The_Complete_Book_of_Hot_Spicy_Asian_Cooking - pdf

The Complete Book of Hot & Spicy Asian Cooking

The Complete Book of Hot & Spicy Asian Cooking is a wonderful guide to the incredible variety of chili peppers and Asian herbs and spices used to create the luscious, highly sought-after flavors of Eastern cuisine. Whether you are a fan of hot, fiery flavors or of more subtle, tangy aromas, this book provides recipes you'll love from Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Burma and Indonesia, among others.

Also included are instructions for the storage of spices and guidelines for making your own curry pastes, salsas and relishes. The chilies, herbs and spices used in this book can be added, subtracted or substituted to suit individual hot and spicy tastes. Covering everything from appetizers to meat dishes, soups to vegetables, desserts to drinks, The Complete Book of Hot & Spicy Asian Cooking shows just how easy it is to prepare and cook traditional hot and spicy foods.

Product Details

Language: English
ISBN-10: 079465035X
ISBN-13: 978-0794650353

Reviews

This cookbook is a paradise for the senses. In Asian cooking (and in this case, "Asian" includes India and a few African dishes, as well as the familiar Southeast Asian countries), spices do more than flavor the food. They add color, smell and texture, transforming simple meats and vegetables into a seductive and sumptuous feast, one that is consumed with the eyes and nose as well as the mouth and tongue. The combination of heat and spice is what really makes Asian cooking stand out, combining flaming chili peppers with cinnamon and coconuts, or lemongrass and lime leaves.

"The Complete Book of Hot & Spicy Asian Cooking" does a good job of living up to its name. Its heavy, thick and packed with recipes. Every recipe has a stunning photograph, and everything looks delicious. The recipes are sectioned off into styles of cooking, like "Appetizers and dips", "Laksas and soups", "Chicken and duck", "Fish and Seafood", "Vegetables and salads", "Drinks" and "Sauces, stocks and condiments". There are 9 sections in total, with each section having around 20 or 30 different recipes. Unfortunately, the recipes are not identified by their regions, and only in a few cases will you know what country the recipe comes from. This isn't really a big deal, but it is always nice to know when dealing with a pan-Asian cookbook.

Of course, anyone trying these recipes will need a fully-stocked spice cabinet. There is nothing subtle about these flavors! However, none of the ingredients are particularly rare, and the only thing I haven't been able to track down are the banana leaves required for a couple of dishes. Otherwise, it is cilantro, ginger, cinnamon sticks, cloves, lemongrass, garlic, turmeric and all the other wonderful spices associated with Asian cooking. And of course chillies. Lots and lots of chillies. The author has written a nice opening section on the various types of chillies, and which are best for each regions recipes, as well as a tutorial on preparing the various spices and how to get the best flavor from them.

I found all of the recipes easy to follow, and the results delightful. A few favorites: "Potato soup with Thai spices", "Chili, salt and pepper squid", "Crab in chili oyster sauce", "Green beans with lemon miso", "Spiced couscous", "Corn and shrimp cakes", "Duck and green chili curry", "Salmon with sweet pepper sauce". Every recipe I have tried has been fantastic, and I am still picking out the next ones to cook.

This is THE perfect cookbook for lovers of asian and indian cuisine. Has all the favorites you love like Tam Yam soup, Pho, etc. etc. We were looking for a book that had all our favorites. We could only find cookbooks that had a few here and there. Didnt want to buy multiple books and then ran across this one. Have almost cooked every recipe, and the techniques you learn, and the spices you'll use will change your personal repetoire which you can apply to any dish. This is in our library right along side Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and Vefa's Greek Kitchen. Definitely a fantastic book.