Cary's Sandra Gutierrez needs you to eat more empanadas—and wants to show you how to make them

Indy Week photos by Jeremy M. Lange

After a year in which she published two well-received cookbooks and traveled often to promote them in readings, signings and cooking demonstrations across America, Sandra Gutierrez welcomed 2016 in the best way she could imagine: cozied up with family in her Cary home, where she made short-cut collard empanadas with pre-packaged Goya wrappers.

"It's good to know how to make the dough, but these let anybody make empanadas anytime," says the author of Empanadas: The Hand-Held Pies of Latin America, as she tears into one stuffed with a traditional Argentine combination of stewed beef, chopped olives and raisins. "There are thousands of recipes, some of them complicated, but you can make delicious empanadas from leftovers. You can even use eggroll wrappers. Enjoying good food with your family is more important than making every single thing from scratch."

Released last spring, Empanadas empowers home cooks to prepare dozens of the variations popular throughout Latin America. But the Guatemala native is on a timely, relevant quest to broaden the already wide appeal of these portable pies—especially in the South, where fried hand pies have a beloved place in the culinary canon. In both Empanadas and Beans & Field Peas, a Savor the South book published in September by the University of North Carolina Press, Gutierrez delivers recipes with rich historical context that also consider the busy lifestyles of American cooks who hope to get dinner on the table quickly.

By making these recipes more approachable, Gutierrez has become a vital figure in the changing foodways of the Triangle, where authentic Latin fare is finally making inroads in a scene once clogged with gloppy combination plates and stale tortilla chips. In the last several years, more than a dozen restaurants offering and often updating the cuisine of Latin America have become area favorites. Many of them, like Calavera in Raleigh and Carrboro and the new Luna and Makus in Durham, even specialize in empanadas. When Gutierrez first settled in Cary in 1993, she couldn't have imagined such a change.

Gutierrez sat down at home over a batch of empanadas to discuss her career and the changes in cuisine all around her.

INDY: You've published four cookbooks in four years, starting with The New Southern-Latino Table and Latin American Street Food, both produced by UNC Press. To what do you credit this success?

Sandra Gutierrez: I've had fortunate timing to be part of the growing interest in Latino culture.Empanadas was my surprise book; I got that offer three weeks after committing to Beans & Field Peas. Empanadas are trendy right now, but I think they're here to stay because of the influx of Latinos all over the United States. It's only a matter of time before everyone discovers how great they are; I don't think anyone who grew up with Pop-Tarts should have any trouble relating to an empanada.

Americans have the tendency to assume that all Hispanic cultures are similar, but empanadas vary considerably across Latin America. What accounts for this?

Tamales and empanadas are everywhere. Tortillas are not; they're just in Mexico and central America, and then they disappear. But as you travel, you find that empanada doughs are very different. You'll find wheat-based dough, like tender pastries, because it's what the Spaniards brought.

But as the indigenous peoples of the Americas fell in love with handheld pies, the dough began to change. If you go to the Latin Caribbean and Central America, you'll find dough made with plantains, which is gluten free. In Brazil, you find dough made of cassava or yucca—also completely gluten free. In Mexico and Guatemala, you find masa—again, gluten free. Because of this, nearly everyone can eat empanadas.

The empanada is a versatile filling conveyance; surely you've encountered awful Americanized versions?

Nothing terrible, really. Fillings originate from whatever is left over in someone's home. People sometimes tell me my recipes are not "authentic." They are—it's a matter of authentic to whom? The ingredients and seasonings vary based on where you are. Sometimes the dough is baked, sometimes fried. Peanut butter and jelly works in a pastry; apple pie filling also works. It's like a Southern fried pie.

What distinguishes an empanada from a hand pie, then?

The name. The concept exists all over the world, and we have the Persians to thank. Almost every culture has them. You'll find the "pasty" in the British countries, and phyllo is used for spanakopita in Greece. Empanadas lend themselves to being tweaked for American flavors. Americans love pie. What's the saying—we're as American as apple pie? You can add whatever you like. I like to think that any stew can be put in an empanada, any pie filling. A classic combination in Latin America is a white cheese and preserves; imagine that here with local fig preserves and goat cheese. Now that would make a wonderful empanada.

What are some of your favorite area restaurants for Latino food?

MachuPicchu in Raleigh is a great example of authentic Peruvian food. Guasaca Arepa is Venezuelan, and the food is delicious. Cuban Revolution in Durham is great, as is Carmen's Cuban Cafe, over by the airport. They've been there for decades. It's basic Cuban cuisine, but it's the most authentic street food you can find.

What's the best way to identify a restaurant that serves authentic cuisine?

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• From Cary, Sandra Gutierrez has become both an expert in empanadas and an advocate for the area's evolving food culture.

The best recommendation you can find is when you go in, it's full of Latin people. For the most part, these are not fancy restaurants. A lot of times they are in strip malls because the rent is cheaper. We're talking about mom-and-pop concepts, and they're not expensive. I especially like La Vaquita in Durham. It's a stand-alone place where you order at the window and eat outside.

It's such a welcome change. When Cary was young and we'd go to Mexican restaurants, I'd always order huevos rancheros, because it was the only thing that was real. But we're moving away from the Americanized, chain-like ideas. Imagine my excitement, my joy and my need or urge to write about and teach everything I know about the different Latin cuisines. I've got so much to share. There is so much to discover.

How did you manage writing two such different single-topic cookbooks at the same time?

I was able to prepare whole meals for my family with recipes from both books, so that helped. My favorite part of the job is the research.

I love to be completely immersed in a topic. Why do we eat what we eat? What are the stories? I'm a learner, and there is no more delicious way to learn than with food. If you only knew how many afternoons I take classes online—history, literature. I have a thirst for knowledge, and I want to share what I learn, which is why I love teaching so much. It's fun for me.

You are a charter member of the new North Carolina chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier, the international organization that advocates for women in the food industry. How do you see its role in getting female professionals in the food industry to commit to the advancement of education and philanthropy through food?

It's such an exciting time to be in the Triangle. So many women are doing remarkable things. Chefs, writers, food scholars—we're all in this area. The most beautiful part of it is that we are a very gregarious community, and everybody is interested in helping everybody else. Les Dames will allow women to help other women in the industry, while at the same time making a difference in their community. We haven't decided where our group will go, because it's new, but there are many opportunities to help through food: teaching children to grow vegetables at school and then how to cook and eat them, or scholarships to get an education in the food world.

There's a lot of need in our community. It's beautiful that a group of us women can come together through our experience and expertise in the food industry.

The Les Dames mission has attracted several influential North Carolina women—including president Colleen Minton of TerraVita; Vivian Howard of Chef & the Farmer in Kinston; Triangle cookbook writers Nancie McDermott, Sheri Castle and Debbie Moose—among others. What does it mean to you to be part of this circle?

It is humbling. These are women who have dedicated themselves to food and have a heart that makes them want to give back to their community. It's good to have women leaders making change and helping. The need is only growing.

It's also great that we have a place where we can network with a common purpose. I see a bunch of professionals mentoring other professionals. That is not perceived to be the norm among women in business. It's usually very competitive, but this is a group of mentors. We all want to help each other and our community. It's something I have never experienced at this level before.

Will 2016 bring a fifth cookbook from you?

I'm not doing another book right away. I'm booked solid through June promoting all of my books and teaching classes. The one part I don't like about all this is the travel. It's given me a new sense of independence, but it also is a chore. It's very worthwhile, though, as I make connections with someone who cooked my recipe or who is interested in what I'm writing about.

I would love more people to join me on social media (Twitter: @sandralatinista). I love the back-and-forth exchange; it keeps everything fresh for me. I get to know what people are looking for. I'm not writing the books for myself. I really do care about what people want to see and learn.

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• Shrimp and Tomato Stew Flaky Pillows (Pastéis de Camarão)

Empanada ease

Sandra Gutierrez's Empanadas: The Hand-Held Pies of Latin America collects 60 recipe variations on the hold-able wonders, crisscrossing the region and its varying traditions. Gutierrez offered this recipe—made with cheap, easy, store-bought dough—as an introduction to empanadas at home.

Shrimp and Tomato Stew Flaky Pillows (Pastéis de Camarão) 

Makes 12

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 cup finely chopped white onion2/3 cup peeled, seeded and chopped plum tomatoes2 tablespoons tomato paste1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, leaves and tender stems1 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste12 ounces peeled and cooked shrimp or langoustines, cut into 1/2-inch pieces12 store-bought empanada discs, such as GoyaVegetable oil for frying

MAKE THE FILLING: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet set on medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté until they are golden, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste; sauté for 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup of water and stir well to form a thick paste. Add the cilantro and salt; remove from the heat and let cool slightly. Add the shrimp or langoustines and stir well. Transfer the filling to a large bowl. Cover and let rest for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

ASSEMBLE THE PASTÉIS: Defrost packaged empanada discs overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature for 35–45 minutes. Place two tablespoons off center on one side of the round wrapper, leaving half-inch pastry border. Fold the top over the filling and seal by pressing sides together with your fingers. Crimp them tightly with the tines of a fork. Transfer them to a prepared baking sheet.

FRY THE PASTÉIS AND SERVE: Fit a large baking sheet with a metal cooling rack; set it aside. In a large skillet with high sides, heat 1/2 to one inch of vegetable oil to 360 degrees, or use a deep fryer. Working in batches, carefully slide the pastéis into the oil. Fry them until they're puffy and golden, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, turning them over halfway through. If the oil gets too hot as you fry and they're browning to quickly, lower the temperature and let the oil cool slightly before frying more. Remove them with a slotted spoon and place on the prepared rack to drain. Let them cool for 1 to 2 minutes and serve.

NOTE: Pastéis are best eaten immediately after they're fried. Freeze them uncooked in a single layer; once solid, transfer them to freezer bags and keep them frozen for up to three months. Fry them without thawing (to prevent splatters) for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes, or until they are golden and crispy.

This post first appeared in Indy Week. 

In praise of Marcella - and North Carolina shrimp

© MCT

Like most anyone who enjoys reading and cooking from an especially well-written cookbook, I was saddened by the recent passing of Marcella Hazan. She introduced countless home cooks – who felt themselves to be on a first-name basis with this legend – to the essential flavors of her beloved Italy, often with simple recipes that yielded surprisingly complex flavors.

I’ve read many of the tributes published by leading newspapers and culinary publications, as well as the chefs whose careers were informed by her groundbreaking work. When Cathy Barrow launched an effort to celebrate Marcella’s life on Oct. 26 with a virtual dinner party called Dinner with Marcella, I was in.

Marcella’s confident voice resonates in her many cookbooks, which have endured decades of competition to serve as bona fide touchstones. She conjures the Amalfi coast of her youth and the abundance of local resources with captivating charm and the warmth of a generous grandma sharing lessons in the kitchen.

I heard that voice myself once when, in an undisputed high point of my life, she responded via Facebook to a story I wrote about making her cantaloupe pasta sauce. Her Aug. 11, 2010, comment made it clear that she had browsed this then-new blog:

Thank you, my dear. You write so well. I enjoyed reading your blog and I am very glad the cantaloupe sauce worked for you. I have feelings similar to yours about some aspects of fennel. I loathe it in sausages, which compels me to look for butchers who will make them fennel-free as we do in Italy. On the other hand I adore it sliced very thin, blanched, breaded and fried, or baked with butter and parmesan until it is brown on top. I understand, however, that there is no chance of my converting you. There are insurmountable obstacles for all of us in our gustatory travels.
Warm regards,
Marcella

Her prickly side was, perhaps, equally famous. With a stern “in my opinion,” Marcella dismissed most American ingredients as lesser in quality to those of her beloved Italy. Sometimes, as with “American sole … [which] really isn’t sole, it is flounder,” she considers available substitutes downright deceptive. “The best one can do with flounder is to take the edge off its awkwardness through the graces of a seductive sauce,” she wrote in The Classic Italian Cook Book (Knopf, 1978).

I heard from that Marcella once, too. I had been following posts from a group of bloggers who were cooking their way through her books. When I commented that I do not care for candied citron, she replied with unrestrained scorn that Americans have no idea what real candied citron tastes like.

I had to admit she was right; a morsel of Italian candied citron has never passed my lips. That said, I know what candied American citrus tastes like and I dislike it just as I do the finest quality marmalade.

Marcella similarly disliked American shrimp, even though it is somewhat endearing when she called them shrimps. In the introduction to Classic Italian’s I Secondi (second courses) chapter, she observed: “But while green beans, chickens and even veal may give roughly the same results here that they do in Italy, there is very little in American waters that resembles Italian fish. Not one of our species of shellfish coincides with an Italian one.”

In the headnote to Spiedini di gameri dell’Adraitico (Shrimp Brochettes, Adriatic Style), she take this claim a step further: “I have tasted many versions of this very simple dish in seafood and Italian restaurants here, but I have never come across any that recall the delicate balance of flavors and the juicy texture of the shrimps that fisherman cook all along the Adriatic.”

OK, Marcella. Game on. I have not enjoyed the shrimp of the Adriatic – which no doubt taste even more divine when eaten in that beautiful setting – but I have great confidence in the plump, flavorful shrimp of the North Carolina coast.

Despite three pages of directions and an illustration, the Shrimp Brochettes recipe appealed to me for its simplicity. Also, we had recently eaten excellent shrimp both locally and in South Carolina while on vacation.

Tim purchased beautiful shrimp from his favorite market that had been driven inland from the coast early that morning. I shelled and deveined them just before lightly coating in a “protective covering” of olive and vegetable oils, fine bread crumbs, garlic, basil and salt. (Her recipe calls for parsley, but I trusted I would be forgiven for using a few leaves of our still-performing basil plant.)

After a 20-minute marinade, I started the broiler to preheat. I followed her precise instructions to thread the shrimp through three points of each curl to ensure that they don’t slip when turner the skewers.

The shrimp cooked quickly, just as she said they would, and not a single one dared to slip. Served atop Isreali couscous cooked risotto-style with chicken broth, Graham pronounced the result the best shrimp dish he ever tasted. The delicate flavor was even better with the wedge of lemon Marcella recommended.

Arugula Shrimp Burgers

Tim bought a bounty of beautifully plump Carolina shrimp the other day. We enjoyed half of them in a stir fry and saved the rest to make shrimp burgers the next day. I had intended to use the Lee Bros. reliable recipe until I realized that I sent my books off to be signed a few weeks ago and have not yet reclaimed them.

I scanned the fridge for inspiration and found it in a large container of peppery aurgula, Graham's favorite green. From idea to first bite, our delicious dinner was ready in under 30 minutes.

Arugula Shrimp Burgers
Makes 3 for dinner (or about a 12-15 appetizers)

1 lb. fresh Carolina shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large handful arugula
1 egg white
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs, divided
1/2-1 teaspoon hot sauce
salt and freshly ground black pepper
canola oil
3 brioche rolls or hamburger buns, toasted
mayo and mustard

Grab a large handful of arugula and place it in the workbowl of a food processor. Pulse-chop until fine but not watery.  Add the shrimp, pulse-chopping just until chunky. Do not overwork the shrimp as it will turn into an unappetizing paste. Add egg white, hot sauce, salt and pepper; pulse until just combined.

Transfer to medium bowl. Add about 1 tablespoon of the panko crumbs and stir to combine. Form into three patties. Arrange on a plate and chill about 15 minutes. (If you wish to chill longer and cook later, cover with plastic wrap.)

Pour about 3 tablespoons of canola oil into 10- or 12-inch nonstick pan over medium-high heat. While oil warms, lightly press shrimp burgers into remaining panko crumbs to create a crust. Slide patties into the oil and cook until golden brown; carefully flip over and allow the second side to become equally golden. Remove from pan and drain briefly on paper towels.

Serve immediately on toasted brioche rolls lightly coated with mayo and your favorite mustard. I'm addicted to Gulden's Zesty Honey and Graham is likewise keen on Inglehoffer stone ground. Tim goes with the flow. If seasonal, add a nice slab of tomato.

Outer Banks Cookbook shows how to fix fish without fretting

This post first appeared in Indy Week on Jan. 30.

As a farmer's daughter, Elizabeth Wiegand takes special pleasure in the growing support for the farm-to-fork movement. She especially appreciates recognition of the considerable effort it takes for farmers to make it easier for consumers to enjoy fresh, locally grown vegetables and humanely raised meats.

She's doing her bit to turn the tide in one area that has not caught on with comparable fervor: a boat-to-table wave to celebrate seafood harvested from both the fresh and salt waters that lap our state's shores.

"Even if they know it comes from a very reliable source, some people just don't buy fish because they are intimidated by how to cook it," Wiegand says from the spacious kitchen of her North Raleigh home. "They're convinced it will smell or taste 'fishy.' Or they think it's way too difficult to make a restaurant- quality meal at home."

With the new second edition of her Outer Banks Cookbook: Recipes & Traditions from North Carolina's Barrier Islands, Wiegand is on a mission to prove that fresh fish can be as easy to fix as a grilled steak—or as complex as a great coq au vin. She's spreading the gospel on behalf of some of the most creative chefs on the Outer Banks, as well as home cooks who remember how, before good roads and ferries, they made do with what was caught or grown in their community.

Wiegand counts the region's hardworking fisherman among her heroes because they endure long days and difficult environmental and economic challenges to provide their bounty to top restaurants up and down the East Coast. Increasingly, they're also working with partners to hustle their daily catch inland to a growing number of Triangle markets and community-supported fisheries.

"Eighty percent of the seafood we consume in the U.S. is imported. That is sad and outrageous to me," Wiegand says. "With the wonderful resources we have in North Carolina, there's just no reason to eat fish that's not from here. Well, unless you really crave salmon."

As with the first edition of her book, Wiegand spent many weeks on the coast conducting painstaking research—in other words, sampling exceptional food with her longtime friend and guide Della Basnight, to whom the book is dedicated. Wiegand includes the legendary Hatteras Clam Chowder served at the Basnight family's Lone Cedar Cafe in Nags Head. The recipe traces back five generations to matriarch Dolly Midgett, who was born in 1826 on Hatteras Island.

"I'd have to force myself to go back time and again, listen to all their stories and eat all that great food along the Banks," Wiegand jokes, adding that locals never call their home the Outer Banks. "If you really want to break my heart, make me go back tomorrow."

Wiegand's love affair with the Banks began as a newlywed. The couple spent six weeks at the coast thanks to her husband's family, who owned a beach house.

"Steve loves to fish, and I had to learn how to deal with whatever he brought in," Wiegand says. "My rule was that if he caught it, he cleaned it. I love to cook, but I don't clean fish."

An intuitive cook and a writer who excels at sharing the stories of her subjects, Wiegand sought formal training to boost her abilities and appreciation of fine cooking. She studied in France at the acclaimed L'Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, the same place where Southern foods connoisseur Virginia Willis honed her skills.

Wiegand spent weeks focusing on classic French cooking techniques before she experienced a textbook light-bulb moment. "The chef taught us how to make crème anglaise," she says of the delicate dessert cream. "I thought to myself, it's just boiled custard. What am I doing here? We have great food in North Carolina."

Wiegand returned home with a new sense of purpose. She attended major food conferences with the goal of writing a cookbook. At one, she was fortunate to meet the legendary Julia Child, who bolstered her dream with advice to "write about what I know and feature the great foods of my own experience."

After receiving several rejections for a book proposal to comprehensively document North Carolina's diverse culinary traditions, Wiegand was accepted by Globe Pequot Press, which produced the first edition of the Outer Banks Cookbook in 2008.

"They told me to start at the coast and, if it was successful, to do the mountains next," says Wiegand, who did just that in 2010 with The New Blue Ridge Cookbook. "It was a very different terroir, but the chefs and cooks really weren't that different in their approaches.

"Back in the day, it was just as hard to get to town and they had to use what they had," she adds. "They all had great stories about how they honor the local resources."

While she enjoyed her exploration, Wiegand says North Carolina's coast serves as a "salve to my soul." She is putting the final touches on The Food Lovers' Guide to the Outer Banks, a new resource scheduled for May release.

Wiegand is toying with the idea of a Piedmont-based cookbook and one on seasonal cooking in the South. But first, she needs a break.

"I really enjoy seeing great chefs make use of local ingredients, but if I'm not working on a project I'm just as happy staying home and eating in," she says. "If you asked my husband, he'd say, 'Why go out?' Especially if you can get a really nice piece of fish, you can make a great dinner at home."

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Recipes printed by permission of Elizabeth Wiegand from The Outer Banks Cookbook, Recipes & Traditions from North Carolina's Barrier Islands (Second Edition, Globe Pequot Press, 2013).

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Pan-Roasted Fish

Thick and firm-fleshed fish, such as grouper, mahimahi or rockfish, do best with this quick and easy preparation.

Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 (6 ounce) fish fillets, skin removed
1/2 lemon, juiced
Tomato of fresh fruit salsa, prepared pesto of herbed butter (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Salt and pepper the fish. Sprinkle with lemon juice. If using a salsa, pesto or herbed butter, spread a thin coating on each fillet.
In an ovenproof large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Place the fish in the oil, skinned-side up, sear for 2 minutes; turn the fish over, and sear another minute. Transfer the pan to the oven.
Roast fish for 6-10 minutes, depending in the thickness and desired doneness. (Check with a fork to see if the fish flakes or is no longer pink.) Remove fish to plates and top with salsa, pesto or herbed butter, if desired. Serve immediately.

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Margarita Grilled Shrimp

A happy hour on skewers, these shrimp as delicious served as an entree over a bed of greens and chopped red tomatoes or simply pulled from the skewers as an appetizer. You'll need about a dozen short (8-inch) skewers or six to eight long (12-inch) ones.

Yields 4-6 servings (or about 25 appetizers with shrimp alone)

2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined

FOR THE MARINADE1/4 cup tequila
2 tablespoons lime juice
Zest of 1 lime
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 small jalapeño pepper, minced
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. canola oil

FOR THE VEGETABLES6-8 cups mixed lettuce
2 tomatoes, chopped
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. tequila
1 Tbsp. lime juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Place marinade ingredients in a bowl or resealable plastic bag. Add shrimp and stir or shake to coat. Refrigerate about 30 minutes.
Preheat grill or broiler. If using wooden skewers, soak in water until needed. Thread shrimp of skewers, not packing them too tightly together so they will cook evenly.
Place shrimp on grill (or under broiler) and cook for a total of 5-6 minutes or until pink and firm, turning at least once. Remove from heat.
Prepare a bed of greens and tomatoes on each plate. Whisk together the olive oil, tequila and lime juice, then season. Pour over greens and tomatoes. Divide shrimp skewers evenly and plate them across the plates. Serve immediately.

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This article appeared in print with the headline "From the boat to your table."

Grace Young: Humble woks even the playing field for home cooks

Dear Dr. Wok:

Please help me. The fire that used to burn in our relationship has gone cold. What once made me sizzle with anticipation has turned to soggy mush. Where I used to see balance, beauty and dignity, I now can’t ignore a distinct, almost drunken wobble. My grip has become slippery. Our love has lasted about 30 years, but I think the time has come to say goodbye. What should I do?

If such a mystic for downtrodden wok users really existed, it would point to a sole source for relief.  Grace Young, dubbed everything from wok evangelist to empress of stir fry, prescribes a simple solution for Western cooks who long for the crisp, deeply flavored results – without the gloppy sauces – of popular take-out eateries.

“You have a round-bottom wok, don’t you,” she said, as if checking my pulse by phone from her New York City apartment. “The reason I write books is that stir-frying is a culinary term that’s totally accepted in America. But when they go to cook it, the majority of Americans are frustrated with the results.

“Round-bottom woks are made to cook in a Chinese hearth stove over a fire,” Young explained, noting that adjustments must be made to accommodate non-commercial, lower-BTU American stoves. “You need a flat-bottom, carbon steel wok so it can cook closer to the heat.”

Young will talk about wok cookery as the guest of Culinary Historians of Piedmont North Carolina (CHOP NC) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Flyleaf Books  in Chapel Hill. Her culinary genius also will be celebrated Tuesday night at Lantern, where Chef Andrea Reusing will prepare a spring menu based on Young's award-winning cook books. For reservations, call 919-969-8846.

My aged, curvy wok is carbon steel, and it has achieved an enviable patina since I acquired it along with my first apartment. But the smarter, more modern design minimizes unintended steaming and, as an added benefit, features a long wooden handle, plus a small helper one, that makes keeping a jug of burn-cooling aloe under the sink no longer a necessity.

If you hope to achieve a degree of stir-fry Zen, don’t be tempted by a fancy stainless-steel model, or one coated with a non-stick finish. And, let us all say hallelujah, don’t dare cast your eyes on an electric one.

While Young could make a fortune selling a celebrity line of cookware, she instead suggests seeking recommendations from family-owned wok shops. If you can’t find one, she recommends San Francisco's The Work Shop (www.wokshop.com), where many budget-friendly options are available.

Grace Young's Classic Dry-Fried
Pepper and Salt Shrimp

“There is so much about cooking these days that is elitist. You can spend all your money on All-Clad, and people look down on you if you don’t have certain ingredients,” Young said. “What I think is extraordinary about stir frying is that is makes less seem like more.

“Even if you’re the most wealthy person in the world, your stir fry isn’t much different from a peasant – if you do it right,” she said. “The ingredients don’t have to be extraordinary. They just have to be fresh.”

Combine this humble cookware with the coming abundance of competitively priced farmer’s market vegetables, and you’ve got all you need for quick, affordable and flavorful family meals. For example, Classic Dry-Fried Pepper and Salt Shrimp and Stir-Fried Cilantro with Bean Sprouts and Shrimp, two of several recipes posted on her website, would be terrific with fresh-caught Carolina shrimp.

Stir-Fried Cilantro with
Bean Sprouts and Shrimp

While Young has published hundreds of recipes in three popular  books, most recently the James Beard Award-winning Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, she insists that delicious, spontaneous suppers can be produced in minutes by relying on the freshest seasonal ingredients. A stir fry made right now with tender asparagus will naturally caramelize and need scant seasoning. But if you try to recreate the experience with woody November asparagus, you're bound to be disappointed.

“The goal is to just accentuate the inherent flavors,” she said. “Really, it’s a frugal and healthful approach to cooking.”

Young said the method should appeal particularly to those taking heed to the Archives of Internal Medicine's startling warning about the health risks associated with eating red meat.

“I always shake my head when I see a wok recipe that includes a pound of beef or even more chicken,” she said. “I ran the Time-Life Books test kitchens for 20 years. I know for a fact that if you try to cook more than 12 ounces of beef in a wok it just goes gray and foamy.”

Too much meat also drops the wok's temperature, which must remain consistently high to sear and not steam. While ingredients can be dried with paper towel and cooked in batches to minimize unwanted braising, Young maintains that it’s better to make multiples of a single recipe than to tinker with ratios.

Young’s current book includes a vast array of meals made in the kitchens of Chinese chefs and home cooks who have scattered around the globe, and the local influences are apparent. In Trinidad, for example, rum takes the place of traditional rice wine.

One particularly interesting recipe deploys peeled watermelon rind as a substitute for hard-to-find fuzzy melon. It’s a resource penny-wise Southern cooks have long used for pickles. “You don’t waste it, where the rest of America tosses it away,” Young said.

Though she admits the recipe is not one of her favorites, Young said she was intrigued by the waste-not ethic that led cooks to make use of the amino acid-rich but otherwise bland white band, which is sliced into thin wafers for a crunchy bite.

Her ongoing research into stir-fry methods and technique – she’s currently pondering a new book proposal – serve to deepen her respect for it as a “chameleon cooking technique.”

“It can adapt and absorb different cultures. For example, if you can’t find Chinese broccoli, use American broccoli,” she said. “For me, that’s what it all about: adapting traditional techniques by using regional variations or what’s in season.”

While Young encourages home cooks to exercise creativity with their wok, she recommends against trying to imitate the physical style of experienced restaurant wok cooks whose balletic elegance mesmerizes customers in the take-out line.

"That jerking motion with the wok, where the vegetables are tossed into the air, is called the pao action. It's a beautiful thing to watch someone who really is one with the wok, but the pao is not very effective at home as it's counter productive to keeping the pan properly hot," Young cautioned. "If you stick with a flat-bottomed wok, you'll spend less time cleaning the kitchen floor and more time eating."