Asian Recipes

Prep 10min Cook 12min 1 serving

Kaiyaki Miso (Scallop-Shell Miso Egg)

A large scallop shell serves as the pot here, not as a source of meat: miso broth simmers in it and an egg sets into soft curds. The broth comes from grilled dried sardines and katsuobushi, salted with red miso, and flat sheets of dried wheat gluten called itafu soak it up before the egg goes in. It is a home dish from Tsugaru and Shimokita in Aomori, eaten with rice.

Prep 15min Cook 50min 2 servings

Shime-dofu (Pressed and Simmered Tofu)

Rolling tofu tightly in a bamboo mat and boiling it squeezes out the big pockets of water, leaving a firm, smooth texture closer to kamaboko fish cake than to ordinary tofu. In the Kanra area of Gunma, the pressed cylinder is then simmered in dashi, sugar, and soy sauce until the seasoning reaches the center. Holding their shape and the ridges of the mat, the slices are served as a side dish or added to nishime, a mixed simmered dish.

Prep 30min Cook 240min 10 servings

Chiba Sumitsukare

Other regions make shimotsukare with salmon heads, but this Chiba version from Tokatsu is all vegetables, soy, and sake lees: coarsely grated daikon and carrot, roasted soybeans, fried tofu, and firm tofu. Over hours on low heat the daikon falls apart into the lees and the whole pot turns thick and porridge-like. It was offered at Inari shrines with red bean rice on Hatsuuma, the first horse day of February, and it uses up roasted beans left over from Setsubun. The name shifts from place to place: sumitsukare, shimotsukare, somotsukare.

Prep 120min Cook 45min 100 servings

Shiso Maki with Walnut Miso Filling

Crisp green shiso leaves, fried only long enough to stay deep green, wrap a sweet paste of red miso and chopped walnuts. The snack grew out of Miyagi's Sendai miso tradition; one story ties it to the warlord Date Masamune, another to visitors taking the hot-spring cure at Naruko.

🍱 Lunchbox

Prep 25min Cook 25min 2 servings

Hatoshi (Nagasaki Shrimp Toast)

Brought to Nagasaki from Qing China in the Meiji era, hatoshi became one plate of shippoku, the city's round-table banquet, and is now sold in shops and on the street as a snack. Here a thick layer of shrimp and squid is sandwiched between slices of white bread, steamed, and only then deep-fried. Grinding half the seafood into a sticky paste and cutting the rest into chunks gives the crisp bread a moist filling with springy bites.

Prep 25min Cook 8min 4 servings

Shumai (Japanese Steamed Pork Dumplings)

Coarsely ground pork leg is wrapped only around the sides, leaving the top open, and a single green pea crowns each one before steaming. The coarse grind keeps some chew, and sugar with oyster sauce gives the filling a slightly sweet seasoning.

Prep 40min Cook 45min 10 servings

Nita-kumoji (Simmered Aged Turnip-Green Pickles)

In the Hida region of Gifu, turnip greens salted down for winter turn sour by spring, and that is when they went into the pot with dried sardines, soy sauce, mirin, and sake and cooked until almost no liquid was left. Kumoji is said to come from an old court word for pickles. The greens soak through several changes of water, but a little salt is left in on purpose: without it, all you taste is soy sauce.

Prep 30min Cook 12min 4 servings

Siu Mai (Cantonese Open-Top Steamed Pork and Shrimp Dumpling)

Chopped shrimp in the pork filling gives these dim sum a springier bite than pork alone. The wrapper is pressed up around the sides and left open on top, and by the time they come out of the steamer the thin skin has turned translucent.

Prep 35min Cook 3min 4 servings

Soboro Natto with Dried Daikon

Soft, stringy Mito natto made from small soybeans meets chewy strips of thick dried daikon, a fermented pairing from central Ibaraki. Also called shoboro natto, it began as a way to stretch the autumn natto left after sharing with neighbors and the local temple. Traditionally the daikon dried for three days in sun and cold wind and froze on the last night; at home, store-bought wariboshi daikon is only lightly rinsed so it keeps that firm bite.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 2 servings

Sorakaya Pachadi (Andhra Bottle Gourd Chutney)

This Andhra chutney blends sauteed bottle gourd with urad dal, chana dal, green chili, and tamarind, and the blender stops before anything turns smooth. The toasted dal stays in small, nutty grains. Once it is in the bowl, a hot tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, and asafoetida is poured over.

Prep 25min Cook 3min 4 servings

Ikura no Shoyuzuke (Soy-Marinated Salmon Roe)

When fresh salmon roe comes in each autumn, Hokkaido cooks free the eggs one by one and leave them in sake and soy sauce that has been boiled and cooled. The eggs take on the seasoning but their skins stay tight, so each one pops with a salty burst.

Kurozukuri (Squid Ink Shiokara)

Squid ink turns Toyama's kurozukuri glossy black and rounds out its saltiness, so it tastes softer and more of the sea than the usual red squid shiokara. The body, liver, and ink of Japanese flying squid are salted separately and aged cold. Records say a lord of the Kaga domain presented it to the shogun. A little goes on rice, with sake, or into ochazuke, rice with tea poured over.

🍺 Bar Snacks

Prep 50min 0 4 servings

Prep 25min Cook 15min 5 servings

Goma Dofu (Sesame and Kudzu Tofu)

Despite the name, there are no soybeans or nigari here: goma dofu from the temple cooking of Koyasan in Wakayama is set from white sesame, Yoshino kudzu starch, and water alone. Toasted sesame is ground until oily, wrung through cloth into a rich milk, and cooked with kudzu into a block that slices smooth and springy, with the sesame fat held in rather than separating. It is served cold with wasabi soy sauce or vinegared miso.

At least 50 min 4 servings

Steamed Monkfish Liver (Ankimo) with Ponzu

Cleaned monkfish liver is rolled in foil with the ends twisted tight like a sweet wrapper, then steamed, chilled firm, and sliced into rounds. Before that, every vein and bit of membrane comes off and the liver sits in sake with a little salt. It is a cold starter, served with ponzu, lemon, scallion, and grated daikon mixed with chili powder (momiji oroshi).

Prep 45min Cook 25min 10 servings

Odawara Kamaboko

Bright white, fine-grained, and springy when pressed, Odawara kamaboko became known as a specialty of the old Tokaido road. That whiteness and spring come from keeping the fish cold from cleaning to shaping. Nothing but salt, sugar, and mirin joins the white croaker, and the paste is steamed in a half-moon on a wooden board. Pushing it through a fine sieve first removes the last bits of bone and skin, so the cut face comes out smooth.

Prep 495min Cook 5min 4 servings

Sudarefu Gomazu-Ae (Dried Wheat Gluten with Sesame Vinegar)

Yuki in Ibaraki makes its sudarefu by working flour back into wheat gluten, rolling it thin, salting and boiling it, and sun-drying the sheets on a bamboo blind; the blind leaves ridges that the sesame-vinegar dressing clings to. Drying makes the gluten chewier than fresh fu and lets it keep, which once made it a valued pantry item. It was used in temple cooking around the castle town, and since the late Edo period it has been served at weddings, funerals, holidays, and Obon, when families gather.

Prep 30min Cook 45min 2 servings

Suizen (Rice and Agar Noodle Jelly)

Cooked with finely ground rice, agar extracted from tengusa seaweed sets into a jelly from Wajima in Ishikawa that is firm like agar yet carries the gentle softness of rice starch. It is cut into thin strips and arranged in a ring like petals, then served with a sweet-salty sauce of black sesame, brown sugar, miso, soy sauce, and kelp stock, plus peeled mandarin segments. In Wajima it appears at Buddhist memorials and funerals, set out in local Wajima lacquerware.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 3 servings

Kanto-Style Sukiyaki (Japanese Beef Hot Pot in Sweet Soy Warishita Broth)

The negi go into the dry pot first, no oil, and brown at the edges before the warishita is poured in, a premixed blend of soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sake. Cabbage, shiitake, grilled tofu, and shirataki each get their own patch of the pot, and the thin beef goes in a few slices at a time, lifted out as soon as it is cooked.

Prep 25min Cook 20min 4 servings

Sweet and Sour Pork

Korean Chinese restaurants serve their own take on sweet and sour pork, called tangsuyuk: pork loin in an egg and cornstarch batter, fried twice, under a hot ketchup and vinegar sauce with bell pepper and onion. The second fry sets the coating hard enough to stay crisp for a while even after the sauce goes on.

Prep 300min Cook 480min 4 servings

Kuromame-ni (Sweet Simmered Black Soybeans)

No New Year osechi box is complete without these sweet black soybeans, which carry a wish to work hard enough to be tanned dark and to stay well for years. Large, richly flavored Tanba beans from Kyoto simmer under a drop lid for eight hours at the lowest heat. A sudden jump in heat, or a bean left above the liquid, will split or wrinkle the skin, and that is why they stay submerged the whole time.

Prep 80min Cook 50min 4 servings

Tai no Karamushi (Steamed Sea Bream Stuffed with Okara)

Two whole sea bream, opened along the back and packed with sweet-savory okara (tofu pulp) cooked with vegetables and ginkgo nuts, are steamed whole for this celebratory dish from the Kaga area of Ishikawa. The fish are set belly to belly on the platter, an arrangement that made it a regular at weddings. Each serving pairs mild bream with stuffing that has soaked up the fish juices.

Prep 15min Cook 10min 4 servings

Taiwanese Ham and Cheese Sandwich

Sweetened condensed milk mixed half and half with mayonnaise gives this Taiwanese sandwich its sweet-salty spread. Crustless white bread is stacked with thin egg sheets, ham, and cheddar so that each cut face shows neat yellow layers. Trimming the crusts is about texture more than looks, since the whole sandwich then gives softly when bitten.