Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai [Hardcover]

Ming Tsai (Author), Arthur Boehm (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 9, 1999

John Mariani has called Ming Tsai "the foremost interpreter of East-West cuisine in America today," and the appreciative diners at Blue Ginger, Ming's celebrated restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and fans of his top-rated Food Network show, East Meets West with Ming Tsai, agree. Now, in his first cookbook, Ming shares the technique and philosophy behind his exciting cross-cultural fare.
        
The key, Ming explains, is retaining a healthy respect for the traditions of each cuisine so that diverse elements can be combined in a harmonious way. His trademark Foie Gras and Morel Shu Mai, for example, elevates a traditional yet simple Asian preparation with a luxuriously sophisticated Western ingredient and transforms a humble dish into truly elegant fare. Prosciutto and Asian Pear Maki is a playful reinterpretation of a Japanese favorite, while Classic Roast Chicken with Sticky Rice Stuffing gives the holiday staple a savory new spin. The result is food that's inventive yet not trendy, complex in flavor but surprisingly easy to prepare.
        
In chapters devoted to Soups; Dim Sum (irresistible starters and bite-sized party fare); Rice and Noodles; Seafood; Birds; Meat; Sides; Oils, Dips and Seasonings; and Desserts, Ming proves again and again how delicious the coming together of East and West can be: Gingered Beef with Leeks and Asparagus, Hoisin-Marinated Chicken with Napa Slaw, Asian Gazpacho with Cilantro-Jicama Cream, and Wok-Flashed Salt and Pepper Shrimp are all quick and straightforward preparations that provide big flavors in every bite. And when it's time to pull out all the stops, a chapter dedicated to Over-the-Top recipes will guide home cooks through an array of showstopping dishes that dazzle with innovative techniques and presentations. Beverage suggestions accompany each recipe to complete the dining experience.
        
Filled with Ming's tips for working with unfamiliar ingredients and preparations, Blue Ginger is an outstanding introduction to the pleasures of East-West cooking.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Thanks to his cooking program on the Television Food Network, Ming Tsai has gone from chef to culinary celebrity, taking recipes from his Massachusetts restaurant, Blue Ginger, and using them to introduce cooking with Asian ingredients in a most appealing way. Beyond being attractive, serene, and engagingly articulate, Ming Tsai makes cooking with Asian ingredients look easy. This book, a companion to his television shows, offers the same approach and low-key instructions that viewers have come to love. To fill in the visual details for those who have not viewed the cooking series, the book includes step-by-step black-and-white photos for filling potsticker dumplings, rolling sushi, and preparing sushi rice, as well as glorious color shots of many of the completed dishes.

Tsai's specialty is bringing ingredients and techniques of Asia and the West together. It's not surprising to find Tsai using Asian banana leaves, French foie gras, and Southwestern chipotle chile peppers all at once. In fact, it's only natural for the Ohio-raised son of Chinese immigrants, who trained at the classically oriented Cordon Bleu in Paris and has cooked at U.S. restaurants from San Francisco to Santa Fe. His ability to create easily reproduced, globally influenced dishes is exceptional, and results in delights such as Smoky Turkey Shao Mai (dumplings filled with a chipotle-heated filling) and Asian Gazpacho spiked with ginger and Thai basil. Keeping it simple, Tsai offers a quick roll-up of Prosciutto and Asian Pear Maki. Lemon Basmati Rice, flavored with lemon zest and ginger, or couscous blended with a sauté of onion, scallion, and currants--both are side dishes made in minutes that can dress up a store-bought chicken, grilled meat, or Tsai's salmon teriyaki, creatively flavored with orange juice.

Blue Ginger offers many ways to spice up family meals and dishes to surprise guests without too much effort. Cooking from this book is an opportunity to take Asian ingredients you may have eaten in restaurants and master using them in your own kitchen. --Dana Jacobi

From Publishers Weekly

"Successful East-West cooking finds a harmonious way to combine distinct culinary approaches," proclaims Tsai, Emmy Award-winning chef-host of Food Network's East Meets West cooking program and owner of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Mass. Tsai and Boehm (Empire Kosher Chicken Cookbook) distinguish their cross-cultural fare with popular fusion cooking. After a brief introduction summarizing Tsai's beginnings in his parents' Chinese-American restaurant in Dayton, Ohio, he turns to the eclectic contents of his pantry. Chapters divide the 125-plus recipes into soups, dim sum, rice and noodles, poultry, meat, seafood, elaborate side dishes and desserts, with mail-order sources. Flavor combinationsAfrom Rock Shrimp Lollipops with Spicy Almond Sauce to Lemongrass Parfait with Pineapple SalsaAdefy tradition. Many recipes require a long list of ingredients (e.g., Crispy Scallops with Carrot-Star Anise Syrup, Pomegranate-Marinated Squab with Thai Quince Chutney), but instructions are clearly written and often include tips for wine and food pairings and advice on ingredient substitutions and techniques. Tsai brings vigor and enthusiasm, along with inspired, intense flavor creations, to his cookbook, which will appeal to fans of his show and all readers with diverse palates. 9-city author tour. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; 1 edition (November 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609605305
• ISBN-13: 978-0609605301
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Ming Tsai is great but watch out for the editor! October 28, 2002

By Cynthia S. Froning VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

My husband and I love Ming Tsai's style of cooking. We were printing recipes off the Food TV site before this cookbook came out. So you can imagine our disappointment when we tried a few recipes out of this cookbook and found them riddled with typos, errors in ingredient amounts, and poor editing. The writer of the cookbook, Boehm (?), seems to have done slapdash work in the testing department: the translation of a restaurant-level preparation to that of the home cook is poor. We have had to do a great deal of juggling and rewrites to make the recipes come out right.

Ming, please hire a new collaborator for your next cookbook! Your recipes are too good to be messed up by poor editing!

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious and Doable December 4, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Even though I'm a fairly good cook, I've really not had too much luck with making my own Chinese and other Asian dishes, that is, until I got the Blue Ginger Cookbook. The dishes I've made so far have been outstanding and fairly easy. The only way you'd have a problem with any of these dishes is if you don't have access to a good asian market like I do. But since there are many mail order and online venues to obtain these ingredients, it should be no problem.

Ming provides a wonderful glossary that explains in detail, many of the ingredients and what to substitute for them if you can't find what you're looking for. Another great thing about this book is that the dishes are not limited to Chinese, but include many other Asian dishes (with a certain Western influence i.e.East Meets West).

I recommend this book to other cooks like me who love Chinese and other Asian cuisine, but, also like me, have never been able to figure out the dishes on your own.

Bon Appetit!

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Exotic recipes, no experience necessary August 28, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

We bought Ming's book because we like the way he uses Asian ingredients in elegant recipes. So far, we haven't been disappointed -- it's easy to re-create the flavor and presentation that he is so good at. You need a little more prep and sous time, but it is well worthwhile. We love his brined pork loin... the brine is a quick prep with a lot of wonderful ingredients, best left overnight.... after that, the pork takes less than an hour to cook, and is the juiciest and most flavorful way we have ever had this prepared. The same is true of his braised dishes, which we've done for guests to rave reviews (again, lots of time prepping but once it's "cooking" you can relax!). The nice thing is that he uses ingredients that are familiar to us -- meat and potatoes are one of his favorite combinations! -- but his preparations of them are new, different, tasty, and elegant.