asian Archives | World Food

Sticky tofu broc stir fry

April 19, 2020April 19, 2020
by Jono

Sweet, sour, sticky and delicious – this tofu broccoli stir fry is perfect comfort food with minimal effort! This is one of our go to recipes when it’s lunchtime and we haven’t decided what to make or don’t have a lot of stuff in the house – its incredibly versatile.

Feel free to mess around with the veggies here – almost anything thats crunchy will work! Tofu can also be substituted for various other protein sources, and you can mix and match what you put in the sauce according to what you have in the pantry.

Similar to some previous recipes on the blog, this is a basic concept that keeps evolving. Inspired by a recipe that involves tossing the tofu with Brussel sprouts in potato starch and deep frying them before coating with the cooked sauce, we’re not a fan of the deep frying, but this sticky sauce lends itself perfectly if that’s something you can see yourself doing.

Southeast Asia

Quick Thai mango salad

April 18, 2020April 18, 2020
by Jono

Quick and easy, this Thai mango salad can be adapted in loads of ways, including your choice of protein, herbs, crunchy veg, depending on what you have lying around.

While most of this salad is thoughtless and easy, the trick is the mango – This isn’t a green mango salad, but at the same time try not to get mangoes that are gloriously soft and sticky – find the greenest mango you can of the ones the supermarket is selling, which should be pale yellow and slightly sweet and crunchy inside – skip any that feel soft when you pick them up, or have a sweet ripe odour.

The dressing is amazing and super versatile – works well as a dipping sauce for all sorts of things, and don’t be scared at all the fish sauce – it’s beautifully balanced out by the lime juice and sugar. Loads of super bold flavours here!

Japan and China

Hearty, satisfying congee bowl

April 2, 2020April 6, 2020
by Jono

Congee is a rice porridge which is served as a breakfast item all over China – very savoury, comforting and hearty, but it’s a bit weird the first time you taste it!

Think of it as a Chinese Risotto and you’ll be all set 😀 We’ve been meaning to make congee since our trip to China nearly 2 years ago (shocking eh) and never got around to it – Until now!

Congee is incredibly versatile, due it its basic flavour profile and agreeable texture, and can be topped with almost anything (the weirdest we had was fermented tofu!) – Works well with crunchy, savoury and salty toppings such as kimchi, salted duck egg yolks, tofu, fresh herbs, roasted peanuts, spring onions, eggs, and even other protein sources like pulled pork or mince.

Jamie Oliver’s brilliant new recipe book VEG has a neat recipe for congee, and this is adapted from there.

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Fusion

Plant based ramen bowl with marmite broth

February 19, 2020April 6, 2020
by Jono

There are 2 types of people in this world – marmite lovers and marmite haters. I fall solidly into the second category – can’t stand the stuff.

However. There are more ways of eating marmite than just smearing it on toast.

The concept of using marmite as the stock base in an asian style broth was a revelation when I first saw it in a recipe book in the Chef’s Warehouse in Cape Town about 4 years ago – it’s been in the back of my mind since then, and eventually we finally got down to it.

A world apart now, winter in Ireland – in need of something warm, comforting and different for supper, so a broth bowl was the natural choice.

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Japan and China

Sticky chinese pork and aubergine stir fry

July 10, 2018April 6, 2020
by Jono

We just recently came back from backpacking through southwestern china and the Tibet plateau, and felt it was time to post a recipe from the trip.

The Chinese are the unrivalled kings of stir fry, and this recipe has been adapted slightly to suit western kitchens and ingredients. This is a doddle to whip up, and such a treat.

This is one of the few recipes that I do recommend mise en place, you don’t want to be scrabbling to chop onions while your pork is burning – make sure you have everything chopped and ready before you start.

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European

Wholewheat pasta with harissa bacon relish and an asian…

June 24, 2018June 24, 2018
by Jono

Basically pasta, tomato sauce and salad, just done properly 🙂

This is quite a mix of cuisines, with italian, tunisian and asian influences all playing a part.

We are always of the opinion that normal, “boring” food can be the most spectacular if you do it properly – its the exquisite recipes that make it into our everyday lives and then get simplified and fast-foodified.

This is not a quick meal, but its a social business, rolling out pasta while the tomato sauce reduces, and it’s not as much effort as you think it is. Pour yourself a glass of wine and think of it as therapy.

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Indian

Homemade coconut milk with soy lecithin

February 5, 2018February 5, 2018
by Jono

Coconut milk is a staple in south east asian cooking, is super delicious and actually very easy and cheap to do at home!

Coconut milk is used in Indian, thai and Vietnamese dishes, such as this recipe.

You need a powerful blender, a cheesecloth, and (optional) some soy lecithin (or another emulsifier). The soy lecithin helps maintain the emulsion, and makes the whole thing more resistant to splitting when it boils. You can do it without the emulsifier, but you have to be much more careful when boiling the milk.

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Fusion

Sous vide chicken with ponzu and spicy asian tomato…

January 27, 2018
by Jono

Chicken cooked sous vide in ponzu with our spicy asian tomato relish – Delicious fusion asian cooking that works as well for weeknight eating as for entertaining guests.

We recently completed our low-tech sous vide setup, and it is by far the best way of doing meat and poultry. You need a heating element, a thermostat with a switch, and a fish tank submergible water pump, and some MacGyver skills.

If you are new to the world of Sous Vide – Don’t run away! You can do it in your own kitchen (albeit with slightly more effort), all you need are ziplock bags and an accurate thermometer.

A sous vide setup is a water bath that you keep at a constant temprature, and you use this to cook food slowly and precisely.

You can do this yourself without a professional setup. Use the heaviest cast iron pot you can find, fill it with water, and, using your thermometer, bring it up on your stovetop to the desired temperature (between 60-62C in this case).

You will notice that this is considerably more difficult on an electric stovetop, as the heating element takes long to heat up, and continues to produce heat after being turned off. Removing the pot from the element reduces this problem slightly.

You will also notice that the heated metal of your pot continues to heat the water after you switch off the gas/remove from the plate, so you need to plan for the overshoot. I would recommend doing a test run to get the feel of things before starting on a meal for loads of guests that you want to impress.

Stir regularly (every 2-3 minutes at least), and when you turn on the heat, keep it on for very short intervals – you can always switch it on again and cook for longer, but once you overshoot properly the meat dries out and you can’t recover from that.

If you do overshoot, remove the meat from the sous vide immediately and wait for the water to come back down to the correct temperature before re-adding it.

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Tag: asian