Meals in Asia have a different structure than in Western countries. Southeast Asian cooks tend to serve everything together—soup, salad, curries, vegetables, grilled items, sauces, pickles, and condiments—often at room temperature, usually centered around a bowl of rice. Eating is communal and leisurely. This style of presentation has a lot to do with the climate: these are tropical countries, and the heat and humidity make the idea of eating large, entree-sized portions less appealing. Diners in these countries prefer many small dishes, essentially as flavorings for rice. Strong flavors, variety, and different textures are presented to stimulate the appetite. What we think of as appetizers is streetfood in these countries, food to be eaten on the run or when alone.
Moving north to Japan and China, presentation changes. Nomiya, traditional Japanese pubs that specialize in sake and regional tidbits, are in fact stylish little temples devoted to the art of Japanese appetizers. It is considered inappropriate to drink without eating something in a Japanese bar. If you don’t automatically order a snack, something will be brought to your table anyway.
In China, of course, there is dim sum, with all its delightful dumplings and other small plates of appetizers you pluck from passing restaurant carts and make a meal out of. There is also the ultimate in Chinese cooking, the banquet meal, where you may be served as many as thirty dishes, course after course.
Serving a small first course before a large entree is more of a Western concept than an Asian one. It works well for us, allowing us to spend a little more time at the table with family and friends. People are willing to eat more adventurously when it comes to appetizers. A deep-fried food or a sparerib will be ordered in a restaurant as an appetizer much more often than as an entree because it is seen as only a small indulgence. My favorite appetizers are deep-fried morsels like chicken wings dipped in tangy sauces, savory salads, and flavorful soups.
Chicken wings are the all-American appetizer, but here they are made distinctive with Asian spicing in this two-peppercorn, light batter mixture. While the recipe doesn’t call for a dipping sauce, you could use the cilantro sauce on page 46 or the grilled vegetable dipping sauce on page 174. People shy away from making chicken wings at home because of the deep-frying, but they are delicious and fairly easy, especially if you have a fryer. However, a pot of oil on the stove works well and you can strain the oil and keep it in the refrigerator for quite some time. In my view, the only bad wing is an underdone wing, so test the first one to make sure it is cooked through and crispy on the outside. Buy small wings. Roaster wings are too big for even cooking and not appropriate for an appetizer.
Serve these before Pad Thai (page 100).
Serves 4
2½ pounds chicken wings
2 teaspoons Szechuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 dried red chile
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup rice wine
¼ cup flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Canola oil for deep-frying
Lemon wedges
1. Cut off the wing tips and then cut each wing into two pieces at the joint. Put them in a large bowl.
2. Toast the Szechuan peppercorns in a dry frying pan over medium-high heat until fragrant and just starting to smoke, 3 to 5 minutes. Grind them with the black peppercorns and red chile in a clean coffee grinder or mortar.
3. Combine the pepper mixture with the salt, soy sauce, rice wine, flour, and cornstarch in a small bowl. Stir until there are no lumps. Add this mixture to the wings and make sure each wing is well coated.
4. Heat 4 cups of oil over medium-high heat in a saucepan or preheat a deep-fryer and fry the wings (three to five at a time) until well browned and floating on the surface.
5. Arrange the wings on a serving platter and garnish with lemon wedges. Have a bottle of sriracha chili sauce on the side.
People tend to be impressed by any kind of spring roll served at home—they have about them an aura of complexity. These are very simple, very fresh, and satisfying, especially with the traditional Vietnamese bean sauce served with uncooked spring rolls. Make them close to serving time and cover with a damp paper towel at room temperature until they are served, or they will dry out.
Makes
24 pieces to
serve 4 to 6
PEANUT-HOISIN SAUCE
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 small onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon sambal olek
2 teaspoons sugar
24 medium shrimp
Juice of ½ lime
Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt
24 circular 6-inch rice papers (plus extras for mistakes)
24 mint leaves
24 Thai basil leaves
2 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths and julienned
1 jalapeño, thinly sliced into rings
1. To make the dressing, heat the oil in a small saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Sauté for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the onion is transparent. Add ½ cup water along with the peanut butter, hoisin sauce, tomato paste, sambal olek, and sugar. Stir well and simmer for 5 minutes. Set the sauce aside to cool while you assemble the spring rolls.
2. Poach the shrimp in a small saucepan of gently simmering water until they curl and turn pink, about 30 seconds. Drain and refresh them with cold water. Put the shrimp in a small bowl and squeeze the lime juice over them, along with a liberal grinding of pepper and a sprinkling of salt.
3. Prepare your work area. Put all the ingredients in front of you along with a bowl of medium hot water and a serving platter. Dip the rice paper briefly into the water and place it on the work surface.
4. Straighten a shrimp by bending it backward until it snaps and place it horizontally in the bottom middle of the rice paper. Put one mint leaf, one basil leaf, and a few scallion shreds on top of the shrimp. Fold the bottom flap over the shrimp, fold the two sides in, and roll up.
5. Place the spring roll on the serving plate folded side down and cover the plate with a damp paper towel. Make the remaining 23 rolls in the same manner. Rice paper is very delicate; if you tear one, just toss it and start over.
6. Keep the rolls covered with the towel until you are ready to serve. Transfer the sauce to a small serving bowl and serve with a spoon so each diner can spoon the sauce over their rolls. If it has become quite thick, thin it with a tablespoon of water. Serve the jalapeño on a small plate on the side.
When you think of mussels, Belgian, French, or even Italian preparations come to mind, but this zesty, aromatic, and savory dish with Indian spices holds its own. Serve as a first course before Pepper-Marinated Salmon (page 112) or as a light lunch with a loaf of crusty bread. Now that farm-raised mussels are available almost everywhere, and they are pretty much free of grit, serving mussels at home is a nice option. Make sure the mussel shells are tightly closed once you put them in the bowl of water, and discard any that feel heavy. Buy extra so that you have two pounds after some are discarded. This dish can also be made with small clams.
Serves 4
2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded
4 tablespoons canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
1 large tomato or 3 plum tomatoes, chopped
2 dried red chiles
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
½ cup chicken stock 1 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lemon
½ cup cilantro leaves
1. Soak the mussels in a large bowl of cool water for an hour. Discard any open mussels that don’t close tightly when you pinch them between your fingers.
2. Heat the oil over medium heat in a pot (with a lid) large enough to hold all the mussels. When it’s hot, add the onion, garlic, and ginger. Sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato and continue to sauté for 5 minutes. Break the chiles into pieces and add them to the onion mixture along with the turmeric and paprika. Cook the spices while stirring for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock and salt, stir well, cover, and simmer for 3 minutes. You can make the recipe to this point up to 2 hours in advance.
3. Ten minutes before you want to serve, bring the sauce back to a boil and add the drained mussels. Cover at once and steam until all the shells are open, about 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat, add the lemon juice and cilantro leaves, and stir to mix.
4. Transfer the mussels to a large platter or bowl, discarding any mussels that don’t open. Ladle the mussels into individual bowls and make sure there is an empty bowl on the side for shells.
Each year I await soft-shell crab season (which begins with the first full moon in May and runs through the summer) with great anticipation. Maryland blue crabs are plucked from the waters as they molt, or shed their hard shells, so you can eat the entire crab, legs and all. Because harvesting soft-shell crabs is not easy (they molt several times over the summer but must be taken from the water right after the shell has been shed), they are expensive and quite rich, so I serve them as an appetizer. Make sure you ask the fishmonger to clean the crabs—it is a tricky business. In Asian restaurants, they are usually deep-fried, but I shallow-fry them with garlic once they are dusted with seasoned cornstarch, then dip them in ginger sauce. As the meat of a soft-shell crab is so sweet, I don’t think it needs the sugar that is customarily in the recipe.
Serve these before Lemongrass Pork Chops (page 122) for an elegant and relatively simple meal.
Serves 4
Ginger Sauce (page 114)
½ cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1½ teaspoons freshly ground black or white pepper
4 soft-shell crabs, cleaned, washed, and patted dry with paper towels
½ cup canola oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups shredded red leaf or romaine lettuce
1. Make the Ginger Sauce and set aside in a small serving bowl.
2. Combine the cornstarch, salt, and pepper on a plate and shake the plate to mix evenly. Dust each crab well with the mixture and shake off any excess. (This should be done just as the oil is heating.)
3. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a frying pan large enough to hold the crabs comfortably in a single layer. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and stir-fry it for 30 seconds. Add the crabs. Cook the first side for 2 to 3 minutes and flip them. They should be deep orange and crispy. Cook the other side for 2 to 3 minutes. Cover a serving platter with the shredded lettuce and top with the crabs. Serve the Ginger Sauce on the side.
In Japan there is no such thing as a “Japanese restaurant.” Each establishment specializes in a particular type of food, serving only sushi or only soba, or what have you. One of my favorites is the robatayaki. If you think teppanyaki-style restaurants like Benihana are lively, a robatayaki takes the atmosphere to another level. The cooks and waiters wear regional costumes and engage in ongoing banter, with good-natured yelling of orders, welcoming of guests, and flamboyant behavior all around. The cooking is centered around a large grill pit (robatayaki means “grilled by the fireside”), where fish, seafood, and other ingredients are skewered and placed standing up in the ashes and sand of the grill floor. My favorite is sawagani, tiny salt-grilled crabs. You just pop the entire crab in your mouth—the flavor and crunch are fabulous, as is the round of cheers and “sawagani!” chants you will hear from the waiters and cooks.
I use whole trout for this salt-grilled fish, or shioyaki, because it is the only small whole fish that I see consistently in grocery store fish departments. Try the recipe with mackerel if it is available. Ask the fishmonger to bone the fish for you while leaving the skin, head, and tail intact for easy eating.
Serve this first course before Japanese Yakisoba (page 96).
Serves 4
DIPPING SAUCE
½ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
¼ cup soy sauce
1 cup dashi (see page 11)
4 whole trout (¾ pound each), washed and patted dry
2 tablespoons kosher salt
Lemon wedges
1. Combine the vinegar, soy sauce, and dashi in a small saucepan and bring them to a simmer. Reduce the liquid by half and pour into a small serving bowl.
2. Coat the trout inside and out with the salt and place them on a platter.
3. Prepare your grill. With an outdoor grill, use a grill basket. If you don’t have one, try to skewer them, two at a time with two metal skewers, so the skewers are vertical to the trout. If you are using a grill pan, coat it lightly with oil and you won’t need any skewers. Grill the trout 3 to 5 minutes per side over high heat so that you have nice crisp skin.
4. Pour the dipping sauce into tiny bowls, if you have them, and give one to each guest. Serve with lemon wedges.
Deep-fried morsels like these oysters are wonderful with this tangy cilantro condiment. The same sauce could be used with deep-fried shrimp, chicken wings, or spring rolls. The oysters go well before most any noodle entree. Buy shucked oysters for this recipe and get them as large as you can. Some of the cornmeal coating will come off in the frying process, so instead of using a deep-fryer, which would require an oil change after one use, I fry these in a deep-frying pan.
SERVES 4
CILANTRO SAUCE
1 bunch cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon sambal olek
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 pound shucked oysters (12 to 18)
½ cup cornmeal
½ cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Canola oil for shallow-frying
1. To make the sauce, finely chop the cilantro in a food processor or blender. Combine it with the lime juice, sambal olek, and salt in a small bowl. Stir to mix and set aside. It will become more of a sauce as the moisture comes out of the cilantro.
2. Add the rice wine to the oysters and let them sit in a colander for 15 minutes. Combine the cornmeal, flour, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Toss the oysters in the cornstarch mixture and make sure each one is well coated.
3. Heat ½ inch oil in a medium frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot (test it with a drop of water—if it hisses right back, it is ready), shake the excess flour from an oyster and gently drop it into the oil. Cook as many at a time as will comfortably fit in the pan. Flip them after 30 seconds. They should be brown and crispy. Cook the other side for 30 seconds. Remove the oysters with a slotted spoon and drain them on a paper towel. Try to cook them in just two batches so they will stay hot.
4. Serve immediately with the cilantro sauce. Place the oysters around the edge of a small round serving plate with a smaller bowl of the bright green sauce in the middle.
Serve this versatile dish with almost anything, or let it stand alone as a first course. Miso goes well with the flavor of asparagus and is a nice change from a standard vinaigrette. I experimented a lot with grilling asparagus in a grill pan versus roasting them in the oven—oven roasting cooks them much more evenly. In Japan, this would be served as the sunomono or “vinegared things” course. The dressing could also be served on a green salad. Try this before Burmese Chicken Coconut Curry (page 142) or alongside Thai Grilled Chicken page 110).
Serves 4
1½ pounds asparagus
1 tablespoon canola oil
Salt
MISO DRESSING
3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons light miso
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the bottom inch off the asparagus stalks; with a vegetable peeler, peel the bottom 4 inches of each stalk. Lay the stalks in a single layer in a roasting pan, sprinkle with the oil, and salt them lightly. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes or until they are cooked through but not mushy. Shake the pan every 10 minutes. Remove them to a serving plate to cool.
2. Make the dressing by combining the ingredients with 2 tablespoons water. Stir to dissolve the sugar and miso.
3. When the asparagus is cool, pour the dressing over it and allow the salad to sit for 15 minutes before serving.
The island of Bali is my vacation destination of choice. The people are beautiful, proud of their culture, extremely artistic, and friendly in an easygoing way. Their food reflects this. On our last trip, I tried to write down details about the dishes I ate so that I could re-create them at home, but the ingredients that are commonplace there—rhizomes like kencur and laos, salam and pandan leaf for aromatics, fruits such as rambutans and mangosteens—are impossible to find here. Gado gado, a vegetable salad with a warm peanut dressing, is one Indonesian dish that you can do justice to with readily available ingredients. Krupah, fried shrimp crackers, add a nice crunch if you can find them. In Indonesia, a sliced hard-boiled egg or a fried egg is placed on top, but I prefer it without. Serve this salad Bali-style with rice, as a meal, or before the Five-Spice Game Hens (page 106).
Serves 4 to 6
PEANUT DRESSING
1 tablespoon canola or peanut oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
½ small onion, minced
½ teaspoon dried shrimp paste
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
½ cup smooth peanut butter
½ cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste
Juice of ½ lime
2 large carrots, grated
½ head Savoy cabbage (1 pound), thinly sliced
½ pound green beans, blanched and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 large red potatoes, boiled, cooled, and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cucumber, skin on, scored vertically all the way around with the tines of a fork and sliced into thin rounds
8 ounces deep-fried tofu (see page 27), cut into
¼-inch-thick strips
1 cup crispy fried onions (see 9)
10 krupah (optional)
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
Lime wedges for garnish
1. To make the dressing, heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and fry until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp paste, crushing it with the back of a fork while frying for a minute. Add the brown sugar, peanut butter, coconut milk, 2/3 cup water, soy sauce, fish sauce, and pepper. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined. Bring to a simmer and allow to thicken while stirring, 3 to 5 minutes. It should be the consistency of a creamy dressing. Remove the peanut sauce from the heat and stir in the lime juice.
2. To assemble the salad, toss the carrots, cabbage, and salad greens together in a mixing bowl, then spread on a platter. Sprinkle the green beans over the cabbage mixture. Place the potatoes around the edge of the platter. Arrange the cucumber slices around the platter beside the potatoes. Mound the tofu strips in the center.
3. Spoon the still warm dressing over the salad in a large circle. Sprinkle the crispy fried onions over the top and place the krupah in a circle inside the cucumber slices. Garnish further with the cilantro sprigs and lime wedges.
You can buy prepared fish cakes in Asian markets, but those made at home have an infinitely better consistency. Fish cakes should have a chewy texture, which you get by finely grinding the fish and adding egg and cornstarch. This salad showcases fish cakes together with the contrasting textures of potatoes, greens, and crispy fried onions. The dressing for the salad is a savory, all-purpose one—try serving it on a salade Niçoise.
Make this salad as a first course for any of the noodle soups in this book. On a recent fall weekend we had friends out for a long hike in the country, and afterward I served this salad followed by Vietnamese Beef Pho. Together, they made for a meal that was hearty without being too heavy.
Serves 4
FISH CAKES
1 pound fillets of flounder or similar mild white-fleshed fish
1½ tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon red curry paste
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 thick slices red onion, finely chopped
SALAD DRESSING
2 tablespoons fish sauce
Juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons dried shrimp powder
2 tablespoons oil from crispy fried onions (see page 9)
5 cups mixed salad greens (such as arugula and red leaf)
4 medium red potatoes, boiled, cooled, and cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large radishes, thinly sliced
Canola oil for deep-frying
1 cup crispy fried onions (see page 9)
1. Pat the fish fillets with paper towels to make sure they are as dry as possible. Cut the fish into chunks and process in a food processor or blender until the fish forms a paste. Add the fish sauce, curry paste, egg, and cornstarch to the fish mixture. Process again until everything is well combined. Use a spatula to transfer the mixture to a bowl and stir in the red onion. Form the batter into small, flat patties 2½ inches in diameter. The fish cakes will be quite sticky, so place them on a plate in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook them.
2. Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Mix well, and set aside.
3. Cover a large platter with the mixed greens. Place the potatoes around the edge. Scatter the radishes over the potatoes. Refrigerate the platter.
4. Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or pour ½-inch deep in a frying pan for shallow-frying over medium-high heat. When the oil’s hot, slip in a few fish cakes at a time. They will be nicely browned and float to the surface of a deep-fryer in about 3 minutes. If shallow-frying, flip them after 1½ minutes in the pan. Cook the other side for 1½ minutes and remove to a paper towel to drain.
5. Slice each fish cake into four pieces and scatter them on top of the salad. They’re best if served warm. Top with all the dressing and the crispy fried onions.
This well-known Vietnamese salad appears on most menus as goi ga bap cai. I like to pickle the onions and chiles—it mellows the flavors. Many people aren’t crazy about eating raw cabbage, so I sometimes use shredded romaine instead. The idea with this salad is to get the various ingredients roughly the same size and shape. It is really the Vietnamese version of coleslaw, but the flavors are much lighter and brighter. The chicken and peanuts add a substantial meatiness. It is a nice first course followed by any nonpoultry grilled entree.
Serves 4
½ cup raw peanuts
¼ cup white distilled vinegar
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
½ serrano chile, or more to taste, thinly sliced into rings
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
¼ cup fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons sugar
½ head Savoy cabbage (1 pound), thinly sliced
3 carrots, grated
1 small bunch mint, leaves rolled up and julienned, plus sprigs for garnish
1. Toast the peanuts in an oven or toaster oven at 350°F until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool and chop coarsely.
2. Combine the vinegar with the onion and chile in a small bowl. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes.
3. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a frying pan, add the chicken, cover, lower the heat to a simmer, and poach the chicken until just done, about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. Once the chicken breast has cooled, pull it by hand into thin strips.
4. Make the dressing by combining the fish sauce, lime juice, and sugar in a small bowl. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
5. Combine the cabbage, chicken, carrots, mint, vinegar-onion mixture, dressing, and peanuts in a large bowl. Toss thoroughly and transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with a few sprigs of mint.
This is a savory Japanese-style seaweed salad. Wakame has the best flavor but try other commonly available dried seaweeds, such as hijiki or kombu. (Kombu has to be sliced after being reconstituted.) Do not use nori, which is the thin laver used to wrap sushi rolls—it is eaten only in the dried form, which isn’t right for this salad. Wakame comes dried and needs to be soaked in water for twenty to thirty minutes. It adds a nice chewiness, deep green color, and sea taste to a salad. Deep-fried tofu makes this salad more substantial and adds a contrasting texture.
Serve as a first course before the Grilled Striped Bass with Ginger Sauce (page 114).
Serves 4
¼ cup dried wakame
DRESSING
¼ cup sesame seeds
3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
10 ounces deep-fried tofu (see page 27), cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
2 ounces alfalfa or broccoli sprouts
1 cucumber, peeled, scored vertically all around with the tines of a fork, and sliced into thin circles
1. Soak the wakame in a bowl of tepid water for 20 minutes until soft. Drain it in a colander and squeeze in a paper towel.
2. To make the dressing, toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan over medium heat until they are golden brown, shaking the pan as they cook, about 5 minutes. Cool and grind them in a clean coffee grinder for just a few pulses.
3. Put the ground seeds in a small bowl and add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. Stir to mix. Set the dressing aside while you assemble the salad.
4. Combine the tofu, wakame, and sprouts in a mixing bowl. Add all of the dressing and combine thoroughly with tongs. Lay the cucumbers around the edge of a small serving plate and heap the salad in the middle.
A yum is a classic Thai salad with several different textures. The cucumbers add crunch, the shrimp have a chewy sweetness, and the peanuts provide a meaty element. Chiles, lime juice, and fish sauce give the whole thing flavor and freshness. I like to serve this with Roast Chicken with Szechuan Peppercorns (page 144).
Serves 4
1/3 cup raw peanuts
2 large cucumbers
¼ cup dried shrimp, soaked in a cup of water for 15 minutes and coarsely chopped, or 2 tablespoons dried shrimp powder
1 serrano chile, thinly sliced into rings
Two ¼-inch-thick slices red onion, chopped into small pieces
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon canola oil
Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1. Toast the peanuts in a 350°F oven or toaster oven until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Chop them coarsely.
2. Peel the cucumbers and cut them in half lengthwise. Scoop the seeds out with a spoon and slice into ¼-inch-thick half-moons.
3. Combine the cucumbers and peanuts with the dried shrimp, chile, onion, cilantro, oil, lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar. Mix well.
4. Let the salad sit for 30 minutes before serving to let the flavors meld; allow the cucumbers to release some of their water.
Arugula has character. Thanks to its spinach-like texture and its spicy, peppery flavor, it holds up well to a soy sauce-based dressing. Tofu, the other primary ingredient in this dish, has multiple personalities. If you know it only in its fresh form—soft and creamy—you’ll find that when deep-fried, tofu becomes earthy, savory, meaty but light. These two ingredients are the perfect foil for one another. Serve with Five-Spice Game Hens (page 106), Indian Spice-Rubbed Pork Chops (page 105), or Roast Chicken with Szechuan Peppercorns (page 144).
Serves 4
1 large bunch arugula (8 ounces)
8 ounces deep-fried tofu, sliced into ¼-inch-thick pieces (see page 27)
SALAD DRESSING
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger
1. Soak the arugula in a large bowl of water, then spin it dry. It is a dirty green, so taste to see if it needs a second soaking. Tear the arugula into pieces and put it in a medium bowl along with the fried tofu.
2. To make the dressing, combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the dressing to the arugula mixture and toss well. Transfer to a serving bowl.
Nam prik, or chile water, is a sauce that is somewhere between an Indonesian sambal, or chile-fried condiment, and a dipping sauce like Vietnamese nuoc cham. I think of it as the adhesive that brings the various dishes together in a Thai meal. Nam prik takes many forms, from thin to chunky, and the ingredients can vary tremendously, but it always contains something sour, something salty, something sweet, and of course, the chiles. And it is always intense. If all you had was a bowl of rice and nam prik, you could call it a meal. Entire chapters of Thai cookbooks are devoted to this elemental sauce. Mine is a basic version—a great condiment for vegetables that completes a meal. Serve it with plenty of jasmine rice and Thai Grilled Chicken (page 110).
As Thais are master vegetable carvers, their platters would be filled with cucumber leaves, radish flowers, scallion curls, and the like. Cut the vegetables into interesting shapes if you like. I suggest using papaya in this dish, but if you can’t find it, use slightly underripe melon or mango or leave the fruit out altogether.
Serves 4
NAM PRIK
¼ cup dried shrimp, soaked in a bowl of water for 15 minutes, drained, and chopped
Juice of 1 lime
¼ cup fish sauce
1 serrano chile, thinly sliced into rings
¼ small red onion or 2 shallots, finely chopped
¼ cup cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ pound tender green beans, blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes, drained, and rinsed in cold water
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced into ¼-inch-thick rounds
2 carrots, cut into thin 3-inch-long sticks
5 large radishes, sliced
1/3 papaya, peeled and cut into sticks (it is best if the papaya is slightly underripe)
1. Make the nam prik by combining the dried shrimp, lime juice, fish sauce, chile, red onion, cilantro, and sugar in a small serving bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
2. Prepare a platter of vegetables and fruit by grouping each type together. Serve with the bowl of dipping sauce in the center with a spoon.
So simple, but this salad always brings a little smile of pleased surprise. It was the house salad at my restaurant, and customers constantly asked me for the dressing recipe. Serve it with an Asian meal instead of a salad with the usual olive oil and vinegar dressing. It is oil free, light, and tangy and goes equally well with fried food, cold noodles, or a barbecue.
Serves 4
DRESSING
3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds
1 head red leaf lettuce, or romaine, leaves torn into small pieces
1 carrot, grated
4 thin slices red onion
1. Make the dressing by combining the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
2. Place the cucumber slices in a bowl and pour the dressing over them. Let them marinate for 15 minutes.
3. Combine the lettuce, carrot, and onion in a bowl and toss with tongs. Pour in the cucumbers and dressing and toss again. Transfer to a serving bowl.
On occasion a cook wants something that’s not quite a side dish but is more than a garnish. This simple and subtle shredded carrot salad fills that role. It works well on a platter of grilled steaks or chicken (spread it around the edge of the platter and put your meat in the center) or with other vegetable dishes and rice. It is also nice on the same plate as a cold noodle salad. If you have a mandoline, use it, and you will have a very attractive salad with long delicate pieces.
Serves 4
5 medium or 3 large carrots
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
1. Shred the carrots with a grater, food processor, or mandoline. Put the carrot in a bowl, add the salt and vinegar, and toss with tongs.
2. Heat the oil in a small frying pan over medium heat; when it is hot, add the mustard and sesame seeds. As soon as they begin to pop, 2 to 3 minutes, pour the contents of the pan into the carrots. Toss again with tongs and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.
3. The flavor improves with at least an hour in the refrigerator.