Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

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Blue Butterfly Pea Onde Onde

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Coconut Coating
Mix grated coconut with salt until well combined. Spread onto a plate and steam for 10 mins. Set aside to cool completely.

Blue Butterfly Pea Flower Extract
Combine blue butterfly pea flower powder with hot water. Set aside to cool.

Filling
Press 4g of shaved palm sugar into a ball. Place these onto a plate and set aside.

Dough
Fill a pot with 2L water, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Add pandan leaf and allow to infuse.
Mix together glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour, sugar, oil and 75ml blue butterfly blue pea flower extract in a large mixing bowl, and knead well to combine.
Pinch out a golf ball-sized piece of dough and drop into the simmering water for 5 mins or until cooked through. Use a slotted spoon to remove the cooked dough and add it back into the rest of the dough and knead until smooth and pliable. If the dough is too sticky, add some more of either flours. If too dry, add droplets of blue extract as you knead.
Roll out 8g balls of dough and place them on a tray lined with baking paper.
Flatten the dough and place palm sugar in the middle, and then wrap with the dough and delicately shape it into a ball.
Drop the onde onde into the simmering water. Continue until all the dough and palm sugar has been used. If the dough has slightly dried, knead it to a pliable texture.
After the last onde onde is placed into the simmering water, leave them to boil for another 10 mins, and then turn off the heat. Allow the onde onde remain in the hot water for another 10 mins.
Carefully remove onde onde from the water using a slotted spoon a few at a time, and place it gently on to the grated coconut and coat evenly.
Allow to cool before serving.

Thai Chicken and Lemongrass Salad

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To Prep
For the dressing, create a coarse paste by using a pestle to pound the garlic, chillies and palm sugar in a mortar. Combine with the fish sauce and lime juice and set aside.

To Cook
In a saucepan, place the chicken inside and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, cover the saucepan and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 mins.
Remove the pan from the heat and leave the chicken to rest in the liquid for 40 mins to cook completely.
Remove the chicken and drain well, and then shred into thin strips.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat up vegetable oil for deep frying. Deep fry the cashews for 1 min or until golden brown. Remove immediately with a mesh skimmer and leave to drain on a paper towel.
Place the chicken in a bowl with the spring onion, lemongrass and ¾ each of the ginger, chilli and coriander.
Roughly crush 2⁄3 of the cashews, then add to the chicken mixture. Pour over ¾ of the dressing and toss well.
Place the salad on a serving plate and garnish with the remaining cashews. Drizzle with a little more salad dressing and scatter with the remainder of the ginger, chilli and coriander. Serve with the remaining dressing in a bowl to the side.

Bak Chor Mee Soup

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To Prep
Mix minced pork with marinade ingredients and marinade for at least 15 mins.

To Cook
Add the stock ingredients into the stock pot and simmer for 1 hr.
Add pork balls and simmer for a further 5 mins then discard the soup pouch.
Scoop 1 ladle of hot stock over the marinated pork to cook it briefly, then place them into the stock pot to cook until done.

To Serve
Place noodles into a serving bowl and ladle in some hot soup, including pork balls and minced pork. Garnish with chilli slices, spring onions, fried shallots, lard croutons and shallot oil.

Japanese Dumplings with Sweet Soy Flour (Kinako Dango)

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To Make Japanese Dumplings
In a large mixing bowl, add shiratamako, joshinko and sugar, mix well.
Add in warm water bit by bit while kneading the dough slowly until smooth and soft.
Divide the dough into 8 equal portions, then divide each portion into 3 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball.
In a large pot of boiling water, gently add in the dumplings. After they start floating on the surface, cook for 1 more min. Remove and transfer to ice water.

To Make Coating
In a plate, mix the soybean flour and sugar until well combined.

To Serve
Drain the dumplings and put 3 balls into each bamboo skewer. Coat with the sweet soy flour and serve.

Pan-fried Beef Steak with Thai-style Noodles

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To Cook
Mix the beef steaks in 2 tbsp of the oil, sliced garlic, chilli and lemongrass and marinate for 15 mins.
Place 1 tbsp of the oil in to a pan and cook the steak to the desired level of doneness. Remove from the pan and let it rest while making the sauce.
Add the last of the oil in to the pan and fry the onions till they start to brown. Add the coconut milk to the pan and let the sauce reach a simmer.
When the sauce has reached a simmer, add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, tamarind and palm sugar. Stir and continue to simmer until the palm sugar has dissolved fully.
In a separate bowl, blanch the vermicelli noodles.
When the sugar has dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and add the Thai basil leaves and mix.
To serve, spoon the sauce mixture on to a plate, place the vermicelli noodles on top of the sauce, and finish with slices of the steak. Garnish with more basil and chillies.

Yum Takrai (Thai Lemongrass Salad)

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To Prep
Heat a pan over low-medium heat. Add the cashews and dried shrimp. Fry your cashews and dried shrimp without oil or water until they appear toasted. Leave to the side.
Bring a pot of water to a simmer. Cook the shrimp until they are done. Remove the shrimp and add the minced pork, let it cook in your preferred portions. Remove from the pot.
To make your dressing, mix the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar together in the desired ratio.
Combine all your ingredients together and mix well.

Soy Milk

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To Prepare
Blend the soybeans in a blender with some water until nicely blended.
Pour the blended soybeans into a large pot with 2L of water.
Boil the mixture on medium heat. Stir often so no soybeans harden at the bottom of the pot.
When the mixture has boiled, bring the heat down to medium low and let it simmer for about 40 mins.
After the 40 mins, the solution needs to be filtered using a filter such as a coffee filter, a cheese cloth or a tea pouch. Squeeze the residue to get the most milk out possible.
To drink, add sugar till it has the desired taste.

Katong Laksa

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To Prep
With a blender, blend all spice paste ingredients, except the dried shrimps and oil, set aside.
Blend the dried shrimps and set aside.

To Cook
Heat oil in a wok, add the blended spice paste and fry for 45 mins. Remove and set aside.
In the same wok, fry the blended dried shrimps until fragrant, add the spice paste back in.
Add ½ of the coconut milk, 1 tbsp at a time, then add laksa leaves.
Add the water along with the reserved dried shrimps water, and the remaining coconut milk. Stirring, boil for 30 mins.
Add puffed tofu and cook for another 10 mins.

To Serve
Place the rice noodles and bean shoots in a serving bowl. Pour in the laksa soup and top with prawns and fish cakes. Serve hot.

Red Rubies in Coconut Milk (Thab Thim Grob)

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To Prep
Peel and cut the water chestnuts in to small, bite-sized pieces.
Add enough water just to cover the chestnuts.
Drop in around 15 drops of red food colouring, or depending on how red you would like to red rubies to be. Stir, and allow to sit for 10-15 mins.
Drain the water chestnuts and place them in a bowl.
Spoon in about 1/4 cup of tapioca flour, and toss until all the chestnuts are well coated.
Continue this process a couple more times. For a thin coating, this will require about 3/4 cup tapioca flour, and for a thicker coating, use about 1 cup tapioca flour to fully coat the chestnuts.
Remove from the bowl and shake off the extra flour using a sieve.

To Cook
Bring a large pot of water to boil and carefully place the water chestnuts into the pot to cook for roughly 2-3 min.
Once cooked, strain off into a large bowl of cold or ice water. Once cooled, drain out red rubies for serving.
In another small saucepan, combine the coconut milk syrup ingredients and heat through until all of the sugar has dissolved.
Once the sugar has dissolved, take off the heat and allow to cool down before serving.
To serve the dessert, pour some of the coconut syrup into a bowl before placing some of the drained red rubies and crushed ice. Optionally, add slices of jackfruit and coconut flesh to serve.

Japanese Dumplings with Red Bean Paste (Anko Dango)

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To Make Japanese Dumplings
In a large mixing bowl, add shiratamako, joshinko and sugar, mix well.
Add in warm water bit by bit while kneading the dough slowly until smooth and soft.
Divide the dough into 8 equal portions, then divide each portion into 3 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball.
In a large pot of boiling water, gently add in the dumplings. After they start floating on the surface, cook for 1 more min. Remove and transfer to ice water.
Drain the dumplings and put 3 balls into each bamboo skewer. Top with red bean paste and serve with green tea.

Wonton Soup

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To Make the Wontons
In a mixing bowl, combine the pork filling ingredients and cover with cling wrap before letting marinate in a fridge for at least 20 minutes.
While the pork marinates, dice the prawn meat in to small sections and then add the rest of the seasoning. Mix well and cover the prawns with cling wrap before letting them chill in a fridge with the pork for 10 minutes.
After the meats have marinated, combine them together. Place a wonton wrapper on to a work surface and then spoon a teaspoon of the filling in to the centre.
Using a bit of water, wet the edges of the wrapper before folding the wrapper over the filling to enclose it.
Repeat with the rest of the filling.

To Make the Soup
In a large saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil.
Add the choy sum in to the boiling stock and cook until softened before adding the sesame oil and salt and white pepper to taste.
Set the soup aside while cooking the wontons.

To Cook the Wontons
In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Place each wonton in to the pot individually and stir them to make sure that they don’t stick to the pot.
When the wontons begin to float, remove them from the pot and transfer them in to bowls to serve.
Ladle some of the prepared soup in to the bowls and place on some of the choy sum on top.
Sprinkle on some of the cut spring onions and serve.

Pork Noodle Soup (Kuay Teow Moo)

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To Cook
In a large pot, add 3.5L water, pork bones, smashed garlic, salt, peppercorns, coriander seeds and pork bouillon. Bring it to a boil. Let it boil for 30 mins. Change the heat to medium to simmer for a minimum of 2 hrs.
In a medium bowl, mix the roast red pork powder with water until the powder has dissolved. Take half of the pork and marinate it in this mixture for at least 1 hr. Preheat the oven to 200°C and cook the pork for approximately 20 mins, or until it is done.
Put the other half of the pork tenderloin in a blender. Blend. Add the thin soy sauce and ground white pepper to the pork in a large bowl. Mix well.
Bring a pot of water to a light boil. Blanch the pork until it is finished cooking.
Heat a pan with some oil at medium heat. Add the finely chopped garlic when the pan is hot. Fry the garlic until it is golden brown. Separate the fried garlic and garlic oil into two different bowls.
Cook the rice noodles by placing in boiling water for 10 secs. Rinse in cold water afterwards to make sure they don’t become too soggy.
Taste the pork broth and add white sugar, white pepper and fish sauce to taste.
To serve, divide the noodles into the serving bowls. Add the BBQ pork, ground pork, bean sprouts, coriander, fried garlic and chilli flakes on top.
Ladle the pork broth on top of everything. Drizzle some of the garlic oil on top of the noodles.
Serve while hot.