Simply Ming: Easy Techniques for East-Meets-West Meals

You may want to put all your other cookbooks on waivers for a while and simply settle in to Simply Ming by Ming Tsai and Arthur Boehm. Tsai's the chef and owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and the host of Food Network's East Meets West. This particular book ties in with a show of the same title he's doing for public television.

Tsai has cut a wide swath through the food world with his creative blending of Eastern flavors and techniques with Western ingredients and presentations. Consider Asian Pesto Turkey Spaghetti, for example. This is Tsai-style spaghetti Bolognese, and it demonstrates the structure of the book. First comes the master recipe for Asian Pesto. Instead of basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, and ground Romano--your classic pesto--Tsai calls for jalapeno chilies, garlic, sugar, ginger, macadamia nuts or salted peanuts, lemon zest, mint leaves, cilantro, salt and pepper, and basil and olive oil. For the Turkey Spaghetti you'll use ground turkey, red onion, button mushrooms, and white wine, as well as the Asian Pesto. In this particular chapter you'll also find recipes for Asian Pesto Chicken Salad, and Grilled Asian Pesto Shrimp and Radicchio.

This is a book about assembling major flavor statements ahead of time and storing them in the refrigerator. The actual cooking becomes a relatively rapid process while delivering maximum flavor. The sections in Simply Ming include Flavored Oils and Sauces; Sambals, Salsas, Chutneys, and Pastes; Dressings, Dipping Sauces, and Marinades: Syrups; Broths; Rubs and Coatings; Doughs and Desserts.

It's fast. It's flavorful. It's from both sides of the world. --Schuyler Ingle