The Asian Kitchen

The Asian Kitchen is an amazing cookbook with photographs illustrating everything. How so? Photos of fresh produce, spices, noodles, mushrooms, tofu, bean curd, woks, steaming baskets, cooking techniques, five ways of cutting scallions, how to cut and chop various foods Asian style, how to make basic stocks--and that is just the introduction. Not only is this cookbook filled with photos illustrating food preparation and cooking steps, but also of the finished product. This is a big, heavy, gorgeous book and a must-have for the adventurous cook! From the first recipe, "Crisp Seaweed with Sliced Almonds," (note: the seaweed is actually chard) to the last, "Toffee Apples," every recipe is illustrated in a presentation--not just food slapped on a plate, but artistically displayed as Asian chefs do. Let's back up two pages from that last dessert to Mango and Lime Sorbet in Lime Shells, beautifully presented as a yellow-orange sorbet in lime cups with twists of lime on top. The Thai-Style Dessert may interest you: Black sticky rice (a sort of wild rice) makes a tasty pudding with a nutty flavor. And everything in-between, including numerous recipes of fried rice (I plan to try every single one of them): Sticky Rice Balls Filled with Chicken; Chinese Jeweled Rice; Rice, Shrimp, and Egg Strips; Chinese Cabbage and Black Rice Stir-Fry; and Fragrant Rice (a must-try). Some of the recipes are one page, some are double spreads. Soup recipes include Noodles in Soup (what I'm cooking tomorrow night--it looks far better than the simple title!); Mock Shark's Fin Soup (made with cellophane noodles instead of shark fin); Hanoi Beef and Noodle Soup (eaten by Vietnamese for breakfast--a kind of breakfast I love). Some main dish recipes include Beef with Noodles, Vegetables, and Bean Curd. This is not a stir fry all mixed up, but a settling of each item on an attractive plate. Vegetables shown are mushrooms, leeks, and spinach. Two other gorgeous presentations are Stir-fried Vegetables with Cilantro Omelet, or Red-Cooked Tofu with Chinese Mushrooms. I am a huge tofu fan (it tastes like what it absorbs)--this looks so tasty! And wow, Braised Eggplant and Zucchini! I recently purchased this cookbook and have not tried any recipes. However, I bought it because the photos make the recipes look fairly easy and all but about three look wonderful. Usually, there are quite a few recipes I will never try to cook. You know what I mean. Also, most ingredients are available at any grocery store, the special ones at Asian stores, which we have in our area. Until tomorrow night... Note: For a photo of the front cover, click on the product title and go to the product page.

While my title states that this is a good beginner Asian cookbook, the beginner cook may be slightly intimidated by some of the ingredient lists. Most Asian recipes have more than a handful of ingredients, many of which will not be hanging around in your cabinet. That being said most of the ingredients are easy to find and not very expensive. I first purchased this book eight years ago thinking I would learn to cook and be able to make some great Asian cuisine. The recipes did intimidate me and I never tried any of them. I did not cook at all back then except for eggs, burgers, casseroles and such so for me this book was not the best way to start out. I needed to learn the basics of cooking first. Well that didn't happen until more than six years later. I started with using the slow cooker, to following recipes from All Recipes and Food Network on the internet to finally trying this book. I also had The Fanny Farmer Cookbook which is a wonderful basic that I always refer back to. To my surprise many of the stir fry recipes in The Asian Kitchen are actually easier and faster than some of the oven recipes I had been preparing. To make it simpler I purchased 3.5 ounce baking cups that I use to hold the premeasured ingredients. I then line them up alongside the stovetop in the order in which they will be added to the pan (or wok). It's fast and fairly simple. Most of the recipes are Chinese and Thai with a few other countries mixed in. There are only one or two Japanes recipes and traditionally Japanese cooking does not use a wok. The wok is the basic cookware used in this book but a large skillet will work as well. The one thing this book did not touch on was the benefit of using a basic aluminum wok. They mention and use a non-stick wok in the recipes. Non-stick woks are meant to be washed between uses where an aluminum wok is to be rinsed out and lightly oiled before storing. The idea is to let the wok season over time like you would do with a cast iron skillet. I can't imagine Asian restaurants using a non-stick wok but I'm not an expert so I could be wrong. Another benefit is that an aluminum wok is inexpensive. I purchased one in a kit with other Asian cooking items for $15. A good non-stick wok would cost upwards of $30 for the wok alone. This book overall offers a great introduction to Asian cooking with easy to follow recipes and beautiful color illustrations. Don't be intimidate by a seemingly long ingredient list. Most are seasonings that are simple to premeasure and set aside. Once you measure them out and get started the meals cook in no time at all and so far every meal I tried has been delicious.