Asian Recipes

Prep 60min Cook 60min 8 servings

Mushidai (Whole Sea Bream Steamed with Okara Stuffing)

A whole sea bream of about 1 kg is opened from the back with its fins and shape intact, packed with sweetened okara, and steamed in one piece for celebrations in Kochi. Sieved hard-boiled egg yolk goes over the top at the end, and the fish is presented on a large sawachi platter at weddings, New Year, and the banquets locals call okyaku. A sweet potato steamed alongside is the old way of judging doneness, and this recipe keeps that habit.

Prep 45min Cook 10min 4 servings

Kibinago no Hokaburi (Vinegar-Cured Fish and Okara Sushi)

Okara, the soybean pulp left from making tofu, stands in for rice in this sushi from Kochi, cooked with ginger, sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar until sweet and tart. Under a small vinegar-cured kibinago draped over each ball, the filling crumbles softly while the fish adds salt and a firm bite. The name hokaburi compares the fish to a cloth pulled over someone's head and cheeks. It belongs to the tamazushi family of rice-saving sushi and is tied especially to Sukumo, where Sukumo Bay once yielded large kibinago catches.

Prep 10min Cook 18min 4 servings

Okiagari (Sakura Shrimp and Tofu Hot Pot)

Fishermen in Yui, Shizuoka, came ashore after the sakura shrimp catch and shared this hot pot, which is where the name okiagari comes from. The shrimp go in fresh, seasoning a sweet soy, sugar, and sake broth before large blocks of firm tofu soak it up. Each spoonful takes shrimp, tofu, and scallion together, eaten hot.

Prep 75min Cook 30min 20 servings

Oyaki with Eggplant and Sweet Miso

Round eggplant slices, slit into pockets and stuffed with sugar-sweetened miso, sit inside a plain wheat wrapper. Nagano's oyaki can hold many seasonal vegetables, and in this filling the eggplant turns soft and juicy as it steams, soaking up the salty-sweet miso. Some oyaki are only grilled or only steamed, but these are browned in a pan first and then steamed, leaving the wrapper chewy-soft with a toasted bottom. The batch makes twenty.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Palak Paneer (Indian Spinach Curry with Paneer Cheese)

Paneer, an Indian cheese that holds its shape instead of melting, sits in cubes in a bright green spinach sauce and chews a little like firm tofu. For this North Indian vegetarian curry the spinach is blanched for only a minute before blending and simmered briefly, which keeps the green vivid.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Panang Curry (Thai Thick Peanut Coconut Curry)

The sauce is cooked down until it coats a spoon thickly, so it clings to the thin slices of pork tenderloin rather than pooling around them. Peanut butter makes it nutty, and hand-torn kaffir lime leaves bring a sharp citrus smell up through the rich coconut.

Prep 40min Cook 20min 2 servings

Pani Puri (Indian Crispy Hollow Shells with Spiced Herb Water)

A hollow puri shell gets a little potato and chickpea, then a pour of cold pani blended from mint, cilantro and tamarind, and the whole thing goes into your mouth in one bite before it can break. The shell starts going soft as soon as the pani hits it, so each one is filled only when someone is ready to eat it.

Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Pav Bhaji (Mumbai Street Food Spiced Mashed Vegetable Curry with Bread)

At Mumbai street stalls, potatoes, cauliflower, and green peas are mashed and cooked down with tomato and pav bhaji masala, then scooped up with soft rolls toasted in butter. It is less a curry than a spread, thick enough to pile onto bread. The rolls are toasted only on the cut sides, soft outside with a crisp, buttery face.

Prep 20min Cook 18min 2 servings

Thai Steamed Lime Fish (Whole Fish Chili Fish Sauce)

A whole steamed white fish gets a sauce of lime juice, fish sauce, garlic and minced Thai chili spooned over it raw, never heated. The lime and chili stay sharp, and cilantro goes on top. Whatever sauce pools on the plate is soaked up with jasmine or sticky rice.

Prep 20min Cook 60min 4 servings

Pork Vindaloo (Goan Vinegar-Marinated Fiery Pork Curry)

Goan vindaloo is a pork curry where the sourness of vinegar comes through as clearly as the heat. Pork shoulder sits in a paste of white vinegar ground with garlic, ginger, chili and cumin, then braises with browned onion until that paste has thickened onto the meat.

Prep 15min Cook 30min 4 servings

Hokkaido Potato Imomochi

In Hokkaido, where potatoes were plentiful and glutinous rice was not, potatoes took the place of rice to give this snack, also called imodango, its mochi-like chew. Browned slowly in butter, each thick round turns golden and crisp outside while the center stays dense and stretchy. A sauce of ground perilla seeds and white sesame with sugar and soy sauce adds a nutty, sweet-salty finish.

Prep 40min Cook 3min 10 servings

Mizu-tataki Pounded Wild Greens

Pounded and then minced, the red stem bases of mizu turn sticky and stringy, much like grated mountain yam, and are dressed with miso, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar. Mizu, formally uwabamiso, grows in colonies along clean mountain streams in Iwate's Ou and Kitakami ranges. The deeper the red at the base, the stronger the stickiness, while the watery stem keeps both crunch and a slippery feel. Tender spring and early-summer stems are the most prized. Serve it cold, on the day it is made.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Cantonese Steamed Seabass

The sea bass is steamed whole and comes to the table head to tail on one plate, and you pull the flakes away with chopsticks. The soy and sugar sauce is poured on lightly enough that the fish still tastes of itself, and smoking oil goes over a pile of shredded scallion at the end.

Prep 5min Cook 60min 4 servings

Shoyu Mame (Kagawa Roasted Broad Beans in Soy Marinade)

Rather than boiling, the dried broad beans are roasted dry in a pan first, which gives the skins a toasty smell and leaves a center that crumbles when bitten. Still hot, they drop into a sweet soy and chili marinade and sit overnight. Sanuki farmers in Kagawa grew broad beans after the rice harvest and kept shoyu mame on hand for everyday meals and sake. One story says roasted beans meant for pilgrims rolled into a soy sauce jar and came out nicely seasoned, and some homes set them out at New Year in place of sweet black beans.

🏠 Everyday 🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 40min Cook 15min 6 servings

Akagarei no Komaburi (Flounder Sashimi Coated with Roe)

One roe-bearing female flathead flounder supplies both parts of this winter celebration dish from Iwami in Tottori: the white flesh is sliced as sashimi, and the roe is cooked through, crumbled into dry grains, and coated over each slice. The fish stays clean and springy under a thin, rich, slightly sandy layer of roe. It comes with soy sauce and wasabi and is eaten as soon as it is mixed; leftovers are not kept.

Prep 20min Cook 70min 4 servings

Rogan Josh (Kashmiri Slow-Braised Lamb Curry with Yogurt)

The deep red comes mostly from paprika, and this Kashmiri lamb curry looks far hotter than it tastes, with a mild sweetness instead. Big chunks of lamb cook slowly over low heat in yogurt and tomato puree.

Prep 40min Cook 20min 4 servings

Roti Canai (Malaysian Flaky Butter-Layered Flatbread)

Stretched until the counter almost shows through, brushed with butter, and folded into a square, this Malaysian flatbread tears apart into thin, flaky layers. Right out of the pan, the bread gets a gentle clap from the edges so the folded layers separate before they set together.

Prep 8min Cook 18min 2 servings

Saba Misoni (Japanese Miso Mackerel Recipe)

Mackerel fillets simmer skin-side up under a glossy glaze of miso, mirin, sake, and sugar, a staple of Japanese home cooking. Pouring boiling water over the fish first takes away surface odor, and thin slices of ginger in the pan deal with the rest.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

King Oyster Mushroom Katsu

King oyster mushrooms are cut lengthwise into wide slabs 1.5 cm thick and breaded like tonkatsu, and the thickness gives them a meaty chew without any meat. Like the pork version, they go to the table with tonkatsu sauce.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings

Salt and Pepper Shrimp

Shell-on shrimp get a thin coat of potato starch, two rounds in the fryer, and a quick toss with garlic, red chili, salt, and black pepper, and no sauce follows. The seasoning is only what clings to the outside: salt, pepper, and fried garlic. Every bite hits those first, and the shells crackle between the teeth.

Prep 15min Cook 25min 3 servings

Three Cup Chicken (Taiwanese Soy Sesame Oil Rice Wine Braised Chicken)

Three Cup Chicken, as the Taiwanese name goes, comes from equal measures of soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine; here each is 3 tablespoons rather than a cup. Thai basil goes in just before the heat goes off, and its fresh scent rising over the dark soy turns it into something quite different from plain soy-braised chicken.

Prep 20min Cook 20min 4 servings

Tsukeage (Satsuma Fried Fish Cakes)

Fish cakes from Kagoshima go by tsukeage at home, even though much of Japan calls them satsuma-age. The white fish paste is softened with squeezed cotton tofu and egg and sweetened with sugar, local sake, and light soy sauce. Warm, they are a side dish or drinking snack, and once cooled they go into lunchboxes or simmered dishes.

🍺 Bar Snacks 🍱 Lunchbox