A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food from Asia

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Dessert will be a yoghurt cake, soft like a sponge but with a nod to cheesecake. There will be berries too, cooked with honey to spoon on top. The gooseberries are finally here and to be celebrated with any form of dairy (fool first, crumble and cream next, then as a compote with yoghurt). Peel the ginger and grate it finely. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Remove the outer leaves of the lemongrass, then very finely slice the inner leaves. Finely chop the chillies, removing the seeds if you wish. (They will add a little extra heat if left in.) Shred the spring onions finely. Also included in this cookbook are beautiful, professional photographs of most of the recipes, making it difficult to decide which recipe to prepare next. There are so many good, mouthwatering recipes that cooks who have a taste for Asian dishes will stay busy cooking for months. Using the end of a dessert spoon, gently ripple the caramel through the brownie mixture. To do so, dip the end of the spoon about 1cm deep into the mixture and draw squiggly lines and figure-of-eight shapes all over the surface until the caramel is evenly distributed.

A Splash of Soy by Lara Lee | Waterstones

To make the salad, peel the cucumber, cut in half lengthways and remove the wet, seedy core. Slice the flesh into pencil-thin pieces and put them in a bowl. Cut the gherkins or cornichons in half lengthwise then add them to the cucumber. Scatter over the bottled green peppercorns. A pinch of salt, a dash of cinnamon, a glug of soy sauce and a splash of vinegar. When one of these vague terms appears in a recipe, it can feel like you need a key to figure out how much of an ingredient you’re actually supposed to use. After all, where does a pinch end and a dash begin? Have splashes been standardized, or are we supposed to guess what qualifies as a smidge? And what happens if your drizzle is someone else’s dollop?

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Replace the pork with 300g firm tofu (patted dry and crumbled), and increase the mushrooms to 300g. Cook the tofu and mushrooms in 2 tablespoons oil on a high heat until lightly browned, and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon oil and cook the shallots, carrots, garlic and ginger on a medium-high heat, stirring, for about 4 minutes.

A Splash Of Soy by Lara Lee | Cookbook Corner | Nigella Lawson

What a treat it was to get this book. The picture of the author on the cover, is a breath of fresh air, and the illustrations in the book are mouthwatering invitations to food. Preparing these recipes will be fun, not work! From the first recipe for Tom Yum Bloody Mary to the glossary at the end, the book leaves no stone unturned. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a wok or large frying pan on a high heat. Add the pork and cook, stirring, for 6–8 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove and set aside. To serve, scoop 2 large spoonful’s of the mixture into each lettuce cup, top with curly spring onions and serve with lime wedges. Make the marinade by mixing the softened butter, miso, 1 tablespoon of the gochujang, garlic, chilli flakes, vinegar and 1 tablespoon honey together in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Kimball remembered asking the same question during a French cooking lesson. “I almost got thrown out of the class!” he recalled. “I guess because no one wanted to answer it.”In addition, there are a lot of sections at the end of the book including necessary pantry items, kitchen tips, knife skills, types of soy sauce, chilies, rice wine, and sourcing, storing and substituting ingredients. There is also a glossary. The recipe list is followed by lists of vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free recipes. There is an Index. Stir the chocolate and butter together after 2 minutes; they should have melted together. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and combine with the sugar and salt. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan and set up the middle shelf for baking. Roast the macadamia nuts for 6–8 minutes, or until golden brown, then remove and set aside. Standardized measuring tools weren’t manufactured until about a hundred years ago, Kimball noted, so before then, all cooking was done by estimates, memory and intuition. A caller on Milk Street Radio was wondering just that when she recently came to hosts Sara Moulton and Christopher Kimball, perplexed by this sort of culinary shorthand. How should she decode the imprecise measurements she often sees in recipes?