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Review: Simply Ming

One of the best cooking shows on TV these days is Simply Ming.  Ming Tsai is well-known in the Boston area as the owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley. MA.  He has since reached a nationwide audience with his PBS show, which has been airing for several years now.

The premise of the show, as well as the cuisine at Blue Ginger, is a combination of “East Meets West”.  His parents, who frequently appear on the show, ran a Chinese restaurant in Ohio.  Ming went on later to study culinary arts in France.  He learned how to combine traditional Asian ingredients with those of Western countries, with excellent results.

The first few seasons of the show were based on “master recipes”.  Ming would start out the show by making some kind of marinade, sauce, salsa, etc, and then go on to use that in a series of dishes, all of which are quick and easy to make.  The book shown here has all of the recipes from the first season.

Later seasons dropped the “master recipe” thing, and just concentrated on using certain combinations of ingredients, one Eastern and one Western.  For example, a recent program had him using lemongrass and extra virgin olive oil as the ingredients.  He doesn’t make a master sauce, he just uses the ingredients in each dish.

The recipes are still easy and require very little fuss.  A downside for some people may be the inability to get some of the Asian ingredients.  For instance, I’ve never seen lemongrass at a regular supermarket.  But if you live someplace where there’s a Chinatown, or just an Asian market, you should be able to find all of this stuff.

I’ve made quite a few recipes, with excellent results.  It’s an easy way to learn to cook Asian foods, while using some more familiar ingredients, as well.

Check your local listings to see if/when the show airs in your area.  And check out the Simply Ming website for recipes and more!