You might have sampled Thai, Japanese, or Vietnamese dishes in your local restaurants but were reluctant to try cooking them at home. Now Madhur Jaffrey's Step-by-Step Cooking brings the freshness and intensity of Asian cuisine into your own kitchen. With carefully selected recipes from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and India, Madhur Jaffrey, in an easy-to-follow, inviting format, offers a broad range of these distinctive individual cuisines united by many common ingredients and cooking techniques.

One ingredient -- shrimp -- may be stir-fried with asparagus in Hong Kong, dipped in batter and fried in Tokyo, or stirred into a coconut sauce in Malaysia. A combination of cooking techniques (grilling, steaming, stir-frying, and marinating) and seasonings (chilies, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass) will enable you to produce highly nutritious and delicious food with ease and exciting variety. A basic dish of blanched vegetables becomes unforgettable when tossed with a delectable, instant dressing of grated coconut, red chilies, lime juice, sugar, and chili powder. The bursting, contrasting flavors of hot and sweet, sour and salty can be captured in Thailand's popular Tom Yam Kung (Hot and Sour Prawn Soup); herbs verdant as a summer garden combine with extraordinary results in Thit Bo Kho (Aromatic and Spicy Beef Stew) of Vietnam; and the delectable lightness of India's Kulfi (Ice Cream with Cardamom and Pistachios) is the perfect dessert for any meal.