The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook. Jaden Hair
dumpling wrappers) and preserved/dried ingredients (black mushrooms, Chinese sausage). And here’s why. With our lifestyle, we don’t necessarily eat Asian foods everyday, but I do like having the ingredients at my fingertips. I love going to my local Asian market once a month to stock up on ingredients that keep well in the pantry, refrigerator or freezer for weeks or even months at a time. I can combine any of these ingredients with a fresh vegetables, meat or seafood from my regular supermarket. That’s exactly what I do these days and it’s exactly how my Mom did it when we used to live in Nebraska and our nearest Asian market was a few hours away!
So, for example, pair canned black bean sauce with fresh clams—and 15 minutes later you’ve got a delectable dish. Slather jarred sweet plum sauce over chicken and roast— for a savory yet sweet, moist chicken. Fresh noodles found in the freezer section paired with crunchy carrots and soft mushrooms make it to the table in less time that it takes to order a take-out dish.
This cookbook is a compilation of some very traditional Chinese recipes from my Mom, some not so traditional but modern take-out old favorites, and of course, some that my kidlets have chosen for you, like Chocolate Wontons (page 147)! Many of these recipes were inspired by some of my very favorite food bloggers that I am lucky to count as my friends. We are constantly swapping recipes, learning from each other and inspiring new creations. And you don’t have to just depend on me to tell you that the recipes in this book work. The recipes were tested, and retested, by almost 200 of my dear blog-readers from all over the world, making this possibly one of the most well-tested cookbooks out there!
My wish is that you’ll find this cookbook full of fantastic meals you’ll share with your family and friends. It can’t get any better than fast, fresh and simple enough for tonight’s dinner!
Please continue the journey online with me at www.steamykitchen.com where I am constantly updating the site with new recipes, videos, clips from my television segments and links to other fabulous blogs. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences with the recipes, just comment on the site, email me at [email protected] or find me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/steamykitchen.
WHAT TO DRINK
After chopping, stir-frying, tossing and tasting in the kitchen, there’s nothing I enjoy more than sitting down to a delicious meal with friends and family and a suitable beverage. We always keep a stash of chilled lager-style beers on hand. Their clean, simple taste immediately quenches thirst and is a fail-safe accompaniment to any Asian style dish. But sometimes, depending on the time of year or if we feel like something a little more upscale or festive, we pull out bottles of wine or sake. I’ve asked my friend Anu Karwa of Swirl Events to tell you about pairing wine with Asian dishes and Morgan Hartman of Vine Connections to tell you about sake. Aren’t I lucky to have such experts as friends who can do that fancy wine and sake talk?
PAIRING WINE WITH ASIAN FOOD
The complexity of flavors—spicy, sweet, salty and sour—in Asian food makes pairing wine lots of fun. Here are some guidelines to pick the perfect wine to enhance, not overpower, your Asian meal.
Spicy dishes beg for a wine to balance the heat, not add to it. You want to stay away from anything too high in alcohol because it can intensify the heat. You also want to avoid highly tannic wines, which can add a bitter taste to highly flavorful, pungent dishes. For lighter Asian dishes, my “go-to” recommendation is Gewürztraminer from Germany. Its lychee and roselike aromas that hint at sweetness make it a natural fit. Another great pairing is a dry Riesling, such as a Kabinett-style, from Germany. Its slightly dry taste and racy acidity really works. Other options for spicy dishes with slightly more pronounced flavors or heavier texture, such as Spicy Korean Tofu Stew (page 112), include a Muscadet from the Loire Valley in France. For the more adventurous wine drinker, try the up-and-coming varietal of Torrontes from Argentina. A Pinot Gris from Oregon also makes a nice choice.
A dish accented with the fresh flavors of lemongrass, mint or cilantro (coriander), such as Vietnamese Summer Rolls (page 44), is complemented by a wine with a similar grassy, herbaceous profile like a Sauvignon Blanc, particularly from either New Zealand or Chile.
If you have a dish that is rich or fried, such as Firecracker Shrimp (page 48) or Asian Crab Cakes (page 83), cut through it with a highly acidic white wine also based on Sauvignon Blanc grapes such as the French Pouilly-Fume or Sancerre.
White wines aren’t the only choices for Asian meals. Meaty dishes such as Indonesian Beef Satay with Peanut Dipping Sauce (page 93) or Hoisin and Honey Glazed Baby Back Ribs (page 88) that have intense flavors including chilli and garlic sauces or smokiness are best served with a light-bodied red wine. One of the least known but most worthy picks is a Chinon, a light bodied, savory and earthy red wine composed of Cabernet Franc grapes with distinct violet aromas from the Loire Valley of France. Another great option is a Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, Oregon or New Zealand (looks for pinots from the Central Otago region). Hearty dishes such as Grilled Steak with Balsamic Teriyaki (page 90) are suited to medium-bodied spicy, flinty Shiraz. On the more adventurous side, try a Valpolicella from Italy or a slightly chilled Beaujolais Cru from France; both are perfect with pork dishes.
When in doubt, you can’t go wrong pairing Asian dishes with Champagne. The effervescence steadily matches the many layers of flavor present in any Asian dish. Prosecco or a fresh and fruity Cava make excellent sparkling wine choices as well.
by Anu Karwa
ENJOYING SAKE WITH ASIAN FOOD
Sake, often labeled “The Drink of the Gods” by the Japanese, is making a new and improved debut in the wine and cocktail community. While many of us cringe with the memory of hot sake served in those funny carafes, premium, chilled sake has become the new rage. The word “sake” is used commonly outside of Japan, but it literally translates to mean all alcoholic beverages in Japanese. Sake as we know it, is created from rice, water, yeast, and koji (a mold used to convert starch to sugar for fermentation), and is brewed more similarly to a beer. However, Premium Sake should be served lightly chilled and consumed more like a fine wine. Lower grade sakes are often served hot to mask impurities and poor quality.
There are generally four types of sake, each requiring a slightly different brewing technique. Honjozo has a small bit of distilled alcohol added during the brewing process. Sakes without that added alcohol are labeled Junmai, literally meaning “pure” in Japanese, as they are made simply with water, rice, koji, and yeast. Ginjo and Daiginjo (the highest grade possible) are sakes that are distinguished by the degree of milling of the rice, a process that is necessary in order to get to the complex starches at the center of each grain for the best level of quality. Namazake, the final type of sake, is unpasteurized and difficult to find outside of Japan. These designations of sake combine to form the category of Premium Sake, a very special category that accounts for less than 15 percent of all of the sake produced today.
Premium sake, like a fine wine, is enjoyable on its own or paired with a wide variety of foods. Flavors of sake, depending on the style, range from light, fragrant, floral, and tropical, to rich, bold, and earthy. Some are on the sweeter side, others very dry. Nigori Sake, a popular style of sake that is unfiltered, and characterized by a degree of cloudiness, is on the heavier and sweeter side and perfect for spicy dishes such as Thai Coconut Chicken Curry (page 103).
Junmai Daiginjo sake, on the other hand, tends to be more delicate and floral, so lighter dishes like oysters with Asian Mignonette (page 38) or Baked Tofu Salad with Mustard Miso Dressing (page 64) are good choices. Some sakes, especially those coming from the more mountainous regions of Japan where root vegetables, pickles, and heavier meats dominate the cuisine, are brewed to be heavier, bolder, more earthy in flavor. Pair these with Grilled Lamb Chops with Asian Pesto (page 95) or Chinese Beef Broccoli (page 94).
For something a little different, try a lightly alcoholic sparkling sake (one popular brand is called “sake2me”), which is premium sake that’s undergone a second bubble-inducing fermentation. It goes with a wide variety of Asian dishes,