Category Archives: Asian Recipes

Cacio E Pepe Goes Sichuanese

Cacio e pepe goes Asian with Sichuan pepper.
Cacio e pepe goes Asian with Sichuan pepper.

Fly By Jing’s chili crisp and Zhong dumpling sauces are mainstays in my fridge because they are the perfect finish to so many dishes.

So when founder Jing Gao debuted her cookbook, “The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp” (Ten Speed Press),” I couldn’t wait to leaf through it.

The book, of which I received a review copy, takes its title from the delicious “fly” (hole-in-the-wall) street-food eateries that Gao and her parents would grab a bite to eat at in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan region.

Her father, a nuclear physics professor with a Chinese visa, moved the family around annually for his job. Sichuan food became the one constant in Gao’s life. And it became her calling after she left the corporate business world to start Baoism, her own restaurant in Shanghai that operated for two years. All the while, she kept refining the condiments that were her cooking touchstones.

After traveling to a natural foods trade show in California, and discovering the dearth of Asian food brands that existed, she launched Fly by Jing in 2018 through a Kickstarter campaign. Today, these popular products are sold in Whole Foods, Target, and Costco.

Read more

Napa Cabbage — Your New Best Veggie Friend

An easy and fast side dish to any Asian-inspired spread.
An easy and fast side dish to any Asian-inspired spread.

You want a best friend whom you can count on.

One who has lasting qualities.

One who rises to any occasion.

In short, in the world of vegetables, you want napa cabbage.

Crisp, sweet, slightly mustardy, super versatile, and able to last weeks in the fridge, it’s what you can loyally turn to time and time again.

I love it shredded raw in salads, roasted in the oven, steamed gently, and stir-fried as in this recipe for “Sour and Hot Napa Cabbage (Suan La Bai Cai).”

It’s a fast and easy side dish recipe that first appeared in the March/April 2023 issue of Cook’s Illustrated.

It’s based on a favorite dish from a local Sichuan restaurant that the staffers of the magazine frequented before it closed.

Read more

Sink Your Teeth Into Dreamy Scallion Pancake Biscuits

All the deliciousness of green onion pancakes in biscuit form.
All the deliciousness of green onion pancakes in biscuit form.

Imagine biting into a heavenly allium-scented Chinese scallion pancake — only one that’s loftier, super crunchy on top, and built majestically like your favorite buttery Southern biscuit.

“Scallion Pancake Biscuits” truly are the best of all carb worlds.

This impressive recipe is from “More Than Cake” (Artisan), of which I received a review copy.

It’s by Natasha Pickowicz, a New York city-based chef and writer behind the popular pastry pop-up Never Ending Taste.

Her Chinese and California heritages are on full display in the 100 recipes, many of which showcase seasonal fruit and/or imaginative riffs on classic Asian treats or ingredients.

Read more

Time for Thai Cornish Game Hens with Chili Dipping Sauce

A simple marinade, a toss on the grill, and an easy chile dipping sauce to finish are all that's involved in making this punchy Thai Cornish game hen dish.
A simple marinade, a toss on the grill, and an easy chile dipping sauce to finish are all that’s involved in making this punchy Thai Cornish game hen dish.

You know that favorite, forgotten shirt you stumble upon one day in the back of your closet, and rejoice?

That’s what I think of Cornish game hens.

These small birds are usually hidden away on a low shelf in the grocery store freezer — if you’re able to find them at all.

When you do, and throw them into your shopping cart for the hell of it, you remember just how good they are and how you really ought to cook with them more often.

That’s what ran through my head after one taste of “Thai Cornish Game Hens with Chili Dipping Sauce.”

The recipe is from “The Outdoor Cook” by America’s Test Kitchen, of which I received a review copy.

Perfect for this time of year, this cookbook is filled with 150 recipes for cooking on grills (both gas and charcoal), griddles, planchas, rotisseries, pizza ovens, and smokers.

Read more

Salt and Pepper Tater Tots — A Guilty Pleasure If There Ever Was One

Salt and pepper tater tots are sure to be your new guilty pleasure.
Salt and pepper tater tots are sure to be your new guilty pleasure.

If you had told me that one day I’d be stir-frying tater tots, I would have called you “crazy.”

But crazy can be mighty good.

And these sure are.

Put your disbelief aside, do yourself a favor, and make these “Salt and Pepper Tater Tots.”

If you’ve ever enjoyed the warm aromatics of Chinese salt and pepper shrimp or salt and pepper spare ribs, then you know the taste sensation you are in for.

This delightful recipe is from “Tenderheart” (Alfred A. Knopf), of which I received a review copy.

It’s the newest cookbook by Hetty Lui McKinnon, the gifted Chinese Australian cook and food writer who now lives in Brooklyn. She’s also the publisher of the multicultural food journal, Peddler, as well as host of its podcast, The House Specials.

Read more
« Older Entries Recent Entries »