Asian Recipes
806 recipes. Page 9 of 34
The Asian category gathers popular dishes from Japan, China, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and beyond. Curry, stir-fried noodles, mapo tofu, pad Thai, and pho are among the Asian favorites commonly enjoyed in Korean households.
Sasebo Lemon Steak
Lemon steak is a Sasebo, Nagasaki griddle dish developed around 1955 as a lighter Japanese interpretation of American-style steak. Thin slices of beef loin are seared quickly on one side over high heat, then finished with a sauce of grated onion, garlic, soy sauce, and lemon juice. The second side cooks in the bubbling sauce just long enough for the thin meat to heat through without becoming tough. Bright citrus cuts the richness while onion and soy capture the beef juices. In Sasebo, diners often finish by adding rice to the hot plate and mixing it with the remaining sauce and meat drippings.
Gaeng Jued Tofu Soup (Thai Clear Tofu Soup)
Gaeng jued - literally 'bland soup' in Thai - is not tasteless despite its name; it is the one Thai dish that deliberately seeks gentleness in a cuisine famous for intensity. A clear broth simmered from pork bones or chicken holds soft tofu, small pork meatballs, glass noodles or squash. The meatballs are seasoned with garlic, white pepper, and coriander root - the aromatic trinity of Thai cooking - which infuse the clear broth with a subtle depth that belies the soup's transparent appearance. Fresh cilantro leaves and fried garlic are scattered on top for aroma and crunch, but the overall tone stays soothing and stomach-settling. On a Thai family table, gaeng jued sits alongside fiery dishes like som tam and tom yum, serving as a palate cleanser between bites of heat. It is the soup Thai parents make for children and for anyone feeling unwell - comfort food in its most literal sense.
Sango-Hachi-Zuke (Rice Koji Vegetable Pickles)
Sango-hachi-zuke is a rice-koji pickle from Nihonmatsu, Fukushima. Cooked rice is cooled to about body temperature, mixed with rice koji and salt, and matured for at least one month to make a reusable pickling bed. Cucumber, carrot, eggplant, turnip, or other vegetables are coated with that bed and left overnight. 5 cup salt rather than a literal scaled version of those numbers. Cooling the rice before adding koji and breaking up every clump makes the bed even. The pickles helped farming households preserve abundant vegetables and provided a ready side dish during the busy rice-planting season.
Cheung Fun (Cantonese Steamed Rice Noodle Rolls with Shrimp)
Cheung fun -- rice noodle rolls -- are a cornerstone of Cantonese dim sum, present on every yum cha table from Hong Kong's tea houses to Guangzhou's morning restaurants. A thin batter of rice flour and tapioca starch is poured onto an oiled steel plate, steamed for under a minute, then peeled off as a translucent, trembling sheet. The sheet is rolled around fillings such as shrimp, char siu, or beef, or served plain, its own silky texture being the point. The ratio of rice flour to starch determines everything: too much rice flour and the sheet is stiff; too much starch and it becomes gummy. A lightly sweetened soy sauce is poured over the rolls at the table, pooling in the plate and coating each piece as it is lifted with chopsticks. Street vendors in Hong Kong steam cheung fun on pushcarts, peeling each sheet from a metal drawer with a flat scraper in a motion that draws onlookers. For many dim sum regulars, it is the first dish ordered and the benchmark by which a restaurant is judged.
Karanamasu (Sardine and Okara Vinegar Salad)
Karanamasu is a vinegared okara dish from Chiba's Uchibo area and the Boshu coast. Dry-roasted soybean pulp is combined with salt-cured sardine rinsed in vinegar, cucumber, carrot, leek, and fried tofu simmered with soy sauce and sugar. Miso, vinegar, sugar, and peanut powder make a thick dressing that binds the crumbly ingredients, while shredded yuzu peel adds a fresh finish. It is eaten at home and at community gatherings, where individual portions are traditionally shaped like small rice bales.
Ayam Lemak Cili Padi (Malay Coconut Chicken with Bird's Eye Chili)
Ayam lemak cili padi simmers chicken thighs with bird's eye chili, shallot, fresh turmeric, lemongrass, and coconut milk. Blend the shallot, chilies, and turmeric until no lumps remain. Cook the paste over medium-low heat while stirring until its raw aroma subsides, then add the chicken. When the outside is no longer pink, add the coconut milk and bruised lemongrass and scrape the paste from the bottom. A hard boil can split the coconut milk, so simmer gently without a lid for 25 minutes. When the chicken is cooked through and the broth remains light, add salt and sugar and remove the lemongrass.
Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry shortcake is a Japanese style layer cake made with a round egg foam sponge, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. Warm 4 eggs and 90 g sugar over a water bath to 40°C, then whip until batter falling from the beater leaves a ribbon on the surface for 2 to 3 seconds. Sift in 90 g cake flour and fold from the bottom with a spatula. Add 30 ml milk and 20 g melted unsalted butter around the edge of the bowl and continue folding without pressing the air from the batter. Pour the mixture into an 18 cm round pan and leave it in the 170°C oven for 28 to 30 minutes. A top that springs back after a light touch signals that the sponge is ready. Cool it completely before cutting it horizontally into 3 level layers. Whip 400 ml heavy cream with 35 g sugar to about 80 percent stiffness, stopping when visible lines remain and the tips of the peaks still bend softly. Reserve some of the 300 g strawberries for the top and slice the rest. Spread cream and arrange the sliced berries evenly between the sponge layers, coat the outside with the remaining cream, and finish with the reserved strawberries. Chill the assembled cake until its layers have settled before slicing.
Fusube Mochi (Rice Cakes with Spicy Loach and Burdock Sauce)
Fusube mochi is a rice-cake dish from Kurihara City in Miyagi Prefecture, eaten at New Year, weddings, memorial services, seasonal observances, and pauses in farm work. Grilled, dried loach powder is combined with grated burdock and daikon. The burdock is sautéed first in oil, followed by the daikon, a seeded red chili, and the loach powder. Water is added with attention to the moisture released by the radish. Soy sauce and sake season the mixture, which then simmers gently for about one hour while foam is removed carefully. The roots soften into the liquid and the loach powder gives it body. Freshly pounded, hot mochi is placed in bowls and covered with the spicy sauce just before eating. The name comes from fusuberu, the local term for smoking the grilled loaches dry above the hearth, linking inland Kurihara's freshwater fish traditions with Miyagi's mochi culture.
Koneri (Thickened Eggplant and Pepper Stir-Fry)
Koneri binds eggplant and green pepper with a thick miso and flour coating that must cook slowly after it enters the pan. Cut 3 eggplants into 7 mm half-moons or thick 5 cm strips. Cover them with cold water, leave them for 5 minutes, then drain and dry every surface thoroughly. Remaining water can make the oil spit and loosen the final coating. Remove the stems and seeds from 3 green peppers and cut them to a similar length. Pick out only the large innards and loose fragments from 10 g small dried sardines. In a bowl, combine 50 g wheat flour, 1.75 tablespoons miso, and 0.25 teaspoon sugar. Whisk in 50 ml water gradually until no lumps remain. Warm 2 tablespoons cooking oil in a wide pan over medium heat and add the sardines with the eggplant. Stir-fry for 5 minutes, extending the cooking by 1 minute only if the eggplant has not wilted. Add the peppers and keep them moving for another 2 minutes. Lower the heat before pouring the slurry across the pan. Scrape and stir continuously for 3 minutes. If a raw flour smell remains, continue for no more than 1 minute, stopping when the thick sauce clings evenly to the vegetables without loose water below. Higher heat at this stage can burn the bottom before the flour cooks through.
Imobera Azuki (Kochi Dried Sweet Potato and Azuki Sweet)
Imobera azuki is a local sweet from Ino, Kochi, in which yudebera, a distinctive boiled-and-dried sweet potato, is simmered with azuki beans and sugar. Whole sweet potatoes are traditionally boiled for hours, dried until the outside firms, sliced into rounds, and dried again; in Ino these pieces are called yudebera or nibera. Soaking 300g yudebera in lightly salted water for 4 to 5 hours restores moisture to the center. The pieces then cook slowly in the same liquid and are mashed while some texture remains. Cooked azuki and 130g sugar are added in stages so the beans stay recognizable and the mixture remains moist enough to scoop. It is not a flour dumpling soup, but a substantial preserved-food snack with chewy sweet potato and tender beans.
Sangayaki (Miso-Pounded Mackerel Grilled in Shells)
Sangayaki is the grilled form of namero, the finely pounded fish preparation associated with fishermen around Chiba's Boso Peninsula. A whole mackerel is filleted, skinned, and cleared of bones before the flesh is chopped with a knife. Miso is added and the mixture is pounded again until distinctly sticky, which helps it stay tender and cohesive during grilling. Julienned ginger, minced onion, and green pepper are folded in. The mixture is packed level into five clean abalone shells, covered with a shiso leaf, and placed over heat. It is done when the fish has puffed up, the center is opaque, and no raw mixture remains. The dish recalls fishermen carrying namero in abalone shells when they went to work in the mountains, then steaming or grilling it at their huts.
Gawa (Iced Bonito and Miso Soup)
Gawa is a summer fishermen's soup from Shizuoka made by roughly chopping raw-grade bonito with miso and umeboshi, then loosening the paste with ice water and adding cucumber, onion, shiso, ginger, and leafy scallions. One explanation links its name to the clatter of ice in the bowl. The fish remains raw, so only bonito explicitly handled for raw consumption is suitable. Keep the fish, vegetables, water, utensils, and serving bowls cold, mix immediately before eating, and do not hold leftovers at room temperature.
Senmaizuke (Thin Turnip and Kombu Pickle)
Senmaizuke is a Kyoto pickle of large Shogoin turnip peeled deeply, sliced to 2mm, salted under weight for one day, then layered with kombu and chili in a cooled sweet vinegar of sugar and mirin for another day. Its name evokes the many paper-thin slices, literally a thousand sheets. Unlike long-keeping lactic pickles, this form is a short cure intended to preserve the turnip's fresh, tender crunch. Kombu gives the brine light viscosity and savory depth, while chili leaves a clean finish rather than strong heat.
Chinese Chow Mein
Chinese chow mein stir-fries boiled noodles with vegetables and protein over fierce wok heat. The noodles are parboiled, lightly oiled, then tossed in a screaming-hot wok until the exterior crisps while the interior stays chewy. A sauce of soy, oyster sauce, and sesame oil lacquers each strand with salty depth and umami, while bean sprouts, cabbage, and carrot contribute crunch. The hallmark smoky flavor known as wok hei comes only from sustained high heat, so home cooks achieve the closest result by working in small batches and letting the pan fully recover between additions. Chicken, shrimp, or beef can replace one another as the main protein, making chow mein endlessly adaptable. A squeeze of lime at the table brightens the overall flavor.
Kishizu (Kuzukiri and Vegetables with Sesame Miso)
Kishizu is a Buddhist vegetarian dish served around Kaga City in Ishikawa Prefecture at funerals, memorial services, and Hoonko observances. Kuzukiri, salted wakame, sudare-fu, konnyaku, carrot, udo, and cucumber are prepared separately and cut into long, narrow shapes before being arranged by color as a substitute for sashimi. The konnyaku is scored and lightly cooked with sake and light soy sauce without darkening it. The wakame and wheat gluten are briefly blanched, while the kuzukiri is boiled and cooled. For the sauce, white sesame is ground until it releases oil, then combined with white miso, boiled mirin and sake, sugar, salt, dashi, vinegar, and poppy seeds. A small sauce bowl is placed in the center of the platter so each crisp, soft, or slippery ingredient can be dipped individually, though the sauce may also be mixed through before serving.
Ayam Penyet (Javanese Smashed Fried Chicken with Sambal)
Ayam penyet first cooks chicken legs in water with garlic and ginger, dries them thoroughly, fries them, and tops them with sambal made from red chili and lime juice. Once the thickest part is cooked, drain the chicken for 5 minutes and dry the skin and folds with paper towels to reduce oil splatter. Fry at 180C for 4 to 6 minutes, until the skin blisters, darkens, and becomes crisp. Pound the cooked garlic with red chili, salt, and lime juice into a coarse sambal. Press the fried chicken once in the mortar to crack the skin without shredding the meat, then add the sambal.
Sweet Potato Mochi Bread Rings
Sweet potato mochi bread rings are made by scalding tapioca starch with hot milk and butter, then working in mashed sweet potato, egg, and grated Parmesan before shaping the dough into rings. Mash 120 g steamed sweet potato until no large pieces remain and preheat the oven to 190°C. Warm 90 ml milk, 30 g unsalted butter, 22 g sugar, and 2 g salt over medium low heat. Turn off the heat when the butter has melted and small bubbles appear at the edge of the pot. Add all 140 g tapioca starch while the liquid is still hot and stir quickly until no dry white starch remains, then let the mixture cool for 2 minutes. Knead in the mashed sweet potato and 1 egg. The dough should remain sticky but hold its shape. If it is loose enough to run, add tapioca starch in 5 g increments until it can be handled. Mix in 25 g grated Parmesan last, divide the dough into 8 portions, and roll each portion into a rope. Join the ends firmly and arrange the rings with space between them on a lined tray. Move the tray to the 190°C oven and cook the rings for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove them when the surfaces are golden and lightly cracked, rest them on the tray for 3 minutes, and serve warm.
Japanese Thick Sushi Roll
Futomaki is a thick Japanese sushi roll filled with raw tuna intended for sashimi, a tsuyu-seasoned rolled omelet, cucumber, pickled radish, and simmered burdock. The 150 g tuna is cut lengthwise into bars about 1.5 cm thick, and 40 g pickled radish is shaped to a similar size so the fillings form an even core. Eighty grams of cucumber is finely shredded to fit between the larger pieces. Three eggs are beaten with 1 tablespoon tsuyu and cooked into a thick rolled omelet. It must cool completely before it is cut to roughly the same thickness as the tuna, since residual heat and steam would affect the rice and seaweed during assembly. On a bamboo mat, one seaweed sheet is laid down and another half sheet is attached to extend the wrapping area. A total of 350 g seasoned sushi rice is spread broadly and evenly across the joined seaweed. The tuna, cooled omelet, cucumber, pickled radish, and 30 g simmered burdock are then arranged together in a straight line. The mat is lifted while fingertips hold the fillings in place, producing a firm roll without scattering the center. A sharp knife cuts the finished futomaki into 2 cm sections. Joining the seaweed sheets provides enough surface to enclose the generous filling and helps prevent the wrapper from splitting as the roll is tightened.
Kottu Roti (Sri Lankan Shredded Flatbread Stir-Fry with Egg)
Kottu roti turns 3 roti or paratha into a high-heat stir-fry with onion, cabbage, carrot, and egg. Stack the flatbreads, cut them into 1 cm strips, then cut across the strips to make small squares. Separate stuck pieces and loosen dry edges by hand before cooking so the seasoning can reach each piece. Preheat a wide pan over high heat for 1 minute, swirl in 1.5 tablespoons oil, and cook 100 g onion for 2 minutes. The onion edges should be translucent before the other vegetables enter. Add 120 g cabbage and 70 g carrot and keep them moving over high heat for 3 minutes. Spread the vegetables across the pan as they soften so their moisture evaporates rather than soaking the bread later. Push the vegetables aside, crack 2 eggs into the open space, and scramble only until half set before folding them through the vegetables. Add the chopped roti with 1.5 teaspoons curry powder, 0.5 teaspoon chili flakes, and 1 tablespoon soy sauce. Press, chop, and turn everything with a spatula for 2 minutes, extending the stir-fry by no more than 1 minute if pale pieces remain. Stop as soon as the bread has absorbed the seasoning and its edges are lightly crisp. Transfer it out of the hot pan immediately because residual heat can make the roti tough.
Iriko Mochi (Parched Rice Flour Cake)
Iriko mochi is a Miyazaki confection made from parched rice flour, traditionally ground from a mixture of glutinous and short-grain rice in an 8:2 or 7:3 ratio. Sugar, starch syrup, and water are heated only until bubbles rise, then worked into the flour a little at a time while still hot. The dough gains a soft, chewy body without being steamed or boiled. It is shaped in a starch-dusted mold, cooled completely, and cut with a starch-coated knife. The roasted rice aroma and mild sweetness suit a snack that has been shared since the Edo period for children's seasonal celebrations, Bon offerings, and everyday eating.
Moo Ping (Thai Grilled Pork Skewers)
Moo ping are popular Thai grilled pork skewers known for their sweet and savory glaze. The dish features thinly sliced pork neck marinated in a rich mixture of coconut milk, palm sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, minced garlic, and black pepper. Soaking the bamboo skewers in water before cooking prevents them from burning on the hot grill. The coconut milk in the marinade acts as a tenderizer, ensuring the marbled pork neck remains moist and juicy inside. The pork slices are threaded onto skewers and grilled over medium-high heat. During the final minute of cooking, brushing on the remaining marinade helps the palm sugar and soy sauce caramelize on the surface, creating a glossy, slightly charred glaze. These skewers are traditionally eaten warm, frequently paired with sticky rice as a staple street food option.
Go-jiru (Creamy Ground Soybean Miso Soup)
Go-jiru is a thick soybean soup from Fukui. Dried soybeans soak for a full night and day, simmer until their raw beany aroma disappears, and are ground with cooking liquid into a smooth paste called go. The paste returns to the pot, rises into a soft foam as it heats, and is seasoned with miso before finely chopped leek and optional chili finish each bowl. Ground beans enrich the entire broth with protein, body, and a gentle nutty flavor. In Fukui, the soup continues as a temple food served to gatherings for Hoonko, the major Jodo Shinshu observance around the anniversary of Shinran's death, locally called Honko-san. Regional cooks may grind soaked raw beans, cooked beans, or soybean flour; simmering the beans first gives a stable soup with a mild aroma.
Shibazuke (Eggplant and Red Shiso Fermented Pickle)
Shibazuke is a representative Kyoto pickle made by salt-fermenting summer vegetables with red shiso from the Ohara area of Kyoto City. Ten kilograms of eggplant are cut 5 mm thick, while cucumber, green chili, and myoga are prepared separately. Red shiso sprigs are washed, the leaves are removed and roughly chopped, and they are mixed with the eggplant. About a 10 cm layer of that mixture is packed into a pickling container and salted, then the myoga, cucumber, and green chili are alternated through subsequent layers. A generous covering of shiso goes on top, followed by a weight equal to the total ingredient weight. After one full day and night, the first black liquid is poured away. The pickle is then kept pressed so clean liquid stands 3 to 4 cm above the drop lid while fermentation continues for several days. The resulting purple, sour vegetables are served with rice or sake.
Cold Sesame Noodles
Cold sesame noodles are a fixture of Chinese-American cooking: chilled wheat noodles coated in a thick, nutty sauce that layers sweet, salty, sour, and savory flavors in a single bowl. The sauce is built from Chinese sesame paste or tahini blended with peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil until the mixture becomes a smooth, glossy emulsion. After boiling, the noodles are rinsed under cold running water to stop cooking and firm the texture, then tossed with a small amount of sesame oil to prevent clumping and add sheen. Julienned cucumber and sliced scallion provide freshness and crunch that cut through the dense sauce. Chili flakes or a spoonful of chili oil can be added for heat. Preparing the sauce in advance and refrigerating it means the entire dish can come together in the time it takes to boil a pot of noodles, making it a practical choice on hot summer days. Any leftover sauce works well as a salad dressing.
About Asian
Each country brings its own signature spices and sauces, so even the same ingredients can produce completely different flavors. With a few key pantry items - coconut milk, fish sauce, curry powder, doubanjiang - you can recreate the tastes of Asia at home.