For probably my last review of the year, let’s go with the second cookbook I plan on starting the year with Vegan Asian: A Cookbook. Turns out this is another blogger turned author publication, btu it looks pretty promising. Most everything looks doable and there’s only 1 recipe that uses an unusual ingredient not needed anywhere else in the book. I hate that, when you’re given an ingredient to use with not substitution options and no other uses for what the author ahs to know is something the majority of their audience is unlikely to be familiar with. Still, I’m guessing I can find some uses for sesame paste which the author is careful to note is not even close to the same thing as tahini (which is how I’m relatively confident she knows her readership is largely not going to know sesame paste). There’s a brief introduction on tofu specifically, but given that the author is Filipino-Chinese in heritage, that makes sense (and it’s not the only protein invoked). The sections covered are dumplings/dim sum, bowls (rice and noodle both), tofu, stews/soups/similar, Asian with a twist (think fusion), veggies and sides, bites and salads, sweets-treats, and diy basics (mostly sauces).
One of the things I like, besides the largely standard or at least commonly available ingredients, is that you have the option of making everything yourself, because sometimes, if you don’t like near a large market that carries the specific cuisine emphasis required, it can be hard to find the specified brand or type of dumpling wrapper for example, or curry paste, or vegan oyster sauce, or kimchi. I’m actually kind of excited to try the vegan kimchi recipe because it’s relatively quick (for kimchi at least) and it would be a lot cheaper than my favorite store brand. I’m also pretty happy that most of the proteins are not commercial plant-based meats; tofu is better when it’s not trying too hard to be fish or chicken, just like TVP is way better when it’s not trying to be ground pork, but is admitting it is its own thing that kind of scratches the same itch, so to speak.
A lot of the expected recipes are here like fried rice, ramen, pho, char siu, dan dan, etc. but there’s also some interesting options like the scallion-sesame waffle, or the caramelized banana rolls. I do notice there’s some more emphasis on the sweeter side of Asian flavors, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something to be aware of. IF that gets overdone, maybe I take a break for a week or two before getting back to whatever else I need to try. Really the only problem I foresee is that there are a lot of recipes that call for Chinese eggplant; those can be hard to find where I am, and the standard eggplant does not seem to be a good substitute, and I don’t really like standard eggplant all that well anyways. We’ll see.