Best asian cooking, food & wine books according to redditors
We found 657 Reddit comments discussing the best asian cooking, food & wine books. We ranked the 255 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 657 Reddit comments discussing the best asian cooking, food & wine books. We ranked the 255 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
![Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions [A Cookbook]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514ngPB98LL.jpg)
![Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking [A Cookbook]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61mY5um5j7L.jpg)
![Vietnamese Home Cooking: [A Cookbook]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51b9Rru7AYL.jpg)
We love ours so much that we bought a second one. I can cook food that I like better than what I can get in a restaurant, and that together with Alternate Day Fasting has lead to 30 pound weight loss since August.
I really love the Indian Instant Pot Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF/
I've come across a few great vegan cooking resources that you may be interested in:
please share others!
Generally, recipes in Western cookbooks and food blogs are watered-down versions of Indian food -- maybe that's your problem?
I've seen recipes for tikka masala that ask for a single onion, just a few teaspoons each of powdered spices, and no mention of ginger-garlic paste or essential things like fenugreek leaves, curry leaves, desiccated coconut or ghee, and rarely any mention of blooming spices (frying them in oil/ghee to release their aromatic oils).
Then they ask you to throw in a whole can of tomatoes and sometimes even water. Of course it will be flavourless.
Look into cookbooks that tell you how to make a base gravy (a highly concentrated, finely blended onion/pepper mixture that often uses things like cabbage and carrots, and acts as a flavour enhancer and thickener), how to make your own garam masala, how to make your own ginger-garlic paste etc.
The best book I've encountered for this is The Secret to That Takeaway Curry Taste. It's a somewhat ramshackle e-book, but it's written by a working chef who runs a small British-Indian takeaway restaurant, and the techniques are exactly right.
The base gravy is similar to the mother sauces in French cooking. With the base gravy you can make a lot of different dishes. They typically start with blooming some spices in ghee or mustard oil, adding meat or vegetables, then adding the gravy and other flavour elements like yogurt and coconut, and then cooking this in the sauce. For even more concentrated flavour, consider making the sauce separate from the protein, then blending the sauce until it's velvety smooth. Marinate and cook protein separately (e.g. chicken pieces or paneer on skewers), then add to the sauce.
One of the biggest reasons I got the IP is for Indian food. Highly recommend Instant Pot Indian cook book
My mom uses recipes from the Korean cooking blog Maangchi.com — looks like she has a cookbook too
I know this is isn’t exactly what you asked for, but since you enjoyed Night + Market’s cookbook and you’re from LA, I’d suggest you check out Roy Choi’s cookbook LA Son
It isn’t exactly authentic, but an LA specific take and his personal stories are also interesting
From a Chinese perspective, I think that Fuchsia Dunlop's books are very much on point as far as Sichuan cooking is concerned.
Eileen Yin Fei Yo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking is an excellent generalist work, with a slightly Cantonese bent.
Grace Young's Breath of a Wok is another excellent generalist cookbook.
Of course! Mine is mostly from Momofuku
2 Large pieces of konbu (or other seaweed if you can't find konbu)
2 cups dried shiitake mushrooms, (you can use fresh if you want, but they're stupid-expensive where I am)
1 Large chicken, whole.
5 pounds marrow bones (I use pork neck bone)
1lb bacon (one package)
2 bunches of scallions (green onions)
Mirin or Sake, Tare or teriyaki sauce to taste.
Rinse all ingredients before putting them in the stock pot. All ingredients can be eaten in any number of ways after they've given their flavor to the broth.
Toppings:
Flavor eggs:
Boil some eggs, peel the eggs, then put them in a ziplock bag.
Add teriyaki, peanut sauce, and a little mirin and shake that sucker. Leave in the fridge overnight.
Spicy Pork:
I buy the shredded pork in the package for this.
Heat some oil in wok.
Add the pork, let the oil cook it.
Add whatever spicy sauce you want to it, I use a schezwan stir-fry sauce.
If you have the pork, an egg, some chicken, extra seaweed and a mushroom or 3 you've gotyourself some ramen, get the broth piping hot and let everything cook in the broth before eating. (I use fresh noodles because they cook faster)
https://andrewzimmern.com/2013/03/28/fuchsia-dunlops-fish-fragrant-eggplant/
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/03/the-food-lab-vegan-experience-best-homemade-falafel-recipe.html
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/03/israeli-style-extra-smooth-hummus-recipe.html
https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/03/pita-bread/
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/samosa-recipe-punjabi-samosa/
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/lemon-rice/
And stuff from these:
Thai Vegetarian Cooking (Thailand)
Real Vegetarian Thai (Thailand)
Teff Love (Ethiopia)
Kansha (Japan)
The Lotus and the Artichoke (Malaysia and Sri Lanka are my two favorites, but also has India, Mexico, and Ethiopia)
Decolonize Your Diet (Mexico)
Tahini & Turmeric (the Middle East)
http://thegreekvegan.com (Greece)
https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/topics/chinese-recipes/chinese-vegan-recipes/ (China, especially Sichuan)
https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-vegetarian-recipes/ (China)
http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/recipes/vegan/ (India)
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com (India)
https://georgianrecipes.net/category/vegetarian/ (Georgia)
https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/vegetarian/ (Japan)
https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/category/all-recipes/meatless-recipes/ (Thailand)
http://www.phamfatale.com/cat_25/tag_vegetarian/ (Vietnam)
https://thevietvegan.com/recipes/vegan-recipes/ (Vietnam)
Agree with /u/X28.
Andrea's book should be considered as a primary text for Vietnamese cooking (much like David Thompson's Thai Food for Thai, or Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes for French).
Luke's books are great (as well as his shows that sort of accompany the books, or the other way around).
This is an amazing book of recipes: https://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-India-Journey-Through-Cooking/dp/1101874864
not veg, but have reduced a lot.
Hooray! I love cookbooks!
I don't know if they're into making ice cream, but it's really easy and fun:
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop, and Ample Hills are all great.
Same reason all shop curries are a bit shit, they cheap out on the ingredients, a decent korma from a curry house will have a good amount of ground almonds in it, shop versions which are produced in massive quantities in factories for a very strict price margin will most likely have more cream in and possibly cheaper nuts, spices used in a curry house will also be freshly roasted and ground, where as factory versions are not roasted before hand and they will use the very bare minimum of the expensive spices to achieve something that is just about OK for the price demanded by the supermarket.
If they can save a couple of grams of spice in every portion accords hundreds of portions it’s hundreds of £s saved.
If you’re disappointed by supermarket versions, try making your own, I highly recommend;
The Curry Secret
This is an updated version of the original, I still refer to my copy which has so many spices impregnated into the pages I could probably eat the ratty old thing and it would taste goood!
If you want to continue it past 30 days, I highly recommend this book!
Aah asafoetida - sometimes called Devil's Dung because of its aroma, especially when the powder is fresh! A pinch or two is all that is ever needed, and it adds a similar flavour to onions and garlic to a dish. It is commonly used with lentils and beans.
In South India it is used quite a bit. It is very common in Sambar and Rasam dishes. It is also very common in Ayurvedic cooking as that does not use onions or garlic.
The cookbook Lord Krishna's Kitchen uses it in almost every recipe, and the recipes are all great.
This is a great article on Asafoetida - and here is one of the few recipes you will find with it in the title - Salt Lassi with Asafoetida
Ok, so I'm a student at USC and I've just started cooking chinese food this summer. For a recipe book, you want anything by Fuchsia Dunlop. She's got three books out: Land of Plenty (四川菜), Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (湖南菜), and Every Grain of Rice (a compilation of the other two). Hands down the best authentic Chinese cookbooks that are written by a westerner, while remaining true to the original recipes.
Finding a good Chinese market has actually been my biggest problem, which is a little ridiculous because it's Los Angeles and I know all the old 阿姨s have to shop somewhere. I'm not sure what the situation is over in Westwood, but the only chinese grocery store that I've found that really has everything is the Ai Hoa market, just a block away from the Chinatown metro station (Cluttered and unorganized, just like the markets over in China! But they really do have everything). I've also heard good things about A Grocery Warehouse. But I haven't really explored K-town or Little tokyo, so there may be some good grocers there. Please share if you find some, and report back if you find some Korean/Japanese grocers that also sell Chinese food!
Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking is on my shelf. Good recipes & very comprehensive.
Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.
With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.
Japanese
Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.
Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.
If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.
Chinese
What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.
For your reading pleasure:
Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.
Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.
Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.
All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.
Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.
Go forth, make bao.
Korean
Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.
You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.
Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.
Thai
David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.
Vietnamese
Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.
TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?
I think you mean "definitive".
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeaway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC
Real ramen is nothing like those instant ramen packets. Fresh meats and vegetables, insane broths, and fresh noodles make it a completely different dish.
I was on a ramen kick awhile back and bought the Momofuku cookbook. AWESOME recipes. I spent hours making some of those broths in the book, went to several asian markets to find the right noodles, and spent a lot of time learning different techniques. It was a ton of fun, and now my kids are crazy about ramen. Even if you don't plan on making it yourself, the cookbook is a great read. It's basically more of a story about how the author got into ramen and opened his first restaurant, interlaced with recipes and other instructional stuff.
Edit: Here's the link for the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474393414&sr=8-1&keywords=momofuku
Hand-hammered carbon steel woks.
Trust me, this is what you want. And as far as I know, this eBay seller is the only way to get them without making a trip to Shanghai.
You can read the other posts for why thin, carbon steel woks are the best.
Why a hammered wok though? The hundreds of dents provide grip, which is extremely useful in wok cooking. Often, after the first ingredient (usually meat) is cooked, it is temporarily moved out of the intensely-hot center of the wok to the sides while one or more other ingredients (usually vegetables) are cooked. After the vegetables (or whatever) are just about done, the meat (or whatever) waiting on the walls of the wok is returned to the center with the other stuff. Smooth, machine-made woks suck for this; textured, hammered woks destroy.
Also they're sexy as fuck.
The woks sold by Taost on eBay are hand-hammered by a pair of old Chinese dudes in Shanghai. As far as I know, these two dudes (the Cen brothers) are the only people in the world who still do this by hand, and Taost is the only one sourcing their woks outside of Asia. If you can know someone in China or wouldn't mind visiting, you can get 'em for a lot cheaper at their house/workshop located at 214 Baoyuan Lu, Shanghai. You know you're close when you can hear the extreme hammering. I visited about a year and a half ago; they work in their side yard banging circular sheets of carbon steel with hammers for hours until they take the proper shape.
Here's a neat book with of one of the Cen brothers' woks on the cover.
Happy wok'ing!
Edit: Also, if you want a different sized wok, I know the Cen brothers make them. You could try asking Taost, or even better buy one from them directly.
Edit #2: Dang! Just clicked your links, I see the second one is for a hand-hammered carbon steel wok. It doesn't look like Cen brothers, either! The hammer marks are too big. Well, I guess there are at least two producers of hand-hammered woks in this world--take your pick!
There are a lot of varieties, and they can taste pretty different. The good news is that they are hard to screw up.
For Thai curries, I like these pastes, they just get mixed with coconut milk (ratio is on the can), heated, and then you simmer veggies in the sauce until they are cooked to your liking. The red and green are spicy, the panang is somewhere in the middle, and the yellow and masaman are mild.
This is a good and easy Japanese curry. Instructions are on the box. It involves some simple sauteing and simmering.
And for Indian curries, I have been making my own using these recipes. There are so many good recipes in this book, and they are pretty easy too. However, you might need to up the contents of your spice cabinet to make these.
Anyhow, curries are usually just a very flavorful sauce with veggies simmered in them. Pretty easy stuff, lots of variety, and very tasty.
I can highly recommend either of Fucshia Dunlop's books, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook and Land of Plenty, as excellent recipe and instruction books for Chinese cooking. In the front matter she lists the equipment you'll need to get started as well as goes over the techniques. I cook out of both of them several times a week.
I purchased my wok and cleaver from the Wok Shop and was very happy with their prices and service.
The last apartment I lived in had an electric stove so I picked up a cheap butane stove from the local asian grocery store for ~$20 that worked fine. It's nowhere near as powerful as a high-end gas stove or a turkey fryer burner but it gets the job done. An electric stove will not work for Chinese, you need something with a flame.
Edit: I also own a rice cooker which is well worth the $20 I spent on it. I'd pick one up if you're serious about Chinese.
Her book, Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen is really good, she has a vegan "paneer" recipe in there and pretty much everything you could want. Even sweets, there's a good gulab jamun in there too!
Ahhhh, my condolences, how tragic!
I'm something of a cookbook minimalist, and keep my personal collection pretty concise; I'm quick to give away books if they've been on my shelf too long without much use. I used to be a cookbook hoarder, but I don't have the space for it anymore, lol.
The cookbooks I have on the shelf rn are Season, The Palestinian Table, Arabesque, Afro-Vegan, Donabe, and several Japanese-language cookbooks.
For dessert-related things, I have Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft, Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique, SUQAR, and the Flavor Thesaurus.
Aight girl-
Foreign Cuisine-
How to Eataly - Oscar Farinetti - We made the most AMAZING brisket meatballs and a super simple yet completely delicious red sauce out of this book
Around My French Table - Dorie Greenspan - Where the Cornish hens and gougeres came from.
Real Korean Cooking - Maangchi - Korean Fried Chicken. We've made them twice now because they're so good and can't wait to do more.
Mexican Everyday - Rick Bayless - Learned how to make perfect guac from this book and so far we've made these v tasty chorizo/mushroom/potato tacos. The recipe is SO cheap and SO voluminous that we had it as a taco filling, a quesadilla filling, and we're making a hash with it for brunch this morning.
Every Grain of Rice - Fuchsia Dunlop - We haven't tried anything out of here yet but there are sooooo many good-looking recipes in here.
Entice with Spice - Shubhra Ramineni - Likewise, haven't made anything out of here yet but looking forward to trying it all out soon.
Jack's Wife Freda - Dean & Maya Jankelowitz - This is actually a book from a restaurant that my fiance and I LOVED when we last visited NYC. It's got a lot of fusion recipes. Mediterranean/Israeli/South African/etc. Really unique flavors and also v comfort-food based. We're making rosewater waffles out of this book tomorrow!
Baking-
Rose's Baking Basics - Rose Levy Barenbaum - This book is incredible. She has tons and tons of step-by-step photos which is SUPER helpful. We made the dark chocolate caramel tart out of this book, but pretty much everything in here looks amazing.
Modern Baking - Donna Hay - I mean... There is some INSANELY decadent looking stuff in here. We haven't tried any of these recipes yet but I can't wait to!
Misc-
Cook Like a Pro - Ina Garten - It was really hard to pick just one Ina book but I liked most of the recipes in this one. She has this ridic recipe for a dijon mustard chicken that is INCREDIBLE. Also, this bitch knows how to cook some veggies. Big fan of this one.
The Food Lab - /u/j_kenji_lopez-alt - I just love this guy, tbh. We've made a really fantastic beef tenderloin out of this book and an incredible red wine sauce to go with it and of course, his famous roasted potatoes which are now my holy grail recipe for roasted potatoes. This book is like a science textbook only instead of boring stuff it's FOOD science, which is my favorite kind.
Those were all the ones we purchased ourselves (though technically Eataly was a gift BUT we love it and plan to use it often.) We have other cookbooks in our stable that we've received as gifts, which is what resulted in my fiance and I deciding we wanted to embark on this journey. We kept being given cookbooks and never doing anything with them. But man, do people love it when you send them pics of stuff you cooked out of a book they gave you. If people give you cookbooks, use them!! It will make their day to see it's being used. Here's what else is on our cookbook shelf-
The Forest Feast Gatherings - Erin Gleeson - This is a vegetarian book my fiance's mom gave us a few years ago for Christmas. We have a bunch of veggie friends (and friends with a lot of different allergies) so we turn to this book to have a few things that are edible by all of them when we have them over, as we often do. This book has a really delicious salad that has pomegranate seeds, pear, and hazelnut that is out of this world good. I also got my HG salad dressing from this book.
The Salad Bowl - Nicola Graimes - Another gift from my fiance's mom. Is she trying to tell us something?? Honestly haven't looked much into this book yet but it sure is pretty.
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook - Dinah Bucholz - This was a gift from the assistant in my office. Everyone in my office knows me as the Harry Potter girl because I have a lightning bolt tattoo, haha. We haven't made anything out of this yet, but we probably will have some sort of epic feast with recipes from this book when GoT starts back up later this year.
Talk About Good - Louisiana Lafayette Junior League - My boss gave this to my fiance and I as part of an engagement gift. My fiance went to school in New Orleans. It's primarily New Orleansian/Cajun food. Haven't made anything out of it yet, but we are looking forward to it.
And that's what's on our cookbook shelf for now.
edit also omg thanks for the gold!! <3
I like The Vegan Table for American food.
Quick Vegetarian Dishes has a variety of recipes from around the world. Not one uses tofu or fake meat. (One note: The recipes use Australian measurements, which are slightly different than American. It only really matters if you're baking, though, and even then, it is easy to adjust for.)
For Indian food, Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking seems to have hundreds of great recipes in it, but not a single one with fake meats or tofu.
I have all three of these, and have really enjoyed the recipes. Happy cooking!
If you are a big fan of Indian food, like me, I recommend Vegan Richas Indian Kitchen https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Richas-Indian-Kitchen-Traditional/dp/1941252095/ref=nodl_
She also has a website https://www.veganricha.com/
Probably this one.
FYI I'd recommend this book if you're into Thai Food
I got my first copy many years ago and it's a bit of a Thai food Bible.
I have this exact issue, and I find myself returning time and time again to this cookbook. It's Jain vegetarian cuisine (mentioned elsewhere in this thread), and it's just a terrific resource
I won't be much help with this, but Indian food is insanely varied. It's not just as simple as "North Indian/South Indian" or "Vegetarian/Meat". I think one of the challenges with finding great "authentic" Indian recipes, is that each family has their own adaptation, and these are passed down through each generation through sharing the love and need to cook quality food in the home.
I guess what I'm saying, is that regional authentic dishes often don't make it onto paper.
I've had great success making Vikram Vij's recipes, he's from Vancouver, BC.
https://www.amazon.com/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1510071514&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=vikram+vij&amp;dpID=41J5kSp1EuL&amp;preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&amp;dpSrc=srch
I'm no expert in Indian cuisine, but I have this book and I really like it. Great variety in the recipes and tons of pictures. I think it represents most of the regions cuisines.
https://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028
I've used a lot of her recipes successfully. I also started using her once I returned back to the States to cook some good Korean food.
I have used the following recipes to great success from her:
Tteokbokki
Buldak
Kimchi Fried Rice
Soybean rice
Kimbap
Bulgogi
Maangchi also has a great cookbook. But her website has a lot more recipes than the cookbook does. But the cookbook does have about 95% of what you want, including the side dishes.
While that may be true to an extent with Jamie Oliver, Anjum really bastardises a lot of Indian dishes by over simplifying them and even trying to merge then with western equivalents. I'm not a fan of hers at all.
Here are a few excellent books that I would recommend:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Curries-India-Camellia-Panjabi/dp/1856265463/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1413225603&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=curries
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Madhur-Jaffreys-Ultimate-Curry-Bible/dp/0091874157/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1413225625&amp;sr=8-15&amp;keywords=indian+food
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Food-India-Journey-Lovers/dp/1740454723/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1413225625&amp;sr=8-16&amp;keywords=indian+food
For Indian cuisine, try Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.
Here's some background on the author as well.
I cook mostly Asian food, although I'm not Asian. Here are several cookbooks I couldn't live without...
Real Thai (McDermott)
I have David Thompson's epic Thai cookbook, but that's more for special occasions. McDermott's book has excellent recipes from many regions of Thailand. The homemade curry pastes are really worth the effort.
Chinese (Sichuan): Land of Plenty, Dunlop
Chinese (Hunan): Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, Dunlop
I can't recommend Fuschia Dunlop's cookbooks highly enough. You will have to search for some ingredients, but these days this is pretty easy.
General Asian: Complete Asian Cookbook (Solomon)
Charmaine Solomon's book is hit or miss sometimes, but it has so many recipes in it that it's worth it, from Sri Lanka to the Philippines to Japan, etc.
My favorite new, specialty cookbook is
Cooking at Home With Pedatha (Giri & Jain)
which has delicious Indian (specifically, Andhran) vegetarian recipes.
If you're looking for a cookbook for this then Lord Krishna's Cuisine is one of the best cookbooks I've ever used.
https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Krishnas-Cuisine-Vegetarian-Cooking/dp/0525245642
Look up Jain and/or Buddhist recipes. Jain should exclude onions, potatoes & garlic. Buddhist should exclude onion & garlic, too but from what I've read, the onion is iffy, so it's good you have a substitute readily available.
Lord Krishna's Vegetarian Cooking cookbook follows the Vaishnava diet, which should also exclude onions & garlic.
Good luck!
I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:
Pan-Asian
Burmese
Cambodian
Chinese
Indian
Indonesia
Japanese
Korean
Malaysian
Middle Eastern
Philippine
Russian
Sri Lankan
Taiwanese
Thailand
Turkish
Vietnamese
(edit: screwed up a couple links)
Rich Roll PlantPower Cooking (ultra athlete) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnGd4addK0o&amp;list=PLD9BA27E8F50AA586
Vegan Richa - http://www.veganricha.com/
Sweet Potato Soul - http://sweetpotatosoul.com/ https://www.youtube.com/user/SweetPotatoSoul
Hot For Food - http://www.hotforfoodblog.com/ https://www.youtube.com/user/hotforfoodblog
The Edgy Veg - https://www.youtube.com/user/stillcurrentstudios
The Happy Pear -https://www.youtube.com/user/happypeargreystones
The Vegan Zombie - https://www.youtube.com/user/ZombieGate
Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook
Vegan Richa's Everyday Kitchen: Epic Anytime Recipes with a World of Flavor
Hot for Food Vegan Comfort Classics: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face
Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck
Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen: 150 Pizzas, Pastas, Pestos, Risottos, & Lots of Creamy Italian Classics
Chloe's Vegan Desserts: More than 100 Exciting New Recipes for Cookies and Pies, Tarts and Cobblers, Cupcakes and Cakes--and More!
On the left is Bear's Paw Tofu from Every Grain of Rice and on the right is Peng's Home-style Bean Curd from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.
https://smile.amazon.com/Maangchis-Real-Korean-Cooking-Authentic/dp/054412989X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1AVS3BYUHZ74K&keywords=maangchi&qid=1572922278&s=books&sprefix=maang%2Caps%2C179&sr=1-2
And her new one, which I don't have yet:
https://smile.amazon.com/Maangchis-Big-Book-Korean-Cooking/dp/1328988120/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AVS3BYUHZ74K&keywords=maangchi&qid=1572922333&s=books&sprefix=maang%2Caps%2C179&sr=1-1
The only cookbook I can find is Kansha. I have no idea of the quality but amazon reviews say its pretty good.
There is a book called "The Curry Secret" which has recipes for British-Indian Restaurant food - not 'authentic' Indian food, but the stuff you get in a UK restaurant. Very different thing.
It has a kickass chicken tikka masala recipe in it, I can eat the tarka dahl with a spoon until I turn greeny yellow from the tumeric, and if you take the time you can make the prettiest, fluffiest pilau rice you can imagine.
I own only one recipe book (the internet suffices for everything else) but that book is (to me) worth it.
I'm guessing you haven't looked yet? Given that most Indian food (I think) is good, and a lot of it is vegetarian, you'd have a hard time finding something not fitting your needs ;)
You might want to take a look a Manjula's Kitchen, a free YouTube-based Indian cooking guide.
A good book I'd recommend (if you really like Indian food) is Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, an 800 page tome with everything you could want. Here's a recipe I made recently which I enjoyed.
---
Cabbage Kofta (Bandhgobhi Kofta)
Preparation and cooking time (after assembling ingredients): about 30 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.
3 1/2 cups (930 ml) finely shredded trimmed cabbage (about 1 lb/455 g)
1-2 hot green chilies, seeded and minced
1/2-inch (1.5cm) piece of peeled fresh ginger root
1/4 cup (25g) grated fresh or dried coconut
1 tsp (5 ml) each turmeric and garam masala
3 Tbps (45ml) finely chopped fresh coriander, parsley or mixed herbs
1 tsp (5 ml) salt
1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder
ghee or vegetable oil for deep-frying
about 1 cup (100 g) sifted chickpea flour (sifted before measuring)
a few sprigs of coarsely chopped fresh coriander or minced parsley for garnishing
1 Tbps (15 ml) toasted chopped pumpkin seeds for garnishing
Japanese Farm Food ... awesome recipes and a very helpful perspective. Award-winning
Donabe: Japanese Clay Pot Cooking ... requires a donabe
Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art ... a famous comprehensive bible of Japanese cooking
Im also on justonecookbook.com all the time.. and if they would ever print an actual cookbook I would buy it.
If you are looking for a great book on Thai food, there is no better book than Thai Food by David Thompson. It is the most complete book you can find on Thai food, the people and how they eat. I also own Pok Pok and it's great. I love how everything is measured out by weight, but if I could only own one book on Thai cuisine, it's definitely Thompson's book.
A local Indian chef here, Vikram Vij, has produced a couple of cookbooks with his wife. I really like this one: https://www.amazon.ca/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847
Yamuna Devi or Ragivan Iyer. The former is a true classic, and I've cooked nearly every recipe over the past 20 years. The later is a more recent book, but the recipes are every bit as classic (and delicious).
It's all about the broth, which means it's all about simmering a bunch of stuff in a giant pot for a very long time. Momofuku's ramen is not my favorite but the recipe in the Momofuku cookbook is very detailed. Good place to start.
Anything by Madhur Jaffrey. Here's a good one to start:
http://www.amazon.com/Madhur-Jaffrey-Indian-Cooking/dp/0764156497
Check out vegan richa's cookbook. If you like indian food, you'll love it. Most of the recipes are simple-medium complexity, and they make a lot of servings. Plus you don't feel bad for stuffing yourself with them since it's almost entirely really healthy food. Plus some of the desserts (especially the doughnuts) are unbelievable in how good they taste.
Just a some that likes cooking alot here. Maybe pick one of these bad boys up and start playing.
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Chef-Culinary-Institute-America/dp/0470421355
http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Hoc-Home-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579653774/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373677797&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Bakery-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579654355/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373677797&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/French-Laundry-Cookbook-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579651267/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373677797&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579652395/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373677797&amp;sr=1-4&amp;keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Under-Pressure-Cooking-Sous-Vide/dp/1579653510/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373677797&amp;sr=1-6&amp;keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373677797&amp;sr=1-9&amp;keywords=thomas+keller+cookbooks
http://www.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-Cooking/dp/1416571728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373678139&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=ratio
https://www.amazon.in/Essential-North-Cookbook-Hoihnu-Hauzel/dp/0143030272
Also https://www.amazon.in/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028
This is an oven-adapted and expanded from the recipe in Pushpesh Pant's India: The Cookbook. It's a common deep-menu item in westernized restaurants, very tasty. Sweet and aromatic. As I mention in the post, I don't recommend hand-mashing the eggplant; it's a pain.
Fuschia Dunlop is a good source for Chinese food. Her published recipe for Kung Pao Chicken is pretty killer. Eileen Yin-Fi Lo is also a well respected Chinese recipe author, check out My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen.
For Thai Food, Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is pretty interesting (and the restaurants are pretty awesome). There's also a tome, simply called Thai Food from David Thompson, as an outsider, looks complete and exhaustive (it's also daunting to me, but nice to have).
Hot Sour Salty Sweet also features Thai (as well as other SE Asian flavors). And I really like Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges as a more upscale cookbook.
Also, I find this little, unsung book to be a great resource. It has fairly simple recipes that can yield some nice flavors, great for weeknight dishes.
And, Momofuku is a fun contemporary twist with some good basics, but it's not a beginner book by any stretch!
Finally, The Slanted Door is on my wishlist. Looks divine.
The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Joanne Stepaniak is a great book with tonnes of clever ideas and substitution advice, all of her books are pretty great. Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen would be a great one as well, same with Bryant Terry's Afro Vegan. If you are looking for something easy and cutesy, the vegan stoner cookbook is a good bet too.
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com is a great resource.
As for an Indian cookbook: this is regarded as the bible: India: The Cookbook, it has everything you will ever need (it has over 1000 recipes!). It’s wonderfully designed, to look like a bag of flour like one would buy in India.
Breath of a Wok by Grace Campbell. You will learn everything you ever needed to know about the wok, as well as the best ways to cook with it. She recommends a 14" carbon steel flat bottomed wok for the Western kitchen. Wok Hay Baby!
Hey there. Came into this thread for other reasons, but saw the mini-discussion on Indian food and felt compelled to chime in, lol.
A lot of great Youtube chefs exist that focus on the cuisine; VahChef and Manjula in particular stand out. Also sites like ShowMeTheCurry and VegRecipesOfIndia are great, too.
I hear a lot of good things about Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks, though I don't personally own one.
It's a really fascinating and diverse cuisine, since it covers many different regions of the Indian subcontinent with very different cultures, agricultural heritages, religious beliefs, etc., that all influence the food. From super healthy ultra vegan stuff to deep fried goodies, it's got it all :-D
Good luck learning more, and if you wind up with any specific questions, always feel free to shoot me a message :)
Wok pr0n, featuring a hand hammered wok from Shanghai on the cover.
While I'd be happy to follow along and maybe provide photos of woks in use in Shanghai, I'm no expert either and I don't consistently have the time or posses the temperament to be a good mod.
There are lots here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Instant+Pot+keto+recipes
https://www.google.com/images?q=Instant+Pot+keto+recipes
Here are just a few others that are either keto or low carb (which could have ingredients left out or modified), some of which are groups at Facebook with lots of recipes:
Keto Instant Potters: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1700398993513578
Low Carb Instant Pot Recipes:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1434534513230508
The Paleo Instant Pot (Paleo or Primal, or not)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/paleoinstantpot
I Breathe I’m Hungry:
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2017/03/35-best-low-carb-paleo-instant-pot-recipes.html
Nomnompaleo:
https://nomnompaleo.com
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/shariweiner55/low-carb-instant-potpressure-cooker
twosleevers --blog & cookbooks (mostly keto because she and her husband eat keto or very low carb):
https://twosleevers.com/recipe-index/?fwp_dietary_consider=keto
https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF
https://twosleevers.com/product/instant-favorites-easy-delicious-mexican-pressure-cooking
cookbook...looks good, but haven’t gone through entirely:
Instant Pot Cookbook: Delicious Asian Inspired Ketogenic Diet I.Pot Recipes (Kindle)
I picked up this book, which taught me a bunch about different methods for stir frying. It's a good read and every recipe I've made from it had been delicious.
For a slightly less heavyweight introduction (to specifically Indian curry), I highly recommend this book by Camellia Panjabi. It's a selection of (only) 50 recipes, but it's got a great introductory section talking about the different basic techniques and ingredients, plus titbits about the regions/cuisine of India and the religious/cultural background to the food. I've been slowly making my way through the recipes for a few years now and I've yet to have a real flop from it
Nice! If you're into cooking, I recommend this cookbook. Super delicious Indian food that tastes really rich but is 100% vegan. Lots of coconut cream and coconut yogurt and tons and tons of vegetables.
I seriously feel like I'm indulging whenever I make some of these recipes, and then I remember it's VEGETABLES. IT'S ALL VEGETABLES.
not that coconut cream is the least caloric thing,but still. it's delicious, so worth it.
I bought "Indian Instant Pot: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast". I guess the author is kind of famous in Instant Pot circles?
https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1522776004&amp;sr=8-3
Start with recipes for vegetable curries, and just add some chicken if you want. Just filter out the creamy/heavy ones.
My currently-favourite Indian cookbook, which has plenty of suitable vegetable curry recipes you could start with (and maybe suitable chicken curry recipes, too, but I'm at work and can't check), is https://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028 (doesn't have many pictures, so if you want photo-heavy cookbooks, this might not suit you).
Indian food: Indian Instant Pot® Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast
Braised meat... hmm i'd probably look at How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Though the recipes tend to be under-spiced for my tastes, but that shouldn't hold you back, it's a solid technique book.
I have been very happy with China: The Cookbook
Wait, whaaat?! I'll Google and buy that shizz now, but I don't think she does... If I find one, I'll come right back.
Edit: her Patreon membership includes an ebook when it's done, and a hardcover one with the $5 tier, after 7 months. Here's her Patreon page. I just joined it.
Edit2: I got my threads mixed up in the inbox, and I was accidentally talking about and posted the Patreon for Souped Up Recipes, not Maangchi! Maangchi does have a cookbook - [maangchi's real korean cooking: Authentic Dishes for the Home Cook] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/054412989X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_CeZ6CbZZG0WNR) - more than one, in fact. [Here's one for pre-order - [maangchi's big book of korean cooking: From Everyday Meals to Celebration Cuisine] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1328988120/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ZfZ6Cb1MQ7PSG).
I don't know if it's necessarily for a "beginner", but I really love Maangchi.
Here's a link to her cookbook that I have:
Maangchi Cookbook
The thing that I love about her is that she also has a youtube channel where she uploads videos on how to make different things.
Here's her youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Maangchi
I've recently purchased this one https://www.amazon.com/China-Cookbook-Kei-Lum-Chan/dp/0714872245
&#x200B;
I've been really wanting to learn chinese cooking and find it difficult finding recipes online as I don't know the chinese names for any dishes.
&#x200B;
This one seemed authentic. I've made some delicious meals out of it but some I havent liked. I am curious though if I havent liked them just because of my taste (e.g. boiling rump steak for 30 minutes).
&#x200B;
My knowledge is chinese cooking play around alot more with textures and it doesn't always translate well to westerners.
&#x200B;
anyway, /u/mthmchris do you know this cookbook too and what are your thoughts?
If you like Indian food, this cookbook is pure gold.
I decided to buy it because it was $4 on Amazon the 2nd book is $3
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeaway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;redirect=true&amp;ref_=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_
India: The Cookbook by Prupesh Pant is probably the most comprehensive Indian recipe book you could ever hope to find.
This ebook would be fantastic!
How many dogs do you have? I'm currently a 3 dog household and its been rough! Still trying to get them all to get along.
Pooper Scooper
Honestly, most anything by Madhur Jaffrey is great. She is not an exclusively vegetarian chef, but she treats vegetarian dishes with respect. I love her book Vegetarian India.
Hello is it this?
https://www.amazon.com/Kansha-Celebrating-Japans-Vegetarian-Traditions/dp/1580089550
What level difficulty would you say the recipes are?
Got one Asian store and one Indian resto in this burg. The store's pretty good, and the resto survives because -- only one in town.
Here's what I did:
Shop online, and learn how to make a base gravy like THIS BLOKE does and take it from there into the higher orders of Indian cooking. It's BIR, not Mumbai, but you take what you can get and BIR ain't exactly chump change for Small Town, USA.
You can order just about any of the basics for Indian cooking, and cooking appliances (karai for example), online.
Indians are fantastic at blogging and putting up YouTube videos; there's a real opportunity to learn from that as opposed to when this older Redditor was expanding horizons.
The online purchases won't be cheap, but when you have a craving for quality food, you have the budget to get it.
It's in Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook. The book came out earlier this year, and it's great.
I think there are a few books that would help. I don't know of any specific titles but I know there are some fairly famous books that basically talk about flavors and which flavors go with what. They are quite specific and thorough. It'd be worth learning more about that if you try things on your own a lot.
I think something else that really helps is understanding the science behind cooking. Places like The Food Lab are great for that. Check out Kenji's other posts on that site as well, mostly from the Burger lab. He covers a lot of the science and always writes about the full journey. What his goals were, what he tried, what did/didn't work and why. Very useful.
Finally, if you can grill, bake and fry, you might try and play around with the 'new' forms of cooking that are popular. Read up on Sous Vide (The Food Lab has a great article with a beer cooler hack) and Molecular Gastronomy. For MG, this is a great source as well as this and on that blog for a fun read check out this
If you want some good cookbooks with a challenge look for anything by Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, David Chang and a few others. I'd say start with Keller's Ad Hoc. The recipes are things you are familiar with but often quite complex. Check out this for an example. I don't have it myself, but I've heard for lovers of asian food, this is the best book out there.
Thai
http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Food-David-Thompson/dp/1580084621
http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Thai-Food-Classic-Recipes/dp/1607745232
http://www.amazon.com/Pok-Stories-Roadside-Restaurants-Thailand/dp/1607742888
Depending on where you live, your library might have a bunch. You can check them out, try some recipes, and see if it's one you might want to buy.
I like a lot of international and multi-cultural flavors so I like a wide variety of cookbooks including:
Afro Vegan
Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen
Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen
and a general cookbook that helps you make your own dishes using vegan staples:
The Homemade Vegan Pantry
Buy The Curry Secret and make them yourself. They will taste just like a restaurant and so much better than a ready meal.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/Kansha-Celebrating-Japans-Vegetarian-Traditions/dp/1580089550/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1505363078&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=kansha
You're welcome.
//thread
THIS. You are going to want to get a burner that puts out crazy heat. I really like THIS model. 64,000BTU is on the low end for wok burners (pro burners are 120K plus) but is more than serviceable for a home cook. If you are unwilling or unable to get a high output gas burner you would be best served by listening to tsdguy and getting a nice heavy saute pan as trying to use a wok on a home stove is going to be a disappointment.
I also highly highly suggest you pick up Breath of Wok it has been invaluable for my wok cookery.
I know, it's easy to get tired of chili since it's easy to make a TON of it and eat it regularly.
So it's the instant pot worth it? I've seen all over the place in reddit. It's not so popular here in Europe and I haven't seen it in appliance stores.
Also never heard of the Thug Kitchen cookbook. "Eat like you give a fuck" lol. Thanks for the references :)
By the way, if you like indian food I highly recommend this book I've been getting lots of good curry recipes from it.
Pick a classic in a cuisine with which you're generally unfamiliar but for which you feel confidant you can get good ingredients. A few ideas:
You'll be forced to learn new techniques and deal with new ingredients, and get a sense of an entire cooking tradition. Any of those books will give you at least a small sense of the culture that inspired the cuisine, the human context, in addition to culinary knowledge.
Just picked up this book, it might be what you're looking for: Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees: Essential Techniques of Authentic Chinese Cooking
lol my parents get tired of it too but they cant deny my request because they love it just as much as i do. my mom cant find her really old one from when we were kids BUT she bought this one a year ago and has been getting recipes from it since then. I personally recommend making the 참치전 (tuna pancake) with some kimchi fried rice. i make that when i'm in between classes because it's fast and it tastes sooooo good. it reminds me of my childhood.
Vikram Vij's cookbook is excellent, there are a ton of super easy curries easily made with spices that are available in most North American supermarkets. There's one made with eggplant and green onions, and another that combines chicken thighs cooked in coconut milk with a raw cilantro, onion, garlic, ginger chutney at the end...spectacular! Can't recommend this one enough!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1553651847/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20
I bought an Instant Pot and have been cooking Indian recipes from Indian Instant Pot Cookbook. I think you could make it work in a dorm with a small set of kitchen items (knife, cutting board, mixing bowl, utensils) if appliances are allowed in your room. A lot of the ingredients don't require refrigeration (lentils, spices, ghee, rice, etc) or can be canned (e.g. tomatoes). I can get most of the non-perishable ingredients online, and just buy the fresh ingredients as I use them.
The food is healthy, affordable (I used to eat out a lot but now rarely do), and leftovers have been delicious!
Instant Pots do cost a bit, but I'm certain I've already saved money and I'm eating much healthier. I'm not really tracking my calories (yet) but I lost 4 pounds since I started cooking this way a month ago.
I would argue "The curry secret" shows British cooking, including such classics as Tikka Masala, and Rogan Josh.
Now I get that these might not fit into the "traditional British" category for some people, but not everyone wants a Sunday roast or toad in the hole.
This is vegetarian and does the no-onion and no-garlic thing, but it's quite big and covers a lot of material - a good starting point. It really teaches a lot about the what and the whys of Indian food. It was written by the (American) personal cook of the Hare Krishna founder, she followed him around all over India when he travelled there, learning recipes from his hosts.
Some easy to get into books
This is a classic Indian cookery books that grannies used to have
Tarla Daral was a popular food writer in India
Something from Punjab
This is not a beginners book, but very interesting
These Kerala restaurants do lovely modern cookbooks
More from South India
SOURCE: have been collecting books and shared cooking tips with Indian friends for a while
I saw a recipe in David Chang's book (Momofuku) that I'm going to try:
Ginger scallion noodles.
There's a free preview with the recipe on the book's Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/Momofuku-David-Chang/dp/030745195X
I'm sure you can use this as a guide/inspiration
Let me recommend an excellent Vietnamese cookbook.
This book takes you on a culinary journey and teaches you how to make your own.
you should consider picking up Grace Young's two wok cookbooks, Breath of a wok and Stir frying to the sky's edge. I like her earlier book better but they are both great.
> the most flavorful cuts of meat are the ones that scare you and you'll never purchase them
This. In some of my favorite recipe books, several potentially great meals are skipped because they're calling for unorthodox cuts that scare the shit out of me. Half the time it takes days to find a place where I can get it. Two butchers will tell me they don't sell that, one will tell me they can get one for Thursday. With some luck I can find a frozen specimen. Truly, it feels like I'm hunting for some piece of extraterrestrial belly.
Bones, fuck even bones can be complicated to get. Lamb bones for stock. Sorry, we throw them away unless a customer asks, come by Thursday. No problem, please cut them in 3 inch pieces, I'm making stock, not a marimba, thanks! As for what body part or appendage those bones from are (legs, ribs, shoulders) I never dared to ask.
Fish, I hate shopping for fish. Hello, do you have sable fish? No we rarely do, except sometimes at the end of the season. Well thanks good sir, how can I subscribe to your newsletter? I'd feel like an ass to call and ask what fresh fish they're carrying today so I can select a recipe accordingly BEFORE going out shopping. The short shelf life of fish creates an egg or chicken dilemma: do I choose a recipe and hope to find the fish, or go get some fish and go back home to find a recipe and again back to the store to get other ingredients.
> most (not all) restaurant cookbooks dumb down recipes for you
That's strange, my best cookbooks are from restaurants. I find that most non-restaurant cookbooks (rachel ray stuff, cooking the italian way) contains a multitude of beginner meals I don't care about. If I want to mix pasta and pancetta with some vegetables, I can do it myself thanks. And thai cookbooks that calls for "store-bought green curry paste" goes directly to the trash. Googling recipes works just as well.
On the opposite side, you you have the classical hardcore style "French Cooking" stuff that calls for killing and brining a living rooster in every other recipe. That sounds fantastically rewarding, but I have a day job.
For fine, modern, complex and layered yet approachable recipes, locally oriented & world-inspired restaurants seems to be where it's at. I'm not sure how dumbed down those recipes are from the real thing (as I've never been to them), but those 2 from Vancouver have provided quite fantastic culinary learning and experiences for me:
If anyone has recommendation of great restaurant cookbooks, I'd love to hear them.
Alright then
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant/dp/0716021919
I've been having a blast lately with Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. It focuses a lot on technique and has few enough recipes you could probably make it through in a reasonable amount of time.
Fuchsia Dunlop's books are quite good as well.
Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking
Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province
Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking
I came here to say the same thing. Here is the other one. Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine
Palak (saag) paneer. This book has a recipe for it.
Vegetarian India: A Journey Through the Best of Indian Home Cooking https://www.amazon.com/dp/1101874864/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_H-lqDbGAW2ZX8
https://www.amazon.com/China-Cookbook-Kei-Lum-Chan/dp/0714872245
The Curry Secret for Indian dishes. Actually making the base curry sauce right now.
Basically gonna echo most of the answers already posted, but just to pile on:
Cookbooks
Nothing inspires cooking like a good cookbook collection. The great news about cookbooks is that they're often bought as gifts or souvenirs and they make their way onto the used market cheap and in great condition. Here are my suggestions for a great starter shelf:
For Chinese Cuisine, China: The Cookbook is what you're gonna want. It came out last year and has over 600 authentic recipes.
I've been cooking recently from Kian Lam Kho's Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. Super delicious recipes, lots of basic instruction and techniques - a great intro to Chinese cooking.
Great British Chefs, Challenging Recipes
Momofuku Milkbar
Thomas Keller recipes
IMO Ready meal curries are generally similar to typical indian restaurant takeaway curries. I learnt to cook them this way thanks to https://www.amazon.co.uk/Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant-Meals/dp/0716021919 . However it's actually easier and as cheap to buy the supermarket ones.
Richa's Indian Kitchen is my curry-from-scratch bible.
This book is amazing
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Curries-India-Camellia-Panjabi/dp/1856265463
This is a decent video on broth making for pho, a bit long perhaps, makes for a good watch though; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxM4t8vP-0A
What I do is pretty similar. There are the traditional ways of making it of course with the beef bones..but I've found I enjoy a mix of veal and pork bones more. Sometimes I use duck bones, just depends if I want something different taste wise.
There are a decent amount of recipes out there for broth, the one I played with at first was this; http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Vietnamese-Pho-Rice-Noodle-Soup-with-Beef-232434 and then a few from books like http://www.amazon.com/Vietnamese-Home-Cooking-Charles-Phan/dp/1607740532/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1414444571&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=pho.
The key for me at least is I make my own spices, fish sauce, and trying to get down a recipe for Vietnamese style soy sauce. I keep to similar spices just homegrown instead..or from a CSA I belong too. Idea for me is freshness, home made dried star anise is going to be fresher than the store bought. It sounds like a lot of effort but it's not just for the Pho recipe, it's for everything else I use the spices for too. The only thing I have yet to grow is poppy (for obvious reasons) and saffron.
So that's basically my secret, follow the normal recipes but with pork and veal bones along with home made spices. If you can afford it, spring water for the broth I find to be good. I personally have hard water at home so I have to soften it which makes it salty..messes with everything I cook. Thus I use spring water. As to how much greatness that adds I don't really know..just better than using soften salty water.
Edit* - forgot, so in the youtube video, how they roast the veggies I do mine on a charcoal grill. A lot of my spices that need to be roasted I roast in a pan over charcoal.
I recently picked this up: https://www.amazon.com/China-Cookbook-Kei-Lum-Chan/dp/0714872245
It's a neat overview of many Chinese regional dishes, promoting authentic recipes.
This?
Get yourself Julia Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking book. It's a great place to start. If you're primarily into veg, another place to go would be Devi's Lord Krishna's Cuisine which is a positively massive cookbook that is great and vedic (no onions, etc. only hing).
Also, Manjula's Kitchen has some good videos.
Ingredients are important. I suggest purchasing Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, and vinegar to start.
Looked at a few recipes from this book and it seems pretty legit.
Buy this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Curry-Secret-Indian-Restaurant/dp/0716021919
that's why i cook my own or go to china town.
this is one great source for recipes:
http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Chinese-Cookbook-Recipes-Province/dp/0393062228/ref=la_B001IGLRVG_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1343350265&amp;sr=1-2
that sounds wonderful. I have seen and liked the ones by Madhur Jaffery. She almost holds your hand and guides you in the kitchen in her books on Indian cuisine. And the curries turn out great too.
Edit: Is this the book you are referring to?
I recommend you check out Vegan Richa, who has tons of traditional Indian recipes without all the butter and cream, and far fewer calories. I've been a fan of Indian food for decades and can tell you her recipes are very hard to distinguish from their higher-fat inspirations and in many cases, possess more complexity and nuance than what I'm used to. One of my favorites is her Mango Tofu Curry, which is the sort of recipe you'll never find in the typical Westernized Indian restaurant, and cleverly subs tofu for paneer. She also has a book I definitely recommend.
I got his vegetarian book for Christmas. Haven't made any of the recipes yet, but they look great:
http://www.amazon.com/Vegetarian-India-Journey-Through-Cooking/dp/1101874864/
I have been doing the same thing (I am into the better part of the learning curve now :)
I highly recommend this cookbook by Vikram Vij. Everything in it I have cooked has been dynamite. What I think is more important is that there is much information about the various methods (for example how to make ghee, garam massala etc) and a lot of insightful suggestions in the recipes themselves about certain pitfalls to avoid etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1451415907&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=vijs
Hey I got one for Christmas as well.
I also got this cookbook and it has been very informative.
u/Monkoton is right. First make a batch of rice porridge in your donabe to season it before cooking.
I always like a good curry in cold weather. Have various recipes but recently was recommend this book, The Curry Secret, so hoping you try it soon.
Something else that I came across last summer, is a dessert. Super simple, unhealthy but seriously delicious.
Apparently, it’s called a Malaysian pudding - not sure why though.
1lt of good quality double cream yoghurt mixed with half a can (~200g) of condensed milk. Somehow this combination just makes a difference. Then add all your cut fruits, so...paw-paw, sweet melon, apple, peaches, banana, maybe pineapple. Let it refrigerate a bit to release the fruit juices. Simple goodness.
If they are in season, I like to make a berry version with blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and a banana to balance the flavors. It’s also for the lazy, because only the bananas and strawberries require cutting up. When dishing into bowls, garnish with a cherry.
a giant granite mortar and pestle is a good tool to have. This is a good book, as long as you can track down the ingredients. Andy Ricker's is probably also good, as I'm sure David Thompson's other book is too.
If you don't find yourself drawn to meat dishes, and you've got the basics of French technique down, why not try exploring Indian cuisine? Obviously, they have a whole different take on spices --- it's a whole different layer in your cooking that should teach you how to draw out different flavors from the same ingredients, learn new flavors, and different ways of combining them -- there was an interesting study recently suggesting that in contrast with most Western cuisines, which tend to put complementary flavors together, indian cuisine tend to combine contrasting flavors, balancing them against each other. The thing with a lot of that California farm-to-table style is that a lot of it's about finding great ingredients and doing as little as possible to them, but if you're finding yourself bored with that something that's a little more sophsticated and layered might be an interesting challenge.
There's lots of places to start -- Madhur Jaffrey, of course, or Manjula on youtube, but I've always liked this cookbook, myself --- 50 Great Curries of India. has a solid introductory section on spices and really showcases a huge variety of stuff from differnt parts of the continent.
I got this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1941252095?keywords=vegan%20richa&amp;qid=1452442977&amp;ref_=sr_1_1&amp;sr=8-1
Has a ton of recipes in it, all are pretty damn good.
Not sure how you feel about Indian food but I've been working my way through this cookbook and the author does a really good job of telling you how to modify the recipes to make things gluten free or nut free or other dietary/allergen needs. Recipes are some of the tastiest things I've made too, probably from using fresh spices. The variety of spices can feel a little over whelming but it's been fun learning about it. Also if you go to an Indian grocery store they are suprisingly cheap.
Since it's from a cookbook, I don't think it's OK for me to post the recipe. It came from Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. https://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Claws-Jade-Trees-Techniques/dp/0385344686/
I found this recipe, which is extremely close.
https://omnivorescookbook.com/lions-head-pork-meatballs