Asian

The Lisu are one of many distinctive cultural groups who live in the mountains of southwestern Yunnan province.

Asian ingredients—from soy sauce to sriracha—flavor the pork burgers. Wrapping it all up in Bibb lettuce leaves adds a fresh touch.

Satay is an Indonesian-style kebab served with a spicy peanut sauce. Here, we've amped up the sauce's flavor with some sweet peach nectar.

Chicken's dark meat is great for grilling because it stays very moist and really soaks up the flavors of a marinade—in this case, an Asian-inspired blend that balances sweet and savory. The addition of meaty mushrooms and bright green baby bok choy makes this a one-dish dinner you can take straight from grill to picnic table.

Nutty and faintly sweet, our fast peanut sauce tops pork chops for an American take on the Southeast Asian specialty.

A satisfying first-course salad with beautifully balanced Asian flavors.

Knowing that every Japanese cook would have strong opinions on the preparation of white rice, Ruggiero counted on her friend Ryuji Inoue, originally from Kyushu, Japan, for guidance. The result is fluffy and slightly stickier than Chinese rice. Even without a rice cooker, the rice comes out just perfect.

This soup from Tien Dinh at Pho, in Las Vegas, delivers vitamin A.

Xiao Fan's spicy sauce will transform not only this steamed chicken but also plain rice, noodles, tofu, even grilled steak. The sauce can be doubled and leftovers chilled for a week. To reheat, add a bit of broth or water and simmer for about a minute.

This South Indian dish—also known as xec-xec—is full of tamarind, cumin, coriander, and roasted coconut. The spices meld with the tomato to form a flavorful sauce that clings to the shrimp.

You'll want to have plenty of white rice on hand to soak up the incredibly complex sweet-and-sour sauce that adorns these ribs.

Visually, this dish speaks softly, but it combines quite a number of sensations: a buttery fish, sautéed for a crisp skin, and a broth of such depth you'll never believe it was simmered for just five minutes. The mixture of enoki and shimeji mushrooms looks gorgeous and lends a meatiness, punctuated by an elusive woodsy smokiness, to the sansho-flecked broth.

Slender Asian eggplant magically holds its shape as you sauté it, without going mushy, and yet it collapses in the mouth with a final suggestion of its glaze, bold with Japanese seven-spice powder and the gentle heat of fresh ginger.

The Japanese are wild about pickles, pickling practically every vegetable and root they come across—and in sweet, salty, sour, and bitter incarnations to boot. In this classic, a hit of wasabi powder adds a subtle heat to these savory quick pickles.

That distinctive quality of ume-shiso—the tart-and-salty combination of umeboshi (pickled plums) and green shiso, an exuberantly undefinable fresh herb—really enhances the juicy sweetness and char of grilled shrimp and the faintly radishy crunch of daikon.

Here, sturdy Bibb leaves from the center of the head do the work of traditional dumpling wrappers. If that's not an easy enough sell, the dipping sauce will be.

Can't take the heat? Then eat some raita. In India, the condiment is used to cool the palate.

This vegetarian curry is delicious served with some basmati rice alongside.

The best tool for grating is a rotary grater by Zyliss ($20; chefcentral.com) or by Microplane ($25; thekitchenstore.com).