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Easy Asian recipes to make at home any night of the week
Asian cooking has a reputation for being complicated — hard-to-find ingredients, specialist equipment, techniques that take years to learn. Some of it is. These seven recipes aren't. They're built on techniques that transfer to many other dishes and use ingredients that are available at most supermarkets.
Ramen
The full bowl: chashu pork, soft-boiled egg, noodles in a rich soy-based broth. This is the home version that takes two hours rather than twelve, and the result is genuinely excellent.
The broth foundation is aromatics (garlic, ginger, spring onion) simmered in the pork fat rendered from the chashu. The tare — the concentrated seasoning that goes into each bowl — is soy sauce, mirin, and sake reduced together. Assemble in the bowl rather than in the pot: hot broth, tare, noodles, then toppings.
Pad kra pao (Thai basil stir-fry)
The most popular street food in Thailand. Ground pork or chicken stir-fried with Thai basil, garlic, and chili in a fish sauce and oyster sauce base. Served with jasmine rice and a fried egg on top.
The technique is maximum heat. The wok (or largest pan you have) needs to be as hot as your stove allows before anything goes in. The protein goes in first, spreads to a single layer, and is left untouched for 30–45 seconds to develop colour. Then stir. Total cooking time: 4 minutes.
Beef bulgogi
Korean marinated beef grilled or cooked in a cast iron pan. The marinade is soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, and asian pear (or kiwi) — the fruit contains enzymes that tenderise the beef at the molecular level.
Slice the beef thin (2–3mm), marinate for at least 30 minutes, cook in a very hot pan. The sugar in the marinade caramelises and creates a lacquered crust. Serve over rice with kimchi and pickled vegetables.
Fried tofu with sauce
Extra-firm tofu pressed, cut into cubes, and fried until the outside is crispy and golden. The texture contrast — crispy crust, silky inside — is what separates properly fried tofu from the disappointing version most people know.
Press the tofu for at least 20 minutes to remove moisture. Pat dry. Fry in hot oil. The sauce — soy, sesame oil, garlic, spring onion — goes on after frying, not before.
The basics behind Asian home cooking
High heat. Most stir-fries, noodle dishes, and fried rice work because of very high heat. A domestic stove can't replicate a commercial wok burner, but preheating the pan thoroughly and cooking in smaller batches gets close.
Balance the four flavours. Most Asian sauces are built on sweet (sugar, mirin), salty (soy, fish sauce), sour (vinegar, citrus), and spicy (chili, pepper). Learning to adjust these by taste is the core skill.
Mise en place. Everything needs to be prepared and measured before the pan goes on the heat. Stir-frying happens too fast to stop and chop a vegetable.