To Cook
Pour prawn stock into pot over medium-high heat.
When the stock starts to boil, add lemongrass, Valcom Tom Yum Paste, Squid Brand Fish Sauce, kaffir lime leaves and sugar to pot.
Stir gently to break down paste and leave to boil for a couple of minutes.
Add carrots, king prawns, snapper, mussels, straw mushrooms to pot and leave to boil for 2-3 mins.
Add the squid and baby corn to pot, allow to boil for 1-2 mins.
Lastly, add cherry tomatoes and remove pot from heat.
Add lime juice to pot, stirring gently.
Place noodles in a bowl, and ladle Tom Yum soup over noodles.
Garnish with fresh herbs and cut chilli.
Boil
Chinese Chicken & Sweet Corn Wonder Soup
To Cook
Bring the chicken stock to the boil. Add the ears of corn and cook for 4 mins.
Remove the corn from the broth and slice the kernels off. Set aside.
Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp water and stir until a thick paste forms. Add the paste to the broth, along with the ginger and soy sauce. Simmer for 1 min.
Add the chicken, corn kernels and creamed corn to the broth. Cook for 2 mins.
Whisk the egg whites and slowly add to the soup, stirring until white ribbons form.
Divide the soup among four small bowls and top with chopped spring onions.
Rice Noodles with Green Chicken Curry (Ka-nom Jeen Gaeng Keow Wan Gai)
To Cook
Cook the noodles by following the instructions on the packet.
After the noodles are cooked, rinse them under tap water, drain in colander and twist the noodles into small balls, cover with cling wrap and put it aside.
Use a blender to blend 200ml of water, garlic, sliced lemongrass and chopped coriander until it is a dark green liquid.
Heat oil in a medium pot over medium heat.
Add curry paste with coriander seed powder then cook, stirring for about 4-5 mins or until fragrant and the oil starts to split on top of the curry paste.
Add about 200ml of thick cream from the top of the coconut cream can then cook for about 5 mins.
Increase the heat a bit higher and add sliced chicken then add another 200ml of coconut cream and green water of lemongrass and coriander liquid, let it boil.
Stir and cook it for about 6-8 mins or until the chicken is cooked through.
Reduce heat to medium heat and then add fish sauce, palm sugar and chicken stock powder.
Stir and cook for a few mins then taste and add more seasoning to suit your taste.
Then add both eggplants, and simmer for a further 2-3 mins or until eggplants are just cooked. Remove from heat then add torn kaffir lime leaves and basil leaves and stir to combine.
Put the cooked noodles in a bowl then top it up with green chicken curry and garnish with sliced chillies and basil leaves. Enjoy!
Spicy Glass Noodle Salad with Squid & Prawns (Yum Woon Sen Talay)
To Prep
Soak the glass noodles in water for 8-10 mins and drain in colander.
Put all the seasoning mix ingredients in a bowl and mix them until the sugar has dissolved. Put it aside.
Put 1.5l of water in a pot and put on the stove and bring it to boil.
Then cook the glass noodles for about 1 min until the noodles have cooked through.
Take the noodles out and quick rinse them with fresh water to stop them cooking then drain in a colander.
Cook the squid and prawns for about a min until the squid is just cooked and the prawns turn pink – do not overcook them. Then take the squid and prawns out and put them into a large bowl.
Put the cooked glass noodles into the same bowl of cooked squid and prawns.
Then, pour all of the seasoning mix into the bowl followed by spring onions, lemongrass, mint, red onions and coriander. Mix thoroughly. Taste and adjust to your liking.
Put the glass noodle salad into a bowl and top with toasted sesame seeds and add some sliced fresh chilli.
Vietnamese Grilled Pork Sausage Vermicelli Salad (Bun Nem Nuong with Nuoc Cham)
To Prep
Mix the minced pork, sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, ginger powder, roasted rice powder and red food colouring together.
Refrigerate and let the meat marinade for at least 30 mins.
To Cook
Take the meat out from the fridge to prepare your skewers and grill.
Mix all sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set aside until ready to serve.
To assemble, place the rice noodles in a bowl with the mix salad and cucumber.
Add in the skewers and garnish with crush peanuts. Serve with the dipping fish sauce.
Oxtail Soup (Kkori Gomtang)
To Prep
In a large bowl of water, soak the oxtail for about an hour to remove some of the blood from within. Replace the water about every 20 minutes.
Trim off any excess fat from the oxtail tail before transferring them over to a large pot and covering them with water. Bring the water to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises. When the water has reached a boil, drain the water and rinse the oxtails.
Return the oxtails to a clean large pot and pour in about 4 to 5 cups of water. Bring the water to a boil, once again removing any of the impurities that rise to the top.
When the water begins to boil, reduce to a simmer and continue to cook for about 3 to 4 hours or until the oxtails have become fork tender. Top up the water as required.
When the meat has become tender, remove the oxtails from the broth and set aside. Strain the broth to remove any large pieces before allowing to cool and then pouring in to a large enough container. Place the broth in to a fridge to cool down and allow the fat to coagulate. Store the oxtails in a similar way until the soup has set.
When the fat layer has separated and solidified, remove the container from the fridge and use a spoon to remove the fat layer.
Spoon the remaining broth in to a pot over a medium heat to re-heat. When the broth has fully melted, add in the peppercorns, salt, garlic and oxtails and bring the soup up to a boil before reducing to a simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat and spoon a serving size of the soup in to a bowl. Serve this dish alongside some sliced spring onions and more salt to taste!
Yum Cha Honeycomb Tripe
To Prep
Rinse the tripe with water to clean it before heating up a large wok and combining it with the rest of the main ingredients.
Cook the tripe until the water begins to boil before turning off the heat and letting the tripe cook off of residual heat for about 5 minutes.
Remove the tripe from the wok, rinse clean with cold water and then cut the tripe in to rectangular strips when it has cooled down.
To Cook
In a large pot, stir-fry the ginger slices and star anise in about 1 tbsp of oil until they become fragrant. Add the tripe strips and continue to cook on high for about 2 minutes.
Add in the Shaoxing wine and cook the tripe for about 30 more seconds before adding the soy sauces, sugar, water, sesame oil and white pepper.
Stir the ingredients until everything has been combined before bring the mixture up to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about an hour and a half.
Mix the cornstarch with 1 tbsp of water and stir till well combined. Add this to the tripe mixture along with the sliced spring onions and turn the heat up to high.
Mix the tripe well and continue to cook until the sauce has thickened and begins to coat the tripe. Remove the pot from the heat and served garnished with some sliced spring onions.
Soba Noodle Salad with Sesame Crusted Chicken
To Prep
To start, combine the breadcrumbs, sesame seeds and chilli flakes in to 1 bowl and the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and kecap manis in to another. Optionally, you can add chilli flakes in to the breadcrumbs for some extra heat.
Dip chicken breasts in to the soy vinegar mixture let them marinate for at least 15 minutes.
When the chicken has marinated, dredge them in the breadcrumb mixture; ensuring that each piece is well coated. Set aside the remaining soy vinegar mixture to be used later.
To Cook
In large saucepan of water, boil the soba noodles according to the packet instructions.
Nearing the end of boiling the soba noodles, add the julienned carrots and cut snow peas to blanch them.
Drain the soba noodles and vegetables and rinse them under cold water to stop them from overcooking and to remove the extra starch from the noodles.
Over a medium to low heat, pour enough vegetable oil to shallow fry the chicken. Cook the chicken until the crust has browned and the chicken has cooked through. Try to ensure that the heat is lowered if the crust begins to cook too fast.
Transfer the cooked chicken on to a plate with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing in to thin pieces.
Wipe off the excess oil from the frying pan before adding a tablespoon of oil and heating over a medium heat.
Fry the ginger until it becomes fragrant and then add the white part of the spring onions and cook for another 30 seconds.
Add the leftover soy vinegar mixture and bring it to a boil before reducing to a simmer and continuing to cook until the sauce has thickened slightly.
Add the red cabbage to the noodles and other vegetables and spoon in some of the sauce. Mix the noodles until they have been coated evenly.
To plate the dish, place some of the soba noodles on to the plate and top with the chicken slices and the green part of the spring onions. Drizzle with the extra sauce and serve!
Warabi Mochi
To Prep
On a clean and dry baking tray, dust some soybean flour to cover the surface. Set aside.
Combine warabiko, sugar and water into a medium saucepan, mix well.
To Cook
Bring the mixture to boil over medium heat.
Lower the heat, stir fast and hard with a wooden spatula, making sure to stir through the bottom of the saucepan. Stir for about 10 mins or until the mixture is translucent and bubbles popping (boiling).
Remove from heat and transfer the mochi onto the floured baking tray. Dust more soybean flour over the mochi to cover the surface. Let cool.
Add more soybean flour to the baking tray.
Cut the mochi into cubes and toss in the soybean flour to make sure all surfaces are covered.
Transfer to a serving plate and serve with kuromitsu.
Red Curry Grilled Chicken with Tamarind Sauce (Gai Yang Ka Ti Kab Jeaw Makham)
To Prep
Combine Valcom Premium Coconut Milk, Valcom Red Curry Paste, sugar and Squid Brand Fish Sauce in a large ceramic bowl. Add chicken breast, turning to coat each side and leave to marinate for 1 hr.
To Cook
Heat a barbecue hotplate or chargrill pan on medium-high heat. Grill chicken breast for 3-4 mins each side or until cooked.
Slice chicken breast and place on serving plate. Serve with salad on the side.
Mix all ingredients for dipping sauce until sugar dissolves. Serve sauce on the side.
Valentine’s Nama Chocolate
To Cook
Mix cream and honey in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from heat.
Pour cream and honey mixture over dark chocolate, mix well until it is smooth.
Add butter and mix well.
Pour mixture into a heart shape silicone mould. Put into freezer for at least 3 hrs or until set.
Carefully remove from mould and dust with strawberry powder.
Barramundi Fillets with Red Curry
To Cook
In a pot, fry the red curry paste and lime leaves in 1 tbsp of oil until fragrant.
Add the palm sugar, coconut cream and fish stock, and simmer on low heat until the mixture thickens.
In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil. While the oil is heating up, lightly salt the barramundi fillets. Place the fillets skin-side down and fry until the skin is golden brown, before flipping over and cooking the flesh.
Cut the leaves off of the bulbs of the bok choy and steam them for 1-2 mins.
Arrange the bok choy, red curry and fish and serve.