Asian Free Recipes contains authentic, local, homecooked and festive Asian food recipes from Southeast Asia countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Japanese, Korea, Malaysia (including Nyonya and Peranakan recipes), the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam that are easy and simple to cook or prepare. This online and free Asian recipes website provides the best Asian food recipes which are also delicious and tasty and are for anyone who explore and is intrigued by the sight, smells and tastes of the Asian cooking ingredients, herbs and spices used in Asian dishes. Various ways, techniques and methods on how to cook authentic Asian food, desserts, steamed or baked cakes, traditional or local food are provided here for your cooking pleasures.
ASIA, the largest continent on earth is home to a diverse, exciting and authentic types of Asian food recipes using a considerable range of Asian ingredients, grocery lines and fresh Asian green vegetables, herbs, spices and flavorings. In Western countries and in other parts of the world, authentic, local and even banquet or festive Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Malay, Nyonya or Peranakan, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Taiwanese and Vietnamese food and sweets or desserts has been widely introduced, welcomed and accepted by all the different types of people from different countries. The popularity of Asian food has grown immeasurably and with it a desire to make this Asian cuisine part of home-cooked family meals.
Southeast Asia’s history of a flourishing spice trade is reflected in its respective country’s Asian cuisine, renowned for its clever blend of exotic Asian spices, delicate herbs, meats and vegetables. Each Asian country has its own authentic, best, unique, most famous and popular Asian food and Asian Desserts Recipes. The best Asian dishes are a swirl of textures and flavors, hot, spicy and mysteriously fiery, yet beautifully subtle, tasty and delicious. Today Asian food is celebrated as one of the world’s fastest growing and most varied cuisines.
Walking around an Asian wet market can be an enjoyable, fascinating experience, full of tantalizing sights, sounds, smells and new tastes and flavors to discover. However, it can also be daunting to those who are not familiar with the heaps of Asian ingredients or produce on display. On many occasions we have seen shoppers examining the green vegetables, herbs and spices with puzzled expressions, wondering what they are and how to use them in their cooking.
Malaysian cuisine is rich in its variety, a result of multicultural influences, both past and cosmopolitan present. The blend is exotic: Malay, Chinese, Nyonya, Peranakan (Chinese-Muslim parentage), Indian and Eurasian. A Chinese or Japanese cook would say that you must keep in mind the principles of yin and yang, and remember that some foods are ‘hot’, others ‘cold’ when preparing or cooking Japanese food. Someone from Southeast Asia would emphasize the balance of textures (we usually say that there should be at least two, possibly three – crunchy, chewy and soft – in a perfectly composed dish) and flavors (at least two out of the basic five – sweet, salty, hot and spicy, sour or bitter, and aromatic).
Many Western cities, large and small, are home to thriving Asian communities. Asian ingredients, flavors and modern Asian cooking techniques and methods have poured into restaurants, high-street shops and everyone’s kitchens at home. Asian food is now finding its way into the kitchens and homes of people everywhere, from Europe and the United States to Africa and Australia. These new resources create the need for new knowledge, the knowledge for cooks on how to use them in their recipes.
There is much to be learned about the Asian Chinese cooking, perhaps the most widely known yet least understood of cuisines. The food of the vast country has a long, complex, exceedingly rich documented history, one that reaches further back than any other food traditions. Good Chinese cooking, honest cooking, fine cooking, is precise. Cooking is an art. Its aim is to bring to the table foods that are tasty, delicious, balanced and healthy, to be sure, but Chinese cooking is foremost a cuisine of pleasure, given and taken. Food was also a blessing, conferred and accepted. No Chinese meal is complete without a soup. In Chinese recipes we often find all-time Chinese favorite soups recipes such as the Shanghainese-Style Hot and Sour Soup, Egg Drop Soup, Duck Soup, Szechwan Mustard Pickle Soup with Pork, Duck and Salted Mustard Soups which are served throughout the dinner just before desserts or sweets.
As in Vietnam and in the rest of the other countries in Southeast Asia, rice is the staple food of the people of the Philippines. Rice and fish comprise the native breakfast. In the Philippines, lunch and dinner are both big meals and among the well-to-do may include four or five courses of food and finally a rich, sweet Asian dessert. As many knows, the most famous, popular and well-known dish of the Philippines is Adobo. As it is not one precise recipe, you can find Chicken Adobo, Pork Adobo or a combination of both. Being a mixture of Chinese, Malay and Spanish and just a touch of American influence, makes the food of the Philippines country an exotic blend of the East and West.
The strength of some herbs and spices also changes with the seasons and the water levels, so something like coriander leaves may taste stronger in, say, December than in June. Therefore much of the success of each recipe relies on tasting throughout the cooking process. It is important as to how a dish evolves from being something quite bland to something quite amazing with the addition of fish sauce, lime juice or sugar. Tasting as you cook, more than quantities and methods, is the key secret to the success of the completed dish. The secrets of good Asian cooking also lies in a well-stocked pantry. A spice box for the main spices used in everyday cooking, including turmeric, chili powder, cumin, coriander, black mustard seeds and cardamom is a must. It is from this source of spices, herbs, nuts, flours and essences that Asian cooks can create authentic, traditional or local culinary masterpieces which are easy and simple to cook or prepare, just to name a few of the most famous and popular recipes, like Chinese recipes – Sweet and Sour Pork, Lemon Chicken, Ma Po Tofu, Salt-Baked Chicken, Chinese Crispy Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken or Shrimps, Hot and Sour Sichuan Soup, Yangzhou Fried Rice and Beggar’s Chicken, Indian recipes – Tandoori Chicken, Mutton Korma, Indian Chicken Curry, Poppadums, Lamb Briyani, Fish Curry, Lamb Curry, Goan Crab Curry and Yakhni Pilau, Indonesian recipes – Lontong, Gulai Cumi-Cumi, Singgang Daging, Semur Ayam, Opor Ayam and Festive Yellow Rice, Japanese recipes – Seafood and Vegetable Tempura, Shabu-Shabu (Japanese Steamboat), Teppanyaki, Raw Fish Recipes, Udon Noodles, Sashimi and Sushi Rolls, Korean recipes – Whole Cabbage Kimchi, Korean Kimchi, Korean Beef Hotpot, Ginseng Chicken Soup and Chicken Ginseng Stew, Malaysian recipes – Assam Pedas, Nasi Lemak or Fragrant Coconut Rice, Nasi Kunyit, Nasi Goreng, Beef Rendang, Assam Laksa, Spicy Fish Head Curry, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Otak-Otak or spicy fish pate grilled in banana leaves, Nyonya or Peranakan recipes – Laksa Melaka, Penang laksa, Jiu Hu Char, Perut Ikan, Nyonya Chicken Curry, Nyonya Vegetables Pickles, Duck Soup, Nasi Ulam, Mee Siam, Assam Prawns, Penang Rojak and Acar Awak, Filipino recipes – Ampalaya, Beehoon Guisado, Lumpia, Bringhe, Arroz Caldo, Paella, Sotanghon, Sinukmani and Cassava Cake, Singaporean recipes – Ayam Tempra, Chili Crab, Pork Vindaloo, Rojak, Hainanese Pork Chop, Devil Curry and Oyster Omelet (Or Luak), Sri Lankan recipes – Frikkadels, Lampries Curry, Abba Achcharu and Ghee Rice, Taiwanese recipes – Three-Cups Chicken, Taiwanese Beef Noodles, Bamboo Cup Rice, Red-Cooked Pork Trotter, Stewed Beef Tendon, Stewed Pork and Pudding and Thai recipes – Papaya Salad, the favorite and ever-popular Thai Tomyam Kung, Gaeng Kari, Gaeng Som, Thai Fish Cakes, Pandan Chicken, Spicy Morning Glory or Water Convolvulus, Pineapple Fried Rice, Green Curry Chicken, and Thai Green Curry, Vietnamese recipes – Barbecue Lemongrass Beef Salad, Mung Bean Crepes, Vietnamese Spring Rolls, Rice Vermicelli Salad and Vietnamese Prawns.
Most Asian food are likely going to be eaten with rice therefore we have also provided you some of the most famous and popular Asian rice recipes. The rest of the dishes cooked have to be well seasoned so that it works when eaten and enjoyed as a dish in its own right and when mixed through steamed jasmine rice. After each meal either breakfast, lunch or dinner, it will follow with a dessert, sweets or cakes. Recipes for Nyonya desserts or Peranakan desserts, Nyonya kuih or cakes and steamed cakes, various type of sweets are provided in the sections on Desserts Recipes and Bakes and Cakes Recipes.
I am aware that some people will feel that their approach to cooking is different from that found in my ways, techniques or methods of cooking. There is seldom one way of doing things. Truly cooking is a living art, it is ever-changing, developing and improving. Furthermore I would encourage my readers, as lovers of Asian food, to consider this only a starting point on an exciting and ongoing culinary journey as we unveil the secrets in cooking of all Asian food recipes. Cooking has always been part of my life and in my ongoing pursuit and passion for good culinary cuisines, I will continue to prepare, create and provide as much of all Asian food recipes, Asian desserts recipes, Nyonya kuih recipes, cakes and bakes recipes for your cooking pleasure. Cooking Asian food may be a new experience for many people, but relax and enjoy the experience.
