Cookbook Review - The Asian Kitchen - Fabulous Recipes from Every Corner of Asia

We recently got an opportunity to review The Asian Kitchen - Fabulous Recipes from Every Corner of Asia by Kong Foong Ling, a cookbook packed with recipes from the many fabulous cuisines of Asia.  Not only recipes from Burma, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, but also packed with interesting introductions into the food culture of each country, suggestions for planning meals and a handy pictionary of the more exotic food items and kitchen utensils required for the recipes.

I have to admit that at first I was not sure how to go about this review, there was so many recipes to look at!  But then once I had settled into my comfy chair with the cookbook I found myself quickly lost in the delights of the specialities of each cuisine.  As I'm sure many of you have, my family and I have traveled here and there in Asia and we have delighted in good food wherever we found it.  Fond memories of yummilicious foods that we had eaten in distant lands danced through my mind as I turned the pages.

But what recipe to review?  I wanted to make everything at first but finally decided on a smorgasbord of Asian Hot Chili Oil Sauces.  What could better showcase the similar yet unique variations that are celebrated by The Asian Kitchen?

(We have a special treat for our dear readers, a giveaway of two copies of The Asian Kitchen - Fabulous Recipes from Every Corner of Asia.  See the end of this post for details on how to enter. )

Chinese Pickled Yellow Mud Clam 黄泥螺

This rather strange looking tidbit is actually an incredibly delicious and addictive delicacy from the sea.  Or rather from the windswept tidelands of Ningbo 寧波, Zhejiang 浙江 (my 媽媽's home province!)  Only here are found these little mud clams, these innocuous and plain looking burrowers of wet mud that are used to make these famous Chinese Pickled Yellow Mud Clams 黄泥螺.  This Chinese delicacy can be traced all the way back to the Song Dynasty (that's around 1000 years of eating these delicious clams!)

Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Duck Egg 咸蛋蒸肉餅

A dear reader reminded us that we have not yet posted this classic Chinese dish, the Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Duck Egg, or 咸蛋蒸肉餅 (thanks H Gotts!)  We make this all the time!  

Actually this comfort dish is probably prepared in Chinese family homes of the South on a weekly basis.  A quick easy to make dish full of strong savory flavors, filling to the stomach, with the delicious treat of salted duck egg on top.  A taste of Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Duck Egg is a taste of home!

Strawberry Ice Cream

There's nothing like strawberry and cream.  It's truly a combination made in heaven.   Nowadays we get luscious ripe strawberries in the middle of the summer thanks to modern farming technology so what the heck, gotta take advantage! We chanced upon a bonanza of sun ripened long stemmed strawberries and swopped them all up.  Whoopee!  What a grab!  

Just the thing to make one of our favorite homemade fruit ice creams, the absolutely delectable classic known as Strawberry Ice Cream 士多啤梨雪糕.  I know, I know, everyone's had strawberry ice cream a million times already.  But trust me, you haven't had strawberry ice cream until you've made some fresh for yourself at home!

Rainbow Finger Jello

Lazy, slow and hot summer days...looking for ways to fill the endless time, desperate for ways to cool yourself down.  Jumping into a blue, blue square of pool, water splashes high into the hot, hot air.  Tearing greedily into an ice cold slice of the reddest, sweetest watermelon you ever had.  Running squealing with happiness through the sprinklers on a green patch of lawn.  Catching the rainbow in the air as you jump high through the cool water.  

And best of all, having some of the most yummilicious summer treats of all, those cool, wobbly, translucent blobs of pure glowing color that you can hold in your fingers and bite right through and let slide down, cool and sweet, right into your tummy.  Rainbow Finger Jello is summer in a bite...the magic of rainbows cast into jingly, wobbily delicious life as a cool, fun to play with and super easy to make jello-y summer treat. 

Stir Fried Ketchup Shrimp 茄汁蝦碌

We love shrimp!  It's got to be one of our favorite seafood items of all times.  What's there not to like, fresh shrimp is the most amazingly, succulently sweet meat that has an amazing crunchy yet tender bite to it.  

We have to careful when eating shrimp, however, as my little girl and I both struggle with eczema and shrimp unfortunately is one of those things that can cause the skin itchies.  But boy, oh, boy do I enjoy it the every once in a while we allow ourselves to indulge.  

This time around we made one of my childhood favorite stir fried shrimp dishes, the delectable Stir Fried Ketchup Shrimp, or 茄汁蝦碌.  This shrimp dish is sooo good that you'll find yourself licking the plate clean (like I do every time!)

Lychee Time of the Year! 荔枝 - 糯米糍

Hey everyone,  the Queen is back, it's lychee time of the year!  Those gorgeous, sexy, succulent, rose tinged fruits of the the Chinese summer.  Lychee is one of our favorite summer fruits, so juicy, so luscious, so distinctive in taste that 'lychee' has become a flavor in its own right.  

We have noticed the lychee's appearance for a couple of weeks, a bit small and green tinged at first, and we've been waiting for them to get bigger and rosier.  Well, we finally went for a batch yesterday and boy, oh boy, they were perfect!  It's Lychee Time of the Year!

Chinese Almond Cookies 杏仁餅乾

I remember one of our family's special treats growing up was when 媽媽 and 爸爸 would come back from a long freeway drive to Phoenix Bakery in Chinatown with a pink box packed to the brim with deliciously fragrant crumbly yet crunchy Chinese almond cookies, each with a toasty almond in the middle.  

These golden delights were eagerly snatched up by us three girls, each having our own style of devouring these almond scented treats.  My special method was to nibble away all around until only the almond was left on its own island of cookie.  Yummilicious!  

Sweet and Sour Pork Chop Onion 糖醋豬排洋蔥

This easy to make Sweet and Sour Pork Chop Onion, or 糖醋豬排洋蔥 is a great all in one dinner type of dish where you've got your delicious meat, a heap o' tasty vegetables, tangy sauce and rice all in one!  

This was something my 老公 whipped up the other day in the kitchen after we discovered some really nice pork chops.  It's an easy all in one dish.  Nothing like saving some time in the kitchen, especially during this heat wave we've been having in Hong Kong.  (Meltingly hot...uck!)  We've almost lost our appetites from the unrelenting heat and, well, there's nothing like a tangy sauced dish to perk up your tastebuds and get you hungry again!

Chinese Ma Lai Gao Steamed Sponge Cake 馬拉糕

I like to be able to have a bit of homemade cake or bread ready to feed my little girl before she goes to school everyday.  She is a very reluctant waker-upper in the morning and time somehow always ends up being squeezed tight in the rush to get her to school on time.  So it is very convenient to have a homemade goodie that we can grab and go, then eating leisurely on the walk to school.  

Sometimes we have my Best Banana Bread, sometimes Steamed Sugar Sponge Cake, sometimes homemade bread spread with Chinese Style Liver Pate.  But you know how kids are, they get bored really easily and say to you, with a grumpy face: 'Mom, this again?!'  Ouch, the hurt!  

But it's okay, this sort of rebellion inspires me to try new things!  So this is my latest for breakfast cake, the Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake Ma Lai Gao, or 馬拉糕.  A light, airy, sweet and buttery tasting cake that goes down real easy and  is a cinch to make!