Category Archives: Asian Recipes

Baked Goods With A Twist, Part III: The Out-Of-The-Norm Blueberry Crumb Cake

This isn't your ordinary blueberry cake -- not with whole wheat flour, plus a most unexpected ingredient.
This isn’t your ordinary blueberry cake — not with whole wheat flour, plus a most unexpected ingredient.

Blueberry cake is always a welcome guest.

But it’s the blueberry cake with a miso crumb topping that makes for a guest with gusto whom you won’t soon forget.

This unusual take on a classic spring treat incorporates mild — yet still salty and ever so fermented and funky — white miso into the mix.

“Blueberry-Miso Crumb Cake” is a recipe from Chef Chris Morocco for Bon Appetit magazine, published in the September 2020 issue.

Yes, it's white miso.
Yes, it’s white miso.

The cake is made with whole wheat flour, which gives it a hearty and nutty taste. Plus, it adds a healthful aspect, even if you are still eating cake. Or so you can con yourself.

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Baked Goods With A Twist, Part I: Not Your Usual Brownies

These incredible brownies have an ingredient that's hard to believe.
These incredible brownies have an ingredient that’s hard to believe.

Deep, dark and rich, these irresistible brownies are gluten-free, as they’re made with almond meal.

They also sport a very unlikely ingredient.

Soy sauce.

Before you scratch your head in complete disbelief, consider that soy sauce actually amplifies the chocolate even more, in much the same way that a little espresso does.

Only in this case, the soy sauce imparts a subtle salted caramel note.

If that doesn’t make you a believer, one taste surely will.

Yup, soy sauce, of all things.
Yup, soy sauce, of all things.

This genius recipe comes from food writer and best-selling cookbook author Hetty McKinnon, who started a community salad delivery business in Sydney, Australia, before moving with her family to Brooklyn in 2015.

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Striped Bass and Kimchi Stew

Striped bass fillets cooked in a punchy kimchi-laced broth.
Striped bass fillets cooked in a punchy kimchi-laced broth.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When it gives you jars of kimchi, make warming fish and kimchi stew.

I almost always have a jar of kimchi in my fridge. And you should, too. It comes in so handy for everything from fried rice to breakfast eggs to mac ‘n’ cheese.

“Striped Bass and Kimchi Stew” is a recipe by cook and food editor Rick A. Martinez, as published in the New York Times.

This recipe is based on the classic Korean dish, kimchi-jjigae, the stew of kimchi, seafood, pork or tofu that comes bubbling ferociously in an iron pot to your table at a Korean restaurant.

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Roasted Chicken Thighs with — Wait, What?

Barbecue sauce-slathered chicken thighs with a surprising ingredient.
Barbecue sauce-slathered chicken thighs with a surprising ingredient.

These chicken thighs get roasted in the oven in no time flat, and slathered with a barbecue sauce that has an unlikely ingredient.

Peanut butter.

Make that creamy, too, not chunky.

It’s the taste of the American South meets Indonesia.

“Roasted Chicken Thighs with Peanut Butter Barbecue Sauce” is a fun and delightful recipe by Kay Chun, a recipe developer and editor, that was printed in the New York Times.

Not just for sandwiches with jelly.
Not just for sandwiches with jelly.

The peanut butter really thickens up this barbecue sauce, giving it a nutty, rich taste reminiscent of satay, but with added sweetness, spiciness and tang.

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Drunken Noodles

A tasty Thai noodle dish -- with a little tweaking.
A tasty Thai noodle dish — with a little tweaking.

Far from it for me to disparage this “Drunken Noodles with Chicken” recipe from America’s Test Kitchen.

But I think someone might have been hitting the sauce when writing this one.

America’s Test Kitchen, with its meticulous and detailed recipe testing, is typically the holy grail. But when I saw that this recipe that uses 8 ounces of noodles called for half a cup of brown sugar in the sauce, I was aghast. A tablespoon or two maybe. But half a cup?!?

Still, because I like to adhere to new recipes exactly the first time I make them, I followed suit. The result was what I feared — noodles as sweet as candy. Definitely not what you want. The noodles also were swimming in that sauce.

So, the next time, I cut the sauce amount in half, but kept the quantities the same for everything else. What I ended up with was far more delicious and balanced.

“Drunken Noodles with Chicken” is from The Complete One Pot: 400 Meals For Your Skillet, Sheet Pan, Instant Pot, Dutch Oven, and More” (America’s Test Kitchen), of which I received a review copy.

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