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The story of

Steamy Kitchen

I could start off by telling a story of how I learned cooking from my mother when I was a young girl . . .

But I didn’t.

In fact, quite the opposite! My Mom is a fantastic cook . . . grocery shopping is her hobby and feeding people is her passion. When I was a little girl, I wasn’t interested in cooking at all. I was constantly hungry and always wanted to eat! Plus, if I was anywhere near the kitchen when Mom was cooking, it never failed that I’d always end up with the crap jobs, like tediously pinching the itty bitty tails off the mountain of bean sprouts, shelling pounds and pounds of shrimp, peeling away the stringy thing off the snow peas, washing every bit of trapped dirt hidden in the bok choy. Of course, Mom would constantly rattle off kitchen wisdom, but hey, I was young and didn’t care about cooking. I was too busy pouting with kitchen chores wondering when I could finally devour the fluffy pork bao whose steam was whispering my name . . .

So, I didn’t become a kitchen rock star until I moved away from California (where my family lives) to a little town in Florida to start a family of my own with my husband, Scott. Suddenly, without easy access to good Asian markets, cheap Asian midnight eats and, of course, Mom’s kitchen, I was forced to learn via telephone calls while digging for ingredients at the supermarket, tossing fragrant garlic and ginger in a wok and virtual taste tastes at the dinner table.

What a fine education it was. $448.63 in cell phone minutes later (which, by the way, is way cheaper than three years at a fancy culinary institute), I discovered that I was insanely good at cooking. I must have inherited Mom’s natural talent of creating spectacularly simple meals for family and friends.

How it All Started

You might be wondering how I got from cell phone diploma to writing this book, and it’s kind of a silly story. Right after we moved from San Francisco to this little town in Florida, Scott started a computer repair shop in the middle of a local strip mall, and right next door was a restaurant called “Bangkok Tokyo”. I’d often walk next door to Bangkok Tokyo to grab a to-go order.

Well, one afternoon I was waiting for my order when I overheard a woman at the sushi bar just behind the hostess stand chatting loudly on her cell phone with her friend, “ . . . come meet me for lunch! I’m eating sushi at the Chinese restaurant!”

WTF?!!

Bangkok Toyko? HELLO? Last I checked, neither Bangkok nor Tokyo was in China.

Oooooooh . . . I was upset. And yeah, I totally overreacted and took it personally, having just moved from San Francisco, one of the greatest culinary destinations and cultural smorgasbords. It didn’t help that the week before I had watched a television celebrity chef feature an entire show on the foods of Thailand while wearing a Chinese cheongsam and cooking Japanese dumplings. Seriously, I’m so not kidding! (By the way, details have been changed to protect the guilty in case I happen to run into this particular celeb chef one day and then be forced to act all embarrassed, wondering if she has read my book! Ay-ya!)

Okay, back to the story. After the “eating sushi at a Chinese restaurant” incident, I cried and whined to Scott, wanting to move back to San Fran. And do you know what he said to me?

“Honey, don’t you see that this is such a great opportunity for you?”

Welllll . . . truthfully, it went something like this: “Quit your bitchin’. If you don’t like this situation, why don’t you do something about it?”

And so I did.

I called a local cooking school called “The Chef’s Table” and asked if I could teach some cooking classes, focusing on teaching Mom’s family recipes, the virtues of fish sauce, how to stir-fry and, of course, the differences between Chinese and Japanese food.

That’s how it all began. Oh, and the blog, SteamyKitchen. com? I started the blog because I needed a place to store all of Mom’s kitchen wisdom and recipes. I was too lazy to write by hand, too unorganized to record audio notes and too scared to leave precious family recipes on my laptop hard drive. A blog was an ideal solution, and I named it Steamy Kitchen, as it perfectly described both my Mom and me, though in different ways. There’s always something cooking in Mom’s kitchen, a soup simmering away for hours or the flash-bang-cling-clang of her speedy wok master action. Basically, the kitchen was always steamy, with a variety of goodies cooking away. And then there’s me. “Steamy” perfectly describes my fiery-hot nature and passionate personality.

Actin’ all crazy on the beach (from back row) Steve Anna, David Lebovitz, Elise Bauer, Adam Pearson, Romain, me, Matt Armendariz, Diane Cu; Ochazuke Rice with Crispy Salmon Skin, my boys Andrew and Nathan; my brother, Jay and I; Quick Vietnamese Chicken Pho, page 58; Andrew not wanting to go to school.

What this Book is About?

This cookbook is a collection of Asian recipes that I prepare at home for my family and friends. These days, every one is limited on time, especially if you’ve got kids. If I don’t get dinner on the table quickly, my rug rats will begin shimmying up the pantry shelves to help themselves to sugary treats. . . so the recipes I’ve included in this book are fast. Most of the dishes are quick cooking or involve little hands-on time. There are a couple of exceptions—my Mom’s Famous Crispy Egg Rolls (page 50) and the Pork and Mango Potstickers (page 46). I included them because these are super-awesome dishes and also because they are great for freezing and saving for a lazy kitchen day or last minute party nibbles. Both recipes go from frozen to dinner table in about 15 minutes. Can’t beat that!

Fast is not the only thing you’ll find in this book. I love vibrant vegetables, aromatic herbs and ripe, juicy fruits. You’ll find that each dish is incredibly colorful with fresh herbs, chilli peppers and veggies. Food comes so fresh these days—it’s a shame to do too much to them other than a quick stir-fry in a pan!

But I think if there was one thing that defines this book, it’s that the recipes are simple. Simple enough for tonight’s family dinner. I’ve got lots of step-by-step photos to help break the steps down so you can visually see how to do something, like rolling Mom’s Famous Crispy Egg Rolls (page 50) or deveining a shrimp with the shell-on (page 71).

Because I’ve been teaching hands-on cooking classes for a few years now, I’m really good at knowing what questions you’ll want answers to and how to explain things clearly. At the end of class, people always proclaim, “I never knew it was that EASY!”

What is Asian Cooking?

I put a lot of thought into what “Asian cooking” really means, and it’s more complex than just a section of a shelf at a bookstore. You see, I grew up in North Platte, Nebraska, in the ’70s, during a time when I was the only Asian kid in my entire school. So, you can imagine some of the comments and attitudes that I had to endure as a child.

When we moved to Los Angeles, California, things changed. It was actually quite a bit of a culture shock for me, being surrounded by “my peeps” everywhere! No longer was I any different than the general population. When Scott and I moved to a small town in Florida to start a family… and as you read earlier, it kinda jarred me back to the days of childhood.

I think calling my style of cooking “Asian” will be short-lived because Asia is made up of so many different countries! We don’t use the term “European Cooking” as we can differentiate between French and Italian cuisines. And if I called what I specialize as “Asian” I would be just as guilty as the ignorant.

But at the same time, we’ve got to start somewhere. I hope this book inspires you to explore the ingredients in your local Asian market and play with them in your kitchen, and at the same time I hope to teach you some things about each spice, herb and vegetable, such as their origins and popular uses. And maybe one day, the foods of Laos will be just as popular as the specialties of Germany.

Having been born in Hong Kong, having grown up in secluded Nebraska, and having lived in crazy California and now in Florida, I think all Asian food is relative. It depends in part on geography (living nearby the bustling Los Angeles Chinatown versus having to drive four hours to the nearest Asian market in Nebraska), but also on learning how to take whatcha got and adapt it to your family meal. With several Asian online grocers in business (see the Resource Guide for a list) and many “ethnic” ingredients popping up at your regular grocery store, it’s easier than ever to create fabulous meals with ingredients from all over Asia at home. This is why Martin Yan, Ming Tsai and Andrea Nguyen—my cooking idols— are such amazing chefs. They are able to keep the authenticity and essence of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai ingredients and help us integrate them into our American lifestyle without “dumbing down” Asian food. My style of cooking is really a combination of my Mom’s home-style dishes and and of course influence from chefs and my fellow food bloggers.

With this book, I wanted to showcase all types of Asian ingredients, but specifically pantry items (like canned goods, bottled sauces and spices), frozen foods (fresh frozen noodles, 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 jaden@steamykitchen.com 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, and can sometimes be infused with different flavors, such as Asian pear or green tea. Sparkling sakes can be enjoyed with any type of dish or as a fun cocktail.

Without a doubt, sake can be a great match for many different Asian cuisines, not just Japanese foods. Don’t be afraid to experiment, as sake can be as diverse as fine wine, and certainly can complement a great meal, or just good company!

by Morgan Hartman