We asked Chef Jeremy Pang from School of Wok about recipes & cooking with miso
Tell us what you do at School of Wok / Curious Crab!
Well I guess I’ve become most well known through School of Wok, which started as just me teaching people in their own homes how to cook Chinese food, but has grown into a Central London cookery school where my team of chef tutors now teach all types of Asian cuisine from Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese through to Korean and Japanese too. Our School of Wok brand now has a global audience too through our Youtube videos and Social media channels and we sell innovative products through retail channels such as supermarkets and cookware shops.
Curious Crab Productions is a spin off video production business that we have just recently launched, where our team have first-hand experience in using video to bring our food brand alive. We now offer these services to other food and travel companies who are looking for specialist video content to support their brand stories.
What do you always have in your pantry for knocking up a quick meal?
Different types of soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, chilli pastes, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, rice wine, mirin, dried shiitake mushrooms and of course miso – but I tend to keep that in the fridge!
Do you have a favourite secret ingredient?
Deep fried crispy shallots
Dried soy beans
Do you use miso in your cooking? If so, how do you use it?
Yes I do, quite regularly actually. It’s the perfect savoury flavour and works so well as a base for different dishes. I know that in typical Japanese cuisine, it can be quite prominent as a main ingredient for things like miso cod etc, but the other day for example, I had no chicken / veg stock in the freezer / pantry but I wanted to add a natural base of savoury flavour to my bolognese, so I added a couple of tablespoons of miso in whilst I was searing the mince. My three year old loved it, he’s not the most adventurous eater yet, but I was quite proud to get something so deep in flavour down him without him realising! I also use it a lot for BBQ marinades too.
Has your cooking changed during lockdown? What are you making that’s different?
I’ve had more time at home to play with things than when I’m in the office or the School every day. And whilst everyone is using their bags of flour for homemade bread, we’re lucky enough to have our School of Wok Bao kits for that, so I’ve been making different types of handmade noodles at home instead as I’m not an expert in that yet and have been wanting to improve my noodle making for years. I’m also currently writing my book on how to use up waste or surplus food better, so I’m cooking a lot more ‘efficiently’ with leftovers always on the mind. For example, I just had some instant noodles for lunch, with my leftover butter chicken & aubergine curry from last night!
Tell us something you recently made and how you made it.
HAND MADE FLAT EGG “WONTON” NOODLES Noodle dough
200g plain flour / strong bread flour
½ tsp salt
1 egg (around 45-50g)
70-75ml cold water
1 tsp oil
7-8 tbsp cornflour (for dusting the surface & dough when rolling the noodle dough out) Knead well, rest for an hour and then roll out as thin as possible and make whatever shapes you want!
These would work perfectly with a simple miso soup ;-p
Find out more about Chef Jeremy Pang and School of Wok on his website at www.schoolofwork.com and be sure to check out their excellent range of cooking equipment, cookbooks and selection of cooking classes. Keep up to date with School of Wok on their Instagram @schoolofwok.