Asian style food questions.

[Silver Moon]

Ok...well i go to a place called the Mongolian Grill and i like the food there. Though i recently tried to make something like it at home and i faild horidly.

At the grill its all cooked on a large round grill as the man walks in a circle with large chop stick like things making sure its always moving and spraying water and some other thing over it.

To the point though even with the garlic, seseme oil, teriaki, and some hot oil that seems to have crushed red peppers in it i cant get it to tast the same....not close....theres a sauce there that is called mongolian and kungpo wich i think may be what im missing. So basicly wondering if anyone knows what either of those are?

Also noodles...they have noodles there that look like ramen style but when i tried simaler ones i got mush. So im wondering how dose someone make noodles and not end up with clumps when they cool down? I tried oil that dident do it so im at a loss there to.

If im not to clear on my questions i can try to clear them up a bit.




(NOTE)

Ok one word on this. Because the name i looked it up as mongolian and found that the style of cooking and the things used are not mongolian but japanese saposably...wich makes things harder lol...

[cmgwhitestone]

It's obious you don't even have the right ingredents nor understanding the basics. There are some basic items you can fill your panrty with here's a list:

1. Fish Sauce
2. Samble
3. Fresh ginger
4. Star anise
5. Hoison Sauce
6. Oyster Sauce
7. Limes
8. Oranges
9. Garlic
10. Leeks
11. Shallots
12. Sugar
13. Rice Vinegar
14. Dried Chiles
15. Dried woodear, shiitake freashly picked.
16. Shimp paste
17. Curry
18. Fresh Chicken Stock
19. Five Spice Powder
20. Rice Flour
21. Any impectable seafood
22. Chioce or better beef
23. free range Poultry
24. free range Game

Look I could go on and on with ingredents but you alway must remember what flavors go what others and you can push the limits and try two odd flavors on their own together some time it will work but the mistakes teach you.

try this book Culinary Artistry a great tool

[pablopabla]

One way to prevent noodles from clumping up is to firstly, boil it, then run it through cold water. Finally, put it back into the boiling water just to heat it up and then drain.

If you intend to fry the noodles, make sure that your wok / pan is smoking hot and the oil is sufficiently heated up. Otherwise, the noodles will probably stick to the wok / pan.

[OahuAmateurChef]

Originally Posted by pablopabla

If you intend to fry the noodles, make sure that your wok / pan is smoking hot and the oil is sufficiently heated up. Otherwise, the noodles will probably stick to the wok / pan.

pablopabla brings up a good point. Stir fry stovetops put out some serious BTUs, more than you could ever hope for on an electric stovetop.

[castironchef]

Originally Posted by OahuAmateurChef

pablopabla brings up a good point. Stir fry stovetops put out some serious BTUs, more than you could ever hope for on an electric stovetop.

That's why those 165K BTU (or so) turkey fryers do such a great job with woks. (Just make sure you do it outside!)

[HotChef]

will never be that perfect as in a restaurant. neither will be german, french or any other cuisine....
so what you do:
don't get confused with all these million ingredients that you are SUPPOSED to have.
Sauces: here (Moscow) we have a company called 'blue dragon' from thailand.
they sell about 20 ready amde sauces in little sachets (more or less 2 portions)..
Noodles: buy best quality only. cheap will be mush, never mind what you do,
drop them into BOILING lightly salted water, use quantity like for pasta 10 ltr water for 1 kgr noodles. boil for 2 minutes and quickly refresh in lots of cold water.
when stir frying /fring at home, limits are obvious. that might be the ingredients, equipment, heat of gas /electric. don't worry.
just fry small portions, do it 2-3 times for whole meal. main thing is to do it quick to keep vegetables crispy and pasta not to become mushy. you toss everyhting into a little pan, disaster is pre-programmed...
so improvise, enjoy and do what YOU like!!

[Dr. Zoidberg]

"will never be that perfect as in a restaurant"

Au Contraire (Sp?) my friend. Visit my cooking blog at 360.yahoo.com/korgboy98 and I've posted my Mongolian recipe a couple of days ago and it was IDENTICAL to what i get at my local mongolian place.

[pablopabla]

I would also add another tip here:-

If you have previously used the wok for steaming food (i.e. the wok was partially filled with water and used to boil the water), "recondition" the wok prior to stir-frying noodles. You can "recondition" the wok by frying an egg first, then wash the wok prior to stir-frying the noodles. When the wok has been used to boil water (such as steaming food), somehow or rather, noodles and even rice will stick to it.