Some Knowledge of Chinese Hot Pot

Hot pot (火锅/火鍋：huǒ guō), less commonly Chinese fondue or steamboat, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. Vegetables, fish and meat should be fresh. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce. In many areas, hot pot meals are often eaten in the winter.

Origin and Evolution of Hot Pot
The Chinese hot pot has a history of more than 1,000 years. Hot pot seems to have originated in Mongolia where the main ingredient was meat, usually beef, mutton or horse. It then spread to southern China during the Tang Dynasty and was further established during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty. In time, regional variations developed with different ingredients such as seafood. By the Qing Dynasty (AD 1644 to 1912), the hot pot became popular throughout most of China. Today in many modern homes, particularly in the big cities, the traditional coal-heated steamboat or hot pot has been replaced by electric, gas or induction cooker versions.Because hot pot styles change so much from region to region, many different ingredients are used.

The hot pot developed gradually, adapting to historical introduction of vessels, social demands and ingredients, just like China’s dietary development. For instance, it was impossible to have spicy hot pot before huajiao (pricklyash peel) and chili peppers were introduced to China. During the Three Kingdoms period, Emperor Wendi of Wei noted the “Five-Section Vessel” which could be used to cook different foods at the same time. This vessel is similar to today’s “2 in 1 Hot Pot.” In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, bronze was the most common vessel, which gradually evolved into today’s hot pot.

 

How to cook hot-pot?
Frozen meat is sliced thinly to prepare it for hot pot cooking. Slicing frozen meat this way causes it to roll up during cooking, and it is often presented as such. Meats used include lamb, beef, chicken, duck, mutton, and others. The cooking pot is often sunk into the table and fueled by propane, or alternatively is above the table and fueled by a portable butane gas stove or hot coals. Meat or vegetables are loaded individually into the hot cooking broth by chopsticks, and cooking time can take from 1 minute to 15, depending on the type of food. Meat should be cooked at the very least 20 seconds. Other hot pot dishes include leafy vegetables, mushrooms, seafood, and noodles. It can be eaten bland to very spicy, depending on how much spice has been put in the stew.

There are often disagreements between different styles of hot pot enthusiasts. Some like to place items into the hot pot at a relaxed, leisurely pace, enjoying the cooking process, while others prefer to put everything in at once and wait for the hotpot to return to a boil. Occasionally due to evaporation the boiled water needs to be refilled. Usually the stew is strong and zesty enough to not require adding more condiments.

How to cook burger

What’s more American than grilling hamburgers? Hamburgers and hot dogs are the whole reason they put grills in public parks, in my opinion. Burgers and hot dogs are the whole reason we show up to the stadium 6 hours before the game (well, and beer I guess…). We discussed hot dogs the other day, so I wanted to step back and talk about how to grill hamburgers the right way. You see, hamburgers may seem easy to make, but I have choked down far too many dried out and burnt disks of beef than I care to remember. It’s time we did something about it, it’s time we take a stand, it’s time for me to stop complaining about it and start educating the masses! So let’s get down to it and talk about best practices for grilling hamburgers.
Like many other grilling recipes, people just need to slow down and pay attention to details and technique to achieve burger grilling deliciousness. Here are what I consider to be the key factors in hamburger perfection.

1. Choose the right meat. Here’s a newsflash, fat tastes good! That may not be too PC, but it’s true. You know that last burger you had at the restaurant, the one you said “man, my hamburgers never taste this good”. I would bet my squirt bottle that the main reason theirs was better is that you feel guilty buying anything other than “lean” ground beef. Quit fighting it, fat is delicious! Need another reason, ok, we are in tough times and fatty meat is cheaper. There, doesn’t the desire to save money seem to dull the desire to eat healthy? I recommend ground chuck or ground sirloin for a good fatty ground beef. Check the label and ask your butcher, you want about 20% fat or so. Most serious hamburger junkies swear that grounding your own meat is the way to go. Sounds hard, right? If you have a food processor, it really isn’t. Start with some boneless (duh) chuck with the fat still intact, cut it into strips and ground in the food processor in small batches. Is it worth all of the effort? Personally, I don’t think so if you have access to great beef. If you live in the wilderness, probably, but you probably don’t have a food processor either. I’ll do a taste test one day to finally prove whether or not people can tell the difference…
2. Use high heat and cook them fast! Like most thin meat products, it’s best to apply high and direct heat to your hamburger and cook it as fast as possible. Leave the lid open, crank up the heat and don’t cook them too long or they will dry out.
3. Be gentle with that meat! Most people really pack the patties tight and then flatten them down too much. A loosely packed patty makes for a juicy hamburger! If you pack your hamburger patties too tight, you run the risk of drying out the meat and making them tough. The only thing I am going to recommend you do to that patty is make an indention, but we’ll talk about that in a bit…
4. Don’t “squish”! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t EVER flatten or squish your burgers with a spatula while they are grilling. You might as well pick it up with your hands and squeeze out all of the juices. Why do people usually feel the need to do that? Because the burgers usually inflate or bloat in the middle during grilling, we’ll talk about how to prevent that if you stick with me below…
5. Flip only once! As meat cooks, the heat pushes the juices away from the heat source. To achieve a juicy burger, you only want to flip the burgers once so that you don’t disrupt those juices any more than necessary. Most people ask, how long do you cook hamburgers on a grill? The short answer is “not too long” . The real answer varies, based on the grill and the thickness of the hamburger, but one thing that does hold true is only flip once! We’ll answer the “how long” question in a bit, your meat will tell you when if you know what to look for. But for now, resist the temptation to keep flipping, please!
6. Don’t skimp on buns. Why would you go through all of this trouble to learn how to make a better burger and then serve them between some bad buns? I like to go with french hamburger buns from my grocery store’s bakery. 

So that is the very high level break down of the reasons why most people screw up a perfectly good hunk of ground beef. Let’s walk through making the perfect hamburger step by step.
Directions for making the Perfect Hamburger

1. Get the grill going. Go ahead and light the grill and set it up for direct grilling over high heat.
2. Divide your ground beef into equal portions, based on how many patties you are going to make. You want to end up with about a tennis ball sized portion of ground beef.
   
3. Now gently form each divided portion of ground beef into a tennis ball like shape. Don’t overdue it, don’t squeeze it, just get it into shape.
4. Once you have your ground beef balls, gently flatten each ball to make your patty.
5. Now here is a secret. You have probably experienced the “bloat” phenomenon I mentioned above that makes most inexperienced grill masters try to flatten that patty during grilling. To lessen the bloat, simply use your thumb and create an indention in the middle of the patty before you put it on the grill. It doesn’t have to be too dramatic, just a little indention like you see in the photo above.
6. For seasoning, I also suggest that you don’t over-think this one. Sure, there are many variations to the typical burger that will knock you off your lounge chair, but you’ve got to walk before you run! Once you can cook a decent, simple burger, I give you permission to get crazy, but let’s master this basic burger first. I personally think that adding onions or other veggies to your meat classifies as meatloaf, not hamburgers, but that’s just me (and besides, meatloaf is good as well!). Keep it simple for now, a little Kosher salt, some fresh ground black pepper and perhaps a little garlic powder and you are good to go, just gently rub the seasoning into your patties. Note that I can’t seem to resist filling depressions or voids in meats, so you will see some Worcestershire sauce in the indention in this photo, I give you permission to do that if you must ....
7. Ok, the fire is lit, your meat hasn’t been worked over too hard (other than a dent in the top) and you lightly seasoned your ground beef. Carry those bad boys out and slide them onto the hottest part of the grill. Our goal here is to sear the outside of the hamburger to form a great crust, while keeping the insides nice and juicy. Take note of what time you put them on the grill so you can time this exercise.
8. After about 5 or 6 minutes (again, it’s hard to say how long it will take to cook a hamburger on your grill, but you’ll know after a few attempts), you should start seeing juices starting to collecting on the top of your burger. I like to call this burger sweat (doesn’t it look like it?). This is a sure sign that the meat is cooking through in the middle, which pushes the juices to the top.

1. Flip the burgers over and grill for 1 – 2 minutes shorter than the time it took to start seeing the juices (about 3 – 4 minutes should do the trick for medium, but again, it depends on the grill). Not trying to scare you, but if you have seen any of the information on ground beef, you know that more than one cow went into making your burger meat. Therefore, it is imperative that you cook the meat thoroughly (just in case). The USDA recommends 160 degrees for all ground meat. Don’t take a chance, use a good instant-read thermometer like the Thermapen(the best!) and check the USDA’s latest recommendations. If you are an iPhone owner, check out our free MeatTemps app to look up the correct internal temps for meat. If you are making cheeseburgers, now is the time to slap the cheese on and close the lid just long enough to melt the cheese.
2. Remove the burgers from the grill and let them sit for about 5 minutes while you toast a few buns on the grill!

That’s it, that’s all you have to do to cook the perfect hamburgers on a grill. Simple, juicy and delicious! Again, your times will vary based on your grill and how you like your burgers. One more thing I forgot to mention. Most of the time we Americans eat hamburgers, it’s usually at a time that you aren’t really expecting good food. Kid’s parties, get-togethers, tailgating, etc. My point is, people probably won’t even notice the amount of effort you went through to perfect your burgers. Relish (get it?) those little comments like “I wish my hamburgers were this good” and have pride that you know why there’s aren’t!

How to cook Steak

Steak is the most popular food in Westen country.But you just enjoy the beautiful steak in the restaurant.Do you know how to make the delicious steak at home?There is 10 steps to teach you how to do that.

Ingredients

Steaks or chops, at least 1" thick

Salt, pepper

Herbs (optional)

Cooking oil (such as canola, vegetable, or brown nut oil)

Butter

Steps:
1.Choose a thick cut of steak over a thin one. Thick cuts of steak (1" or more) can develop a beautiful outer crust without drying out the insides unnecessarily. This task is a lot more difficult with thin cuts: You risk overcooking the inside right when the outside has finished browning. If you like your steak to have a perfectly-brown outside and a juicy, pink center, opt for thicker cuts of meat over thinner ones.

2.Salt your steaks in advance and let them come to room temperature before pan frying. Salt at least 40 minutes in advance of frying. Salting too soon before cooking does the exact opposite of what you want to do: It brings the moisture out to the surface. When you salt far enough in advance that process can reverse:

The salt draws the moisture out to the surface, where it settles in small puddles. Meanwhile the salt is tenderizing the meat and breaking down proteins. After this quick tenderization happens, the moisture drawn out by the salt begins to seep back in to the steak. This leaves your steak both more tender and more moist.

Do not apply pepper just yet. Pepper can burn during the pan frying, while salt cannot. If you don't want the acrid taste of pepper on your beautiful steak, hold off until just after you've finished frying the steak.

3.Oil the pan with 1 to 2 teaspoons of neutral oil (canola or brown nut works fine) over high heat. Wait until the oil just starts to smoke. This means that the pan is ready to take the steak.

4.Lightly place the steak in the pan and begin to fry. If the pan has raised ridges, you can set your steak in at an angle in order to give it a crosshatch pattern.

5.Decide whether you're going to flip the meat often or only once. To flip or not to flip — that is the question. While many cooks choose to flip the steak only once to develop full color on each side, many food scientists have recently begun to weigh in on the question, and their findings point to a different answer.

The frequent flipping club has discovered that food that is flipped often cooks faster and more evenly. On the flip side, the meat doesn't have enough time to develop the best possible charring, although it still develops plenty of flavor.

Try it out for yourself and see which method produces the best steak for you. Cooking is all about suiting your own preferences. Those preferences should speak loudest.

6.Cook the steak for anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes per side, depending on thickness and desired doneness. A thicker cut will obviously require longer cooking, while a thinner cut will get cooked quicker.

 

7.About 2 minutes before steak is ready, add 2 tablespoons of butter into the pan, along with any herbs or aromatics. The butter will give the steak a rich, nutty flavor. Tilt the pan slightly and spoon the melted butter on top of the steak for even coverage. If you want to add any herbs or aromatics to your steak — although a good steak will not need them — consider adding any one of the following:

Rosemary

Lavender

Thyme

Sage

Garlic

8.Use a thermometer to test doneness. A thermometer is your best bet for producing a great-tasting steak consistently each time. (Alternately, you can use the finger test.) A handy electronic thermometer will only pierce the surface of the skin lightly and should be able to tell you if your steak is nearing the desired doneness. For a guide on what temperature you want to cook your steak to, study the following chart:

120° F (48.8° C) = Rare

130° F (54.4° C) = Medium rare

140° F (60° C) = Medium

150° F (65.5° C) = Medium well

160° F (71.1° C) = Well done

9.About 5° F before your steak is done, remove it from the pan and set it aside to cool. Your steak will continue cooking somewhat even after you remove it from the pan. This is why you remove it before it's actually finished cooking. And, of course, let your steak rest for at least five minutes by covering it with a tent of aluminum foil.

If you don't your steak rest properly, all the juices will spill out when you cut into it. That's because the muscle fibers tighten up during cooking, sending the juices to the center of the cut, where the meat is still relatively rare and light. Resting the meat allows the muscle fibers to relax, sending the juices back through the entire piece of meat. Then, when you cut it up, your steak is both more tender and more juicy.

10.Serve your steak and enjoy. You can either cut your steak into relatively thick slices or let your guests tuck into it on their own.

How to make Spicy Shrimp

Spicy Shrimp is a popular food in Sichuan. This is a very delicious food.Now more Chinese like it.It is easy to make at home.How to make a delicious Spicy Shrimp?I will teach you something.

1.Antarctic shrimp , from scratch, under body connection scissors, cut the shell to the tail, deprived of the shrimp line, then a knife along the cut half of the site will be cut so tasty shrimp Wash and cut celery inch segment, onion cut inch sections, ginger slices will fragrant sauce, bean paste, fermented separately minced

2.Put  half pot of oil in a small pot.When the oil has been very hot, put down the shrimp,cooked to the shrimp looks white,use a colander take them out.

3.Pot stay in a little oil, use the small fire cooked onions, ginger, garlic flavor burst, into fragrant sauce, bean paste, tempeh, bay leaves, stir marked, the transferred chili oil, chicken, sugar

4.Add celery, changes in the fire, add shrimp, stir evenly so that all materials are attached to the shrimp and sauce

 

The Best Chef of the World

Gordon James Ramsay  (born 8 November 1966) is a Scottish chef, restaurateur and television personality. He has been awarded 15 Michelin stars in total and currently holds 12.Ramsay is known for presenting TV programmes about competitive cookery and food, such as the British series Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, Ramsay's Best Restaurant, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, Gordon's Great Escape, Gordon Behind Bars, Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live, and Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course; along with the American versions of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, MasterChef, and Hotel Hell. He has a net worth of £76,000,000.

Early life:
Gordon Ramsay was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England from the age of 5. Ramsay is the second of four children; he has an older sister, Diane, a younger brother, Ronnie and a younger sister, Yvonne. Ramsay's father Gordon (died 1997) was, at various times, a swimming pool manager, a welder, and a shopkeeper; his mother, Helen Cosgrove, and Yvonne have been nurses.
Ramsay has described his early life as "hopelessly itinerant", as his family moved constantly due to the aspirations and failures of his father, who was violent.In 1976, they finally settled in Stratford-upon-Avon where he grew up in the Bishopton area of the town. Ramsay has described his father as an alcoholic. In his autobiography, Humble Pie, he describes his early life as being marked by abuse and neglect from this "hard-drinking womaniser". At the age of 16, Ramsay moved out of the family house into a flat in Banbury.

Football career:
Ramsay played football and was first chosen to play under-14 football at age 12. He was chosen to play for Warwickshire. His football career was marked by injuries, causing him to remark later in life, "Perhaps I was doomed when it came to football". In mid-1984, Ramsay had a trial with Rangers, the club he supported as a boy. He seriously injured his knee, smashing the cartilage during training. Ramsay continued to train and play on the injured knee, tearing a cruciate ligament during a squash game.
Ramsay has claimed to have played two first team games for Rangers.^[According to his autobiography Ramsay played "a couple of non-league matches as a trialist" for Rangers and was signed by the club at the age of 15.
Allan Cairns, the photographer who took the picture in September 1985, said the photo was not one of Rangers first team but a side picked to play a testimonial match. A Rangers spokesman said: "Ramsay was a trialist in that testimonial game. He trained with us for a few months after that but then got injured."

Rangers revisited

In series 4, episode 12 of The F Word (originally aired on 29 July 2008), Ramsay visited Ibrox, the home ground of his favourite childhood team, Rangers, and exclaimed, "Home, Sweet Home" and said, "My dream came true when I was spotted in the mid-80s and I joined the youth team here in Ibrox." He related that one of his fondest memories is playing alongside one of Scotland's football legends, Ally McCoist, who said about Ramsay, "I remember him well and the one thing that never ever will change is that he's a competitive so-and-so and wants to do and be the best that he can." Ramsay recalled that, "the pain of being released on the back of an injury" was only assuaged many years later, "after receiving [his] third Michelin Star", and concluded that, "without the upset at Ibrox, I would not be the chef I am today."


Early cooking career:

By this time, Ramsay's interest in cooking had already begun, and rather than be known as "the football player with the gammy knee", at age 19, Ramsay paid more serious attention to his culinary education. After weighing his options, Ramsay enrolled at North Oxfordshire Technical College, sponsored by the Rotarians, to study Hotel Management. He describes his decision to enter catering college as "an accident, a complete accident".
In the early 1980s, he worked as a commis chef at the Wroxton House Hotel then ran the kitchen and 60-seat dining room at the Wickham Arms, until his sexual relationship with the owner's wife made the situation difficult. Ramsay then moved to London, where he worked in a series of restaurants until being inspired to work for the temperamental Marco Pierre White at Harvey's.
After working at Harveys for two years and ten months, Ramsay, tired of "the rages and the bullying and violence", decided that the way to further advance his career was to study French cuisine. White discouraged Ramsay from taking a job in Paris, instead encouraging him to work for Albert Roux at Le Gavroche in Mayfair. (While at Le Gavroche, he met Jean-Claude Breton, now his maître d' at Royal Hospital Road.) After working at Le Gavroche for a year, Albert Roux invited Ramsay to work with him at Hotel Diva, a ski resort in the French Alps, as his number two. From there, Ramsay moved to Paris to work with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon, both Michelin-starred chefs. In Master Chef Season 3, Episode 18, Gordon Ramsey states that Guy Savoy was his mentor. He continued his training in France for three years, before giving in to the physical and mental stress of the kitchens and taking a year to work as a personal chef on the private yacht Idlewild, based in Bermuda.
Head chef:

Upon his return to London in 1993, Ramsay was offered the position of head chef at La Tante Claire in Chelsea. Shortly thereafter, Marco Pierre White re-entered his life, offering to set him up with a head chef position and 10% share in the Rossmore, owned by White's business partners. The restaurant was renamed Aubergine and went on to win its first Michelin star fourteen months later. In 1997, Aubergine won its second Michelin star. Despite the restaurant's success, a dispute with Ramsay's business owners and Ramsay's dream of running his own restaurant led to his leaving the partnership in 1997. In 1998, Ramsay opened his own restaurant in Chelsea, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, with the help of his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson. The restaurant gained its third Michelin star in 2001, making Ramsay the first Scot to achieve that feat.
From his first restaurant, Ramsay's empire has expanded rapidly, next opening Petrus, where six bankers spent over £44,000 on wine during a single meal in 2001, then Amaryllis in Glasgow (which he was later forced to close) and later Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's. Restaurants at the Dubai Creek and Connaught hotels followed, the latter branded with his protégé Angela Hartnett's name. Ramsay has opened restaurants outside the UK, beginning with Verre in Dubai. Gordon Ramsay at Conrad Tokyo and Cerise by Gordon Ramsay both opened in Tokyo in 2005, and in November 2006, Gordon Ramsay at the London opened in New York City, winning top newcomer in the city’s coveted Zagat guide, despite mixed reviews from professional critics.
In 2007, Ramsay opened his first restaurant in Ireland, Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Powerscourt, County Wicklow. In May 2008 he opened his first restaurant on the US west coast – Boxwood, in The London West Hollywood hotel, formerly the Bel-Age hotel on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
On 9 August 2011, Ramsay opened his first Canadian restaurant in Montreal – Laurier Gordon Ramsay, formerly Rotisserie Laurier BBQ. However, in February 2012 Danny Lavy — the owner of the restaurant — announced the restaurant was disassociating itself from Ramsay, citing a lack of involvement and understanding on Ramsay's part. In 2013, the restaurant closed.