Thai and Vietnamese weeknights
Most of these recipes have the same shape: mix a sauce in a bowl, prepare everything, then cook hard and fast for a few minutes. The sauce is nearly always some ratio of fish sauce, soy, sugar and lime, so once you have those four in the cupboard the whole list opens up. The notes say what each dish needs that the others do not.
Pad See Ew
1 of 8
Wide rice noodles with chicken, egg and Chinese broccoli in a dark soy and oyster sauce. The sauce is mixed first and the wok has to be properly hot; the noodles char a little and that is correct.
Pad Thai
2 of 8
Rice noodles soaked rather than boiled, then a sauce of lime, fish sauce, cayenne and muscovado sugar with prawns, bean sprouts and peanuts. Soak the noodles for exactly four minutes as written or they turn to mush in the wok.
Drunken noodles (pad kee mao)
3 of 8
Flat rice noodles with sirloin, broccoli, basil and bird's-eye chillies. The name is a warning: this is the hot one on the list.
Thai fried rice with prawns & peas
4 of 8
Brown rice, prawns and peas with onion, garlic and chilli, seasoned with soy and fish sauce, an egg stirred through at the end. Cold cooked rice fries better than fresh.
Thai curry noodle soup
5 of 8
Green curry paste, coconut milk, stock and udon noodles with prawns and stir-fry vegetables. A bowl of soup that takes about ten minutes once the paste is in the pan.
Thai beef stir-fry
6 of 8
Five ingredients and three minutes in the pan: beef strips, chilli, oyster sauce, basil. The thinner the beef is sliced, the better this is.
Vietnamese Grilled Pork (bun-thit-nuong)
7 of 8
Thin pork marinated in garlic, shallot, fish sauce, soy and sugar, grilled and served over rice vermicelli with cucumber, mint and peanuts. The marinade wants an hour, so start there.
Vegan banh mi
8 of 8
Quick-pickled vegetables, hummus and baked tempeh in a baguette with coriander, mint and hot sauce. The pickle only needs the time it takes to do the rest.