蒜泥白肉 (Pork belly slices with garlic sauce)

Protein:
1 lbs pork belly

Sauce:
3 TB soy sauce
2-4 TB chili oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
.5 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar
.25 teaspoon raw rice wine
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper paste

-This dish is mainly about the sauce.  You can substitute a leaner meat and it will taste pretty good: I like using a roasted pork loin and calling the dish 蒜泥白人 (because of the western style meat preparation, not because it's made out of Caucasians).  Using pork belly is traditional, of course, and it adds a lot of chewy fatness.  The vinegar is there to help take the edge of the raw garlic and give just a bit of acid so that the fat feel from the oil and pork fat isn't so overwhelming.  The rice wine is present to help make the sauce pop- I have no idea why it does that, but it just kind of works.
 
-Prepare the pork belly.  You can brine it if you want the meat to be juicier.  Cook it however you like: traditionally it's boiled until medium done (about 150 degrees final temp) which is about 30 minutes for a 1 pound belly.  If it's not brined, boil it in salted water with a slice of ginger to help take off the porky smell.  I've been experimenting with a combo of tea smoking and then pressure steaming the meat: I'll update as more data becomes available.  Whatever cooking method you choose, make sure it's wet so that the fat and the skin become reasonably tender.  When the pork is done, chill it in the fridge to make it easier to slice.

-Slice the meat THIN.  If my knives are dull and I haven't had time to send them to the sharpener, I just don't make this until I do.  Don't bother trying without a good knife.  Practice.  This is the hardest part of the dish.  You can also chill the meat in the freezer for 20 minutes to make it firmer.  At fancier restaurants, the meat is sliced from a semi-frozen block so thin that it naturally curves into rolls, which is awesome, but it doesn't change the flavor of the dish.  I've also heard that if you have a good mandoline, you can run the meat through that, but I've never got that to work (I have a super benriner- maybe it would work if I got my blade sharpened professionally?).  Arrange the slices such that you can spoon the sauce over without too much of a hassle.

-Mix the garlic with the vinegar and rice wine.  Whisk in the korean pepper paste- it's main function here is as an emulsifier that blends in with the other ingredients, so if it bothers you to see it in a Sichuan dish you can take it out.  Whisk in the chili oil.  If you like the "browner" version, just use 2 TB of chili oil, but if you want the flaming red version that's spicier, use 4 TB.  Whisk in the soy sauce last.  If you brined the pork belly, you can omit the soy sauce or use less depending on how salty you want the dish.  Emulsifying the sauce is MUCH easier if the chili oil is chilled because the viscosity will be much higher.  Note: you probably want to serve this soon since the emulsion breaks quite readily at room temperature.

Korean influenced East Texas style BBQ sauce

Vinegar based sauce that turns all my BBQ bright, nuclear red.  Not for marinating or anything, but basted on for finishing touches at the very end or used as a sauce at the table.  This isn't salted since in Texas, we know how to salt and brine our meats right.

How I use it: I actually dislike using sauce at the table, but when whatever's in the smoker is almost done,  I'll brush this onto meat in layers until I get a kind of "crust" while finishing over some higher heat to set it.  You want it to turn crunchy but not burnt.

-.5 cup rice vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
-.25 cup Korean red pepper paste
-.25 cup honey (or packed dark brown sugar in a pinch)
-2 tablespoons Korean coarse red pepper flakes
-1 teaspoon natural molasses

Put it all in a bowl, and whisk it together.  That's it.  If you want to, take some rendered fat from your BBQ (you save that, of course, right?) and pour it in: rendered meat fat from the smoker is my version of liquid smoke.  If you want it really spicy, try whisking in a few tablespoons of chili oil, or if you really want to nuke something, some ghost chili oil.

Thai(esque) curry

Some folks who visited Thailand once told me that what I call Thai curry has close to no resemblance to the real deal.  Whoops.

The Stuff
1 lbs meat (recommend brined chicken breast, pork shoulder, dark chicken meat, white fish, or 凍豆腐 or some combination of delicious mushrooms for vegan/vegetarian)
.5 lbs Chinese eggplant (about 1 fruit)
.25 lbs cherry tomatoes
~1 bunch of thai basil (or, "enough to be delicious")

The Curry
13.5-19 fl oz. coconut milk (creamy kind- mae ploy is best, chao koh is good enough) stored in the fridge.  Note, if using mae ploy, you can go up to 1.5 times all the other ingredients and have enough curry to flavor the stuff.  I like my curry extra-mega-filled with stuff and not so much leftover liquid, BTW.

1.5 TB-2TB curry paste (green, red, or yellow for vegetarian/vegans)
1.5 TB-2TB palm sugar (about half a 1" disc)
1.5TB-2TB fish sauce, pref. blow-torched
about half as much lime juice as sugar

Optional: zest of a half a lime (or several kaffir lime leaves if you can get them)

-Get your coconut milk out of the fridge and begin heating up just the solidified coconut fat.
-Preheat your broiler to high and get a rack ready to put some stuff about 2" away from the heating element
-Blowtorch the skin of the eggplant until blistered.  Cut into longitudinal quartered sections about 2" long.
-Broil the tomatoes and eggplant, cut side down.  When the tomatoes are just beginning to char they're done and so is the eggplant.
-When the coconut oil begins separating from the solids of the coconut fat, add the rest of the coconut liquid and 1.5TB each of the curry ingredients.  When each is incorporated, taste and adjust:

• Add curry paste to increase the spice/aroma
• Add fish sauce to increase salt/umami (flavor)
• Add sugar to negate saltiness/sourness/spiciness or add palm sugaryness
• Add lime juice to negate sweetness/add limeyness

I generally do it in that order, trying to be a little sparing on the sugar.  When everything's balanced, cook the simmered things (see below) if necessary.  Toss in the eggplant and tomatoes.  Once the eggplant is slightly softened and has a good texture (try a piece) add the basil and wilt.  Depending on your meat (or non-meat) of choice at some point in there you probably added your meat and your dish is now done.  Eat it with jasmine rice.

-Meats:

•  Pork shoulder: 1.5" cubes, then seasoned with salt and dusted with flour.   Cook by searing in some oil OR putting under the broiler and then simmering in the balanced curry until done (about 30 minutes)
• Brined chicken, prepare/cook just like kung pao chicken (the chicken pancake part, that is) and then add the stir-fried chicken to the balanced curry at the same time as adding the basil.
• Dark meat chicken, 1" cubes, salted, and dusted with flour.  Cook by searing in some oil OR putting under the broiler and then simmering in the balanced curry until done (about 10 minutes)
• Fish, cut into 1.5" segments and marinated with some grated ginger or curry paste or something to deal with the smell (or even lightly blow torched) and lightly coated with cornstarch, about 1 to 2 teaspoons until a light visible coasting is apparent.  Cook by stirring into the hot coconut milk at the very end after balancing the curry ingredients at the same time as adding the basil (see below).
• Tofu or mushrooms: no need to sear, just add to the balanced curry to simmer until appropriately tender.

水煮[something]片 (water boiled beef, fish, pork, chicken, etc.)

水煮肉片

1 pound of something (chicken breast, lean pork, beef tenderloin, fish (recommend tilapia, swai, or sole), or even silken tofu: anything with very little fat that will cook tender quickly.  The dish is typically so spicy that no one will taste anything anyways.  If using meat, make sure ALL the fat is trimmed: it simply will not cook fast enough to taste good.)

1 pound nappa cabbage, chopped into 2" squares or smaller (optional)

2 cups broth with:
2TB soy sauce
2TB rice wine

.5c canola oil
3TB crushed red chili
2TB coarse korean chili
2TB sichuan peppercorn

2 green onions, whites thinly sliced, greens cut into a decorative shape and reserved
.5" ginger, minced
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
cilantro, if desired, for garnish

-If using lean pork or chicken, brine the meat for 30 minutes(good quality beef, fish, tofu this is unnecessary)

-Using a minimum of oil (or none, if you have a well-seasoned wok), stir fry the nappa cabbage until tender and remove to the bottom of your final serving vessel.  This cabbage will help regulate the final temperature of the dish to prevent overcooking during the boiling step, and SO IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

-Get the 2 cups of broth on hand and ready to use.  Heat the half cup oil with the sichuan peppercorns in a heavy bottomed pot on medium high.  When peppercorns turn dark brown and the oil is just beginning to smoke, reduce heat to medium low, add the garlic, green onion whites and crushed red chilis and korean chilis.  Cook until oil turns very deep red, typically less than a minute.  As soon as it turns a deep red color and is very fragrant (you'll probably be coughing and sneezing and wanting to cry)  add the broth to cool the oil.

-Add the ginger, soy sauce, and rice wine to the broth if you haven't already.

-When the meat is brined, rinsed, and drained (or if you didn't use a brine) take your 1 pound of stuff and coat it with 1 TB of cornstarch.  Heat the soup on maximum heat: it should be very rapidly boiling.  Stir the soup as fast as you can without it shooting out of your pot.  Working quickly, put in your 1 pound of "whatever" slices and continue to stir.

IF USING BEEF, FISH, PORK, OR LAMB: when the slices just begin to firm up, remove from the heat: when the pieces turn color, immediately pour over the nappa cabbage.  The residual heat of the liquid ought to be enough to cook the slices without the stove top to a perfect medium rare and the cabbage should absorb whatever heat is left.

IF USING CHICKEN: make sure color is about almost completely white before removing from heat and soup just begins to reboil, then pour over cabbage.  Or if you're brave, you can cook it as above, but you might get salmonella.  I know the feel of the chicken between chopsticks when it's perfect, but it's hard to describe how to use that method.  Sorry.

Garnish with green onion greens and/or chopped cilantro.

Nappa cabbage soup

I have no idea if the original recipe this is based on is actually a traditional Sichuan dish.  Whatever.

• 1 Nappa cabbage, tender light green part only (~2 lbs)
• 4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt + more to taste
• OPTIONAL: 1 teaspoon sichuan peppercorns

Preheat the oven to 300F.  Cut the cabbage into quarters lengthwise.  Remove the tough root from each of the four segments, being otherwise careful to maintain the integrity of the pieces.  Heat a large iron skillet or equivalent that will fit the cabbage quarters.  Cook dry until charred, then rotate and repeat on the other cut side.  Once all pieces are charred, place in a heatproof dish with 4 cups of water and salt and peppercorns if using.  Braise, covered, for 2 hours or until the cabbage has disintegrated into the soup.  Adjust salt and eat.  That's it.  Really.  If you don't like the charred taste, just put everything into the oven from the get-go. .  Note: this gives you gas.

Baconara (a.k.a no cheese carbonara)

MAJOR UPDATE: I think by this time I've made this with something like 100 lbs of bacon/pasta.  Here's the deal: the original method of emulsifying the sauce is superior to every other trick I have tried to do.  If you really want to serve the yolks separately, you will need to do the blended cooked white trick detailed in the 2.0 post.

HOWEVER, the original way of thickening the sauce, I have now come to realize, is far superior in terms of flavor and texture.  Why is this?  Yolks thicken before actually setting, whites don't.  So, it turns out just mixing all the eggs together is superior.  And last time I timed myself, it was ready to serve in 20 minutes- easier, faster, and tastier all at the same time.  How 'bout that!

• 1 lbs. spaghetti or linguine (fettucine is pushing it, though it's ok.  Thinner pastas don't lend themselves to surviving the thickening step below, but if you're really awesome at thin pasta, maybe you can succeed where I failed.)
• 6 eggs
• 1 lbs. bacon
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 TB apple cider vinegar, divided
• 1 TB maple syrup
• .5C frozen peas
• ~1 tablespoon coarse ground black pepper
• ~1 tablespoon kosher salt (DCK) +  more to taste

-Boil salted water for the pasta.  Time the dish so that the sauce is ready before the time the pasta should be finished.
-Cut the bacon into 1" long segments (or eighth-strip lengths).
-Lightly beat eggs with 1 TB of the vinegar, the maple syrup, and the salt.
-Cook the bacon on high heat till you get some crispiness and at least a quarter cup of fat: you don't need to render ALL the fat (suppose you could if you wanted to), but you do want there to be some crunch to the bacon.  Reserve the cooked bacon.
-Add the black pepper to the bacon grease and cook until very fragrant, about a minute.  Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds or until fragrant, then remove from heat.  You will probably have browned bits on the bottom of your pan: use the remaining 1TB apple cider vinegar to deglaze the pan while it's still hot.  If necessary, add pasta water 1 TB at a time until all the browned bits are deglazed, then turn off the heat. 
-Once the fond from the previous step cools down, add it to the eggs.  Beat the egg mixture over a double boiler, whisking constantly, until it becomes very thick.
-Once the pasta is al dente, drain it and allow it to cool for about a minute.  Yes, it may get a little clumpy at this point, but it's to decrease risk of setting the eggs.  After it's no longer steaming, add it to the sauce mixture and toss to coat.  Add pasta water 1 tb at a time if necessary to loosen the sauce.  Or, if becomes too thin from the extra water, swirl the whole deal, noodles and all, over a double boiler until the sauce is sufficiently saucy.

-Add the peas at the very end to get them defrosted (you don't really want to cook them or the texture will be ruined).
-Top with the crispy bacon and serve.

Signs you did things right:
-sauce is homogenous without any chunks of cooked egg
-sauce is actually a sauce and has not set into flexible insulative shielding on each of your noodles
-sauce is thick enough that it gets picked up by your noodles (if the sauce "flows off" like a thinner gravy, you should have thickened the whites longer)
-you can taste subtle sweetness from the yolks (the syrup's sweetness will largely be nullified by the vinegar's acid).  If you don't taste this, you overcooked the yolks.
-there should be back-of-the-throat spiciness from the black pepper and an overall aroma of black pepper and garlic (otherwise you undercooked the pepper, overcooked the garlic, tried to use pre-ground pepper, or something of that sort)
-peas are sweet, warm, and crisp
-bacon's crispiness adds pleasant textural variation

麻婆豆腐 (mapo tofu)

Nothing special here except tofu cutting technique and use of korean pepper paste which helps thicken the sauce without cornstarch or reducing everything too much.  Also, about double the spicy stuff of the traditional recipe: alter the oil, chili flakes, and peppercorns to your taste but keep the ratio.  If you like your MPDF with ground pork, fry it at the same time as the mushrooms in the same fashion (that is, lightly coated with cornstarch and an appropriate amount of soy sauce) until crispy and serve it poured over everything at the end so that it stays crunchy.  Or, leave it vegan mapo tofu- I personally think the shiitake's carry enough presence such that meat is unnecessary.

• 1 brick of silken tofu (16-20oz), cubed into 10mm (see below).  Firmer tofu is for n00bs
• .5C  dried shiitake broth and the two associated mushrooms
• 1t cornstarch
• .25C oil
• 2TB crushed red chili flakes
• 1TB sichuan peppercorns
• 2TB soy sauce
• 1TB 辣豆瓣醬 (Chinese spicy chili broad bean paste)
• 1TB korean red pepper paste
• 1TB fermented black beans, rinsed of grit
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 green onions, whites and greens separated
• .5" minced ginger

The tofu
IMO the main difference between lame mapo tofu and good mapo tofu is the use of silken tofu, and then maintaining it in neat cubes for texture.  To cut the tofu: first cut the top plastic film off using scissors.  Then , cut off one of the bottom corners of the tofu box.  Place a small cutting board on top of the tofu box and then invert: now that you've just cut a vent, you should be able to pull the box off of the tofu without breaking the brick (save the box).  You'll probably need to do two cuts parallel to the cutting board plane to split it into thirds: this is the most annoying part: if you find it too annoying, just do one cut to split it in half (newb).  Then, cut the tofu from the top into 10mm squares: err on the side of smaller, being careful to keep all the pieces together.  Get that box you saved and put it back on top of the now cubed tofu, invert, and now your tofu will be MUCH easier to work with now that it's in a vented box.

The rest
Slice the mushrooms you got from making half the recipe of that mushroom broth into thin strips, about 2mm wide.  Coat with about 1 teaspoon cornstarch.  Heat the oil with the peppercorns on medium high heat.  When they turn dark brown, add the mushrooms and lower the heat to medium after the coating first solidifies.  Add the chili flakes and cook until the oil is red and the chili flakes are darkened but not burnt (this can be tricky...).  When the chili flakes look done, scoop all the solids out with a strainer and set them aside: don't worry about being too thorough.  Add the garlic, green onion, and chili bean paste and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute.  Add the mushroom broth, soy sauce, ginger, and korean pepper paste and stir until uniform.  Heat through until thick, then gently add the tofu which should be easy now that it's in that neat little box and should drop without too much effort because of that vent.  Using a broad, flat, soft object (i.e. wooden spatula) very gently stir the tofu into the sauce and simmer for 1 or 2 minutes.  To serve, carefully pour the tofu into a bowl, then top with the fried chili flakes/peppercorns/mushrooms you removed earlier, then top with the green onion greens, cut however you believe is the most visually appealing (I like using the shredder thingy that looks like 4 x-acto knives glued together to make long strings).

Dried shiitake broth

When I need a low sodium broth or a vegan broth this is what I use.

• 1C water, hot but not boiling (I use the microwave for 1 minute)
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms
• Pinch of curry powder (that is, 1/8 teaspoon)

Put the mushrooms in the water.  After another minute or two, they should be soft enough to stick a fork through all of them: the weight of the fork will keep the mushrooms from floating up.  Let sit for another 20-30 minutes, but it works best for several hours or even over night.  Squeeze the mushrooms as you take them out: use them for something else.  Add a pinch of curry powder: you don't want to taste it so much as have it add a little depth.

Important note: cooking the broth for a long time destroys the subtle flavors.  You can heat the broth, but try not to actually cook with it for best results.

宮保雞丁 (kung pao chicken)

Note: new version here

What makes mine different is: ground peanuts, chili oil in lieu of whole chili/peppercorns, lemon juice.

The stuff

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed to L = 15mm, brined.  If you're not sure what 15mm looks like, get a ruler.  This dish works with pieces up to 1" cube in size.
• 1/3c coarse crushed peanuts, roasted (see below)

 Sauce stuff

• 2 green onions, whites thinly sliced and greens reserved for garnish
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• .5" ginger, grated
• 3 TB soy
• 2 TB 紹興酒 Shao xing rice wine
• 2 TB dark brown sugar, packed
• 2TB lemon juice, divided (Using a sour grapefruit also works)
• 2TB chili oil
• OPTIONAL: zest of a half a lemon (or grapefruit zest if using for the acid)

-To get peanuts roasted, dry toast in a wok or skillet on medium heat until fragrant.  Or, put in a 350F oven, stirring every 5 minutes, for a total of 15 minutes, or until fragrant.

-Once chicken is brined, thoroughly wash chicken and drain.  Mix with just enough cornstarch that the chicken starts sticking to itself, probably 2 to 3 tablespoons.

-Heat a well seasoned wok with about 1 tablespoon of cooking oil until shimmering.  Add the chicken and spread out into a single layered "pancake" (if your wok is small, divide the chicken into appropriate sized batches).  Cook for about 2 minutes or until you can see the chicken start turning white from cooking up to about a third of the thickness.  Use a thin, wide spatula to loosen the chicken and rotate in the pan to make sure that your "pancake" is holding together.  Flip the pancake (or slide the chicken out onto a plate and flip the whole assembly back into the wok uncooked side down).  Cook another 2 minutes or until this side starts showing white coming up the sides of the chicken as well.  Break the pancake with the spatula, then stir fry quickly, tossing in the wok until the chicken is just tinged pink in most areas, about another minute or two.  Reserve chicken.

-Heat the sauce ingredients excluding the chili oil and 1 reserved tablespoon of lemon juice on high until it turns into a very thick, dark caramel with lots of small bubbles forming.  You want this to be REALLY thick because the juices and oil on the exterior of the chicken will dilute the sauce when you mix it.  Add the ginger, green onion whites, and garlic and cook in the caramel until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Add the chicken, half of the peanuts, chili oil, and remaining lemon juice and coat the chicken and finish cooking it, about another 30 seconds to a minute.  Plate the chicken, sprinkle with remaining roasted peanuts and green onion greens and serve immediately.

嗆包心菜 (Charred cabbage)

One of my favorite foods both to cook and eat.  Short ingredient list.  Neat technique.  Smoky.  Traditional.  About 60 cents per dish.  The final product's taste is highly dependent on the process: too little char and you get tough, flavorless cabbage with bitterness from the raw vegetable taste.  Too much char and it's cancerlicious and bitter from the burnt flakes of cabbage-turned-into-carbon.  When it's done right, it's sweet, smoky; it's tinged with bitterness, complex, and tender-crisp.  I still mess this up.

You need to have a well-seasoned wok or cast iron skillet to make this.  If you don't, don't bother trying.  To make it spicy, I find it simpler to substitute chili oil for the neutral oil rather than trying to cook chilis and peppercorns into the dish, but feel free to do whatever you want.  I like it both ways depending on what else is going on the table.

• 1 small head of cabbage (~ 1lbs.) OR .5 lbs each of red and green cabbage or some combination thereof.  Smaller cabbages tend to be sweeter, so go for them.
• 1 tablespoon canola oil OR 1 tablespoon chili oil
• 2 gloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt, or kosher salt in a pinch
• OPTIONAL: 1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar or balsamic vinegar
• OPTIONAL: Pinch of shredded Korean chili OR a few slivers of green onion green (see note on plating)

Quarter the cabbage(s) and cut out the root.  Don't be skimpy in discarding the root: it's like $0.40/lbs and it's not worth it.  Cut each quarter along the equator to get eight sections.  Place each section, without separating the leaves, onto the dry wok: it might look crowded, but that's okay.  Allow the cabbage to char for about 4 minutes, then rotate the pieces.  Continue moving around the segments and rotating the pieces until there are charred spots all over the cut surfaces of the cabbage (should be 3 sides per segment): if it starts coming apart, don't worry about it: try to avoid moving the cabbage around until the next layer is charred.   Once all the segments are charred all over, break up the segments into their constituent leaves, and allow to sit in the wok longer, charring the unexposed leaves.  Repeat this process, tossing briefly as necessary, until all the leaves show at least some charring- this takes some practice... good thing cabbage is cheap!  This process should also get easier as the cabbage shrinks from cooking and it starts fitting in your wok better.  Once all the cabbage leaves are tinged with charred spots, clear out the center of the wok and toast the sea salt (if your wok isn't seasoned so well, this is where you're going to see why I told you not to attempt this dish... everything will be stuck at this point and I don't know what to tell you!).  After about a minute, add the oil and garlic to the center and cook until just fragrant, about 30 seconds.  If using the vinegar, add it now to the oil in the center of the wok and let some of the acid release.  Toss to coat everything.  Adjust seasoning using extra sea salt or soy sauce, but most of the time you won't need any.  Once everything is well mixed, plate and serve.

Note on plating: when using green cabbage, I use shredded dried Korean chili for garnish.  For red, I use slivers of green onion greens.  When using both red and green, I arrange the red on the outside in a ring, green mounded in the center with dried Korean chili on top.

Blow-torched fish sauce broth

I hate canned broth: it tastes like metal-tastic old-ness.  I hate making broth since I'm lazy.  This is my compromise.  Blowtorching will keep this from stinking too much.

• 1TB Three Crabs fish sauce
• 1C water

 Heat the fish sauce in a pot that you don't mind hitting with direct blow torch heat.  As it starts to bubble and caramelize, torch the fish sauce so that the stinky gas getting released ignites.  You may end up charring the foam that comes up: this is expected and enhances the final product's flavor.  Once the fish sauce doesn't smell so bad anymore, add the water and deglaze anything that got caked on.  It tastes like umami: if you want to retain some fishiness, blowtorch less.  For smokier broth, blow torch the fish sauce like a madman.  Beware of the increased sodium.

麻辣紅油 (Tim's chili oil)

You could buy the stuff in a bottle, but it won't taste like mine.  This recipe is essentially making 花椒油 and then using that while still hot to make 辣椒油.  I use a french press and tea kettle so that my kitchen is still clean when I'm done.  Make absolutely sure there isn't any water anywhere on anything during this process or your hands and arms are going to start looking like mine (that is, messed up).

• 4C canola, soybean, or other neutral oil
• 2C crushed dried Sichuan chilies (or whatever crushed dried chilis you can find)
• 1C dried Sichuan peppercorns (no substitute for these exists)

Put the crushed red chilies in the french press.  Put the oil and peppercorns in the tea kettle and start heating up on high heat.  Use the peppercorn color to determine the temperature: they will turn very dark brown, but not black, when the oil is ready and the oil will probably just start releasing a few wisps of smoke.  At this point, remove the oil from the heat.  Pour the oil into the french press: hopefully your tea kettle doesn't suck and not too many of the peppercorns will get poured in.  If it bothers you, pour through a metal strainer.  The cooked chilis will start floating to the surface: use the french press to force them back into the oil.  You know you did everything right when all the chili flakes are floating, all the seeds sank, and the oil is a deep crimson color.  The oil is ready to use in 15 minutes, but will reach optimum flavor after a couple of hours.  It keeps well.

Variation: you can omit the peppercorns and use Korean coarse chili flakes to make an extremely fragrant, almost sweet oil.  Put the chili flakes in the french press as above.  Heat the oil until it just smokes, then remove from heat and wait for the oil to just stop smoking, then pour into the press.  This is necessary because the flavor of Korean chili is much more delicate and it's easier to burn.  Oh yeah, this costs a junk load of money if you use good chili flakes.

Basic brines

Why brine?  Because it makes things taste better.  Not necessary for everything, just low fat items such as chicken breast and pork loin.  You can flavor your brine with whatever you want, but I would keep the sodium and sugar content at the levels indicated, i.e. if you want to use soy sauce, use correspondingly less salt to maintain the same concentration.  Also, I wouldn't brine with black pepper or acidic ingredients: we have a mental association with hot dogs, ham, and spam with that flavor.  Because I prefer not to flavor my brine, most people never notice that my food is brined at all other than asking, "why is your chicken breast as juicy as dark meat?"

Concentration of the brine is what counts: YMMV of how much you need based on the shape of your meat and the shape of your container.

Saturated quick brine for ~ 1lb of meat:

• 3TB DCK salt (note: if using other brands of salt, look up the sodium/volume measure and adjust accordingly.  E.g. if using Morton's kosher use 2 TB.  Don't use iodized.)
• 3TB sugar (tip: baker's sugar dissolves easier)
• 1.5C water

 Mix everything up cold, rubbing the crystals with your fingers to dissolve them.  Add meat.  Brine time will vary based on the shape of your food: for small pieces, like 10mm-25mm cubes for stir-frying or slices for 水煮, 30 minutes is fine.  Larger chunks, like 25mm+ cubes or whole chicken breast will require 45 minutes to an hour.  For very large items, I recommend a long brine, which is listed below.

8 hour to 1 week brine:

• .25C DCK salt
• .25C sugar
• 3C water

For long brine, you REALLY want to follow my advice about not using acids or peppercorn or iodized salt.  This is stronger than the classic brine you'll typically find online that would be 4C water for that much salt and sugar, but this works better in my experience. Again, the typical complaints about spamminess aren't due to the brine so much as the weird things people like to put in their brine.  As a side effect, this helps your meat keep longer, but don't come sue me later when you get food poisoning from chicken sashimi that's been sitting in brine for 3 months.

Brined food will not need to be seasoned with salt anymore, but for asian foods involving fish sauce or soy sauce you typically won't have to adjust.  Just start with half as much and work your way up if you're paranoid, but don't be surprised when you end up using the original recipe amount at the end: the sugar in the brine does a lot to counteract the saltiness.