Asian
cooking is to be enjoyed, the wok is used widely to cook with.
Lots of rice and glass noodles
are cooked and soja sauce is used to add flavour, natural rice
is prefered, it is prepared in many different forms, boiled, fried,
as fillings, formed into ball shapes and is the basis for the
ever more popular sushi, also it is an ingredient in the national
drink, Sake. It’s hard to believe, but there are about 8000
different types of rice. Besides rice and soja, algae and tofu
are important in the asian kitchen, here in Europe, tofu is mostly
used as a substitute for meat, because of it’s neutral taste,
it can have many different flavours or sauces added. From Thailand
come many different variations on curries, interesting spices
such as galgant, ginger, chillis, garlic, lemon leaves and lemon
grass are used, also coconut milk is added to give moisture. The
indian kitchen is very varied depending on what part of India
you are in and what religion you are. Here again are curries very
typical, but the different curry spices are mixed by the cook,
this requires time and patience until the right proportions are
found. A good curry spice has very many different ingredients,
eg. Cinnamon, coriander, ginger, turmeric, cumin, fenugreek, mustard,
cardamon, poppy seeds, mace and chillis, no buying the finished
product the way we so often do and of course it tastes so much
nicer, the tongue comes alive with all the different tastes that
mingle on it. A proper curry has many little side dishes that
are also eaten with the meal, typical ones are coconut, mango
chutney, sliced cucumber, yoghurt sauces, mushrooms in lemon juice,
sambals ( of which there are many different varities), and pakodas(
big spicy onion balls in a sort of batter.) also naan bread, chapatis,
parathas and poppadums are classical accompaniements, not forgetting
the dhal, which is a dish made from dried peas or lentils.
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