How to Make a Stir-Fry Dish

Buwei Yang Chao first coined the term stir-fry in her book How to Cook and Eat in Chinese. First published in 1945, many culinary historians consider it the first book to present traditional Chinese recipes to an American audience. Over the years stir-fry has become a common entree gracing dinner tables everywhere. Stir-fry is a great way to incorporate fresh vegetables and lean meat into a delicious meal. In today’s blog Public Kitchen Supply will explain how quick and easy a stir-fry meal can be with the right kitchen smallwares.
One of the most common stir-fry tools is a wok. A wok is a wide, rounded pan that originated in Guangdong Province in China. A wok’s curved, sloping sides allows for more food to cook evenly. You can shift food around in a this pan by cooking some food on the more direct heat and others on the side farther away from the burner. We recommend Adcraft’s Induction Ready Wok with Cover. This wok is made with an aluminum core to maximize even heat distribution. The Adcraft wok has a magnetic bottom so it can be used on an induction cooker. To make stir-fry, woks should be placed over medium-high heat. Once your pan is hot, 1 tablespoon of peanut oil should be added to the wok until the oil simmers.
Before you add your stir-fry spices and ingredients, you should considering measuring them to ensure no one ingredient overpowers another, unless you want it to. Use Update International’s 4-Piece Measuring Spoon Set for your seasonings. Stir-fry is a versatile rice dish that can use a large variety of spices and sauces. Some of the most common, popular stir-fry seasonings are garlic, soy sauce, peanut sauce, crushed red pepper and ginger. The key to delicious stir-fry is knowing the impact of each flavor. Each seasoning needs to be correctly measured. Same goes for meats and vegetables. For a yield of four, we recommend using 12 ounces of lean meat and four cups of vegetables. Use Cambro’s 1 Cup Clear Measuring Cup for precise measurements for your meats and veggies. Stir-fry is a great way to use leftover ingredients. Most meats and vegetables work well in a stir-fry, especially with the right seasoning. Consider using chunks of chicken, chunks of beef, or pieces of seafood. If you’re looking for a quick weeknight dinner use a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables and chicken breasts and mix with white rice.
Once you have measured your ingredients and added them to the wok you will need a wooden spoon or a heatproof silicone spatula. Rubbermaid’s 16.5” White Spatula Spoon is a great way to stir and handle all of your ingredients without damaging the wok. You should continually stir your meat, vegetables, and rice until they are crisp, hot and tender. Be careful not to stir-fry too many vegetables at once or they’ll lose their crunch, becoming soft and mushy. Most stir-fry recipes take about 40 minutes between food prep and cooking.
Serve your stir-fry dish with Update International’s 12” Black Serving Spoon. This serving spoon is made out of nylon making it heat resistant up to 410°F. Its long handle will provide plenty of space between your hand and the stove. Use colorful plates like Tablecraft’s Orange Frostone Serving Bowl to present your stir-fry dish to your family or guests. The Orange Frostone Serving Bowl is temperature resistant up to 212°F. It will do an excellent job of containing your favorite crispy vegetables and meats in their exotic sauce. Let Public Kitchen Supply supply your kitchen with the kitchen smallwares you need to feed your family. Stir-fry is a quick way to make a hot, fresh meal. There are endless stir-fry combinations that are just waiting to be explored. Spice up your weekday with is easy, healthy delicious dish.

Merril D. Smith (9 January 2013). History of American Cooking. ABC-CLIO. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-313-38712-8.

The Big Push to Include Calorie Count on Menus: Good or Bad?

According to the Huffington Post, in 2010 the U.S. Government required chain restaurants and other food establishments to label their menus with a calorie count. This decision was extremely controversial in the restaurant world. Some businesses appreciated the law seeing it as a step to greater food consciousness and health awareness. Yet, others in the food industry argued the practicality of a calorie count menus. In today’s blog Public Kitchen Supply will discuss the benefits and detriments of this new FDA requirement.
One negative of calorie count menus is that they can be extremely difficult to create. Creating an accurate calorie count menu requires exact precise measurements every time. While products like Fundamnetal Design’s Portion Pal and Cambro measuring cups can reduce this burden it can still be difficult to meet exact calorie expectations. This is especially true in restaurants that have greater recipe flexibility. If you’re restaurant is required to have calorie count menus, Public Kitchen Supply suggests investing in quality measuring cups and utensils. Purchasing the proper portion control tools will help you meet menu requirements every time.
While a calorie count menu requires more work, one benefit is uniform cooking. If you’re restaurant strives for consistent recipes, a calorie count menu may prove useful. Many food establishments, especially chains, want their customers to have a consistent product. Many customers expect the same taste every time when they go to a restaurant. The best way to achieve this is through exact recipes. A calorie count menu will motivate employees to use the proper measuring utensils. Calorie count menus make it easier to manage what ingredients are being used and how much. This is a fantastic benefit when it comes to restaurant inventory and food cost. Following a calorie count menu assists in restaurant organization.
One obvious detriment of calorie count menus is that it may cause people to order less. While a customer may know a food’s unhealthy for them they may proceed to order it if they don’t know the exact calories. When all customers see is a tasty menu description it’s easier to ignore the food’s calories. Calorie count menus eliminate this veil clearly displaying menu items nutritional value. While this may deter some customers from ordering as much food as they normally would, some customer’s may not care either way. If you see a substantial drop in food orders considering creating “half portions”. “Half portions” are a great way to meet health conscious customers in the middle.
Another benefit of calorie count menus is menu transparency and restaurant honesty. Many customers will appreciate truthful menus. Some customers, especially those dieting, may choose calorie count restaurants over another because of their menu. At Public Kitchen Supply, we think product honesty is a part of business integrity. Consider offering a low calorie menu for your health conscious customers.
Public Kitchen Supply work's hard to stay up to date on the latest restaurants trends and regulations. As the U.S. government and FDA push for greater food awareness it’s important the Food Industry does the same. At Public Kitchen Supply we carry a variety of products that will assist you in building a calorie count menu. To view the products mentioned in today’s blog and other fantastic product visit our website at publickitchensupply.com.

Jalonick, Mary C. "Menu Labeling Law: Calorie Counts Are a 'Thorny' Issue, FDA Head Says." Huffignton Post 12 Mar. 2013: n. pag. Huffingtonpost.com. Web. 25 Aug. 2014. .

APW Wyott Plate Dispensers 101

When you run a public eating establishment you have to consider how you want to offer plates to your guests. You have to consider the appearance of it as well as the usefulness and the hygiene aspects. Having a stack of plates that your employees constantly refill may be the cheapest way to present plates; however, you have to consider all the labor that goes in to that. Someone has to load them and unload them from the dishwasher, possibly dry them, then take them over, set them down, watch the level and repeat as necessary. This process would be a full time job during a busy dinner service. And since you can't stack plates too high, could potentially cause a run-out of plates.
All of these are things to consider if you want a manual plate dispensing system. Otherwise, a busy restaurant or catering company should look into more of an automatic plate dispensing system. APW Wyott is a great manufacturer to turn to for this dilemma. They offer many different options for plate dispensing. You just have to determine what style best fits your needs. There are drop-in and mobile options, heated and unheated options, shielded and unshielded and enclosed options.
Drop-in vs Mobile Drop-in plate dispensers are what you would assume they are. They are the type that you will build into a countertop or buffet line. All you should see of them is the black plate guides that manage to keep the plates in place as they're being held and dispensed. These are best to purchase when first building or remodeling your restaurant. Once in, they're essentially permanent unless you perform construction. Built-in styles are more for restaurants that know their layout and don't expect it to change for a while. A mobile plate dispenser, on the other hand, is ideal for the ever-changing food service place. It gives you the ability to move the plate dispenser around to wherever you need it. More of a cart, it allows it to be wheeled around a room. These are ideal for caterers who constantly need to change the set-up based on their clients' wishes. While it can be used in a restaurant, typically they are not. The fact that it is on wheels can be a liability and look out of place in an otherwise stationary and built-in setting. One great benefit of a mobile dispenser over a built-in dispenser is that when it needs to be refilled, it can be carted over to the dishwasher and filled there. A drop-in kind, on the other hand, requires someone to either carry a small stack at a time or enlist the use a utility cart to transport the plates from the dishwasher. There's a time and place for both styles.
Heated vs Unheated Choosing between a heated or an unheated plate dispenser is really a thing of taste. We've all been to a buffet line where you grab a plate and it's still wet from the dishwasher. You have the choice to either set it down and try a different plate or just ignore it and keep going down the line. A heated plate dispenser helps to prevent this from happening to your customers. The heated elements will ensure your customers get plates that are dry. The warmth of the plate helps also to keep their food warm while they're eating, which is especially helpful if your restaurant is a family-style restaurant filled with talking customers. Customers want to be able to carry on a conversation and not worry about their food getting cold. While heated plates are one of the most popular styles, they do tend to cost more, but customers notice the difference. Unheated dispensers on the other hand, do have a very important place in a restaurant as well. You should consider the placement of where a heated dispensers along a buffet line is not wanted. The last place you want to put a heated dispenser is next to a salad bar. For these plates, you probably want an unheated plate dispenser. No one wants a hot plate for a cold salad or fruit. By the time a person has finished preparing their salad, the lettuce will start wilting, guaranteeing a ruined meal. So make sure you consider what will be placed on the plates before shelling out extra money for a heated element.
Shielded vs Unshielded vs Enclosed When you're considering which type of plate dispenser you need, you also need to consider how open your plates can be to the elements. Some versions of plate dispensers from APW Wyott come as shielded plate dispensers and others you can get as unshielded. Which you purchase depends on where you will be placing them. You won't want to put an unshielded dispenser out in the middle of a busy room. Dirt particles among many other things can have easy access to the plates causing them to become dirty and unsanitary. Also, nothing will protect the plates from having a beverage or other food spilt on them causing a possible food allergy to occur. An unsuspecting customer with a high-level peanut allergy can grab a plate that had peanut butter spilt on it and end up in the emergency room. You don't want to have that happen when you could simply purchase an enclosed or shielded dispenser. A time when unshielded dispensers are great is when they're built-in to a counter or part of the drop-in collection. This means that the counter is already its protection from the elements and having the extra material to enclose it or shield it ends up being an added and unnecessary cost.
With all of the options that APW Wyott offers, knowing the diameter of the plates you plan to be dispensing is an important guideline. There are a few "adjustube" options, that are adjustable between a set of plate diameters. Look to these as your solution if you are a caterer who uses two plate sizes and are able to change them between dinner and dessert. Either way, you have a lot of options when you begin your search for the perfect plate dispenser. Choose wisely, and shop the different styles. Make sure what you purchase is appropriate for your needs. Browse our wide selection right here: www.PublicKitchenSupply.com/PlateDispensers