Archive for Asian Recipes
Papaya Salad From The Tonga Room
Posted by: | CommentsIf you have not been to the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco you must put it on your list! It’s a gorgeous historic hotel in the Nob Hill area, with stunning architecture and amazing service. Does your wallet say “no” to decadence? If it’s not financially possible to dine or book a room there, say yes to this: affordable alternatives include an afternoon tea service or cocktail in the elegant Laurel Court Bar. We spent several hours there sipping while people watching, highly recommended!
Today, the fabulous chefs from the Tonga Room Restaurant in the SF Fairmont have shared with us a healthy delicious recipe. It’s an exotic Asian green papaya salad with chili garlic dressing topped with honey roasted peanuts. Enjoy!
Papaya Salad
The Tonga Room Restaurant, Fairmont Hotel San Francisco
Serves 6
Sweet Garlic & Chili Dressing:
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• ¼ cup rice wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• 1 tbsp dry mustard
• ¼ cup sweet chili sauce
• 2 cups canola oil
• salt and pepper to taste
Candied Peanuts:
• 2 lbs peanuts
• 1 cup honey
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 tbsp of salt
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
Salad:
• 1 green papaya peeled & julienne (cut 1/8″ X 1/8″ X 1 ½”)
• 4 scallions chopped
• 1 carrot julienned
• 1 red bell pepper julienne
• ¼ lb rice noodles cooked al dente
• 1 heart of romaine lettuce chopped
Prep:
Sweet Garlic & Chili Dressing:
• Mince ginger and garlic.
• Place in blender with the sweet chili sauce, vinegar, lime juice and dry mustard.
• Blend ingredients and slowly add oil and emulsify.
Candied Peanuts:
• First roast peanuts until golden brown.
• Then put peanuts in a thick bottom stock pot over medium heat.
• Add honey, salt, sugar, water, and cayenne and cook for 3 minutes constantly stir.
• When done pour onto a sheet pan with parchment paper and let them cool.
• Once they are cooled rough chop them in a food processor.
Salad:
• Mix ingredients with ¼ cup of dressing and 3 tablespoons of candied peanuts in a bowl and serve.
• Garnish with the candied peanuts.
Asian Chicken Salad
Posted by: | Comments
We have a soft spot in our hearts for Chef Hari Nayak . He is the author of the cookbooks “Modern Indian Cooking” and “Spice” and the executive pastry chef of Halo Fete, America’s first ice cream patisserie, in Princeton, New Jersey. What makes him a treasure? He co founded “World Chefs Cooking For Life” along with NYC chef Vikas Khanna, a non profit organization that has raised funds for 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, the Tsunami, as well as multiple other causes such as assisting travelers with disabilities and art education for the blind.
Hari typically creates modern versions of traditional Indian cuisine for his viewers, but in this recipe video he shares a very easy to make Asian chicken salad with a citrus soy vinegar dressing. And this recipe is fairly low carb as well, assuming you don’t serve it with a big piece of crusty buttered baguette like we do!
Read on for the written recipe Read More→
Happy Chinese New Year! Celebrate with Shanghai noodles and shrimp
Posted by: | CommentsMonday, January 26th, 2009 is the beginning of the Chinese New Year, which this year celebrates the Ox. The festival starts according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the astronomical point of the second new moon after the winter solstice, and ends traditionally 15 days later.
Food, Legends, and Semantics
In Chinese mythology there was a beast named Nian or “Year” in Chinese. On the first day of the New Year, Nian would gobble up food crops, livestock, townspeople, and even children. For protection against Nian, the townspeople placed food in front of their homes, with the hopes that he would eat the food, and would not be hungry for more.
Foods have symbolic meaning in Chinese culture. For example, noodles are a symbol of longevity and long life. Mandarin oranges are symbolic of good luck, but in this case, it is a matter of semantics, the word orange in Chinese sounds like the word “Ji”, or the name “jīn jí” which means good luck, golden luck, or good fortune. Here’s another one: Pomelos, a fruit in the grapefruit family, sound very much like the chinese words “to have”, and so they signify abundance in the Chinese culture.
This video from the CBS early show features Chef Chris Cheung from China 1 restaurant in NYC, as he not only explains Chinese food traditions for the New Year but also demonstrates his recipe for a simple and authentic Shanghai noodle soup with shrimp, that you can easily prepare at home.
A Warm and Delicious Coconut Shrimp Soup with Chef Vik Lulla
Posted by: | CommentsAs the nights are getting cooler, we’ve decided it’s time for a soup recipe category!
Here we start off the fall season with Chef and owner of Chinese Mirch restaurant in NYC, Vik Lulla. In this video he makes a coconut infused shrimp soup with rice noodles and cilantro, a broth that not only tastes exotic and delicious but it also smells wonderfully fragrant. This soup is a fusion of Indian and Chinese cuisine, and is brought to us from Real Meals Tv.
Recipe adapted from the video:
Coconut Infused Shrimp and Noodle Soup
Via Chef Vik Lulla
Ingredients:
Lemon
Thin rice noodles
4 Sprigs of Cilantro
2-3 Large Shrimp, butterflied with tails removed
¼ tsp. Coriander Powder
¼ tsp. Curry Powder
12 oz. Fish Stock
½ cup Coconut milk
¾ oz. White Vinegar
1. Add the stock to a very hot wok (or sauté pan).
2. As it begins to simmer, add the rice noodles and the shrimp.
3. Allow the shrimp to begin to curl into themselves. Add the cilantro,
breaking it roughly just before dropping it in.
4. Add both the coriander and curry powder.
5. Pour in the coconut milk and simmer the whole broth for 1-2
minutes.
6. Add white vinegar and a squeeze of lemon to taste.
7. Garnish with cilantro, fried shallots and a lemon wedge
