The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook: 101 Asian Recipes Simple Enough for Tonight's Dinner

Asian Cuisine

This review was prepared by Michele Durante of Veggie Num Nums.
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I was thrilled when I was asked to review The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook by Jaden Hair. I love Asian food—Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Korean—I adore it all. I was also very intrigued by Jaden’s promise of recipes that are “simple enough for tonight’s dinner”.

I’ve always found Asian cooking to be rather mysterious, and I assumed, complicated. Also, being a vegetarian, I appreciate all the vegetables, rice and noodles in Asian recipes. Though Jaden’s book is not geared towards non-meat eaters by any means, I still found plenty of things to tantalize me and get me excited about the book. I made nine recipes, if you count the Pho that we made for The Daring Cook’s challenge, and there are many more I just can’t wait to make.

I like the design of the book. There is a photo for every dish and very clear recipes with exact steps. It’s great to know what something should look like, especially when you’re cooking with unfamiliar ingredients or methods. I found the tone of the book a little too casual and chummy, at least initially. But, after reading through it several times, I realized that being bubbly and chatty is just Jaden being Jaden. I could have done without the references to other bloggers as I’m not sure how relevant they are to the book, but other than that I grew to enjoy the casual style of the writing.

The nine dishes I made are: Mom’s Famous Crispy Eggrolls (without the meat), Mashed Potatoes with Miso, Pan-fried Tofu with Dark Sweet Soy Sauce, Baked Tofu Salad with Mustard Miso Dressing, Quick Noodle Stir-Fry, the Pho, Chocolate Wontons (I baked, not fried), Grilled Pineapple with Chocolate Coconut Rum Sauce, and Matcha Crepes (which Jaden serves with ice cream but I served with the pineapple).

All nine dishes were good, some were outstanding. I really love the eggrolls. They turn out to be super crispy, and are truly quite easy to make. The mashed potatoes are interesting and have a level of flavor that basic mashed potatoes lack. All three desserts were fun, kid-friendly, tasty, and not overly sweet. I did enjoy both tofu dishes, though I would like a bit more seasoning of the actual tofu—maybe a marinade? The noodles were fantastic and can be on the table in minutes.

I did have some problems finding ingredients and that’s solely because there are no Asian markets near where we live. I was not able to find the super thin wrappers for the wontons, but even with the thick wrappers from my local supermarket they were totally delicious. I had a very hard time locating miso, and things like Chinese chives I had to do without. With a little planning, and maybe some online shopping, I think any difficulty finding ingredients can be overcome quite easily. Jaden foresees that some readers may not have easy access to Asian groceries and offers simple to find substitutions in many recipes.

Jaden’s recipes are basic, and many of them you’ll find in other Asian cookbooks. Her strength as an author lies not in giving us unusual, exotic recipes that have never been published before, but in giving us fast and easy recipes that make Asian cooking accessible to even novice home cooks. Nothing I attempted to make was difficult even though the results were quite impressive. This is food you’ll make over and over, even for busy weeknight family meals.

The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook would be a great addition to your library if you love Asian food, and you love simple, fast recipes. I know I’ll be enthusiastically making many new recipes, as well as re-making my favorites.