Recommend an Asian cookbook

[EnragedHobbyist]

I love cookbooks. It’s occurred to me although we enjoy Asian flavours and food I don’t have many related cookbooks. So… recommendations for excellent Asian (or Asian leaning) cookbooks/instagram accounts/etc

If it's generic Asian flavours you're after without a specific interest in authenticity or a single country's cuisine, then I'd really recommend Meera Sodha's East. The concept is recipes inspired from all over Asia, rather than just India as her previous two books, where Meera's family are from. It's vegetarian, perfectly suited for midweek cooking, not too many speciality ingredients, and the recipes seem well tested - no fails with it after cooking from it frequently over the last four years.

Take a look at "Dominique's Kitchen" ; she won a TV competition with J.O. for a book-publishing deal.
Straight forward recipes, Asian-inspired flavourings rather than 100% authentic, readily available ingredients.

What kind of Asian? Chinese, Japanese or ME (for very rough areas!).

I love everything by Fuchsia Dunlop. Especially her book on Sichuan Food.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Food-Sichuan-Fuchsia-Dunlop/dp/1408867559

Happy with authentic and/or inspired by. We loved food in Tokyo and really enjoyed Korean food with a lovely friend who is now in the states (damn her) but didn’t want to constrain the suggestions to just those areas.

Meera Sodha might be worth a look as might Fuchsia Dunlop. I flicked through Dominique’s Kitchen in the library but didn’t feel grab by it.

To give you an idea of my preferences I’m a big fan of Sabrina Ghayour, and really enjoyed Ottolenghi Simple (but didn’t bother with his others as I assumed they’d be full day fiddly cooking, not bash out dinner inside an hour stuff).

Dishoom

I love The woks of life, they have a website too which is great.

I second this. It's worth it just for the Sichuan home style cabbage.

Japaneasy

This is so good. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Asian-Cookbook-Charmaine-Solomon/dp/174379973X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2UHWXBW9ZM5MB&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.gmXixVXpb05ZFo7RAsVhKAmkUdo9ODQKRHXf5AHeXEhDCsqU34golW0SjBVI5ByJoW3jLJHNbSNKpUDkm41q1LXqLudpSXI2KqZY3fS3myy4rqWznhyFyAwD6eTY7DlGyP48HlmiFqEqYrLQQu_d7AB5n6fLsXlkg2gJJx50tVpC0XIWflY1ybD1eaK3O8YBcxI6miJ7FWA6HiQk7SUDGRIFrMNuJd5tRLhGvXH6rlA.vxVkxHd-z2gFDBRY3MN0D5fG37cLVYGYQYv1aop_MoI&dib_tag=se&keywords=charmaine+solomon+complete+asian+cookbook&qid=1711180243&sprefix=Charmaine+%2Caps%2C622&sr=8-1

I got given a book based on the website I draw Chinese cooking inspiration from:
https://thewoksoflife.com/

To be honest, I've used the website more than I've used the book, but here is the link.
Woks of Life

Get a copy of any of Madhur Jaffrey’s books second hand. Beautiful books. What do you mean by East though? Subcontinent or far East or Middle East.

The Dishoom cookbook. It’s a very niche cookbook (largely Parsi cooking from Mumbai), it’s very true to what you’d eat in Miami with minor adjustments for British ingredients.

Thank you all. Lovely suggestions.

for those that suggested Dishoom and Fuchsia Dunlop (both of interest I think) would you say they’re family dinner food or dinner party food or inspirational coffee table cookbooks?

Meera Sodha looks great. Which book should I start with?

Asia - I guess the huge area between Iran and Japan, as far north as Mongolia and down to Indonesia. Which in retrospect is a massive area of incredibly diverse food and a bit of a stupid question.

Erm.

I should have just asked for general cookbook recommendations shouldn’t I?

Fuchsia Dunlop has project and everyday food in her books. I only cook family style food and I have cooked lots from her Sichuan and Hunan books. Also Every Grain of Rice. I couldn’t get into her Shanghainese one. The food doesn’t appeal to me.

It is not Ottolenghi style difficulty.

I have a very well stocked Chinese pantry. You will need to buy new ingredients unless you already have them.

I like Meera Sodha’s Made in India Cooked in Britain most. Don’t really like her East. I also have Fresh India but I don’t remember much about it!

I really like Meera Sodha Made in India. Her mums chicken, pistachio korma and coriander chicken are all regulars at my house.

I agree with this. You could start by searching for FD's recipes on the web and see how achievable you find them. But everything she suggests is available on Amazon or in a good Oriental supermarket.

No, you'd have got a load of Jamie Oliver-type recommendations - nothing wrong with that in principle but you wouldn't be getting the kind of food you actually want to cook.

https://www.withaglass.com/?p=15251

FD's stir-fried cabbage with Sichuan pepper. So good. NB start off with just a few peppercorns as the whole teaspoon blew my head off

A couple of brilliant websites:

https://www.justonecookbook.com/

https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/

Step by step instructions for making delicious food, and all the information you need about the different ingredients

https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/vatcharin-bhumichitr/thai-vegetarian-cooking/9781851458912?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=18059580451&cq_con=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADZzAICqbTTnCN856HqYZ99f-NUMR&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItbq5wrKLhQMVBLCDBx3hmw7qEAQYCSABEgL7mfD_BwE#GOR012705400

also this, out of print I think but available secondhand

Thank you. That cabbage dish looks amazing.

and thank you to those who provided web links. I’m going to start there and see what the library has in to try before I buy

I've got this book. I really like it