Asian

Step into January with this healing, brothy Cambodian-inspired soup, perfumed with warming spices, revitalizing ginger, and spicy dried chiles.

Homemade hoisin serves as both a marinade and a sauce to punch up these bone-in pork chops.

For this noodle bowl, I took inspiration from Heidi Swanson’s Black Sesame Otsu in Super Natural Every Day, in which a blanket of black sesame seeds is toasted until it smells heady, then pounded with a mortar and pestle and combined with some Asian pantry staples to make a thick, savory, and tangy dressing, here given a bit more punch with wasabi. Like other cold noodle dishes, this is a good dish for packing up, and in my experience has been wonderful on the beach. The shredded egg and wisps of radish incorporate into the noodles, the shallot brings crunch and zing, and the final drizzle of kecap manis—the Indonesian soy sauce— brings the whole bowl together in the most satisfying way.

Long-grain rice is not starchy enough to hold together, so make a batch of short-grain a day ahead and you’ll be good to go.

This isn’t a super-saucy curry; the aromatics will brown and fry in the pan, yielding lots of yummy crisp bits. Serve with steamed rice.

While this easy curry is super satisfying served over rice or with naan, we wrapped it in some leftover crepes for a convincing dosa-like experience.

A robust soup brimming with mixed vegetables and protein in a rich dashi broth, this one-pot stew is eaten by Japanese wrestlers in training. It’s wonderfully hearty without being heavy.