Category Archives: Asian Recipes

Soda-Pop Pickled Cucumbers

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Yup, a splash of soda pop adds a fun sweetness to these pickled cucumbers.
Yup, a splash of soda pop adds a fun sweetness to these pickled cucumbers.

These crunchy pickled cucumbers have the usual suspects of ingredients — vinegar, salt, and sugar — but also something rather unusual.

7Up. Or Sprite for those who prefer the competing lemon-lime soda.

Yup, how crazy is that?

I have to say that surprising ingredient was what drew me to this particular recipe, “Sweet-and-Sour 7Up Pickled Cucumbers,” in the new cookbook, “Koreaworld: A Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Deuki Hong, the chef-owner of the Sunday Family Hospitality Group in San Francisco; and Matt Rodbard, the founding editor of the online magazine, Taste.

Korean cuisine is having a major moment right now. Hong and Rodbard attribute that in great part early on to Chef Roy Choi’s Kogi trucks in Los Angeles that drew crowds for its Korean-Mexican mashup tacos and to Chef David Chang, whose Momofuku in New York introduced a wide audience to the Korean feast known as bo ssam.

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Rice Goes Fancy

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Rice gets dressed up with fresh shiso and sesame-inflected gomasio.
Rice gets dressed up with fresh shiso and sesame-inflected gomasio.

Rice is like that little white (er, black) dress. Simple and basic. Yet add a few thoughtful flourishes and it commands a lingering attention.

That’s what “Dressed Rice with Shiso and Summer Gomasio” embodies.

Think of it almost as an open-face, deconstructed onigiri featuring Japanese pickled plums. Only even prettier.

The recipe is from “Bright Cooking” (Chronicle Books), of which I received a review copy.

The cookbook was written by Camille Becerra, who has been the executive chef of five restaurants in New York, including As You Are in the Ace Hotel Brooklyn.

It’s a collection of more than 140 fresh tasting, vegetable-forward recipes. Learn how to make her fundamentals to enjoy on their own or in her suggested recipes.

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Bet You Can’t Resist Chili Crisp Biscuits with Honey-Butter Glaze

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Meet your new favorite biscuit.
Meet your new favorite biscuit.

These babies are total butter bombs.

They also possess a kick of heat, not the kind that knocks you for a loop but rather tickles playfully,

Like Detroit pan pizza, the corner pieces with irresistible crispy edges and sides are worth fighting for first, too.

“Chili Crisp Biscuits with Honey-Butter Glaze” are all that and more, thanks to an entire stick of butter being melted and poured into the pan first, so that the dough bakes up in the pool of it.

With your favorite store-bought chili crisp added to both the dough and the honey-infused butter glaze that’s poured all over the top after baking, these biscuits have personality to spare.

This fabulous recipe is from “Chili Crisp” (Chronicle Books, 2023), of which I received a review copy.

Written by James Park, a Brooklyn-based recipe developer and food writer, it is a collection of more than 50 recipes, both sweet and savory, that star everyone’s new favorite Chinese condiment, glistening orange-red and loaded with warmth and crunchy bits.

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Eggplant Donburi Equals Comfort In A Bowl

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Easy-peasy, miso eggplant served over rice.
Easy-peasy, miso eggplant served over rice.

There are times when I look at my garden plaintively and pleadingly.

I’ve watered you, I’ve fed you. I’m given you sun and shade. So, why aren’t you cooperating and growing like you should?

Thankfully, though, there are other times when I examine something gleefully and come away filled with surprise.

That’s when I peer at my Japanese eggplant plant, and find it offering up not one, not two, but handfuls of slender, glossy, deep purple fruit (yes, fruit because technically that’s what they are).

“Eggplant Donburi” proved the perfect way to enjoy my latest harvest.

This rice-bowl dish couldn’t be easier or more homey tasting.

It’s from “Rice” (Smith Street Books), of which I received a review copy. Eight different writers contributed more than 80 recipes from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, India and elsewhere in Asia. The recipes highlight the beloved staple grain, and span both sweet and savory, and incorporate various cooking techniques.

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Endive Salad With Indian Flair

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An endive and romaine salad gets jazzed up with seared paneer and a punchy tamarind chutney dressing.
An endive and romaine salad gets jazzed up with seared paneer and a punchy tamarind chutney dressing.

Like so many ethnic households, my family’s included a pantry where fermented black beans, three types of soy sauce, and tubs of tofu had equal billing as ketchup, mustard, and frozen hash browns.

Same for Khushbu Shah, whose family arrived in the first wave of Indian immigration to the United States.

The former restaurant editor at Food & Wine magazine, the Los Angeles-based Shah grew up in a home where Bisquick, peanut butter, and Taco Bell burritos were as beloved as curry leaves, coconut milk, and moong dal.

It’s that blending of heritages that informs her new cookbook, “Amrikan” (W.W. Norton), of which I received a review copy. Just what is “Amrikan”? As Shah explains in the book: Both a noun and an adjective, it is the word that Indians use to describe all things American. Or in short: “It’s America — with a desi accent.”

As such, the 125 recipes showcase the clever, surprising, and inspired ways that Indian American families have adapted what they found in American grocery stores or added a Southeast Asian spin to American comfort food classics.

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