Proof from America’s Test Kitchen

This year, I discovered ATK’s content, and the Proof podcast was my gateway into it all. I’d heard of ATK before but didn’t realize how excellent their content was. Since discovering it, I’ve gone through quite a few episodes and bought about six of their cookbooks!

A recent favorite episode, “The (Iron) White Claw,” explores the rise of the drink, its roots in the queer community, and how branding—gendered or non-gendered—changes how a drink fits into different spaces. Highly recommend!

The Recipe with Kenji and Deb

When I saw that Kenji & Deb were making a podcast, I must have been one of the first paid subscribers! It’s also available for free, but I try to support content I love when I can, and this one was a no-brainer.

I absolutely loved the recent episode on popcorn, and the one on Caesar Salad was excellent, too.

Gastropod from Eater

One of my all-time favorite podcasts is Radiolab. The show is brimming with curiosity, and they have an incredible way of transforming even the simplest concepts into captivating stories. Gastropod reminds me a lot of Radiolab’s approach to storytelling, except it focuses entirely on the history and science of food! I’m currently reading On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, and diving into Gastropod’s back catalog alongside it has been an exquisite pairing.

Special Sauce from Serious Eats

Serious Eats is my go-to website whenever I’m learning about a new ingredient, recipe, or cuisine. Their catalog is packed with culinary treasures, and their podcast is just as impressive. Featuring a wide range of guests from the food world, the show dives into an array of fascinating and relevant topics. You can start anywhere in the feed, and I promise—you won’t be disappointed!

Seattle Eats from KUOW

Living in Seattle, I was excited to see this new podcast from KUOW pop up a few months ago. So far, I’ve been really enjoying all the local food stories and discovering more about the depth and breadth of the food scene here in the city. It’s been fascinating to learn about the history, diversity, and unique culinary traditions that make Seattle’s food culture so special.

I’m realizing now that Kenji has been a guest (and host) on at least three of my five featured podcasts! The Teriyaki episode with him was a standout—it’s such a great exploration of a beloved local dish.

What am I missing?

I would love to know what food & cooking podcasts you listen to as well! Alawys on the hunt for new inspiration I know there are lots of smaller creators out there making awesome stuff. Let me know if there are any others I should check out, and happy listening!

This past week and a half has been hard for so many. My routines have fallen away, and in the days after November 5th, I didn’t do much cooking, exercising, or any of the other healthy practices I try to plan into my days. As often happens after a big shakeup in my life, I was able to slowly move forward, gather some of my go-to recipes, make a list, and get the week’s meals planned. There are sure to be many more weeks that feel like this, and many more that feel worse over the course of my lifetime. I can’t change much about how the world around me happens on a large scale, but I can work to change how I react to those happenings. Building resilience and working to do a bit better next time are things that I want to keep striving toward.

Here are some things that have helped me keep going through chaos and get back to the kitchen—my favorite place.

Acknowledging the feelings

A first step for working through difficult emotions for me is always to try to identify what I am feeling and sit with it for a while. I get mad if I need to, cry if I need to, or do whatever else feels good in the moment. In these times, it is normal to lack motivation and not feel up for doing the things I really want to be doing. This process can take a day, a week, or longer for me, depending on what threw me off. The most important thing I have learned is to not push the feelings away but rather to practice being with them. The worst of it usually passes within a day or two and then there’s just the lingering heaviness of it all for a while. Once I have found some equilbrium with my emotions the next step is gently pushing myself to do something that feels grounding—like cooking.

Importance of Nourishment

When everything feels tumultuous, my first instinct is usually to get take-out. But when I’m able to gently push through that feeling and cook at home, I always feel better about my choice and feel better overall later. Even when homemade meals are not exceptionally healthy, I generally find that the act of making them helps me feel grounded, and eating them with my partner makes me feel well-nourished. Cooking doesn’t need to be fancy to be fulfilling, either. Simple recipes made with care (or sloppily tossed together) are often just what is needed.

Strategies for Low-Energy Cooking

When looking for go-to simple recipes, I generally look for meals that take 30 minutes start to finish, use ingredients I usually have on hand, and don’t take a lot of mental energy to put together. I keep a fairly wide variety of ingredients in my pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, which helps a lot. Another thing I look for in these recipes is ones where the main ingredient(s) will last a decent amount of time in the refrigerator. During more difficult times, I usually only have the energy for a single grocery trip, so I try to stock up on pantry items and grab everything for the recipes i’ll be making that week. Making a double batch is another strategy I rely on when I’m cooking with low energy so meals stretch further.

Go-To Easy Recipes

Here are a few of my go-to recipes—easy, comforting, and perfect for low-energy days. Each has been a reliable source of nourishment for me during hard times. I would love to hear what recipes are part of your normal cooking rotation that you might add to this list as well!

Mapo Tofu - This is the recipe I make the most out of any other on this list. I love mapo tofu and have found the JOC recipe to be the right amount of effort to deliciousness and comfort. The Woks of Life also has a great mapo recipe, and if you own a copy of The Wok there are two great options from Kenji that I make as well. Served over white rice, a double batch will last a few days for two people and is my go to comfort food.

Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles - If you have a mortar and pestle this recipe is very quick work. If not, it might take just a bit longer, but the time spent is well worth a result packed with flavor. I always have the ingredients for this in my pantry and toss it together often.

Shakshuka with Feta - This dish is comforting and simple to make. I always have most of the ingredients on hand and the more perishible items required keep well in the firdge for a few days. The hardest part about this recipe is having the patience to sweat the onions and peppers slowly, and avoid adding the rest of the ingredients too soon. After that, it’s smooth and easy to finish up.

Quick, Essential Stovetop Mac-and-Cheese - Smitten Kitchen is generally one of my go-to site for simple, easy, and comforting recipes. This mac and cheese checks all of those boxes and is flexible enough that one can reasonably substitute different ingredients as long as they match decently enough with what the recipe calls for.

Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce - If you don’t do much wok cooking and don’t work with eggplant a lot, this one takes a bit more effort than the others, but I absolutely love this recipe and make it as part of my regular rotation. I highly recommend trying it and other recipes out from the Woks of Life family.

Final Thoughts

This past week and a half has been hard for a lot of people in the US, and unfortunately, it won’t be the last tough time we face. Cooking brings me a lot of joy, and I hope it can bring you some too. Even when the world feels like it’s falling apart, the kitchen can be a place of comfort—a small but powerful way to care for yourself.

Whether it’s making something simple, reheating a frozen pizza, or ordering takeout, what matters most is showing yourself kindness in whatever way feels right. Every small act of care helps us find steadiness in the chaos and reminds us of our capacity to take care of ourselves, even when everything feels hard.

Late last year, my partner picked up a used copy of The Wok by J. Kenji López-Alt from Facebook marketplace. When they first got it, I was intrigued but didn’t dive in right away. I vaguely knew who Kenji was after seeing him interview the Woks of Life family at Book Larder here in Seattle, but that was the extent of my knowledge. Little did I know I would spend the next year or so reading through the book and building a foundation of knowledge about how to use this amazing pan.

We had acquired a wok along with a smattering of other things from the tenants who rented the apartment before us. It was pretty giant—somewhere around 16 inches—with a loose handle and an unkempt layer of seasoning. I used it a few times to make some so-so fried rice but was honestly intimidated by the pan and had no idea how I was supposed to use it—or the dusty bamboo wok brush that came with it.

A few months later, I found Kenji’s cooking videos on YouTube and was inspired to pick the book up off the shelf and started reading. I was enchanted right from the beginning and started learning some basics of wok cooking. It didn’t take me long to realize a smaller wok would be a better fit, so I picked up a 14-inch carbon steel flat-bottomed pan. Carbon steel is the go to material for woks because it heats evenly, tolerates high heat, and is very responsive to changes in heat. A flat bottom wok is usually the best choice for home cooks since it sits well on a flat heating element or grate. After learning how to season it and the basics of using it, I started making my way through Kenji’s cookbook.

finished reading The Wok this fall. I cooked at least a few recipes from every section, and some of them, like Better-Than-My-Mom’s Chunking Pork (p.95) and San Fransisco-Style Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles (p.330) I’ve made over and over again. I also had fun learning how to deep fry in a wok by making Japanese Katsu (p.465) for the first time. It turns out the wok is an excellent vessel for deep frying, since it has flared sides that keep splatters in and reacts to temperature changes well. Making Moo Shu (Moo Shi) Mushrooms Or Moo Shu Pork (p.104) with Manderin Pancakes (p.106) was a fun challenge - getting the pancakes right is a real skill! The thing I make the most often though is a simple, better than so-so fried rice using Kenji’s detailed instructions and whatever I have in my refrigerator that day.

Cooking anything well can be a challenge, and making meals in a wok is no exception—especially when working with underpowered home burners. Most home gas cooktops top out at around 20k - 40k BTUs, whereas commercial wok burners can be as much as ten times more powerful, at 100k - 200k BTUs! The biggest challenge has been learning the flow of things. Stir-frying goes very quickly, and it’s critical to have your mise en place ready to go before you turn the burner on. Once you get used to the pace and how the wok works on your particular home burner, it just takes practice—just like everything else worth learning in life!

If you haven’t ever used a wok before, I can’t recommend Kenji’s book enough. I’ll share a few other great resources I’ve found this year as well for anyone who might be interested in getting started on their own wok journey. I’m still a novice, but my wok is now my most-used pan in the kitchen, and it has been such a joy learning how to use it!

How to cook in a wok

Check out the resources list below to learn how to use a wok from the experts. This is my abbreviated instructions with commentary:

1. Heat the Wok:

Turn on the heat to high and get the wok hot enough so the thin layer of oil in the pan begins to smoke (the thin layer of oil is laid down at the end of the process in step 5). Getting used to the smoke was the hardest part for me at first, especially when it kept setting off my very sensitive smoke detector! I lessened the issue by setting up good airflow through the kitchen.

2. Add the Oil:

Once the wok is hot, add your oil. Heating the wok first allows the metal to expand slightly, which closes the microscopic pores on the surface. This minimizes sticking and creates a smoother surface for cooking. The hot metal also helps the oil form a thin, even layer due to reduced surface tension. From what I have seen, the biggest mistake people generally make is not getting the oil hot enough, which causes everything to stick to the pan and creates a huge mess!

3. Cook in Batches:

Cook your ingredients without overcrowding the pan. Keep the ingredients moving often, either by tossing the wok or using a spatula. If there’s too much to cook at once, batches are your best friend. For most recipes, I generally:

1. Start by cooking the protein and larger components of the dish.

2. Toss everything into a bowl as it finishes.

3. Add aromatics to the pan and cook them quickly.

4. Add everything back into the wok.

5. Finally, add the sauce and finish the dish.

4. Clean the Wok:

Once the dish is finished, move it to a serving plate, then clean the wok with a bamboo brush. I had no idea how to use the brush at first, but I learned that if you tilt the wok away from you and angle the brush similarly, you can run it up and down the surface to easily clean almost anything off in just a few seconds. Occasionally, I’ll use a sponge to get the last bits off, but most of the time, the bamboo brush does the job perfectly. I’m using the natural kind with long thin bamboo bristles.

5. Dry and Re-Oil:

Dry the wok over a hot burner, then re-oil it once all the water has evaporated. This process only takes a minute or two and is easy to do while I’m handling last-minute serving tasks or setting the table. When applying oil, I try to coat every surface of the wok, including the bottom and sides. Just the thinnest layer is all that’s needed to build up a seasoning that will improve over time with continued use.

Resources

The Wok by J. Kenji Lopez Alt

Kenji's Youtube Channel - Full of great recipes, for both the wok and other pans.

Wok Skills 101: Stir-Frying Basics - A great article on the basics of stir frying in a wok co-authored by Kenji.

The Woks of Life website - Their accompanying cookbook is also excellent.

Yosukata Carbon Steel 13.5” Wok - This is the wok I own. It’s the perfect size for a home burner and for tossing ingredients comfortably. It has been excellent to use and easy to maintain. The handle is sturdy and well-constructed.