THE COOKBOOK TEST #0035: PLANTASIA

INSTALLMENT #0035 (PAID) VEGETATING / I LOVE MY HASSEL, HASSEL, HASSELBACK POTATOES / URGING THE SQUASH / MUCH ADO ABOUT DOUGHNUTS

Dear Subscribers,

I have a complicated relationship with vegetarianism. Perhaps you do, too. I would like to eat like a minimalist monk and enjoy the resulting physique and labwork, but there are two massive things working against me: all of modern American culinary practice and my own insatiable curiosity about every kind of food under the sun. During a perfect week, I can eat vegetarian or even vegan for a large percentage of meals, but restaurant and/or cookbook reviews always take me out of minimalist mode, making any kind of vow of culinary chastity basically impossible to maintain. Plus, I love jerk chicken with an abiding passion.

But I'm always grateful when an assignment - in this case, the beautifully illustrated cookbook PLANTASIA - takes me out of my usual routine and lets me eat in a plant-based way for at least a little while. Author Pamelia Chia (who has her own Substack that's worth reading) has assembled a lushly illustrated book that's as much a curated tour of various Asian chefs and authors as it is a collection of vegetarian recipes with seriously Asian roots.

As you'll pick up from my notes, this isn't a book for beginners - it's pretty unapologetic about the ingredients that you need to source and the prep that goes into executing its dishes. There's no "easy weeknight supper" vibe governing this volume, although some dishes are reasonably simple to execute with a standard-issue pantry - you just need to dig deep and keep your eyes open (or prepare to shop and prep your heart out.)

The experience of cooking a three-course meal from Plantasia was a real pleasure - it stretched me as a cook and pleased my guests and my family. You can't really ask for anything more than that, and I certainly didn't have meat on my mind at the end of the night.

At your service,

James

PLANTASIA: A VEGETARIAN COOKBOOK THROUGH ASIA
BY PAMELIA CHIA
SINGAPORE NOODLES | 2023 | $40                                       

Let's dive right into the recipes, shall we? 

THAT'S THE YOLKS, FOLKS

Chia's recipe for Hasselback Potatoes with Salted Egg Sauce sort of buries the lede, which is that you need to either shop or make cooked salted egg yolks, and they're not terribly easy to source. (Or, at the very least, I couldn't find them in the massive Asian grocery store I usually lean on for this sort of recipe, Ha Tien in Woodbury, Minn.)

Fortunately, I read the recipe the day before I was due to make it, and could therefore dig up a BBC recipe for cooked salted egg yolks and then execute it, despite needing about 18 hours to do so. 

The egg yolks are pretty remarkable - once you've cured them in salt and baked them at low temperature, they resemble nothing so much as dried apricots in appearance and texture, and rich Parmesan cheese in terms of flavor. They're the key to this recipe's umami kick.

Beyond the challenge of making and working with salted egg yolks, there's not too much to this recipe, in a good way - the actual making of the Hasselback potatoes is a fun technique, and while sourcing evaporated milk and milk powder is slightly annoying, it's not too much of a challenge.

Curry leaves were slightly more difficult, but Fresh India market is not far from Ha Tien, and their produce section had plenty of curry leaves... plus the store had an in-house restaurant with a $10 lunch special of chicken biryani and tandoor chicken (above). Can't miss with that.