A stir-crazy summer

Extreme drought, extreme heat and extreme grumpiness. Ah, another summer in Austin.

But no matter how hot and cranky you are, you still gotta eat. Cold supper plates and chilled cucumber soups are good on hot nights. So are cold bean salads or a medley of summer squash and eggplants cooked on a charcoal grill. Perhaps, like me, you're willing to try just about anything that doesn't involve standing over a hot cookstove in the soul-searing heat of summer. Which brings me to today's column topic - backyard wokking.

Take one well-seasoned, inexpensive carbon steel wok (about $25), a small propane tank hooked to a freestanding iron burner ($45-$100) and a shaded and well-ventilated outdoor space, and you've got the basic ingredients for an outdoor wok kitchen. Set it up near your vegetable beds, and you can wow your locavore friends with garden-to-plate dinners of wok-kissed seasonal vegetables prepared right before their hungry eyes.

If you're reading this and thinking, "Yeah, sure, I tried a wok years ago, but it never worked right," you are not alone. I bet that's what a lot of fans of wok master and cookbook author Grace Young were saying before they found her and started trying her wok tips and stir-fry techniques. Before I read her new James Beard Award-winning cookbook "Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge" (Simon & Schuster, $25) and attended her wok class and book signing earlier this month at Central Market's Cooking School, a lot of my so-called stir-fries turned out more like stir-stews. But now, almost a month later, my wok is properly seasoned and I'm turning out lightly browned, crisp-tender (not soggy) stir fries. (See box on back page for some of Young's most helpful stir-fry tips.)

Even if you don't like the idea of wokking outside (or if you don't have a yard), Young's stir-fry methods can still help you spend less time in front of a hot kitchen stove. When you master the wok, you can make a tasty dinner for four in less than 10 minutes. (Chopping and prep time varies, depending on how fast you are with a chef's knife.)

If you do like the idea of wokking outside (and don't mind a late dinner), try this: Get a headlamp and throw a wokking-after-dark party. It might feel a little silly at first, and your dinner guests might laugh, but it's actually quite practical. After dark, the outdoor temps are tolerable and sometimes quite pleasant, and a good headlamp focuses light right where you need it. I'm sure the neighborhood raccoons are still chattering about the crazy lady with the glowing head who was stir-frying wild boar and Hill Country peaches the other night. Come to think of it, late-night wok sessions might be just the thing to keep backyard critters entertained (or distracted) so they don't steal so many vegetables and fruits before harvest time.

I'm definitely not the first to think of wokking after dark. Thousands of years before propane burners (or headlamps) came along, Asian cooks were using outdoor hearths to heat their woks to cook their family dinners. My next-door neighbor DJ Ho (DJ is short for DerJane) introduced me to the joys of Taiwanese-style outdoor cooking last summer. Although her home is air-conditioned just like mine, she does a lot of her cooking on a propane burner (which she bought at WalMart) and a small charcoal grill in the backyard. That way, she says, the cooking smells and oil spatters don't mess up her tidy kitchen, and her AC doesn't have to work so hard to keep her house cool. And her neighbors get a good whiff of what she and her family are having for dinner. Mmmm.

Classic Dry-Fried Pepper and Salt Shrimp

Whenever Sichuan peppercorns are called for in a recipe, they must be roasted and ground. Remove any tiny stems from 1/4 cup of Sichuan peppercorns and put them in a dry wok. Stir over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes until the peppercorns are fragrant and just beginning to smoke. Once they're cooled, grind them with a mortar and pestle and then store them in a clean jar.

2 Tbsp. plus 1/2 tsp. salt

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. roasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns

2 Tbsp. peanut oil or vegetable oil

1 Tbsp. minced garlic