Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

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Chicken Rendang

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To Make the Kerisik
In a dry pan, toast the shredded coconut over a low heat for 30-40 mins or until brown, stirring frequently. Set aside to cool completely, then grind into a fine powder.

To Make the Rendang Paste
In a blender or food processor, add in all the rendang paste ingredients. Blend into a fine paste and set aside.

Cooking Rendang
In a pot, heat some oil on medium heat. Add in the star anise, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, cloves and bruised lemongrass. Cook for a few mins until fragrant.
Add in rendang paste. Cook on low heat for 20-30 mins until paste thickens, stirring frequently.
Add in chicken and stir to combine. Add in water, and stir through. Bring to a simmer, then cook over a low heat for 25 mins or until the chicken is fully cooked, stirring occasionally.
Add in palm sugar, salt, kerisik, tamarind juice, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves and stir to combine.
Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 mins on low heat until the sauce thickens and the oil separates, stirring occasionally.
Serve.

Dodol

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To Cook
Add coconut cream in a pan over medium-low heat.
Cook for 20 mins or until some oil begins to separate.
Add in the sugar and palm sugar, and cook until dissolved.
Mix together the glutinous rice flour and coconut milk in a bowl, then pour the mixture into the pan.
Cook for another 2 hrs, stirring frequently.
Once the mixture has thickened to the desired consistency, remove from heat and set aside to cool for 5 mins.
Transfer to a container and wait until completely cool.
To serve, use a greased knife to slice into squares, cleaning the knife after each slice.
Note: if the coconut oil in the Dodol congeals, you can reheat it in the microwave, then cool for 30 mins before serving.

Jasmine Panna Cotta

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To Make Panna Cotta
Pour gelatin in water, stir and let it sit for 5 mins.
Pour the milk, thickened cream and sugar into a pot and place in the jasmine tea bags. Heat and stir until almost boiling.
Remove tea bags and discard.
Remove from heat, pour softened gelatin into milk mixture and stir until gelatin melts and well combined.
Pour mixture through a sieve into a bowl.
Place the bowl in an ice bath and stir constantly until cooled.
Pour mixture into serving glass and place in the fridge for 1-2 hrs or overnight.

To Make Topping
Optional: If making into soft jelly form, mix gelatin powder with water and let sit for 5 mins.
Steep jasmine tea in hot water for 5-10 mins, longer for a stronger flavour.
Remove and discard tea bag. Add in sugar and gelatin (if using), stir until everything melts and well-combined. Let cool.
Pour tea over panna cotta and serve immediately. If using gelatin, place in fridge for 3-4 hrs or overnight. Serve cold.

Green Tea with Milk Foam

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To Prep
In a large mixing bowl, combine the thickened cream, sugar and sea salt together, and whisk until soft peaks begin to form.
Slowly add in the milk and whisk until fully incorporated.
Brew the tea and then allow to cool down.

To Serve
In a tall glass, pour in desired amount of tea, and top with milk foam to your preference. Dust with some green tea powder, then serve.

Vegan Laksa

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To Prep
Add all of the paste ingredients in a food processor and process until a fine paste has formed.

To Cook
Heat up the oil in a large pan and fry the paste over a low heat for 10 mins, stirring frequently.
Add in the vegetable stock, salt and the green parts of the lemongrass and mix. Cover the pan with a lid and bring to a simmer.
After the broth has simmered for 30 mins, remove the lemongrass and then stir in the coconut milk.
Add the seitan and tofu puffs, then stir through and cook for 3 mins.
Add in the sugar and lime juice, and season to taste with salt.
To serve, arrange the noodles in a bowl and ladle over broth. Top with tofu puffs, seitan, bok choy, beansprouts and chilli, and serve with a lime wedge.

Nyonya Curry Laksa

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To Prep
Add all laksa paste ingredients except for the oil into a blender or food processor. Blend or processor to achieve a coarse paste. Add a bit of water if necessary.
Heat a pan over medium heat and add oil. Fry the paste until aromatic and paste has browned. Set aside to cool.

To Cook
Add water, coconut cream and 1 cup fried laksa paste to a pot and bring to the boil over high heat.
Lower heat to medium-low and add fried bean curd. Allow to simmer until laksa broth thickens slightly.
Season with salt and chicken stock powder to taste.
Fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil over high heat.
Blanch prawns, fish cake and Hokkien noodles separately for about 30 secs or until cooked. Set aside.
Blanch vermicelli and beansprouts for 15 seconds. Set aside.
To assemble laksa, add Hokkien noodles and vermicelli into serving bowls. Ladle over broth. Top with bean curds, prawns, fish cake, egg, beansprouts, Vietnamese mint and shredded cucumber. Serve.

Laksam Kelantan

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To Poach the Mackerel
Add water and tamarind juice into a large pan, and stir to combine.
Line the pan with the mackerel. Sprinkle with the salt.
Bring the water to a boil and then let the fish simmer for 5 mins.
Remove the fish from the water and let cool. Strain the remaining fish stock and set aside.

To Make the Laksam Gravy
When the fish has cooled, debone the fish and then place the flesh in a food processor along with the ginger, garlic and shallots and blend into a thick paste.
In a large saucepan, pour in the coconut milk along with the remaining tamarind puree and water.
Add in the fish paste and mix well before bringing the mixture to a boil.
Add in the ground black pepper and finish by adding the salt and sugar to taste. Remove from the heat and set aside.

To Make the Rice Rolls
Prepare a steamer. Lightly grease a metal plate or baking tin.
In a mixing bowl, combine the rice flour, plain flour and salt. Pour in the warm water and mix until well combined.
Ladle enough of the noodle mixture to form a thin layer in the metal plate and steam for 2-3 mins or until cooked.
Remove from the steamer and allow to cool for 30 secs before carefully removing from the noodle sheet from the plate/pan.
Roll the noodle sheet into a tight roll and set aside. Repeat with the remaining batter.

To Make the Sambal
In a food processor, blend the chillies and belacan together before transferring to a mixing bowl and adding the sugar and lime juice.

To Serve
Slice the noodle rolls into bite-sized pieces and place onto a plate. Pour over the gravy and top with the fresh vegetables and sambal. Serve with lime.

Mum’s Nasi Lemak

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To Cook Rice
Coconut rice – Wash and rinse rice. Add the coconut milk, water and a pinch of salt. Add the ginger, salt, pandan leaves into the rice cooker and set it to cook.

To Make Tamarind Juice
Soak the tamarind pulp in water for 5-10 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind to extract the flavour into the water. Drain the pulp and save the tamarind juice.

To Cook Sambal Ikan Bilis
Rinse the ikan bilis and let it dry. Fry them until they turn light brown and separate them into two plates as you will need some to make the sambal ikan bilis and another portion to serve fried ikan billis.
In a blender or mortar and pestle, blend or pound the toasted belacan together with shallots, garlic, and dried chillies. Set aside.
Heat some oil in a pan and add in the onion rings until fragrant. Stir in the spice paste and fry until fragrant. Add in the ikan billis and stir well. Add tamarind juice, salt, and sugar. Simmer on low heat until the gravy thickens. Set aside.

To Serve
Optional: Place banana leaf on to the plate before plating up the rice.
Plate up the coconut rice and scoop some sambal ikan billis on top of the rice. Serve with cucumber slices, fried ikan billis, toasted peanuts and hard boiled eggs.

Tip
After rinsing, pat dry the ikan bilis with a kitchen paper towel, and spread out onto a plate. Place the ikan bilis in a microwave oven for 1 min on high. Give this a toss to mix, then repeat until the fish is dry. This will result in a crispier ikan bilis.
If using a food processor to grind the paste, adding some oil to the shallots, garlic and chillies can help these ingredients to blend easily. Do not add water, this will affect the quality and taste of the sambal.
Immediately plunging hard boiled eggs from the boiling water into an ice bath will prevent a grey layer from forming around the yolk.

Shaped Eggs

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To Cook
In 2 pots of water, place a pinch of salt in each pot, then the 700g and 800g eggs into separate pots. Bring to boil and lower the heat to cook for further 8 mins. Turn off the heat.
Remove a 700g egg from the pot and remove the shell. You may dip into a bowl of warm water to help removing the little pieces of shells, make sure that the egg is still very hot.
Place the egg into a star-shaped mould and press slowly to close the mould, clip the sides to secure the mould. Repeat for the other 700g eggs.
Repeat the steps for the 800g eggs for the heart-shaped mould.
Place the eggs in the fridge for 5 mins or longer. Remove from the fridge.
Release the clip and slowly remove the mould. Trim off any extra edges and serve or place into lunch boxes.

Tip
You may adjust the number of eggs depending on how many moulds you have.

Vegan Spinach Dumplings

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To Make the Dough
Blend the spinach and water until smooth. Add more water if needed. Set aside ¼ cup of liquid.
Combine the flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Form a well in the middle.
Pour in reserved spinach puree and ¼ cup of boiling water. Mix in with a wooden spoon. Add remaining water.
Knead to form a ball. If too wet, add some more flour. Add more water if dough is too dry. Dough should be a soft texture.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 mins until dough is smooth and slightly elastic.
Wrap dough tightly in cling wrap and allow to rest for 2 hrs at room temperature.

To Make the Filling
Place spinach in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 2 mins, or until wilted.
Place wilted spinach in a sieve and press to drain liquid, and then finely chop.
Combine spinach with remaining filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then cover with cling wrap and set aside.

To Make Dumplings
On a lightly floured work surface, divide dough into four equal-sized pieces. Cover 3 with cling wrap or a wet tea towel.
Roll out dough until 2 mm thick.
Use a round pastry cutter, egg ring or glass to cut out circles of dough about 9-10 cm in diameter.
Add a heaped teaspoon worth of filling into the middle of a pastry circle. Wet the rim, then fold the dumpling, pleating on one side while squeezing to seal the top.
Repeat with remaining dough and filling.
In a pan, heat some oil over medium heat. Add dumplings and pan fry until bottoms are lightly browned.
Slowly pour in ½ water and cover with a lid. Cook for 5 mins.
Remove lid and continue to cook until water has evaporated and bottoms are golden brown.
Repeat with remaining dumplings.
Serve dumplings with sauce of your choice.

Sushi Teddy Bear

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To Cook
Combine the dashi stock, soy sauce, cooking sake and mirin. Place the rice and seasoned dashi stock into rice cooker and cook with normal rice function.
When the rice is cooked, mix with a rice spatula so that the flavoured rice is evenly mixed.

To Make Sushi Bears
For each sushi bear, scoop ⅓ of the rice into the bear onigiri mould, close the lid and shake well until the bear shape is formed. Place the sushi bear on a plate.
For the ears, use a bubble tea straw to press onto the sliced cheese to create a circle. Then use a toothpick to remove the cheese from the straw. Repeat once to make two circles.
With a normal straw, press on the edge of the cheese circle to create a crescent shape. Use a toothpick to spread some mayonnaise as glue on the cheese and place onto the bear’s ears.
For the face, use a pair of scissors to cut an oval shape from the cheese, place onto the bottom part of the bear’s face.
For the nose, use a normal straw to press onto the sliced ham to create a circle. Alternatively, cut out a circle from nori sheet as the nose. With a tweezer, pick up the ham and dip a little mayonnaise on the back and stick onto the top position of the oval cheese.
For the eyes, use a panda nori puncher to punch the nori sheet. Keep the panda eyes and discard rests. Alternatively, use scissors to cut the nori sheet. With a tweezer, pick up a nori eye and dip a little mayonnaise at the back, place onto the sushi bear. Repeat for the other eye.
For the mouth, use a smiley nori puncher to punch the nori sheet. Keep the smile and discard the rests. (Alternatively, use scissors to cut the nori sheet.) With a tweezer, pick up the smile and dip a little mayonnaise at the back, place the smile underneath the nose. You can play with different positions and angles to create different look!
Serve the sushi bear on a plate or in lunch boxes.

Octopus Sausage (Tako Sausage)

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To Prep
Slice half of the cocktail sausage into 6 lengthwise to create the legs.
With a bubble tea straw, press onto the cheese to cut out a circle, then use a toothpick to remove it from the straw. Repeat for another 5 cheese circles.
With a normal straw, cut the middle part of the cheese circles to create a ring. Set aside.

To Cook
Boil a pot of water, then place in the sausages. Boil until the legs open up, remove from the pot. Spread out the legs and allow the sausage octopus to stand while they cool.
With a toothpick, poke two holes on the sausage for eyes, then stuff in a black sesame seed on each hole.
Use the toothpick to spread some mayonnaise on the cheese ring and stick it onto the sausage below the eyes. Repeat for all tako sausage and done!