Issue #175: Two Quick Asian Entrées

Faster than Uber Eats, Better than Takeout: Thai Basil Chicken, Glazed Tofu

Long before Uber Eats and similar food delivery services leveled the playing field, for many people one of the great joys of living in New York City has been the convenience of ordering just about any type of food you crave delivered. When my family first moved to Toronto in 1971, my mother couldn’t believe you weren’t able to order in Chinese food. All you could get was pizza. She used to joke that we’d make a fortune bringing Chinese food delivery to Canada.

Sammy’s Noodle Shop was a popular and speedy Greenwich Village Chinese restaurant and food delivery in the 1990s.

Back in the early 1990s, when I settled in New York and started working at the James Beard Foundation, we’d often order lunch from Sammy’s Noodle Shop on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village. Before online ordering, before cell phones, before delivery apps, before electric bikes, Sammy’s delivery guys would show up minutes after you hung up the phone. They were so fast we would tell visitors who joined us for lunch and were rightfully impressed that they had woks built onto their bicycles.

As I grew older, wiser, and more picky about my food, I stopped using this common convenience, realizing that what was delivered was never as good as when you ate it in the restaurant, it often took forever and cost a lot, and the amount of packaging, utensil, and condiment waste was unconscionable.

During the 17 years that Nate I have been together, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve “let him order food.” (That doesn’t include all the times he ordered delivery while I was away.) He still considers ordering in a treat, though he has come around to see my points of view about its quality and waste.

You don’t need a wok station to make the recipes in this week’s newsletter, but I’m happy to have one for other dishes.

If I want something quick and satisfying for dinner, I make it myself. I know I’m not normal. But I also know that if you have the right ingredients on hand—by which I mean mostly condiments that keep forever—and you have a good recipe, you can make a Chinese or Thai dish for dinner faster than you can have it delivered to you, even in Manhattan.

As for those recipes, you have to choose the right one. I’m not talking about something dumbed down or reliant on convenience foods to speed it up. Every traditional food culture is full of recipes that are simple to make at home. No one has ever had enough time to cook elaborate dishes every day, less so in the past, before electricity, before refrigeration, and before other modern conveniences.

The two recipes I offer you this week are entrées that often find their way to our dinner table, usually during the week. They are so quick and easy that sometimes I even make them for lunch. What’s more, although I have a lovely (and powerful) new outdoor wok station, thanks to a generous house-warming gift from our friend Elia, both of these recipes work perfectly well in a large sauté pan on any stove.

Thai Basil Chicken (…er…turkey) with jasmine rice.

RECIPE: Thai Basil Chicken (Gai Pad Krapow)

I often ordered this dish at Thai restaurants before I knew how simple it was to make at home. I have the folks at The Woks of Life website to thank for showing me the way. When there was a big bunch of Thai basil in my CSA share the other week, it was the first dish that came mind. I used ground turkey, which works perfectly well, as does ground pork.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

• 3 tablespoons peanut or other vegetable oil

• 3 shallots, thinly sliced

• 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

• 1 to 3 small red Thai bird chilli(s) or other hot peppers(s), to your taste and tolerance, seeded and thinly sliced

• Kosher salt

• 1 pound ground chicken, turkey, or pork

• 2 teaspoons maple syrup, honey, or sugar

• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

• 1/4 cup chicken or vegetable stock, or water

• 1 large bunch Thai basil, leaves only

Place a large sauté pan over high heat. When hot, add the oil, followed by the shallots, garlic, chili, and a pinch of salt. Cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly so the garlic doesn’t burn, until the shallots soften. Add the chicken or other ground meat and cook, stirring frequently, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon until it is browned and cooked through, about 2 minutes. Add the maple syrup, soy sauce, and fish sauce, and cook another minute, stirring to coat with the condiments. Add the stock, keep stirring, and let it boil and evaporate until the pan is almost dry again. Add the basil leaves, turn off the heat, and stir until wilted. It will look like you have too much basil, but it will shrink almost immediately. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.

Glazed tofu with Chinese broccoli.

RECIPE: Glazed Tofu

This quick tofu dish has a complex, umami-rich sauce that tastes more complicated than it is. You can make it plain, just with tofu, but you can also add some Chinese vegetables to make it a more complete meal. Serve over steamed rice.

Serves 4

• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey

• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice or apple cider

• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

• 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated on a Microplane

• 1 large clove garlic, grated on a Mircoplane

• 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon chili oil, with sludge, depending on your tolerance for heat

• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

• 2 teaspoons rice vinegar

• 3 tablespoons vegetable stock or water

• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon corn starch, divided

• 3/4 pound (12 ounces) firm tofu

• Salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 3 or 4 tablespoons peanut or other vegetable oil

• 1 cup cooked Chinese or other broccoli or other cooked vegetable cut into bite-sized pieces (optional)

• Sliced spring onion and sesame seeds, for garnish

Prepare the sauce. In a small bowl, combine the maple syrup, orange juice, dark soy sauce, ginger, garlic, chili oil, sesame oil, rice vinegear, stock, and 1 teaspoon of the corn starch and mix well. Set aside.

Slice the tofu into small rectangles, about an inch wide, and lay them out on a clean plate. Season with salt and pepper. Dust with a tablespoon of cornstarch, flip over, and dust the second side with the remaining tablespoon of cornstarch. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Lay the tofu pieces in the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 4 minutes. Flip and brown the second side, which will go faster. Remove the tofu to drain on a paper-towel-lined plate and pour off all but a tablespoon of oil from the frying pan. Return the pan to the heat.

Stir the sauce to redistribute the cornstarch and pour into the hot pan. As it simmers the sauce will thicken. Once thickened, add the fried tofu to the pan along with the cooked broccoli, if using. Bring back to a simmer and as soon as the tofu is heated through, sprinkle with spring onions and sesame seeds, and serve.