Asian

Asian Recipes

813 recipes. Page 23 of 34

Curry, stir-fry noodles, and Asian recipes

Javanese Chicken Mie Goreng

Kecap manis, Indonesia's thick sweet soy sauce, caramelizes the moment it hits a hot wok and lacquers the egg noodles a deep, glossy brown. That sweetness is what sets Javanese mie goreng apart from Chinese-style fried noodles, and a spoonful of sambal keeps it from turning cloying. Shallots and garlic fried golden lay the aromatic base, and chicken thigh sliced thin cooks through in a few minutes over high heat while staying juicy. Noodles that are still wet drop the wok's temperature and leave the stir-fry soggy, and a weak flame in the last minute does the same. Java's street stalls serve it with a runny-yolked fried egg, prawn crackers, and a wedge of lime to cut the sweetness.

Prep 18min Cook 12min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Heso Daikon Nishime (Miyagi Dried Daikon Simmer)

Heso daikon starts as thick rounds of blanched radish threaded on skewers and left to freeze at night and thaw by day for about a month. The hole left by the skewer looks like a navel (heso), which gives it its name, and the dried radish keeps until the following summer. In southern Miyagi Prefecture it is simmered with taro, carrot, shiitake, freeze-dried tofu, knotted kombu and kamaboko fish cake until almost no liquid remains.

Prep 60min Cook 60min 4 servings

Rice Hard

Sankaku Chimaki (Plain Glutinous Rice in Bamboo Leaves)

Plain glutinous rice, with no filling and no seasoning, is folded into triangles of doubled bamboo leaves, tied with rush, and boiled for close to two hours. In Niigata the dense, chewy parcels are unwrapped and dipped in roasted soybean flour mixed with sugar and a little salt. Triangular chimaki turn up in writings from the Nara and Heian periods, and because the leaves kept them from spoiling, they became food for breaks in farm work. Local legend credits the warlord Uesugi Kenshin with ordering them as battle rations.

Prep 40min Cook 120min 20 servings

Desserts Hard

Miso Yubeshi (Steamed Yuzu and Miso Rice Cakes)

Grated yuzu zest and juice, fresh ginger, and miso go into the sweet rice dough, so each piece tastes salty and citrusy as well as sweet. The rice flours are added all at once to the hot yuzu-miso liquid, which cooks them into a dough right in the pot. Each of the 15 portions is wrapped in a food-grade bamboo sheath and steamed. Pieces that firm up soften again when unwrapped and warmed in the microwave or a pan.

Prep 50min Cook 50min 15 servings

Soups Easy

Tinola (Filipino Ginger Chicken Soup with Green Papaya)

The papaya has to be green and firm, not the ripe fruit, and it is added only after the chicken has simmered, so it softens to fork-tender while keeping its shape. Plenty of julienned ginger, fried first with garlic and onion, gives tinola's clear broth a clean, sharp heat.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 45min 4 servings

Noodles Medium

Sapporo Miso Ramen (Hokkaido-Style Rich Miso Broth Ramen with Pork)

Thick, wavy noodles sit under a heap of stir-fried ground pork, cabbage and bean sprouts, finished Sapporo-style with corn and a pat of butter melting into the miso broth. The miso goes in once the broth has stopped boiling hard, and it is not brought back to a rolling boil afterward.

Prep 15min Cook 30min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Hyoboshi no Nimono (Simmered Dried Purslane)

Purslane is blanched and dried in summer, then soaked in winter and stir-fried with shirataki, carrot and fried tofu before simmering in soy-based seasoning. In the snowy Murayama and Okitama areas of Yamagata, wild greens and vegetables were dried this way to eat through the winter. The soaked stems are soft but still have a little give when you bite. The purslane here is commercially made hyoboshi sold for eating, not something picked from a field.

Prep 35min Cook 35min 5 servings

Rice Easy

Poha (Indian Spiced Flattened Rice Breakfast with Peanuts)

In this Indian breakfast dish the flattened rice never boils. A quick rinse in cold water and a short rest soften it enough to press between two fingers, and a brief toss in oil scented with mustard seed and turmeric warms it through. Roasted peanuts go into the yellow flakes, and a squeeze of lemon follows once the heat is off.

Prep 10min Cook 12min 2 servings

Desserts Easy

Yudedago Boiled Dumplings with Brown Sugar and Kinako

Wheat flour, shiratamako, and warm cooked rice are worked together with boiling water, and the rice is what keeps these flat dumplings soft after they cool. In Saga, where farmers often grew wheat after the rice harvest, both flours were on hand, and yudedago served as a fieldwork snack or a supplement when a meal ran short. The name is a local shortening of yude dango, and some call it hiradago. Brown sugar never enters the dough but is showered on with kinako while the dumplings are hot, leaving a melting sweet surface over a plain center.

Prep 30min Cook 15min 20 servings

Soups Medium

Tom Kha Gai (Thai Coconut Galangal Chicken Soup with Lime)

Galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves steep in coconut milk alone, with no water or stock. Coconut milk splits if it boils hard, and the pot is kept at the barest simmer with only small bubbles at the edge. The woody galangal and lemongrass can be fished out before serving.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 25min 3 servings

Noodles Medium

Mohinga (Burmese Fish Broth Rice Noodle Soup)

Mohinga, often called Myanmar's national dish, builds its soup from the water the fish was poached in, then returns the flaked fish to the pot so every spoonful carries it. Chickpea flour stirred in as a slurry gives the broth a heavier, almost porridge-like body that sets it apart from clear noodle soups, and turmeric tints it a soft gold. The flour has to be fully dissolved in cold water and added a little at a time, which avoids lumps and lets the cook stop at the thickness they want. Onion and garlic simmer in the stock long enough to scent it before the seasoning is added, and the rice noodles are rinsed separately before the soup is ladled over. Crisp chickpea fritters, boiled egg, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime finish each bowl with crunch and acidity.

Prep 25min Cook 40min 4 servings

Asian Easy

Ebi Fry (Japanese Panko-Crusted Shrimp)

In yoshoku, the Western-style cooking Japan developed after the Meiji era, fried shrimp come out long and straight with the tail on. The straightness comes from three or four shallow cuts on the belly side and a press with the palm before breading. The panko is laid on lightly rather than pressed, and tartar sauce or tonkatsu sauce goes alongside.

🍱 Lunchbox

Prep 20min Cook 12min 2 servings

Rice Medium

Rajma Chawal (North Indian Kidney Bean Curry with Rice)

Rajma means kidney beans and chawal means rice, and that is the whole idea: a thick tomato and bean curry ladled generously over rice and eaten together. Onions cooked slowly until their edges brown give the sauce its body without any cream.

Prep 20min Cook 45min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Thai Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup (Tom Yum Goong)

Sour, spicy, and salty all hit at once in this shrimp soup. The base is chicken stock briefly steeped with lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves, kept at a moderate simmer so it stays clear, and Thai chili paste turns it red. Shrimp need only a minute or two; once they curl and turn pink they are done, and longer cooking costs them their springy bite. Lime juice is stirred in after the heat is off, since boiling dulls its aroma.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 18min Cook 15min 2 servings

Noodles Easy

Pollock Roe Butter Udon

Salted pollock roe, folded into a garlicky butter and cream sauce at the very end, leaves tiny eggs that pop against the soft coating on thick udon. Scraping the roe out of its membrane matters, since any large piece of skin left behind clumps in the sauce. The roe is added only after the heat is lowered and warms through on residual heat, because a long stint over high heat turns it dry and grainy. Soy sauce gives the cream a savory backbone, and the heat drops as soon as the edges bubble so the cream does not split. If the sauce tightens as it reduces, 2 to 3 tablespoons of the reserved noodle water loosen it. Seaweed flakes and scallion finish the bowl.

Prep 10min Cook 12min 2 servings

Asian Easy

Japanese Shrimp with Mayo

Hong Kong-born chef Chou Yuanji came up with this in Japan by adding mayonnaise to a Cantonese shrimp dish, and it now shows up at Chinese restaurants, izakaya and in convenience-store bento. Shrimp in a thin egg-and-starch coating are fried, then rolled quickly through a sweetish sauce of mayonnaise, condensed milk and lemon juice.

🍱 Lunchbox

Prep 15min Cook 10min 2 servings

Rice Hard

Aka-zuke Red Shiso Rice

Red shiso rubbed twice with salt releases a deep red juice that dyes cooked glutinous rice, and warm sweetened rice vinegar gives it a sweet-sour edge. This version replaces traditional room-temperature fermentation with refrigerated curing, so it will not taste identical, and it relies on measured pH and temperature instead. The shiso color makes test strips hard to read, which is why a calibrated penetrating food pH meter is required; without one, a finished product from an established producer is the safer route. Only a batch whose highest pH reading, taken at several points, is 4.2 or below moves on to curing. Mold, swelling, bubbles, slime, or an off smell after curing mean the batch is discarded untasted.

Prep 75min Cook 45min 25 servings

Soups Easy

Kagoshima Tonjiru (Pork and Vegetables in Barley Miso Soup)

In Kagoshima, tonjiru is made with barley miso, which is sweet and mellow. Pork, daikon, taro, konjac and atsuage (thick fried tofu) go in so generously that they nearly fill the bowl, and thin scallions and slivers of ginger go on top.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Noodles Medium

Mentaiko Yuzu Cream Udon

Yuzu marmalade brings a citrus sourness to a cream and milk sauce, cutting the weight that cream udon usually carries. Two thirds of the mentaiko melts into the sauce off the heat, and the last third goes on top, so the bowl has both silky and fresh roe. The sauce is ready when it coats the back of a spoon in a thin layer, and frozen udon only needs a quick blanch and a good drain so it does not water the sauce down.

Prep 12min Cook 15min 2 servings

Asian Hard

Ebiimo to Bodara no Taitan (Simmered Taro and Dried Cod)

This is a braise meant to be reheated and eaten the day after it is made. Overnight, gelatin from the dried cod coats the taro, and the ebiimo turn sticky and glossy. Ebiimo is a dense, striped taro from Kyoto; the cod is the dried kind traditionally brought down from Hokkaido, first simmered on its own in bancha tea to take off its smell and leftover salt. In Kyoto it is made in autumn and winter and also served at New Year.

Prep 45min Cook 180min 10 servings

Rice Hard

Ikameshi (Rice-Stuffed Squid)

Inside each squid body, glutinous rice and chopped tentacles absorb a simmering liquid of kombu dashi, sake, and soy sauce and turn dense and chewy. Every sliced round shows white rice framed by a ring of squid. The bodies are only partly filled because the rice swells as it cooks, and overfilled squid split.

Prep 45min Cook 70min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Tsubon-jiru (Clear Chicken and Seven-Ingredient Soup)

Seven ingredients, all diced to the same 1.5cm, float in a clear soy-seasoned broth: chicken, shiitake, taro, chikuwa, konjac, carrot and grilled tofu. In the Hitoyoshi and Kuma area of Kumamoto, families keep the count odd, seven or nine, and serve the soup with red rice and nishime at occasions such as the Okunchi festival. It also grew out of thrift, since trimmings left from making nishime could become a complete dish. The tofu is added last so the cubes stay neat.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 30min Cook 35min 10 servings

Noodles Medium

Hot Pot Udon (Japanese Earthenware Pot Noodle Soup)

Cooked and served in a small earthenware pot, nabeyaki udon stays piping hot from the first bite to the last. Chicken thigh simmered right in the dashi, soy, and mirin broth adds fat and body that breast meat would not. The egg poaches in the center under the lid until the white sets and the yolk stays soft, and the shrimp tempura is added after the heat is off so it reaches the table still crisp.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 1 serving

Asian Easy

Ebisu Egg and Soy Agar

Slice into it and fine ribbons of egg drift through amber agar. This Ishikawa holiday dish, seasoned with soy sauce and sugar, is nicknamed berobero for the way it slips around, and in Kanazawa and Noto it goes in the top tier of the New Year box next to herring roe and red-and-white fish cake. Its roots are traced to the egg agar of Edo-period cookbooks, from a time when eggs and sugar were scarce.

Prep 165min Cook 10min 5 servings