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[Arx]

My impression of asian (vaguely defined) cuisine is that they were more about vegetables than the West in general.

Buddhist regions very much so. I don't remember if Japanese vegetarianism was Buddhist or something else, but that too. China is just a large place (my current favourite thing about Chinese dialects is that expecting Shenzhen dialect to sound like Beijing dialect is geographically similar to expecting Spanish to sound like Ukrainian, I think) that has many different takes on food.

[Vector]

book recommend for English speakers who want some Chinese veg recipes: the breath of the wok (or something like that, you can google). I got most of my veggie stir fry recipes from there. It has meat too, but compared to your typical American cookbook, there's waaaaaay more veggie things in there.

[scriver]

I'm still deeply insecure about the wok in wok

[Dunamisdeos]

I want a wok.

[Vector]

They are gr8. I use mine for steaming stuff too. Wok is good, wok is life!

[Arx]

Yeah mine is sometimes a wok and sometimes just the broadest pot I own. Very practical tool.

[nenjin]

Chili came out pretty good. Used too much stock so it's saucier than I wanted. I sorta wonder, based on the recipe I worked off of, how spicy I made it. They were putting tablespoons of several different chili mixtures. I don't think I used anywhere near that amount. It's hot enough to make me sweat. Can't really imagine what it would have tasted like with 2x the spice.

[Iduno]

Chili came out pretty good. Used too much stock so it's saucier than I wanted. I sorta wonder, based on the recipe I worked off of, how spicy I made it. They were putting tablespoons of several different chili mixtures. I don't think I used anywhere near that amount. It's hot enough to make me sweat. Can't really imagine what it would have tasted like with 2x the spice.

Stock? I was making it from memory, but used diced tomato, tomato paste, beans, meat, onion, chili powder, and other assorted spices. Still a bit soupy from the tomato and onion juicing out, but pretty close to what I wanted. It helps to pre-cook the meat a bit and drain the fat into a can (or other container that won't melt and is heading to the trash).

[nenjin]

I used about 18 oz of Beef Stock and 8 oz. of tomato sauce for 2 pounds of meat and a can of beans and some onions and garlic and all the spices. I thought it would reduce after a good boil for 30 minutes and then 20 minutes....but it still came out a little too watery. I also didn't drain the fat because tbh I like it. But maybe that messed with the consistency too.

I tend to use beef stock in meat based dishes instead of water these days. My mom used to make pretty much everything with water. Chili. Pasta sauce. Stews. Rice. W/e. I take her recipes and replace that with beef or chicken stock or something where applicable. Just gives the base of what you're making so much more flavor.

[Iduno]

I used about 18 oz of Beef Stock and 8 oz. of tomato sauce for 2 pounds of meat and a can of beans and some onions and garlic and all the spices. I thought it would reduce after a good boil for 30 minutes and then 20 minutes....but it still came out a little too watery. I also didn't drain the fat because tbh I like it. But maybe that messed with the consistency too.

I tend to use beef stock in meat based dishes instead of water these days. My mom used to make pretty much everything with water. Chili. Pasta sauce. Stews. Rice. W/e. I take her recipes and replace that with beef or chicken stock or something where applicable. Just gives the base of what you're making so much more flavor.

Yeah, if you're adding water/stock and want it thick, you probably want to coat the partially-cooked meat with flour or starch before adding it. Just adding the flour or starch will get you lumps.

[martinuzz]

Pro-tip for starch: mix it first in a little bit of COLD water. Then it will become a smooth mixture which you can then add to your food to thicken it without lumps

[Kagus]

Pro-tip for starch: mix it first in a little bit of COLD water. Then it will become a smooth mixture which you can then add to your food to thicken it without lumps

Recipes I've read before called for using warm-but-not-too-warm water, but I'm really not sure at this point if the improved solubility is worth the bother of fiddling with the temperature like that...

[Dunamisdeos]

Ya never add starch to hot liquid. It clumps and won't mix.

Always cold. I wouldn't even do warm.

[Arx]

Unless my understanding is fundamentally wrong somehow as long as the liquid's not so warm that it'll cook the starch it doesn't really matter (55-85 degrees, depending on the starch, Wikipedia tells me). Starch isn't actually soluble so the temperature of the water doesn't matter unless you're really worried about cooling down your sauce too much.

[Dunamisdeos]

Well you're right in that it's unlikely to cook into horrid little dumplings, like flour does.

I ain't no chemist but starch reacts differently when put in hot water. Stuff simply does not dissolve the same.