Creamy Potato Soup Recipe

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Everyday Asian: From Soups to Noodles, From Barbecues to Curries, Your Favorite Asian Recipes Made Easy

Love Asian food but too intimidated to make it at home? Do you find yourself flipping through an Asian cookbook, and then going out for Thai noodles or Korean Barbecue, rather than going into your kitchen? When Marnie Henricksson gave up her noodle shop in Greenwich Village, and settled down to raise her kids in the ‘burbs, she had difficulty finding her favorite Asian ingredients at the local supermarket. So, Marnie tweaked her recipes to work with readily available ingredients, allowing her and her family to enjoy Asian food everyday. In Everyday Asian, Marnie shares seventy-five of her favorite dishes with home cooks.

As the recipes draw on the traditional cuisines of Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and India, Marnie begins the book with a chapter detailing how to find, make, and store necessary ingredients, as well as giving advice on invaluable kitchen equipment for Asian cooking.

Here’s your opportunity to master classicdishes such as Pad Thai, Chinese Pork Roasts, Spring Rolls, and Vietnamese Pho, and expand your imagination with Marnie’s innovative recipes for Asian Pesto (replace pine nuts with peanuts and Italian basil with Thai basil, cilantro, and mint) and Spicy Chicken Wings (an American classic with a good dose of Asian spices).

It’s clear from the abundance of Japanese, Korean, Indian, and Vietnamese restaurants that Americans are crazy about Asian food; however, cooking the real thing at home has always been a problem if you don’t live near an Asian market. Now, with Marnie’s easy-to-follow recipes, enjoying Asian food as often as you like is just a supermarket aisle away.

Customer Review: Singapore Noodles, anyone?
I don’t usually write cookbook reviews nowadays, but I just had to share this with other cooks out there who like Asian foods or for those in a rut and are keen to try something new. First of all, I’m an everyday kind of cook - you know, the one who…(a) rushes home from work because he/she has to get dinner on the table as quickly as humanly possible, (b) can’t be bothered with fussy dishes, and (c) calls the activity cooking during the weekdays and cuisine during the weekends.

I’m Asian and although my family and I love all sorts of different foods (we’re an adventurous lot), I always opt for the easiest but tastiest I can manage on a regular day. “Everyday Asian” is one of my few go-to cookbooks (and I own a ton!). I’ve cooked from this book for 2-3 years now and it’s dog-eared and stained from all the use–that’s how much I like this. Now, I’ve never owned a cookbook where I’ve cooked everything in it, but I’ve come close to doing so with this (approx. 95%). That’s why I waited this long to review it–I wanted to try as many as I can before sharing my opinions.

(1) Its size is convenient. It’s just an inch longer and half an inch thicker than the Everyday Food mag, and fits in my purse. While at work or on the train, I’ll stick a post-it on what I want to prepare that evening. If I have to stop at the store, it’s easy for me to figure out what I need. I know. I could be more organized than this, but I have no excuse to offer at the moment.

(2) I get a wide variety of Asian foods - Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Indian, etc. All of them very easy to prepare as long as you’re confident with your knife skills and you have a reasonable stock of Asian ingredients. Ingredients here can be found at any city grocery or Whole Foods. Don’t you hate it when you have to hunt down some exotic ingredient like it’s the Holy Grail, and at gas prices being what they are who’d want to do that anyway? For those foods that need marinating, I do so in the evening and stick it in the fridge for next day.

(3) How about some examples: Burmese Chicken Coconut Curry takes not a minute longer than preparing spaghetti, and fantastic served over noodles or white rice. Chinese Roast Pork Tenderloin–I’ve tried many variations of this, and the one here is the easiest and tastiest I’ve made. It takes less than an hour, excluding marinating time, which you can do the night before. Saut ed Broccoli Rabe with Caramelized Onions–I’ve used regular broccoli many times and it’s just as good. This is a tasty, nutritious side. Vietname Beef Pho–I know people who pay ridiculous prices for this at trendy Chicago eateries and it’s so cheap to make at home. You can make the stock yourself or buy prepared organic stock; either way, it’s great and it’s a main course, not just a soup. Japanese Soba with Chicken and Mushrooms–I’ve done this so many times I now get this on the table in half an hour. I think I can even do this in my sleep. Simply delicious. Spicy Chicken Wings–a family favorite, so tasty and cheap! Indian Spice-Rubbed Pork Chops–the best! Fried Snapper with Sweet and Sour Chile Sauce–gobsmackingly good! OK, enough…I could go on and on.

(4) The book’s organization is very simple. Apart from the ingredients and equipment guides in the beginning, the recipes are organized as follows: Appetizers & Salads, Soups, Noodles, Asian Barbecue, Main Courses, Veggies & Sides. That’s it. The Asian barbecue is my most used section now because it’s grilling season (finally!) in Chicago. I’ve tried all 12 recipes in that section and every single one was excellent.

(5) No one punishes a cook for substituting ingredients. If you don’t have an ingredient at hand, just substitute. Nothing here is haute cuisine. I’ve done it a few times and the dish still comes out quite tasty, though I strive to stick to the recipe as intended.

Obviously, this book is not an exhaustive cookbook of Asian cuisine. It’s only a sampling (about a dozen or so short recipes in each section), but I’ve come to appreciate it for its simplicity and no-fail recipes; a small book that delivers big on taste.
Customer Review: Good book.
I wanted to start cooking healthier and I like Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food, so I bought this book. I’m a bachelor who knows how to cook just a few things, such as hot cereal, meatloaf, etc. I also bought a good chefs knife and some good pots and pans as well as this book and they do make a difference.

After reading the intro two chapters on ingredients and items needed to cook I went to my local asian grocer and bought a few sauces, a morter & pestle, and then went to my regular grocery store to buy some spices, rice, and veggies. That night I cooked up 3 dishes: steamed jasmine rice (in an old Black & Decker steamer someone gave me for Xmas years ago), Pepper Marinated Salmon (had some salmon in the freezer from fishing but didn’t know what to do with it), and Sauteed fresh spinach with carmelized onions (and fish sauce). Aside from overuse of the salty fish sauce on the veggies (my mistake) the meal was EXCELLENT. And that’s just one day after buying the cookbook.

The one thing I wish was that there were more easy noodle recipes. I’d trade the supplied Asian BBQ chapter for more noodle recipes and info if it was up to me.

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