Asian

Asian Recipes

813 recipes. Page 5 of 34

Curry, stir-fry noodles, and Asian recipes

Biang Biang Mian (Xi'an Hand-Pulled Belt Noodles with Chili Oil)

Wide ribbons of hand-stretched dough, slapped against the counter as they lengthen, come to the bowl with chili flakes and garlic piled in the middle. Oil heated to just short of smoking is poured over that pile, cooking the garlic and chili on contact, while soy sauce and vinegar underneath turn it into a sharp, savory dressing. With all-purpose flour, resting does more of the work than kneading, and a strip that shrinks back or tears needs more time under cover, not a harder pull. The broad, thin ribbons get stirred the moment they hit the boiling water, before they can stick to each other.

Prep 65min Cook 15min 2 servings

Salads Medium

Gado-Gado Salad (Indonesian Peanut Sauce Veggie Plate)

Peanut butter loosened with lime juice and soy sauce turns a plate of blanched cabbage, bean sprouts, potato, seared tofu and egg into one Indonesian meal. Each vegetable gets its own blanching so the cabbage keeps its crunch while the sprouts only just soften. Everything sits in separate sections rather than tossed together, and the sauce is added at the last moment. Every forkful ends up a different mix of soft, crisp and nutty.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 20min Cook 12min 2 servings

Asian Easy

Aloo Tikki Chaat (Indian Fried Potato Patty Street Snack)

Hot, pan-fried potato patties sit under cold yogurt, tamarind chutney, mint chutney, and finely chopped red onion in this Indian street snack. The pleasure is the clash of temperatures and textures, and it fades quickly: the cold toppings start softening the crust as soon as they land, which is why assembly happens right before eating.

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Baking Medium

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

Folded meringue lifts the batter, and a slow bake at 150°C in a hot water bath lets it cook gently. The cake dissolves almost weightlessly on the tongue. A slight sink after it leaves the oven is normal, and an overnight rest in the fridge spreads the moisture evenly for a silkier slice.

Prep 35min Cook 55min 6 servings

Rice Medium

California Roll

Rice wraps the outside and the nori sits hidden within, an inside-out construction that keeps the dark seaweed out of sight. The roll is credited to Japanese chefs in North America in the 1960s or 1970s, but who made it first, and whether in Los Angeles or Vancouver, is still disputed. The inside-out wrap is said to have started because American diners peeled the seaweed off.

Prep 30min 0 2 servings

Stir-fry Medium

Japanese-Style Chili Shrimp (Ebi Chili)

Ketchup, chili sauce and a splash of vinegar make a sauce that leans sweet and tangy rather than hot. Shallow-frying the shrimp in a starch coat, rather than deep-frying them, leaves a coating that turns silky in the sauce while the meat stays springy.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 20min Cook 12min 2 servings

Desserts Hard

Kuri no Shibukawani Candied Chestnuts in Inner Skin

Each chestnut keeps its brown inner skin and sits glossy in syrup. Makers in Saitama picked large nuts from growing areas such as Hidaka, and this autumn sweet once appeared only at festivals and celebrations. The outer shell comes off shallowly from the base, because even a small nick in the inner skin opens up over the repeated boils.

Prep 450min Cook 100min 4 servings

Grilled Easy

Chicken Satay

Turmeric, lemongrass, and coconut milk stain the chicken breast yellow, and the edges turn golden brown over a hot grill or pan. The sauce here is a quick one: peanut butter loosened with coconut milk and seasoned with fish sauce and sugar. Satay began in Java and changed as it spread to Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.

Prep 30min Cook 15min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Chobo-jiru (Cowpea, Taro Stem, and Rice Dumpling Soup)

With its thick, reddish broth, chobo-jiru looks at first like sweet red bean soup, yet one spoonful says otherwise: miso and bonito flakes make it fully savory. On Awaji Island in Hyogo, families have cooked big pots of it since the Edo period to celebrate a birth or a child's first shrine visit, sharing bowls with relatives and neighbors. The small sticky-rice dumplings were sometimes shaped round, pointed or dimpled as wishes for the child.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 35min Cook 75min 4 servings

Kimchi Hard

Kaki-zuke Persimmon Daikon Pickle

Daikon buried in astringent persimmon puree takes on the fruit's flavor while staying crisp. The traditional month-long barrel cure is unsafe to copy at uncontrolled home temperatures, so this version heats the persimmon puree, adds vinegar, tests the pH and keeps every stage refrigerated. A calibrated food-grade pH meter belongs on the equipment list.

Prep 120min Cook 15min 40 servings

Noodles Easy

Bihun Goreng (Indonesian Stir-Fried Rice Vermicelli with Sweet Soy)

Kecap manis, Indonesia's thick sweet soy sauce, caramelizes against the hot wok and wraps the thin rice vermicelli in a dark, sticky coat. Sambal fried in the oil first puts heat underneath that sweetness, and chicken, cabbage and carrot are tossed in quickly so the vegetables keep some crunch. Street stalls and warung across Indonesia and Malaysia cook it from early morning until late at night.

Prep 20min Cook 12min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Garigari Namasu with Coarsely Grated Daikon

Coarse grating on a bamboo oni-oroshi or rough grater leaves the daikon in ragged, crunchy bits instead of a watery pulp. The salted daikon gets just one light squeeze, since grating it fine or wringing it hard would erase both that roughness and its juiciness. Small fish cured first in salt and then vinegar are folded through a sweet miso-vinegar dressing in this Ibaraki-style namasu. The fish should already be gutted and scaled, and it stays cold while curing and after the dish is finished. Served straight away it has the sharpest crunch, while 15 minutes in the fridge lets the miso and vinegar soak in more evenly.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 25min 0 4 servings

Asian Hard

Amago Trout Kanroni

Grilled amago simmers slowly in hojicha, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar until even its fine bones turn soft. The fish is a red-spotted trout of the salmon family, and this way of cooking it comes from the Yoshino and Uda areas of Nara. Raw freshwater fish can carry parasites and contaminants. Only dressed, farmed, cooking-grade amago from a licensed supplier is used here, never fish you caught yourself.

Prep 30min Cook 150min 4 servings

Baking Medium

Knafeh (Crispy Shredded Pastry with Cheese)

Fine strands of kataifi tossed in melted butter bake crisp above and below a layer of mozzarella, which stretches when the knafeh is cut. A thin sugar syrup with a little lemon goes on the moment it leaves the oven, and the hot strands drink it in quickly. It is cut right away, because the pastry softens and the cheese firms as it sits.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Rice Medium

Century Egg and Pork Congee

Rice simmered low until the grains all but vanish forms a smooth base for cubes of century egg, whose white has set into amber jelly and whose yolk has turned creamy and dark green. The egg, a duck egg cured for weeks in clay, ash, and salt, brings a dense, faintly sulfurous richness that stands out against the plain porridge.

Prep 15min Cook 50min 2 servings

Stir-fry Easy

Fuzhu (Dried Bean Curd) Mala Xiang Guo

Dried fuzhu, folded sheets of bean curd skin, need at least 2 hours of soaking, so this dish starts well before the wok is hot. Once softened, their spongy layers soak up the store-bought mala sauce, numbing and chili-hot, and turn chewy.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 120min Cook 15min 2 servings

Desserts Medium

Decchi Yokan (Soft Red Bean Jelly)

With 1000ml of water to 500g of smooth bean paste, this yokan sets soft and moist, and a knife slides through easily. It is a winter sweet from northern Settsu in Osaka, remembered as a cheap treat tied to shop apprentices back when sugar was expensive. Unlike firm yokan that keeps at room temperature, it lives in the fridge and is served cold.

Prep 10min Cook 25min 16 servings

Grilled Hard

Iya Dekomawashi Miso Skewers

Taro, small potatoes, tofu, konjac and buckwheat dumplings share one skewer, so each bite changes texture. In this dish from Iya in Tokushima, every piece is steamed or boiled on its own first, then the skewers are browned, brushed with a sweet miso glaze and grilled until it bubbles and spots dark. Each skewer is finished with a sansho leaf.

Prep 35min Cook 40min 4 servings

Soups Medium

Takasaki Zakuni

Takasaki zakuni looks like kenchin-jiru, but the vegetables are never fried; soaked dried squid and its soaking liquid supply the savory depth instead. In Gunma it appears at New Year, Setsubun, Ebisu-ko, and household festivals, and one story says oil was left out of wedding versions so the couple would not separate like oil and water.

🏠 Everyday

Prep 40min Cook 45min 10 servings

Kimchi Hard

Nasu no Koji-zuke (Eggplant Pickled with Rice Koji)

With six kilograms of small eggplants in one batch, the fermenting crock, pressing stone and a month of refrigerator space need to be sorted out before anything else. In a pickling bed of steamed rice, rice koji, salt, coarse sugar and shochu, the eggplants take on sweetness and koji aroma rather than plain saltiness, with bamboo leaves and dried red chili layered in. Once the brine rises over everything, the weight is reduced so the contents simply stay submerged. Mold, a rotten smell or abnormal slime means the whole crock is discarded untasted.

Prep 150min Cook 60min 60 servings

Noodles Easy

Buckwheat Noodle Salad

Tsuyu sharpened with vinegar dresses this cold soba salad and finishes lighter than an oil-based dressing would. Purple shreds of red cabbage, cucumber and lettuce mix in among the brown buckwheat noodles, and nori flakes are scattered on top. Rubbing the noodles under cold water until the slick surface is gone keeps the strands separate and lets the dressing cling. A boiled egg or some chicken breast turns it into a full meal.

Prep 15min Cook 7min 2 servings

Salads Easy

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Shredded chicken breast and cabbage cut thinner than 2mm are tossed in a sweet-sour dressing of fish sauce, lime juice and sugar. The thick cabbage core is cut out before slicing because it stays tough in the salad. Fish sauce brings salt and savoriness to the lean chicken, lime brings sharpness, and raw cabbage and carrot do the crunching. Poached chicken needs to cool completely before it is pulled apart along the grain. Shredding it hot squeezes out the juices and leaves it dry. Cilantro and roasted peanuts scattered over the top add fragrance and a nutty crunch.

🥗 Lighter Meals

Prep 20min Cook 15min 2 servings

Asian Medium

Anko no Tomo-ae (Monkfish with Liver Miso)

Monkfish liver, cooked in a dry pan and mashed with miso and sugar, becomes a thick dressing for the boiled flesh in this winter side dish from Soma in Fukushima. Rehydrated dried daikon and salted wakame go into the toss as well. The boiled fish cools as it is rather than in cold water, which would wash out its flavor and thin the liver dressing.

Prep 25min Cook 20min 4 servings

Baking Hard

Lotus Seed Mooncake (Sweet Lotus Paste in Golden Syrup Crust)

Lotus seed paste is wrapped in a dough of golden syrup, oil, and alkaline water, pressed into a patterned mold, and baked for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Here the crust and filling are close to equal in weight, and the syrupy pastry counts for as much as the smooth lotus paste. Fresh from the oven the crust is still firm; a day in an airtight container softens it until it melds with the filling.

Prep 40min Cook 30min 4 servings