813 recipes. Page 8 of 34
Curry, stir-fry noodles, and Asian recipes
A whole slab of atsuage, thick deep-fried tofu, is simmered uncut in this Fukui side dish, and a cross cut on top lets the broth seep in while the center stays white and plain. Each bite has a seasoned outside and a mild middle. Pouring boiling water over the tofu first rinses off surface oil and keeps the broth clean.
Bite into one and the sugared cookie shell cracks first, then the milk bread underneath gives way like a cloud. Despite the name, there is no melon in it; the crosshatch scored into the cookie layer is meant to look like a melon's rind. A rather low oven sets that shell without letting it brown much, while the bread keeps rising underneath into a dome. Eat them the day they are baked, within a few hours, while the crust still crackles.
Com tam means broken rice: grains that cracked during milling and were once thrown away as unsellable. Today it is the base of a classic Ho Chi Minh City breakfast, and its small pieces take up the meat's marinade well. Instead of a bone-in chop over charcoal, this version uses thin slices of pork shoulder marinated with lemongrass and seared in a pan.
Garlic and mixed miso are rubbed into the chicken breast, cut across the grain into 2 cm pieces, and it rests in the fridge for 15 minutes before cooking. Carrot goes in first because it needs longer, then cabbage and green pepper, and the pan comes off the heat once the cabbage edges turn translucent and have picked up the miso left in the pan.
Freezing and thawing over and over pulls the moisture out of these rice cakes, leaving them porous and nearly weightless, which is why they are also called kori-mochi. Strung on rice straw, long curtains of mochi under the eaves were once the look of February in Goshogawara, and each household had someone who read the weather to pick the day to hang them. It is a winter job: 4.5 kg of glutinous rice steamed, pounded, and dried for about two months. The finished pieces are chewed crisp, lightly toasted, brushed with butter and soy sauce, or fried.
On the domed jingisukan pan, lamb fat and juices run down the grooves into the bean sprouts, onions and squash ringing the edge. This Hokkaido style skips the marinade and dips the lamb after cooking in a soy-vinegar sauce made with grated apple, pear, garlic and ginger. The fattiest pieces cook first in the center, and their rendered fat coats the grooves so nothing sticks without added oil. Everyone eats as things cook, lifting off meat and vegetables as they are ready, with potatoes and squash taking the longest. Hokkaido began eating lamb when sheep were raised for wool in the Taisho era, and the dish is now cooked at home year-round and outdoors at spring blossom parties and summer barbecues.
The sardines are ground in a mortar until no grain is left, then mixed with grated mountain yam, egg and miso into a sticky paste for the dumplings. The miso seasons the dumplings themselves, so the broth needs only a little soy sauce.
Frost-softened nozawana greens are layered whole in a barrel with salt, kombu and dried chili, then pressed under a heavy weight until their own brine rises and lactic fermentation proceeds in the cold. The plant developed in the cool highlands of Nozawa Onsen in Nagano, growing long leaves and stalks rather than a big root, and became an essential way to keep greens through winter. It can be sampled after a few weeks and turns more sour and savory at around a month. With 40 kg of greens, foot-treading and stones of 30 kg or more, this is a two-person barrel project rather than a kitchen pickle.
Cao lau belongs to Hoi An, where the noodles were traditionally made with water from an old Cham well and lye from the ash of trees on the nearby Cham Islands, giving them a dense chew; at home, thick rice noodles stand in. It is not a soup: only a few spoonfuls of the sticky soy and sugar pan glaze are poured over the noodles, so the bean sprouts, herbs and crumbled fried wonton skins keep their own textures.
Warm, earthy cumin and the salty tang of chaat masala sit on top of lime juice, giving plain cucumber and tomato an unmistakably Indian taste. Scooping out some of the seedy centers keeps the vegetables from weeping into the dressing. Finely diced red onion soaked in cold water for 3 minutes loses its sharp bite, and it is drained in a sieve rather than squeezed. Cilantro is chopped together with its tender stems, which carry more aroma than the leaves alone. Left for about 15 minutes before serving, the vegetables trade flavors and the bowl tastes more of a piece.
Instead of flour or batter, the coating here is coconut milk and a turmeric, garlic, and ginger paste simmered down until it clings to the chicken. Fried afterward, that layer turns deep gold with rough, crunchy nubs rather than a smooth shell.
White miso, toasted sesame oil, and whole sesame seeds go into these thin crackers with only a pinch of sugar, and salty, nutty flavors come before sweet. Stop handling the dough as soon as it comes together. Kneading builds elasticity, which makes it resist rolling thin and bakes into a harder bite. Fresh from the oven they can feel slightly soft, and they crisp as they cool.
Shucked clams and thick-cut scallion simmer briefly in miso broth, and the whole pot, liquid included, is poured over hot rice to be eaten while the broth runs between the grains. In the Edo period, Fukagawa was a tidal fishing settlement full of clams, and vendors sold the meat already out of the shell, so fishers could cook it fast and eat between jobs.
There is no sauce in this curry: minced pork is fried with spice paste until it breaks into dry, separate crumbles. The aroma and heat of this shortcut version differ from the original because it uses commercial Thai red curry paste in place of the southern Thai paste, which has its own mix including turmeric and pepper. The pork should end up with no liquid left at the bottom but not crisp like a snack. Finely shredded makrut lime leaves add a citrus lift against the spice.
A thick round of sweet potato and a ball of red bean paste are wrapped together in dough and steamed, so a cut bun shows three separate layers: soft wrapper, bean paste, and fluffy potato. These dumplings come from the Kikuchi area of Kumamoto, where they were made as a snack during the autumn sweet potato harvest.
Only the surface of the bonito meets the flame, for 20 to 30 seconds a side, leaving a smoky crust around a center that stays red and cold. Since the inside stays raw, the fish has to be bonito sold and cold-handled for eating raw, not ordinary grilling fish. In the Kochi Prefecture style, thick slices are sprinkled with salt, splashed with yuzu vinegar and soy, and patted with the flat of a knife so the seasoning settles in. Paper-thin garlic and onion and chopped scallions are scattered on top, and the plate is eaten right away rather than left at room temperature.
Each piece is stretched so its edges go thin and tender while the center stays slightly thicker and springy, giving two textures in one bite. Hittsumi comes from southern Aomori, and the name points to the pulling and pinching of dough rather than rolling and cutting noodles. The rested bread-flour dough is torn straight into dashi with chicken, burdock, carrot and green onion.
Finely cut seisai, a Yamagata mustard green, is mixed with daikon, carrot, sunchoke, salted shiso seeds and yellow edible chrysanthemum petals into a colorful, finely chopped relish. It comes from the Murayama, Mogami and Okitama areas of Yamagata. The green liquid released during the overnight pre-salting is poured off and the vegetables squeezed hard, which keeps the soy, mirin and zarame sugar marinade from being diluted. Mildly salted and soy-seasoned, it is spooned over rice or mixed into rice balls, ochazuke or fried rice. That low salt also means it stays refrigerated and is eaten within about two weeks.
Penang hawkers built this dish for laborers who needed a cheap, filling plate cooked fast, and its flavor depends on wok hei, the charred breath of a wok heated until it smokes. Wide flat rice noodles, prawns, egg, bean sprouts and Chinese chives move through the pan in a few minutes, while dark soy and oyster sauce stain the noodles a glossy brown. Drying everything and lining it up within reach before the burner is lit keeps stray water on the noodles or prawns from dropping the wok temperature and steaming the food instead of searing it.
Mayonnaise thinned with rice vinegar and lemon juice gives this Japanese imitation-crab salad a creamy coating that does not feel heavy. Crab stick pulled into thin shreds along the grain mixes with matchsticks of cucumber and carrot and takes the dressing evenly, and with no cooking involved it comes together in minutes.
Most of the effort goes into a wet paste of onion, garlic, and ginger, fried slowly until the oil separates from the solids. Rushing it leaves a raw, harsh edge in the sauce. After that, chicken thighs simmer in coconut milk with turmeric, ground coriander, and lemongrass until the sauce turns bright yellow and thick enough to coat the meat. Ayam gulai belongs to the Padang food of West Sumatra's Minangkabau people, whose restaurants lay out many small plates before anyone orders and charge only for the ones you touch.
These small Filipino rolls get their slightly gritty, crumbly surface from breadcrumbs pressed onto the tops before baking. Underneath, a milk, butter, and egg dough tears into soft strands, with only mild sweetness. When the butter first goes in, the dough turns slippery; that is normal, and further kneading brings it back to smooth and stretchy.
Minced crucian carp and root vegetables simmer in a sweet-salty dashi with two kinds of soy sauce, and the hot soup is ladled generously over rice, then topped with sliced green onion and torn nori. The dish grew up around the reclaimed land of Kojima Bay in southern Okayama, where rice paddies, canals, rivers, and Kojima Lake held plenty of winter carp. Its other names, tontoko-jiru and tontoko-meshi, echo the rhythmic chopping of fish on a board.
Most of burdock's aroma is near the skin, so it is scrubbed clean with a brush rather than peeled. A dried red chili in the pan leaves a little heat trailing behind the sweet soy flavor.