Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

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Glutinous Rice Balls in Ginger Soup (Tang Yuan)

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To Make the Glutinous Ball
In a large mixing bowl, add flour and sugar. Gradually add water (you don’t have to use all of it) and knead the dough until soft and smooth. It should be bouncy and easily kneadable, yet not too wet (sticky to the fingers), nor too dry (crumbling).
Divide the dough depending on the number of different colours you intend to make.
Add food colouring, one drop at a time, to each portion and knead until the colour is well distributed. Shape the dough to even-sized balls.
Bring a pot of water (enough water to submerge the glutinous ball completely) to boil. Add the tang yuan into the boiling water and cook until they float to the surface. Transfer them immediately to a bowl of room temperature water until cooled or ready to serve.

To Cook the Ginger Sweet Soup
To cook the ginger sweet soup, add all the ingredients – ginger, water, palm sugar and pandan to a pot.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer until the sugar is fully melted. Simmer for another 30 mins.
To serve, add tang yuan to a serving bowl and ladle the sweet soup over.

Vietnamese Beef And Noodle Soup (Pho Bo)

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For the Pho Broth
Place onions and ginger on cooking grate (on an open flame a gas stove) and let skin burn. Remove when fragrant. Under warm water, remove charred onion skin and discard blackened bits on the ginger with a knife.
Place bones in a stockpot, add water and bring to boil for a few mins. Dump bones and water into sink and rinse bones with warm water to remove impurities. Clean stockpot and return bones.
Add 6 litres of water to pot, bring to boil over high heat, then lower flame to gently simmer. Use ladle to skim any scum that rises to surface. Add remaining broth ingredients and cook meat, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hrs.
Remove cooked meat and place in bowl of cold water for 10 mins. After draining and cooling the meat, refrigerate it. Allow broth to continue simmering for around 3 hrs.
Strain the pho broth and use ladle to skim as much fat from top of the pho broth. Adjust flavour with additional salt, fish sauce and yellow rock sugar.

For the Noodles and Garnishing
Fill large saucepan with water and bring to boil. Blanch noodles for about 10-20 seconds and arrange into bowls.
Then, blanch bean sprouts for 30 seconds. Drain and add to the garnish plate.
Place slices of cooked meat atop noodles. Garnish with onion, scallion and chopped coriander.
Ladle in broth and serve.

Thai Milk Pudding (Tao Hu Nom Sod)

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To Prep
Pour about 2-3 tbsp of the water into a small bowl and evenly sprinkle gelatin on top. Let it rest for 5-10 mins.
Add the remaining water into a small pot and stir in agar agar powder.

To Cook
Add milk and whipping cream. Then stir over medium high heat until it comes to a boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer for 1 min to ensure that all the agar agar powder has dissolved.
Tip: To check if the agar agar has dissolved, use a metal spoon to scoop up some mixture and pour it off. There should be no small granules stuck to the spoon.
Turn the heat off then add the hydrated gelatin along with all the water. Stir for 1-2 min until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Add condensed milk and flavourings of your choice, taste test and adjust as needed. Pour into single-serving cups, making sure it’s no more than ⅔ full (so you have lots of room for the toppings). Refrigerate for at least 2 hrs.
Stir together the sauce ingredients until the condensed milk is completely dissolved. If the condensed milk won’t dissolve fully, briefly warm up the mixture in the microwave to help it dissolve. (Just 10-15 seconds, it can boil over if it gets too hot). Refrigerate until ready to use.
Pour about 1 tbsp of the sauce gently down the side of the fruit. Dice the toppings and arrange on top of the pudding. Serve cold.

Mushroom Hot Pot (Beoseot Jeongol)

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To Prep
Place beef slices with the Beef Marinade into a bowl, mix well and let sit for 15 mins.

To Cook
Place 4-5 cups of water in a saucepan with the Stock ingredients. Just before the stock comes to a boil, discard konbu. Simmer stock for about 10 mins. Strain the stock, discard the stock ingredients and set stock aside.

To Serve
Arrange mushrooms, vegetables and beef evenly around a small shallow pan (jeongol pan).
Pour stock into the pan and add Chilli Seasoning (optional). Bring the stock to a boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for about 5 mins. Add soy sauce, salt and cooking sake.
Noodles can be added after most of the mushrooms, vegetables and meat has been served.

Mango Coconut Jelly Cubes (Woon Mamuang)

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Making the Mango Layer
In a blender, blend the one mango and orange juice until smooth.
In a small pot, add 1¼ cups water and bring to boil. Add agar-agar powder and stir constantly to make sure the agar-agar powder is well dissolved. Add sugar and mango purée to the pot, and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Taste-test and add more sugar and/or lime juice as needed.
Pour the mango mixture into a 20cm tray or divide equally into serving cups. Quickly add the 1cm mango cubes and chopped mint leaves (optional) into the base of the tray or cups. Distribute them evenly and make sure they are well submerged. (Note: Agar-agar jelly sets at room temperature, so you will need to work quickly especially if you are making small ones).
Refrigerate or leave at room temperature until the surface is set and no longer jiggles when you tap the tray or cups.

Making the Coconut Layer
In a small pot, add 1⅓ cups water and bring to boil. Add agar-agar powder and stir constantly to make sure the agar-agar powder is well dissolved. Add sugar, salt, and stir until dissolved. Then add coconut milk, stir to mix and remove from heat.
Gently pour the coconut layer over the back of a spoon onto the mango base. Make sure the mango layer has set before adding the coconut layer. If the coconut layer is not hot enough, the layers will slide off when cut.
Refrigerate for 2-3 hrs until thoroughly chilled. Then, cut into cubes (or diamond shape) with a sharp knife. Serve chilled.

Dried Beancurd with Gingko and Barley Dessert (Fu Chuk Yi Mai)

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To Cook
In a large pot, add water, barley, pandan leaves (screwpine) and pitted red dates. Bring to boil, then leave to simmer for another 20 mins or until barley is soft.
Add gingko nuts and soaked beancurd sheets. Continue to simmer for another 10 mins or until the beancurd skin softens to fine, silky-smooth texture.
Add rock sugar and stir until the sugar is fully dissolved. Discard the pandan leaves.
Serve warm or chilled.

Mango Sago Dessert

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To Cook
Soak tapioca pearls for at least 3 hrs.
In a saucepan, add water to fill about 3cm of the pot. The amount of water should just be enough to submerge all the tapioca pearls. Bring water to boil then, add tapioca pearls to the pot. Lower heat to medium and stir constantly to make sure they don’t start clumping together. Continue cooking for about 10 mins, then remove from heat. Set aside to rest for another 30 mins. The tapioca pearls are ready when they turn translucent without any visible white dots in the middle. If they are not ready, return pot to stove and cook for a few more minutes, and set aside to rest again. Drain tapioca pearls and rinse under cold water.
Cut mango into cubes, about 1½ cm in size. Save ⅓ of them and blend the rest with ice cubes and sugar in a food processor. Blend for about 1-2 mins, or to a thick juice consistency, Transfer into a large bowl and stir in the tapioca pearls.
Divide the mango sago dessert into small bowls and top with mango cubes. Serve with a drizzle of coconut milk to add creaminess to the dessert. Serve cold.

Thai Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Neow Ma Muang)

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To Prep
For the sticky rice, rinse it 6 – 10 times, making sure most of the starch is removed until the water is clear. Soak the rice in water for about 6 hrs.

To Cook
Using a steamer basket or other type of steamer, steam the sticky rice for about 15-20 mins until fully cooked. Set aside.
To prepare the coconut cream mixture, add coconut cream into a pot over medium heat and gently stir in one circular direction. Add sugar and salt, and keep stirring until fully dissolved. When the coconut cream mixture comes to a boil, turn off the heat.
Put the fresh sticky rice into a mixing bowl, and begin to slowly add in the coconut cream and sugar mixture. Stir constantly to slowly incorporate coconut mixture into the rice. Once all combined, the rice should look glossy with a grainy pudding-like texture. The hot sticky rice will absorb all the coconut milk.
In a separate saucepan add the other portion of coconut cream with salt and stir on low heat. Bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat and set aside in a bowl. This will be served alongside the mango sticky rice as a topping.
For the yellow mung beans using low heat and with a frying pan or wok, dry-fry the yellow mung beans for a few minutes until they turn golden crispy. Set this aside as a topping.
For the mango, first peels off the skin, then cut off the meat from either side of the mango seed and slice the mango.
On a serving plate, add a portion of sticky rice, top it with mango and a sprinkling of crispy mung beans, and then drizzle coconut cream all over.

Panaeng Curry with Lamb (Panaeng Gae)

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To Cook
Stir-fry Valcom Panaeng Curry Paste and oil over low heat until fragrant. Slowly add ½ cup coconut milk and stir-fry until oil appears.
Turn up the heat, add the meat, ½ cup coconut milk, Valcom Kaffir Lime Leaves and sugar. Add the remaining coconut milk, 1 cup of water and stir well. Bring to the boil and simmer until the meat is tender.
Add red chilli and basil leaves, then remove from heat.

Fruit in Coconut Milk (Es Kolak)

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To Cook
Add the sweet potato, palm sugar, pandan leaf and water into a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then lower heat and simmer until sweet potato becomes tender.
Add the coconut milk, sliced banana and jackfruit. Add salt to taste.
Bring heat up to medium until mixture begins to boil, stirring occasionally.
Serve while warm, or cool and serve cold with ice.

Penang Nyonya Lam Mee

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To Cook
To prepare the stock, rinse the pork bones with water. Transfer the bones in to a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 mins while scooping out any scum that floats to the surface.
After boiling, drain, rinse again and return to the empty pot. Fill the pot with 4L of water and the crushed peppercorns. Add soaked dried scallop into the stock pot and continue boiling for another 1 ½ hours.
Add the chicken breast and pork belly in to the stockpot and boil till cooked. Once done, remove both from the pot, shred chicken meat and sliced up pork belly. Set aside.
Boil prawns with shell on in the pot until cooked. When the prawns are cooked, remove them from the pot and peel the shells.
Put the prawn’s shells back into the boiling prawn water and boil for another 5 mins before removing them.
Season the stock with salt, pepper and rock sugar and continue to cook for another 30 mins.
While the stock finishes cooking, whisk the eggs to make a thin omelette and then cut it in to strips. Set aside.

To Prep the Sambal Belacan
Using a pestle and mortar, grind all of the chillies and the belacan into a thick paste. Add in the calamansi lime juice and mix well. Adjust according to taste.

To Serve
Blanch the yellow egg noodles and bean sprouts in boiling water for 1 min. Transfer the cooked noodles in to a serving bowl.
Place a serving of the chicken, prawn, pork belly, dried scallop, egg omelette and bean sprouts on to the noodles. Ladle in hot stock and a few pieces of pork ribs.
Garnish with some garlic, oil, fried shallots, spring onions, chives and coriander.
Enjoy the lam mee with sambal belacan!

Mixed Vegetable Curry

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To Prep
Grind spice paste A ingredients together. Add in water to ⅓ of the height of the paste.
Add spice mix B ingredients in and mix well with a spoon. Adding powder to the wet paste will help to dry it out.
Mix 20ml coconut cream with 270ml water to make light coconut milk. Set aside 70ml of coconut cream.

To Cook
Heat the cooking oil and saute the spice paste, add more oil to the paste so it does not bubble. Big bubbles will start to appear as the moisture evaporates. Keep stirring to prevent the paste from sticking to the sides of the wok or pan.
When the bubbles become smaller, add in all the vegetables, tofu and the remaining 70ml of light coconut milk. Bring this to a boil and add prawns. Boil for about 2 mins and serve hot.