Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Boil

Meat Floss

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To Cook the Pork
In a pot of boiling water, boil the pork for 5 mins. Remove and wash.
In a clean large pot, add all the pork ingredients and water to cover the pork. Then add more water for the water level to be 5-6cm higher than the pork.
Bring to boil, then lower the heat to simmer, checking regularly to ensure the pork is always covered in water. If water level is too low, add hot water. Simmer for 1 hr or until meat is very soft and tender.
Remove from pot and let cool. Shred very finely and set aside.

To Dry
Add the shredded pork and sauce in a wok and stir-fry for about 30 mins or until dry and fluffy. Let cool and keep in airtight container for 5-7 days.

Fresh Spring Roll (Popiah)

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To Make Popiah Skin
In a food processor, add flour, water and salt. Process on medium speed for 6 mins, at 2 mins intervals. The batter should be glossy and elastic. Let the batter rest for an hour.
After an hour’s rest, the dough should look slimy yet elastic.
Heat a heavy-based non-stick pan over low heat to warm the pan.
With gloves on, scoop a ‘ball’ of dough onto your hand, enough to fit your hand that it doesn’t overflow. Using a motion as if you are wiping the dough onto the pan, press and spread the dough onto the warm pan in a circular motion until a thin layer forms a circle. Lift your hand, and in doing so, the uncooked extra dough will lift from the pan. (Note: If pan is too hot, the dough will not stick to the pan. Turn off the heat and let the pan cool off before spreading the dough on the pan again.)
Once a thin layer is formed on the pan, use the rest of the dough ball to dab on thicker parts of the popiah skin to lift unwanted bits of dough and to ‘thin’ parts of the popiah skin.
As the popiah skin cooks, the outer parts will curl up from the pan. Use your other hand to gently peel it off the pan set aside to cool on a cooling rack.
Repeat until all the dough is used. Makes about 25 popiah skins.

To Make Filling
Heat up 1 tbsp of canola in a pan medium heat. Add in the prawns and cook until they are cooked through. Remove the prawns from the pan and set aside.
Add the remaining oil in to the pan and heat over a medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic, and cook until soft.
Add in the jicama, oyster sauce, and sugar (optional), and toss evenly. Add water to the pan and turn the heat to low. Let it cook for 15 mins or until the jicama is soft.
Return the prawns to the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Strain the jicama filling and set aside to cool.
Reserve the remaining sauce from the strained jicama filling.

To Assemble Popiah
Lay a sheet of popiah skin on a clean surface and put a piece of lettuce on top.
Spread the hoisin and chilli sauce onto the lettuce.
Scoop jicama filling with prawns, and any optional ingredients of your choice. Top with a teaspoon of fried shallots and gently fold the extra skin over to form a roll.
Serve whole or slice up rolls into 3/4-inch-thick slices. Serve with extra hoisin or chilli sauce on the side.

Note
Besides the must-have jicama filling in the popiah, there are not set rules to what you can add in the wrap. Pack your very own version of popiah with any meat or vegetables of your choice.

Singapore Chicken Briyani

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To Cook the Rice
Heat ghee or oil in a rice cooker or a pot. When the oil is hot, add in the onions and saute until they have turned golden in colour.
Add in the garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom and continue to saute until they have become fragrant.
When the aromatics have become fragrant, add in the tomato puree and stir well before adding in the carrots. Continue to fry for another minute befoe adding in the pandan leaf and cooking it for about another minute.
Add the rice, and mix it around so that all of the other ingredients become mixed evenly within it. Add in the water and bring to boil before adding in the salt.
Next, add the evaporated milk. Once it reaches a boil, cover the pot and immediately lower the heat to cook for another 10 mins.
Check if the rice has softened and the liquid has been fully absorbed by the rice. Fluff up the rice and then place the lid back on and remove from heat. Set aside until ready to serve.

For the chicken
Rinse the chicken well and drain. Add the ingredients for marinade and rub well into the chicken. Let the chicken marinade for at least 30 mins.
In a non-stick pan over a medium heat, add in the oil when it has heated up add in the pieces of chicken.
Fry on both sides but not through as we want to cook the outer flesh until it is slightly golden.
Set aside the meat and strain the oil from the pan except for about a tablespoon. Heat up the remaining oil and then add the onions, garlic and saute till softened.
Add in the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, pepper powder, turmeric powder and pandan leaves and saute until aromatic.
Return the meat back in to the pan and stir-fry for 5 more mins before adding in the 1 – 1/2 cups water and cook covered for another 10-15 mins on low heat.

To Serve
In a large bowl, add the rice and the cooked chicken and mix well. Transfer the mixed rice on to a plate and top with more chicken if desired. Garnish with fried golden raisins, cashews and freshly chopped coriander.

Dry Wonton Noodles

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To Prep
In a mixing bowl, put all ingredients For Wontons and mix well with your hand.
Set up plate, wonton skin, filling tray, and a little bowl of water for wrapping the wontons. Dust plate and tray with a little plain flour so that the wonton will not stick.
Place about 1 tsp of meat filling on wonton wrapper. Dip finger into water and apply around the bottom edges (U shaped). Fold and seal the edges. Fold in half again length wise and pinch the ends together. Repeat until all meat filling is used up.
To store for later use, freeze wontons on the tray.

To Cook
Cook wonton in a boiling pot of water. After wonton is cooked, take it out and set aside in a bowl of room-temperature water to prevent the wontons from sticking to each other.
Blanch choy sum in boiling water.
To assemble the dish, place 3 to 4 wonton and choy sum in a bowl of chicken broth.
Cook noodle in boiling water for about a minute then strain the noodles with a strainer. With the strainer still holding the noodles, run it under cold tap water to stop the cooking process and to remove excess starch.
Prepare the sauce and toss the noodles with the sauce in a separate bowl before transferring to serving plate. Top with char siew slices and garnish with chopped spring onions and serve with the bowl of wonton soup on the side.

Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup (Bun Rieu)

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Broth
Add half of the water in to a pot and boil. Put the pork bones in to the pot and continue to boil for a few minutes before draining the water and washing the bones to remove any impurities.
Rinse the pot before returning the bones back in and adding the remaining water in to the pork bones pot. Bring the broth back to a boil before reducing to a simmer and cooking for an hour or longer.
Peel the shells off from the shrimps and separate the meat from the shells. Set the meat aside and put the shells in to the broth. When the broth begins to turn red from the prawn shells, remove them along with the pork bones.
Add in the remaining broth ingredients except for the tomatoes and stir well till all the soluble ingredients have dissolved. Bring the broth back up to a boil before finally adding in the tomatoes.

Meatballs
Put the saved meat from the peeled prawns as well as all of the meatball ingredients except for the crab meat into a food processor and blend them together until they have formed a paste.
When the paste has been made, add in the crab meat and hand mix the meat in to the paste until it is relatively evenly mixed in.
Cook the meatballs in the soup broth until they begin to float on the surface of the broth, which means that they have cooked through. Add in the fried tofu at this stage too.

To Serve
In a bowl, add in the noodles and add any of the toppings you want. Pour the broth over the noodles and place a few pieces of the tomatoes and meatballs. Finish with a lime wedge and serve!

Pork and Prawn Wonton

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To Prep
Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix well with your hand.
Set up plate, wonton skin, filling tray, and a little bowl of water for wrapping the wontons. Dust plate and tray with a little plain flour so that the wonton will not stick.

To Cook
Prepare the soup by bringing the chicken broth to boil. Add salt, white pepper, and sesame oil to taste.
Start wrapping wontons by placing about 1 tsp of meat filling on a wonton wrapper. Dip finger into water and apply around the bottom edges (U shaped). Fold and seal the edges. Fold in half again length wise and pinch the ends together. Repeat until all meat filling is used up. To store for later use, freeze wontons on the tray.
Cook wonton in a boiling pot of water. After wonton is cooked, take it out and set aside in a bowl of room-temperature water to prevent the wontons from sticking to each other.
Transfer the wontons out with a strainer and into the soup and serve immediately.

Note: To improve the taste and texture of the wonton filling, buy pork mince that contains at least 30% fat. Mince with less fat will make the wonton’s texture harder and less juicy.

Fish Fillet Rice Vermicelli

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To Prep
Marinate the fish meat with white pepper, sesame oil, tapioca flour and salt for about 1 hour.

To Cook
In a heated pot with adequate cooking oil, deep fry fish fillets until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
In another stock pot, add 1-2 tbsp of oil, sesame oil and ginger slices, then sauté until fragrant. Add the anchovies, the white parts of spring onion, and for about 5 minutes until fragrant. Add chicken stock and bring to boil. Then let it simmer for half an hour.
Strain the soup into another pot to remove anchovies, ginger and spring onions. Bring soup to boil again then add tomatoes and salted vegetable. Continue boiling for another 10 mins.
Place a serve of noodles and choy sum into a bowl, ladle soup and top with fish. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.

Note: If you’d wish to keep the fried fish fillets crispy for longer, serve them on a separate plate.

Sichuan Mouthwatering Chicken in Chilli Oil (Kou Shui Ji)

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To Prepare the Sichuan Combined Oil
Mix chilli powder, 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorn powder, Chinese five spice powder and sesame seeds in a small bowl.
In a pan, add ginger slices, star anise, cumin, bay leaves, 4-5 grains of Sichuan peppercorn, dry chillies, and around 1 cup of oil. Heat ingredients over low heat. After a couple minutes, remove the oil from the heat and discard all the spices from the oil.
Pour the hot oil directly into the spice mixture in the first step. Set the Sichuan Combined Oil aside.

To Prepare the Chicken
In a large pot, add chicken, spring onions, ginger slices and cooking wine. Then add enough water to immerse the chicken and bring contents to boil over medium fire and continue cooking for about 10 mins. Turn off the heat, cover the pot’s lid and set chicken aside for another 20 mins.
Prepare ice water in a large bowl. Transfer the chicken out and immerse in ice water. Turn the chicken over several times until it is completely cooled down. Cut chicken into serving pieces and arrange on a plate. Note: Immersing the cooked chicken into ice water will improve its texture.
Combine all Sauce ingredients and mix well.
Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with toasted peanuts and white sesame seeds. Serve with steamed white rice.

Sumo Hot Pot (Chanko Nabe)

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To Prep
In a bowl, combine all chicken meatball ingredients and mix well. Shape the meat into balls about the size of golf balls. Set aside.
If you wanted to have fun shaped carrots and daikons, cut out the shapes that you want from the 1 cm thick slices.

To Cook
In a pot, bring the dashi, soy sauce, sake, mirin and salt to boil. When the soup boils, add in the cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, daikon, carrot, tofu and leeks. Cook for 10 mins or until all vegetables are tender. Remove any scum that rises to the surface.
Add in the chicken meatballs and cook for another 5 mins or until meatballs are cooked through. At this point, the dish is ready to be served!

Japanese Chicken Meatballs (Tsukune)

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To Make the Sauce
In a pot, combine soy sauce, mirin and sugar and bring to boil. Lower the heat to medium low and simmer for about 4-5 mins or until the quantity is reduced by about ⅓.

To Make Meatballs
In a bowl, combine chicken mince, chicken fat and salt and mix well until the mince turns sticky.
Keeping 1 tbsp of sake and oil aside, add the remaining ingredients and mix well.
While mixing, gradually add the remaining sake to the mince. Stop adding the sake before the mince becomes too soft to form a ball.
In a pot, bring water to boil. Coat a spoon with oil.
With you left hand, take some mince and squeeze them out through the thumb and the index finger. The chicken mince will form into a ball.
Put the mince on the spoon and place it into the pot. Repeat this process for the remaining mince.
Boil the meatballs for 5-7 mins or until cooked through. Remove the meatballs and set aside. You may do this in batches.

To Grill Meatballs
Heat griller in high heat. Oil the rack/grill where you place the meatballs.
With each flat skewer, put through 3 meatballs.
Brush some sauce on the meatballs and cook for 1-2 mins or until slightly charred.
Turn over and cook for another 1-2 mins. Brush some sauce again, cook 5-10 secs on both sides. Serve immediately.

Salmon in Red Curry (Choo Chee Pla Salmon)

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To Cook
Heat ½ cup coconut milk over low heat. Add Valcom Red Curry Paste and stir-fry until fragrant.
Mix the remaining coconut milk with water. Turn up the heat, then slowly add milk mixture to curry, along with fish sauce and sugar.
Bring to the boil over high heat, then add the fish, one piece at a time, until well cooked.
Garnish with Valcom Kaffir Lime Leaves and red chilli, then remove from heat.