sauce on the fly and was overwhelmed by that), then lightly frying some wide noodles in that pan with sesame oil and chili in oil, plus a touch of oyster sauce for sweetness. Meanwhile in the case iron I cooked some shiitake mushrooms with sesame oil and then seared the short ribs. Final product: 
My wife thought it was delicious, I liked it well enough but I think it lacked depth of flavor a bit and I would’ve liked more of a sauce on the vegetables, probably should’ve used some oyster sauce on them as well. Toddler enjoyed the meat lol. Next up: shakshuka!
I cook the beef with broccoli recipe from ATK’s Cook It In Cast Iron fairly often. That calls for marinating thinly sliced flank steak in soy sauce for a short amount of time and adding oyster sauce during cooking. I might make it tomorrow and will put up some photos if I do.
You could always get a blowtorch.
So my daughter invited me over for a meal yesterday, very excited to cook something she had discovered during lockdown.
I don’t know if the shakshuka would have passed inspection by @Yuv but it was bloody lovely. Must have a go myself
even without a blowtorch, I love my wok. I think it’s because I’m super lazy and I love that I can make a good, healthy, flavorful meal all in one pan in basically one step (sometimes two) so I don’t have as much shit to clean after, and it’s fast and fresh.
I don’t think you’ll regret getting it.
I haven’t tried a blowtorch yet (we have one) but never say never!
You can buy a 200,000 BTU propane wok burner for like $70-80* and then just rock your Wok outside LIKE SOME SORT OF GOD. You should be cooking outside as much as possible during the summer, anyway.
*I’m not sure if the one I linked is good, but most of the brand-name ones are sold by awful companies (Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot) so maybe shop around a bit.
Not sure if I saw it on here or Twitter but Kenji’s next book is going to be 100% wok recipes so that’s definitely a driver behind my new wok obsession. Also I just think it would be convenient to have a bigger, wider pot to use on top of my current ones which are either not wide enough or have a sensitive inner coating (non stick or enamel).
I have this bad boy for home brewing:
But it’s more like $150 and then extra for the leg extensions. But it’s definitely worth getting those leg extensions. It’s called the Blichmann Hellfire burner. I think it’s expensive because it’s stainless steel.
Anything your daughter makes you is automatically tastier than what I can offer, but if you are planning on recreating this see my tips to @Trolly in regards to sauciness. I mix the whites in with the sauce as much as possible. Not a huge fan of onion in shakshuka but that’s debatable.
