Tofu haters often cite “blandness” as an excuse to steer clear of the plant-based protein. But its blandness is actually its biggest strength! It so wonderfully absorbs whatever sauce you add to it—like this utterly craveable Korean-inspired gochujang sauce. The sauce does the heavy lifting here; all you do is add some preprepped vegetables and a grain, and you’ll have a home-run dinner in minutes.
Not sure what to feed your F•R•I•E•N•D•S at your next social gathering? Make sure the menu includes this relatable, reliable, really delicious mix of crunchy veggies, toasted almonds and crushed ramen noodles with an addictively sweet, sesame-ginger dressing.
Popular for decades, yet not exactly gourmet fare, people always go nuts for this retro recipe.
One of my favorite things that I ate in Singapore was chile crab, a cultural icon. A sweet and tomatoey sauce, enriched with eggs and used to smother giant crabs. We also got a black pepper butter crab which was so buttery and peppery. We ended up combining the two crabs and it created the most delicious bite we could have imagined – peppery, spicy, and slightly sweet. I’ve encompassed that glorious bite into a burger. To make it more budget friendly I’ve opted for shrimp instead of crab, but feel free to switch out the shrimp for 8 oz / 225g lump crab meat, or even any cooked fish for an easy fish patty.
You’ll find these juicy, sticky, charred wings at Singapore’s hawker centers (or food courts), where there’s usually at least one vendor flipping them over a charcoal grill. The chicken wings are marinated in dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and garlic, then served with a spicy dipping sauce made of chiles and lime.
If you just came home from a long, stressful day at work and you’re starving, and all you want is to sit on the couch and eat something incredibly delicious and comforting and watch bad TV, this is the dish for you. And if, on top of all that, you have kids to feed? This is STILL the dish for you. The sauce is layered with rich, roasty nuttiness from toasted sesame oil, sweet, umami-rich miso, and lots of allium goodness from scallions and garlic, all made silky and spoonable with butter and Parmesan.
My daughter Becky’s review: “Amazing. Buh-ro. No words except for amazing and bro. I didn’t know something this amazing could actually exist.”
Growing up, this is one of the things we often made for parties with other Japanese-Australian families and it was always a hit with everyone, especially with the children – we nicknamed this dish ‘yummy chicken’, which says it all really.
The key here is marinating the chicken in the sauce. Don’t be tempted to keep all the delicious marinade in the tray because it will just burn. Instead, drain off the marinade, cook it separately to reduce it, then use it as a glaze towards the end of cooking. You could use fish fillets here instead of the chicken, too. Sake is used for flavour and is a tenderiser, but if you don’t have it, you can use a splash of white wine instead. If you don’t have mirin handy, try a delicate honey instead, which is what my mother would have used.
The flavors of brown butter are incredible, adding a rich, nutty flavor to the simplest of dishes. To round out the richness of the brown butter sauce, the dish is paired with crispy panko breadcrumbs with notes of sesame and lime juice to add a beautiful brightness. This recipe combines bold flavors and simple techniques to create the perfect weeknight dinner to add to your repertoire.
Every Filipino family has its own version of lumpia, a fried roll that’s often filled with meat and vegetables and served at parties. Accordingly, this recipe yields a lot of pieces and takes some time, especially if it’s your first time rolling them, but if you’d like to cook a smaller batch, assembled, uncooked lumpia freezes well and can be fried from frozen. My favorite wrappers are the lumpia wrappers from Simex, but in their absence, I like Spring Home’s TYJ Spring Roll Pastry or any other thin wheat-based wrapper meant for spring rolls.
Ground beef gets a bad rap from snobby foodie types, but since it’s something I grew up eating, I prefer to see the positive—it’s an incredibly affordable and versatile starting point for families looking to save money (aka, all families). It’s all about what you do with it. In this recipe, we’re using it to prepare a version of bulgogi, one of the most popular dishes in Korean cuisine, both in restaurants and in homes. Typically prepared with fancier cuts of beef, bulgogi rests in a mild, balanced marinade for hours (ideally overnight) before getting crispy and caramelized on the grill. This recipe delivers all that flavor on a hamburger budget. Sweet and salty, it’s a flexible base that can be served with lettuce wraps, rice, noodles, or rolled up into homemade Kimbap
This beauty is garlicky, gingery, and as spicy as you dare—it’s best when it bites back just a little. Most of the prep time for this East Asian–influenced pan-fried noodle dish is spent slicing (have your chef’s knife ready). Once that’s done, the dish comes together in minutes.