Chinese

Simple Sweet Pumpkin Soup
Simple Sweet Pumpkin Soup

Simple Sweet Pumpkin Soup excerpted from The Vegan Chinese Kitchen by Hannah Che. Copyright © 2022 Hannah Che. Photographs by Hannah Che.

The Vegan Chinese Kitchen: Recipes and Modern Stories from a Thousand-Year-Old Tradition: A Cookbook by Hannah Che

When Hannah Che decided to become a vegan, she worried that it would separate her from the traditions and food that her Chinese family celebrated. But that was before she learned about zhai cai, the plant-based Chinese cuisine that emphasizes umami-rich ingredients and can be traced back over centuries to Buddhist temple kitchens.

In The Vegan Chinese Kitchen, through gorgeous photography, stories, and recipes, Hannah Che shows us the magic of this highly developed and creative tradition in which nearly every dish in the Chinese repertoire can be replicated in a meatless way, such as Blistered Dry-Fried String Beans or Sweet and Sour Tofu.

You’ll also find recipes that are naturally plant-based and as irresistible as they are nourishing, such as flaky scallion pancakes, corn stir-fried with peppers and pine nuts, or pea shoots braised in a velvety mushroom broth made with sesame-oil roux. (more…)

Ben’s Spicy Fried Chicken
Ben’s Spicy Fried Chicken

Ben’s Spicy Fried Chicken excerpted from Jeremy Pang’s School of Wok. Photography by Kris Kirkham.

Jeremy Pang's School of Wok

Bringing together the best Asian flavours from across the continent, this book is a combination of quick-fire, easy meals that take as little as 15 minutes to cook. From lavish suppers for lavish weekend suppers to family feasts with a bit more flair, Jeremy Pang’s School of Wok contains the tips and tricks you need to make the world of Asian cooking easily accessible so you never have to resort to a fakeaway ever again.

Most recipes in the book utilize the ‘wok clock’ technique, where the ingredients are laid out in a clock formation in the order they will be cooked for complete simplicity. Wok Wednesdays and Flavor Fridays, all seen on the School of Wok Youtube channel, are also featured.

Recipes include:

  • Black Pepper Hong Kong Beef
  • BBQ Pork Bao
  • Vegan Pad Thai
  • Pork and Prawn Wontons in Homemade Sichuan Chilli Oil
  • Sweet and Sour Crispy Cauliflower
  • Coming from three generations of Chinese cooks, chef, author and TV presenter

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Chinese-Style Buffalo Wings
Chinese-Style Buffalo Wings

Chinese-Style Buffalo Wings, Chinese Takeaway in 5: 80 of Your Favourite Dishes Using Only Five Ingredients by Kwoklyn Wan. Photography by Sam Folan.

Chinese-Style Buffalo Wings, Chinese Takeaway in 5: 80 of Your Favourite Dishes Using Only Five Ingredients by Kwoklyn Wan.

Kwoklyn Wan is back with 80 classic Chinese dishes that use only five ingredients. Alongside a basic store cupboard of five essentials—salt, pepper, soy sauce, sugar and oil—you can make a feast of easy dishes using the bare minimum.

All your favourites are here—from Tom Yum Soup to Prawn Toast, Sweet Chilli Salmon and Lemon Chicken, Sweet and Sour Pork Balls or Beef in Oyster Sauce, Aubergine Fritters and Chilli Ginger Crispy Tofu—and all use only five key ingredients, all of which are readily available from supermarkets or local stores.

Ditch the takeaway or delivery Chinese food and make your own at home—no fuss, less money, and more healthy.

Chinese Takeaway in 5: 80 of Your Favourite Dishes Using Only Five Ingredients is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca.  (more…)

Fragrant Sichuan Short Ribs
Fagrant Sichuan Short Ribs

Fragrant Sichuan Short Ribs, Cooking on the Big Green Egg: Everything you need to know from set-up to cooking techniques, with 70 recipes by James Whetlor. Photography by Sam Folan.

Cooking on the Big Green EggBig Green Egg has a cult following amongst BBQ experts due to its high-performance cooking at a range of temperatures and NASA specification ceramics. As more and more enthusiasts realize what a versatile and practical bit of cooking kit the EGG is, experts and amateurs alike are looking for recipes to test out their skills and maximize the EGG’s capabilities.

Cooking on the Big Green Egg showcases this vital piece of outdoor cooking equipment and offers instructions and recipes for everything you’d ever want to cook in it. Award-winning author of Goat, James Whetlor, guides the reader through the basics of using your Big Green Egg, with a full explanation of how it works and how to get the best out of it, whether you’re cooking on the grill or plancha, oven roasting, smoking, baking, cooking “dirty” directly on the coals, or taking it low and slow.

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Spicy Chilli French Bean Mapo Tofu
Spicy Chilli French Bean Mapo Tofu

Spicy Chilli French Bean Mapo Tofu, Asian Green: Everyday plant-based recipes inspired by the East by Ching-He Huang. Photography by Tamin Jones.

Asian Green
Asian food has always included a variety of meat and dairy-free recipes. Focusing entirely on these plant-based dishes, Ching-He Huang draws inspiration from across Asia to create simple, everyday, healthy home cooking that features protein-rich ingredients such as tofu, seitan, pulses, beans and grains.
The inspiration behind the book is Ching’s husband, Jamie. From birth, he suffered from asthma and eczema but three and a half years ago, three months after adopting a vegan diet, he was cured. Ching has always believed in the age-old Chinese maxim that “food is medicine”, and having experienced first-hand the transformation of her husband’s health, she firmly believes in the healing power of plants to reduce inflammation, to restore, nourish and replenish.
This book is full of inspiring, quick and simple recipes, perfect for vegetarians, vegans and people looking to reduce the amount of meat in their diets.

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Dan Dan Noodles
Dan Dan Noodles

Dan Dan Noodles, The Peached Tortilla cookbook by Eric Silverstein, Photography © 2019 Carli Rene | InkedFingers

Eric Silverstein’s background in Asian food culture as a child in Japan, and, later, his immersion in Southern and Southwestern cuisine, informs his cooking at his restaurant, The Peached Tortilla, in Austin, Texas.

The 100 flavour-packed recipes here include many of The Peached Tortilla’s most-beloved dishes, like the Banh Mi Taco, JapaJam Burger, and Bacon Jam Fries, which gained rabid fandom when Silverstein first served them out of his famed Austin-based food truck. (more…)

Tomato-Ginger Green Beans
Tomato Ginger Green Beans

Photograph by Angie Mosier

From the rolling hills and hollows in Appalachia to the flat salt marshes of South Carolina to an urban farm in metro-Atlanta, the South has a strong tradition of good food and generous hospitality. The region is well known for fried chicken, grits, and biscuits, but there are some Southern food-ways that many may find surprising: There have been Chinese Americans living in the Mississippi Delta since the 1800s; at one time more Italians lived in New Orleans than New York City, and an Atlanta suburb is known as the “Seoul of the South.” The South is rich in cultural diversity and the food of the modern global South reflects this.

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Cookbook Review: Myers+Chang at Home

Myers + Chang at Home, Joanne Chang

I love Joanne Chang. Love, love, love her. And it’s not an unhealthy fixation, I promise. She’s a culinary genius of grand proportions. I own all her cookbooks and have been to her restaurants. Am I obsessed? A bit. But for good reason.

She’s the award-winning and beloved chef of Boston’s Flour bakery and is best known for her sticky buns—but that’s far from the limit of her talents.

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Cookbook Review: Street Food Asia 

Street Food Asia

In Street Food Asia, join Luke Nguyen on a stroll through the heady, fragrant backstreets of Asia to discover street food at its very best. Pull up a stool for a bowl of pho in his beloved home city of Saigon, or explore a hawker stall in Kuala Lumpur. Soak up the coconut-infused air of Jakarta and immerse yourself in the smoke, heat and unmistakeable buzz of a Bangkok night market.

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