Charmaine Solomon - Complete Asian Cookbook

Good cooking is one of the creative arts. Early in life I was fortunate enough to learn from the accomplished and dedicated cooks around me mother, grandmother and aunts and found it was one of the most rewarding ways to express myself and give enjoyment to others at the same time. I also discovered that there is no real mystery about being able to cook well no magic potions or secret charms just a healthy interest in eating well and getting the most pleasure possible from each meal. A reliable cookbook is also a great help.

It is an exciting opportunity to be re-launching my biggest cookbook some thirty-six years after its inception. My daughters, Nina and Debbie, themselves very fine cooks and keen travellers and researchers, have each excelled in assisting me to bring the next generation of The Complete Asian Cookbook to you. The makeover consists of a new layout, stunning photos, additional recipes and an updated glossary.

Why mess with a classic, I hear you ask? I have seen great changes in the availability of fresh ingredients, as well as the appliances with which to process them. The new book reflects these changes. With the passage of time comes a new generation of young cooks testing their wings, visiting what used to be impossible tourist destinations and returning with a desire to recreate their culinary experiences. Some may even be bold enough to kidnap their parents tattered copy of the original Complete Asian Cookbook as they move out of home.

For me, the excitement of cooking is found in creating new dishes, improvising on old familiar ones and in trying new recipes from less familiar cuisines. Presenting such meals to an appreciative family and friends becomes an experience to be shared and remembered with pleasure.

My aim in writing this book has been to make it possible for keen cooks everywhere to explore the cooking of Asia, and to prove that real Eastern meals can be produced in Western kitchens. I have tested and re-tested these recipes to ensure that the flavour and character of each dish is preserved, while trying to cut back on some of the labour-intensive traditional preparation methods.

Food, of course, crosses geographical and political boundaries, and dividing lines between one culinary tradition and another are frequently imprecise. Initially I was going to call this book Southeast Asian Cooking, but that would, by definition, have excluded India, Korea, Japan, China and Sri Lanka. Hence my choice of The Complete Asian Cookbook, which perhaps arbitrarily draws a line on the western side of the Indian subcontinent, and leaves out the interesting cuisines of Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey. But the line had to be drawn somewhere!

For reasons of convenience, and not through political ignorance or bias, I have grouped the foods of India and Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir in one chapter. The chapter on China draws heavily on my experience in Hong Kong, but in addition to the world-famous Cantonese cuisine the cooking of other mainland provinces is well represented. Much of Singapores excellent Chinese food is also found in Hong Kong, so to avoid repetition I have made a feature of the island republics Nonya dishes. Many dishes in Malaysia and Indonesia are the same, or bear striking similarities, so I have tried to represent the best of both countries.

I hope that in using this book you may share some of the pleasure that I have had in putting it together and refining it over the years. Start tonight, and dine abroad in the Asian country of your choice. Enjoyment and a whole new world of cooking (and a touch of adventure!) await you. It is with great pleasure that I invite enthusiasts of Asian food into this new edition. If food be the music of love, cook on!

CHARMAINE SOLOMON

DEBORAH SOLOMON

Imagine travelling throughout Asia, visiting food markets and meeting journalists, restaurateurs and home cooks, and being shown through the best kitchens and finest hotels in the region. Sounds like a dream come true? Well, it was.

My role in the writing of the original Complete Asian Cookbook made me the envy of my school friends. Although only a teenager, I jetted off with my mother as she garnered first-hand food experiences in Asian countries she had never visited before and renewed her relationship with many others.

All I had to do to earn my berth on this fabulous journey was to look after luggage and plane tickets, take photos and make copious notes as we travelled. This was the first time I had left Australia since my arrival fifteen years earlier. Although Asia is in my blood, it seemed incredibly foreign both shocking and exciting at the same time. Thankfully, the food and I spoke the same language. Mum put in an amazing amount of work testing recipes in the family kitchen and writing them up on a typewriter using threeply paper plus carbon. It was a moment of great pride when we first held a copy of this book. Weighing about the same as a newborn baby, Mum joked that its gestation period was as long as an elephants pregnancy.

The baby is now over thirty years old and has been given a significant makeover. There are new recipes and cooking hints, but in essence it is still the same book that sold millions of copies worldwide, making Charmaine Solomon a household name synonymous with authentic, reliable and easy-to-follow recipes.

As Mum said all those years ago when the title was mooted by the publishers, No cookbook is ever complete!, but this one comes close. It will be a joy to have a new and updated copy of this classic in my kitchen, ready to receive its anointing with cooking oils and curry stains to bear testament to happy meals with family and friends. Thats what makes any cookbook complete.

NINA HARRIS

A loving family is a blessing in itself. That my Mum is Charmaine Solomon is a bonus. Thanks to my parents both excellent cooks I developed a discerning palate and a curiosity about food that sometimes borders on obsession. It was an honour to work with Mum on The Encyclopedia of Asian Food and now, to help her review The Complete Asian Cookbook. I am grateful for this opportunity to bring a 20th century classic into the 21st century.

Working on this project has given me renewed respect for the amazing accomplishment this book represents the result of one womans tenacity and determination. In 1975, when it was first published, some Asian countries were not on the tourist map. Unable to venture behind the bamboo curtain, my mother was able to use the reporting skills she developed as a young journalist in Sri Lanka to interview refugees about the food and cooking traditions of their homelands. What an enormous undertaking all those years ago, to research so thoroughly without the benefit of the internet. There is no doubt that she succeeded with lots of loving support from my Dad! He would be proud to see its re-birth.

In the years between, many cookbooks on the subject have come and gone though arguably none as complete or authoritative. This volume remains unchallenged in its scope and ability to instruct and inform in an engagingly conversational way. The reliability of its recipes all thoroughly tested is unsurpassed!

Those who have owned this book in its earlier incarnations will welcome the new recipes alongside their old favourites. Working through the manuscript has reminded me how many more wonderful recipes there are to be explored than those on the oil-spattered pages of my original copy. Its about time I spattered the rest. Lets cook!