Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Deep-Fry

Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab

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To Prep
Dry-fry the peppercorns and salt in a pan over medium heat until they become fragrant.
Remove them from the pan and grind them using a pestle and mortar until they become fine.
Combine the salt and pepper mixture in to the tapioca starch.
Dredge the soft shell crab halves with the egg whites before dredging them with the tapioca mixture.

To Cook
Heat a saucepan with enough oil to deep-fry. Add the soft shell crab in batches and cook until golden brown.
Remove the crab from the oil and drain off the excess oil by placing it on a paper towel before serving. Garnish with chilli and spring onions.

Fried Anchovies with Peanuts (Ikan Bilis Kacang)

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To Prep
Remove the heads from the anchovies and then split the body in half lengthwise before removing the gills.
Rinse the anchovies 2 to 3 times with water before draining them and allowing them to dry.

To Cook
Pour enough oil in to a saucepan to deep-fry the ingredients. Over a medium heat, fry the peanuts until crunchy and then transfer them to a plate with a paper towel to absorb the extra oil.
Continue by then deep-frying the dried anchovies. Fry the anchovies until they have become golden brown and the oil stops bubbling.
Remove the anchovies from the oil and allow to drain and cool on a plate with a paper towel.
Finally, fry the onions in the oil until they start to become golden brown before once again removing them from the oil and draining them like the anchovies and peanuts.
Lastly, mix the onions, peanuts and anchovies together and serve.

South Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Cha Gio)

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To Prep
Combine all the ingredients for the dipping sauce in a small bowl and mix until the sugar has dissolved.
Set it aside.

To Cook
Add some salt to the Chinese turnip and mix well in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the Chinese turnip until slightly soft and remove any excess moisture.
Add the minced pork, noodles, mushrooms, onions, salt, pepper, and sugar in a mixing bowl, and mix thoroughly. Then, add the Chinese turnip and combine all the ingredients.
Place a wrapper on your work surface so that one corner is facing away from you.
Fold the corner closest to you to the centers of the wrapper and place a spoonful of the filling on the wrapper on the edge closest to you.
Fold in the corners on the left and right so that they cover the filling.
Roll up the spring roll so that the filling is closed off.
As you roll towards the top edge, using your fingers to dab some egg white on the edge of the wrapper and roll the rest of the way. The egg white will seal the egg roll.
Repeat until all the filling is used up.
Heat up enough oil to 163 in a deep fryer and deep fry until the spring rolls are golden brown.
Drain and remove any excess oil. Serve with the dipping sauce.

Thai Fried Chicken (Gai Tod)

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To Prep
Combine marinade ingredients and blend into a paste.
Mix paste, oyster sauce and chilli powder and marinade the chicken for at least 1 hour. For best results, marinade overnight.

To Cook
Heat oil in a large wok or deep fryer to 180C.
Mix all batter ingredients until they form a smooth batter. Dip the chicken in the batter and immediately fry in the hot oil until done.

Thai Stuffed Bean Curd

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To Cook
Heat cooking oil in a wok, fry tofu until golden brown. Remove and drain.
Cut the tofu diagonally into triangles. Slit the middle of the longest side of tofu to form a pocket.
Stuff as much vegetables as you like into the tofu. Serve with Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Tempura Prawn Hand Roll

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To Prep
Add the sushi vinegar to the cooked sushi rice and gentle fold in to the rice until well incorporated.
Combine 125 g of tempura flour and ice water together in a mixing bowl and lightly stir them together. Don’t over mix as pockets of flour will make the batter airy. Pour the remaining 50 g of flour in to a separate bowl.

To Cook
Heat the oil to about 180°C, then dredge the prawns one by one in the tempura flour, then into the batter and fry in batches till golden brown. Let cool on paper towels to drain the excess oil.

To Make the Roll
Halve the seaweed sheets. Place sushi rice and then the lettuce, cucumber and prawn onto one side of nori.
Fold the nearest corner of the nori over the filling and start to shape.
The hand roll should be shaped cone shaped to stop any rice from falling out.
Serve with teriyaki sauce or eel sauce on top!

Deep Fried Whiting Fish

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To Prep
Clean the whiting and lightly pat dry to remove excess moisture.
Combine the flour and the salt and pepper and mix well.
Coat the whiting in the flour; shaking off the excess flour.

To Cook
Fill a saucepan with enough oil to deep-fry the whiting in. Cook the fish in batches for about 5 minutes or until the fish has turned golden and crisp
Remove the whiting from the oil and place on paper towel to drain the excess oil.
When the fish has cooled slightly, serve on a long plate!

Prawn Crackers

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To Cook
Add the oil to a saucepan and heat the oil to 160 degrees Celsius.
Place a batch of 5 to 10 chips in to the oil using a slotted spoon and stir them gently.
Once the chips have expanded and have risen to the top, quickly remove them from the oil before they begin to burn.
Transfer the chips on to a plate with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
When the chips have cooled down slightly, transfer them in to a bowl and serve.

Steamed Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce (Fung Jao)

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To Cook
Pat chicken feet with paper towels until dry. In a wok or deep pan, heat up oil and deep fry chicken feet in batches until golden brown. Drain.
In a pot, add water till half full and bring to a boil. Carefully place fried chicken feet into boiling water and boil for 40 mins. Check occasionally to ensure there is sufficient water.
Meanwhile, prepare garlic. Place minced garlic in a bowl together with fermented black beans, oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, fermented bean curd, ground white pepper, chicken stock and salt. Combine till well mixed.
Once chicken feet are ready, drain them from the pot of water. Place into a large mixing bowl and toss them with the seasoning sauce. Allow to marinade for at least 1 hr (or best overnight).
Steam marinated chicken feet for 3 hrs over low heat. Occasionally, gently mix the chicken feet with sauce while steaming to ensure that the chicken feet are evenly flavoured and coloured.
Serve immediately.

Prawn Beancurd Skin Rolls (Fu Pei Guen)

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To Prep
Roughly chop half of the prawns into chunks. Use a food processor to process remaining prawns into a paste. In a large mixing bowl, combine both with ginger, chicken stock powder, salt, egg white, Shaoxing wine, cornflour and sesame oil. Cover in cling film and set aside.
Unfold dried beancurd skin and cut into 16 pieces. Place a damp cloth over dried beancurd skin pieces to soften. Place a spoonful of prawn mixture onto one end of softened beancurd skin. Roll up and seal end with cornflour and water mixture.

To Cook
Heat up oil over medium heat to deep fry. Once oil has come to temperature, carefully place rolls into hot oil and fry each side 2-3 mins or until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.
Allow to cool slightly, then serve with mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce.

Crispy Fried Yam Puff (Wu Kok)

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To Prep
In a bowl, mix together pork, soy sauce and ginger. In another bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, sesame oil, oyster sauce, cooking wine, water, a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper. Mix well.

To Cook
In a pan, heat up oil over medium heat. Put in pork and cook, breaking the pork into pieces using your spatula. Once they are cooked, add shrimp and stir fry until pink. Pour in the bowl of sauce mixture and stir until well combined. Transfer to a bowl and mix in spring onions. Allow to cool then, refrigerate for at least 2 hrs to marinade.
Spread out yam pieces on a plate and steam over boiling water until softened, around 20 mins. Remove from steamer and mash them immediately into paste. Set aside.
Place wheat starch into a bowl and carefully stir in boiling water to form a rough dough. When the dough mixture has cooled down slightly to a very warm temperature, add mashed yam and mix well. Place in lard, baking soda, salt and sugar. Fold and knead the dough until smooth, removing any yam lumps at the end. Roll the dough into a ball and cut into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a log and cut into 6 equal pieces. Using your palm or rolling pin, flatten each dough and roll into a dumpling wrap. Fill each dumpling wrap with the marinated filling and fold the wrap into half-moon shaped dumpling.
In a wok, heat up enough oil for deep frying over high heat. To test if the oil is sufficiently hot, drop a piece of yam lump into the oil. If it stays at the bottom of the wok for a sec before floating to the top, the oil is ready. Gently put in pieces of yam dumplings into the wok of hot oil and fry until browned. The dumplings should also be covered with crispy nettings. Remove and drain off excess oil by placing the fried dumplings on paper towels. Serve immediately.

Sesame Prawn Toast

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To Prep
Roughly chop half of the prawns into chunks. Use a food processor to process remaining prawns into a paste. In a large mixing bowl, combine both with ginger, chicken stock powder, salt, egg white, Shaoxing wine, cornflour and sesame oil. Cover in cling film and set aside.
Remove crusts from slices of bread, and then cut diagonally into 4 triangles. Spread a spoonful of prawn mixture onto each triangle, and then coat prawn side with sesame seeds.

To Cook
Heat up oil over medium heat to deep fry. Once oil has come to temperature, carefully place sesame prawn toast into the hot oil prawn side down and fry until prawns have cooked. Turn over and cook bread side until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.
Cool slightly, and then serve.