To Asia, With Love

May 29 - June 10, 2021 

   

For my birthday this year, Cindy got me a copy of Hetty McKinnon's To Asia, With Love, which I'd been eyeing off for a while. We wasted no time working our way through a few recipes and have been completely smitten so far - everything we've been tried has combined our two favourite things: super easy recipes and super delicious meals. 

We've already had two goes at the leftover rice congee - a rich and hearty rice porridge with aromatic base flavours from garlic, ginger, shitake and star anise. Our first crack at it was topped with five-spice shitake mushrooms (top) and our second with crispy kale and everything oil (below). 

   

I had already whipped the everything oil up, basically the day we got the book. It's a super simple chilli oil that packs both a big kick and a complex flavour profile. It's been going on everything. 

   

We'd heard a lot about Hetty's vegemite noodle dish before we got the book, so it was another early thing to sample. Again, there's nothing very complicated about this - you cook some noodles and stir together a simple sauce of vegemite, miso and butter and then serve with grated cheese. And it's just about the best winter comfort food you can imagine. We added a side of beans with black bean sauce, which was the ideal accompaniment.

   

We followed the noodles up with this incredibly simple tomato and macaroni soup, topped with scrambled egg. This has no right to be as delicious as it is - it's really, really basic: just diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, stock and seasonings. One thing we're learning from this book is how great white pepper can be - it really elevates this to something ace. 

   

The last thing we've made so far is a tofu cumin stir-fry, which we served with some store-bought rotis. It's a dry stir-fry, with crispy corn flour coated tofu cubes and cauliflower, fried up with a spice mix that leans heavily on cumin, with a bit of chilli and salt as well. We liked it a lot, but it didn't quite scale the heights of the other dishes we've tried so far.

   

I couldn't be happier with To Asia, With Love - all I want to do each week is cook more recipes from it. We'll be sure to report back when we do!