Ideas for Asian recipes please - have discovered a fabulous shop!

[Scootergrrrl]

I'm well aware that this is a bit random a way to cook but I've discovered a fabulous Asian supermarket just around the corner and have bought piles of stuff - some of which I have ideas for and some of which I don't. Any suggestions for using Thai fried garlic? I'm tempted to just eat it out of the tub, it smells so good, but I'm sure I could put it to better use. I've also bought five-spice, bak choi, lemongrass , fresh coriander, green curry paste, noodles and minced garlic and ginger.
Could I please have any favourite Asian recipes? I'm also hankering after another visit to the lovely shop so any recipes NOT using the stuff I have would be very much appreciated

Nigella has a fab Thai noodle soup you could google. Great for using up any veg lurking in your fridge, but it would also use the noodles ginger corriander you bought. My last version of this soup had brussels sprouts finely chopped. Actually to call it a soup is misleading as it make a great dinner. You will need fish sauce and chilli too but presume u have staples like this already.

Two Asian food blogs (ie - free recipes with pictures) i really like are Appetite for China and Rasa Malaysia - worth having a poke around their recipe archives. I've made loads from both websites and never a dud recipe yet. Both have a wide range of recipes from many different Asian countries (ie not limited to China and Malaysia respectively).

Another blog with good recipes (particularly Vietnamese home cooking) is Sunday Nite Dinner - it's no longer being updated I think but I've cooked various things out of the archives (try the Vietnamese roast chicken, it's delicious).

How exciting! Where to start? Noodle soup is a great idea, btw. The garlic is used as a garnish on various Thai dishes, including noodle soup, often alongside spring onion and coriander.

Muu or Khai Pa-lo (internet spells it lots of ways, inc muu parlow) is a delicious Thai dish that uses garlic, ginger and coriander (even better if you have the roots - if not, you could add some of the stem instead, pounded).

You can cook it with pork and/or boiled eggs and tofu. It's pretty straightforward, too. Off the top of my head, pound together a few cloves (about 10?) of garlic and coriander roots with white peppercorns, fry them together with some star anise and cinnamon stick, then add in a couple of tbsp of palm sugar, fish sauce, and cook until it caramelises slightly. You can add oyster sauce too if you have it, a tbsp or more. Throw in some stock (about a litre) and then the meat, whole chunks of ginger and bring to the boil. I don't usually fry the pork separately first but you can, then that goes in too. I let it simmer for ages, towards the end the hardboiled eggs and tofu go in, and finally garnish with coriander leaves, spring onions and pepper (preferably white). And why not some fried garlic?! I think you could add a little five spice if you don't have the star anise and cinnamon sticks. There are a variety of recipes but the one above (sorry v approximate) works well for me. Serve with white rice (although the leftovers could be served over noodles) and a green veg (ie bak choi).

Ginger is used in Thai food but not as often as some "Thai" recipes would have us believe. It's not really a good substitute for galangal, for example. If you like ginger and have time I recommend trying gaeng hangleh, a pork and peanut curry from Northern Thailand. Time-consuming though so I (used to) make double (no time now!). See if you can get kanom jeen (thin rice noodles) to serve with a green fishball or chicken curry, and a selection of sliced veg (raw white cabbage, cucumber, green beans, hardboiled egg or two).

I could go on but that's probably quite enough! Happy cooking :)

Can I suggest Mamtas Kitchen which has some fabulous Indian recipes. I have come across this lady on foodie websites and made several of her recipes with great success.