Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Deep-Fry

Filipino Meat Spring Roll (Lumpiang Shanghai)

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To Prep
Put together chicken, spring onions, water chestnuts, carrots, garlic, soy sauce, salt and pepper in a bowl and combine well.
Place a spring roll wrapper on a flat surface with one corner pointing towards you.
Scoop roughly 2 tbsp of the meat mixture and place them on the centre of the spring roll wrapper.
To fold the wrapper, start off by folding the bottom pointed end of the sheet towards the filling.
Fold both sides of the wrapper inwards, then roll tightly from the bottom up to form a log.
Dab the pointed end with a little water and press to seal. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

To Cook
Heat 3cm of oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Fry the lumpia in batches, turning occasionally until golden brown and crispy.
Remove out the fried lumpia and drain excess oil by laying them on a tray or dish with paper towels.
Serve with hot.

3 Veg Tempura

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To Prep
Add 125g Obento tempura batter mix to 180ml of cold water and whisk through, do not over mix. Heat oil in a large saucepan.
Dust ingredients in flour, shake off excess. Dip vegetables in batter, drain excess then coat them in panko bread crumbs.

To Cook
Deep fry in batches, until golden. Drain on paper towel.
Serve tempura immediately with dipping sauce.

Filipino Stuffed Prawn Rolls (Rellenong Hipon)

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To Prep
Peel prawns and remove prawn heads, leaving the tail intact. Using a small knife, make an incision all the way down the centre of the prawn’s back, to remove and discard the vein.
Spread open the prawn until it lies flat, belly facing up. Make a small slit across on the belly close to the tail. This is to prevent the prawn from curling up when cooking. Set prawns aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine all other ingredients except for spring roll wrappers, stir well until ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
Place about 1/2 tsp of the meat mixture in the centre of the butterflied prawn, then close around filling by pressing the sides of the prawn flesh together.
Arrange triangle spring roll wrapper with pointed side facing up on working bench. Place a stuffed prawn in the middle of one spring roll wrapper, then fold right side of the wrapper over the stuffed prawn, and then fold the pointed side down. Then roll the wrapper tightly around the prawn, moistening the sides with a dap of water and pressing gently but firmly to seal it. Place the wrapped stuffed prawn on a platter, seam side down and cover with a moist paper towel to avoid from drying out.

To Cook
Heat about 5cm of oil in a deep pot or pan over medium heat. When oil is hot enough and not smoking yet, add in the stuffed prawn rolls, turning sides constantly until rolls are golden and cooked through.
Remove from pan and drain on a wire rack.

Filipino Vegetable and Prawn Fritters (Ukoy Na Togue)

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To Make
Crack egg into a large mixing bowl and beat till fluffy. Then add cornstarch, flour, water, fish sauce, salt and pepper in the bowl with the beaten egg, and whisk all ingredients to combine thoroughly.
Next add in turmeric powder and continue stirring until fully dissolved. The batter should now be in a light orange colour.
Then add bean sprouts, carrots and shallots into the batter and gently stir so that all ingredients are well soaked in the batter.
Heat about 5cm deep of oil in a large pan over medium heat. Scoop a large spoonful of ukoy batter and place a prawn on the batter, gently pressing it down, then slide the batter into the pan and cook for about 3 minutes on each side.
When fritters are slightly browned and crispy, remove from heat and leave to drain on a wire rack. 2 – 3 large spoonfuls of ukoy batter with prawns can be done at one time in the same pan.
Repeat until all batter is cooked.

Deep Fried Quail

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To Prep
Cut the quail into half. Combine all the marinade ingredients and pour into the quail, coating well. Marinate the quail in the refrigerator for 4 hrs.

To Cook
In a heavy bottomed pan, pour in oil to deep fry the quail until light brown. Serve with sweet chilli sauce or ketchup.

Trio of Mushroom Sushi Burger with Lotus Chips Nori Salt

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To Cook
Place sushi seasoning ingredients in a small pan and simmer, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool.
Rinse rice until the water runs clear and place in a saucepan with the water. Cover and let it simmer until the water is absorbed and the rice is cooked. Set aside to cool for 5 mins.
Place rice in a glass bowl, add sushi seasoning and stir with a rice paddle, fanning until the rice is cool.
Put a cookie mould or egg ring on a tray lined with baking paper. Press the rice into the moulds to form 4 burger shapes, sprinkling black sesame seeds on two of the shapes. Chill until needed.
Mix the flours, baking powder, salt and water to make the fritter batter. Chill until needed.
Place the pickling ingredients in a small pan and let it simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Let the mixture cool.
Finely julienne the carrot and thinly slice the radish before adding both to the pickling mixture. Drain before serving.
Trim the enoki mushrooms, to separate, chop the shiitake mushroom finely. Place 1 tbsp of flour (extra) in a freezer bag, toss the enoki mushrooms till coated, fold the shiitake mushrooms and coated enoki mushrooms into the prepared batter.
Heat oil in a heavy based frying pan and spoon batter in, forming 2 patties. Fry until golden and cooked through.
Mix the Kewpie Mayonnaise, Kewpie Dressing Roast Sesame and wasabi paste together and pour into a serving bowl.
Slice the lotus root thinly and place in a bowl of water while heating the oil. Drain, pat dry and fry the lotus root until crisp and golden.
Process the nori sheet until it forms small crumbs, add the ground salt and stir to combine.

To Serve
Place a sushi circle on the serving plate, top with lettuce, avocado, pickled carrot, garlic chives & cucumber, place a mushroom fritter on top, add the pickled radish and a few shimeji mushrooms. Drizzle with a little sesame and wasabi mayonnaise. Place the remaining sushi circle on the top to form the burger.
Sprinkle the lotus chips with nori salt and serve with the remaining sesame & wasabi mayonnaise to dip.

Malaysian Nyonya Style Deep Fried Whole Fish

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To Begin
Combine all spice paste ingredients to blend in an electric blender.
Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a wok over low heat, saute the spice paste until the oil separates from the paste, approximately in 5 minutes.
In a bowl, combine tamarind paste with the water, mix well and strain for the tamarind juice. Add the juice to the spice paste in the wok and bring to boil.
Add in tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes. Then add in the daun kesom, bunga kantan salt and sugar. Stir occasionally while allowing to simmer until sauce thickens. Salt and sugar may be adjusted according to taste.
Meanwhile, heat enough oil in a deep wok over high heat. Deep fry fish until well cooked through. Drain oil and place on a serving dish, set aside.
Pour sauce over deep fried fish and serve immediately with steamed rice.

Northern Thai Dip (Nam Prik Ong)

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To Make the Paste
Pound the salt and soaked chillies with a mortar and pestle until smooth.
Add shallots, lemongrass and garlic, pound until smooth.
Add the rinsed beans and tomatoes, pound until most tomatoes turn into paste.

To Cook
In a frying pan, heat 1-2 tsp of oil on medium-high, sauté garlic until light golden colour. Add the paste mixture and cook for 2-3 mins.
Add in the minced pork and cook until done. Adjust the taste with the seasonings.

To Serve
Scoop a spoonful of warm dip onto a slice of cucumber, then garnish with lotus root chip and fried basil leaf.

Paper Wrap Chicken (Chee Pow Kai)

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To Prep
Prepare the chicken first by rinsing in water and then cutting each thigh into 4 pieces.
Place your ginger, shallots and garlic into a food processor and mince. Mix the rest of the marinade ingredients with the minced herbs. Mix with the chicken and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour. Marinate overnight for a stronger flavour.
After marinating, add the sesame oil, vegetable oil and, tapioca flour to the chicken. Mix well and set aside as you prepare the parchment paper.
Fold each piece of parchment paper into a simple “pocket”. Fold the parchment paper lengthwise into 3 equal sections, with the left section under the right section. Then fold the bottom toward the middle of the parchment paper.
Open the top of the parchment paper and place a piece of chicken inside – take note not to add any additional marinade into the pocket. Then fold the top left and right corners towards the centre, forming a triangle.
Repeat until all the pieces of chicken are in their individual parcels.

To Cook
Deep fry each parcel of chicken in oil over medium high heat until medium brown on both sides. This should take about 30 seconds for each side. Remove the parcels from the oil and allow to cool.
Reheat the oil and deep fry the chicken again, this time only for a few seconds until they become a rich, dark brown colour. Drain off the oil from the parcels and serve.

Vegan Roast Duck

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To Prep
Prepare a blender and blend seasoning ingredients until smooth.
Carefully separate and unfold the beancurd sheets to get a single flat sheet. Make sure you have a large enough workspace.
Apply 1 tbsp seasoning onto a beancurd sheet using a pastry brush, then fold in half and repeat.
Continue folding and brushing until you get a square about the size of your hand. Make sure to brush each layer as you fold.
Use toothpicks to fasten the edges to keep the squares intact.
Repeat steps with the rest of the beancurd sheets.
Then steam for 10-15 min. Remove and allow to dry.

To Cook
Heat oil and then deep-fry until golden brown.
Transfer remaining seasoning sauce into a saucepan and bring to a low boil.
Add the fried beancurd squares into the saucepan and simmer until all sauce is absorbed.
Cut into slices and serve.

Creamy Butter Chicken (Lai Yao Kei)

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To Prep
Combine chicken cubes and marinade in a bowl. Marinade for a minimum of 1 hour.

To Cook
Deep-fry the chicken cubes. Dish up chicken, drain and set aside.
Heat wok and add butter. Fry chillies and curry leaves till fragrant.
Pour in evaporated milk and bring to a boil. Add in chicken stock powder, salt and sugar to taste.
Add chicken and cook until they are cooked through. Stir to coat chicken pieces evenly in the sauce. If the dish is too spicy, add a pinch of sugar.
Serve hot with rice.