Whether it’s the fresh herb-driven dishes of southeast Asia, India’s heady spices, the diverse regional cuisines of China or Japan’s unique dishes, we’re in love with Asian flavours. Here are some of my favourite Asian recipes.
Sticky Rice with Mango I find any dish with sticky rice addictively comforting, especially a dessert. So I adore khao neow mamuang, sticky rice with mango, which is one of Thailand’s most popular desserts. Glutinous (or sticky) rice is the staple grain of north-eastern Thailand and, despite the name, doesn’t contain any gluten, making it […]
Fresh Fruit with Spicy Thai Salt I was reminded of this classic Thai dish at Viand, when Annita Potter served a simple pre-dessert of pomelo segments alongside a little mound of ground salt, sugar, chilli and kaffir lime. I’ve bought sliced pineapple from Asian grocery stores with a little pod of the salt-sugar-chilli combo, but […]
Hot & Sour Prawn Soup (Dtom Yum Gung) Hot and sour soups are a classic on Thai menus. Although the version containing prawns, dtom yam gung, is perhaps the best known in Australia, ‘dtom’ simply means to boil and ‘yam’ to mix or toss together and these soups can be as basic or as complex […]
Thai Fish Cakes In Thai cuisine, dishes such as fish cakes and spring rolls are snacks, often bought from street vendors between meals. Thai fish cakes, tod man pla, have a springy texture, achieved by repeatedly ‘slapping’ the minced fish against the side of the bowl to develop the protein. Red fish works particularly well […]
Simon’s Wagyu Kway Teow Char kway teow, the popular Malaysian and Singaporean dish of stir-fried rice noodles, literally means ‘stir-fried rice cake strips’. Flat sheets of rice dough (called ‘hor fun’ in Chinese) are folded into blocks, cut into strips and separated into noodles. Char kway teow typically includes Asian clams and lup cheong sausage. […]
Edamame, soybeans in the pod, are a popular bar snack all over Japan … a bit like beer nuts or pretzels. You can buy them frozen from Asian grocers to have on hand when friends drop by for a drink. Simply blanch them (or better still pop them in the microwave for a minute) and […]
The Japanese are masters at taking something from another culture and making it their own – their super-light and springy cheesecake is a great example. It’s sometimes called cotton cake, jiggly cake or soufflé cake because it’s so light and fluffy. I’d heard it’s tricky to master, but thought I’d give it a try for […]
Chestnuts are a favourite autumn food in Japan in both savoury and sweet dishes. At their simplest, yakiguri (roasted chestnuts) are sold to passers-by from mobile street stands – just as they are in Europe. For something slightly more filling they’re combined with rice in this simple and delicious classic dish of kuri gohan. If […]
Japanese sweets often have an intriguing blend of sweet and savoury, and if you like the black sesame cookies in our Month of Japanese, you’ll love these miso-spiked ones too. I like white miso for its mild taste, but you can experiment with different ones if you like a more savoury flavour. Use whatever sesame […]
Tempura is another example of how the Japanese take inspiration from other cultures and make it their own. Battered fried seafood and vegetables was introduced to Japan by Portuguese missionaries in the 1700s – the Japanese lightened the batter, added a delicate dipping sauce and created what is now considered one of their most definitive […]
