The Asian Vegan Kitchen: Authentic and Appetizing Dishes from a Continent of Rich Flavors - Softcover

Parekh, Hema

Softcover

ISBN 10: 477003069X ISBN 13: 9784770030696

Publisher: Kodansha USA, 2008

Synopsis

The Asian Vegan Kitchen is a collection of recipes from across Asia, featuring the spices and the many tasty ingredients that have made these cuisines popular world-wide. It caters to the growing segment of people of all ages who have chosen to eschew animal products, yet still want to add some global spice and excitement to their diet.

There is one big difference between this and many other vegan cookbooks. These dishes do not use replacement ingredients for traditional recipes. Instead, author Hema Parekh - a noted teacher of vegetarian cooking styles in Tokyo - has selected recipes that were traditionally vegetarian, and have been enjoyed by diners for decades, even centuries. In doing so, she has had to make only minor changes, if any, for these recipes to be deliciously appealing to everyone: vegan, vegetarian or otherwise.

Over 200 dishes have been selected to cover a wide variety of tastes. Here readers will find vegan-ready recipes for everything from Japanss sushi to northern Indian curries, from Vietnamese spring rolls, to red-hot tofu, Chinese-style. Soups, noodle dishes and some desserts are also included.

The recipes are simple, with detailed explanations. Also included are over 50 mouth-watering photos and a comprehensive glossary.

Vegan cooking just became a lot more interesting.

A long-time vegetarian, Hema Parekh has been teaching vegetarian cooking in Tokyo for almost twenty years. She has written two popular books on vegetarian cooking in Japanese A Touch of Spice and Indian Vegetarian Cooking and is working on a third.

Parekh has lived in Japan for 27 years.

About this title

About the Author

A long-time vegetarian, HEMA PAREKH has been teaching vegetarian cooking in Tokyo for almost twenty years. She has written two popular books on vegetarian cooking in Japanese A Touch of Spice and Indian Vegetarian Cooking and is working on a third. Parekh has lived in Japan for 27 years.

Reviews

Because tofu and other vegan mainstays are part of their larders, and since they tend to be dairy-free by design, Asian cuisines lend themselves naturally to vegan cooking, and this handy cookbook does a beautiful job compiling attractive, tasty and uncomplicated vegan recipes from India to China and beyond. Take Japan's Simmered Mixed Vegetables, a deceptively straightforward preparation made complex with a sauce of soy, sake and dashi, a kelp-based stock that's the Japanese equivalent of chicken broth; exotic vegetables, including taro and lotus root, come alive in the salty-sweet braising liquid. Thailand's Sweet Corn Cakes are another example of simple-on-the-outside, intricate-on-the-inside vegan cookery, an addictive spin on traditional corn fritters spiced with ginger, garlic and coriander, and served alongside chili sauce and cucumber relish. Unfortunately, the cookbook is a bit confusing; the recipes are separated by country rather than, say, main ingredient, and the fine, full-color photographs of the dishes are all crammed in the middle of the book. Though cooks may spend extra time searching for ways to use up surplus zucchini, it's an appealing browse full of tasty diversions.
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Chef-author India-born Parekh, now headquartered in Tokyo, learned to cook defensively upon her marriage, after enjoying a Jain childhood of vegetables, lentils, and pulses. She selects the best, most familiar and comforting dishes (200 of them) from eight Asian countries; readers will recognize such favorites as Indonesia’s nasi goring, Korean kimchi (in many varieties), China’s Kung Pao in vegetarian mode, and the well-loved naan and chapati breads of India. Instructions, although relatively brief, are highly reliant on other recipes, like spices, sauces, stocks, and condiments (for instance, tofu mayonnaise, spicy soy-vinegar sauce, and Vietnamese vegetarian stock). Many also demand ingredients not easily found outside major U.S. metropolitan areas—tamarind juice and coriander roots with stems, to name two. Yet gourmet adventures beckon; it’s hard to resist preparing different kinds of meals after seeing a centerfold full of glorious after color photographs. --Barbara Jacobs

Edition details

• Publisher: Kodansha USA
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 477003069X
• ISBN 13: 9784770030696
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192