Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Deep-Fry

Chicken Karaage

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To Prep
Use paper towels to pat dry the chicken and transfer to a bowl. Add in the sake, soy sauce, ginger juice, sesame oil and marinate for 1 hr or overnight.

To Cook
Transfer the chicken pieces out of the marinade on to a plate and coat them evenly with potato starch. Shake off the excess potato starch.
Heat up a wok/pot of cooking oil. To test that the cooking oil is hot enough, insert a pair of wooden chopsticks into the oil and when you see bubbles appear around the chopstick, it’s hot and ready. When the cooking oil is hot enough for frying, drop the chicken into the oil and quickly deep fry them until they float. Transfer them out onto a plate and wait for a couple of minutes.
Put the chicken back into the oil and deep-fry again until golden brown and crunchy. Dish out to a plate or bowl lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.
Serve hot with a slice of lemon and mayonnaise.

Belacan Fried Chicken

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To Prep
In a pestle and mortar, grind the belacan, white pepper, coriander powder, sugar and oil to form a paste. Transfer in to a large bowl and add the chicken wings.
Mix the paste thoroughly in to the chicken wings and leave to marinate for 1 hr or overnight.

To Cook
Heat up oil in a deep wok and deep fry the chicken wings for around 15 mins, until light brown, remove and set aside.
Turn the heat up and add the chicken wings to fry again for 5 mins.
Once the wings are golden brown, remove and drain.

To Serve
Transfer the chicken wings on to a plate and garnish with coriander leaves. Enjoy!

Thai Pork on Toast (Khanom Pang Naa Moo)

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To Prep
Cut the sandwich bread into quarters, and leave them out to dry for at least a couple of hours. Flip the bread squares over one halfway through the drying process.
When the bread is ready, we’ll prepare the pork. In a mixing bowl, combine the pork, soy sauce, cornstarch, pepper, garlic and coriander stems. Mix well to evenly combine all the ingredients. Alternatively, you could just process them in a food processor until smooth.
Using a spoon, spread some of the minced pork mixture over the bread squares. Make sure not to spread the pork too thickly, you’ll want the layer of pork to be the same thickness as the bread at most.
Place a coriander leaf onto each pork toast, and firmly press so that the leaf sticks to the minced pork.

To Cook
In a wok or deep pan, pour enough oil to be 2-inches deep and set the heat on medium high. Check if the oil is hot enough by dipping a wooden chopstick into the oil. The oil is ready when there is a steady stream of bubbles rising from the tip of the chopstick. If you have a deep fryer, set the temperature for 170°C.
Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly. Dip the bread, pork side down, into the egg wash and quickly transfer into the hot oil (also pork side down).
Flip the pork toast over after about 2 minutes – the pork should be cooked and a golden brown color. Allow the bread on the underside of the pork toast to brown and remove from the hot oil with a slotted spoon. Place the pork toast on some kitchen towels to remove any excess oil.
Repeat until all the pork toasts are done. Allow to slightly cool before serving the your dipping sauce of choice.

Japanese Pork Meatballs (Niku-Dango)

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To Make the Meatballs
Excluding the oil, place all other meatballs ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
Scoop 1 tbsp meat mixture to make 3.5cm meatballs and place on a cutting board or a large baking pan. Repeat.
Roll each meatball with wet hands to form rounded meatballs.
Heat oil to 170-180°C. The depth of oil should cover the meatballs.
Place a few meatballs gently into the oil.
Deep-fry for approximately 3-4 mins or until the meatballs are cooked through. Transfer to a tray lined with kitchen towels.

To Make the Sauce
Excluding the cornflour, place the rests of the sauce ingredients with water into a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat.
When the sauce starts boiling, reduce heat to low and add in the cornflour solution. Stir well until the sauce is thickened. Turn off the heat.

To Serve
Place the meatballs on a serving plate and pour the sauce on top, covering all meatballs. Garnish with julienned spring onions.

Butter Cereal Chicken

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To Prep
Marinate the chicken pieces with soy sauce and turmeric powder for at least 30 mins.

To Cook
Heat-up oil in a pot or wok. Coat some cornstarch over the chicken pieces. Deep fry till golden brown. Drain off the oil and set aside.
In a wok, melt a tablespoonful of butter and stir-fry the oats until it turns crispy and golden-brown. Remove from wok and set aside.
Melt the rest of the butter in a wok. Stir-fry the shallots until fragrant and golden brown. Then add the curry leaves and bird eye chillies (optional).
Add the fried chicken pieces to the wok and mix well. Arrange the cooked chicken on a serving plate and top with crispy oats cereal (from Step 3).
Serve hot with steamed rice.

Nyonya Fried Chicken (Inche Kabin)

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To Prep
Mix all the seasoning well in a bowl and add in the chicken to marinate overnight.

To Cook
Heat up 4 tbsp of oil to a pan or wok and fry the chicken over low heat till all the seasoning sticks to the meat and the meat cooks through.
Now for the deep frying. Heat the oil until it is very hot and deep fry the chicken for 1 min or till the sizzling subsides. Turn the chicken to ensure it cooks evenly, remove and drain.
Allow the oil to heat up again, deep fry chicken for 1 min, remove and drain. Repeat the process a third time, till the chicken pieces are golden brown. Serve with dipping sauce and prawn crackers.

Five-spice Meat Rolls (Ngoh Hiang Lobak)

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To Prep
In a big bowl mix all the seasoning with 2 tbsp of water. The mixture should be sticky and not runny.
Add in the pork and blanched fat and mix thoroughly. Rest for 15 mins, or preferably overnight before wrapping.
Once ready to assemble, add the spring onions, water chestnuts and garlic to the mixture and a few tablespoons of water if the mixture is dried out.
Lay out a bean curd sheet and spoon 3 tbsp of the marinated meat mixture onto the sheet. Keep mixture in one line and close to the baseline but keeping it 2 cm away from both ends. Roll gently and cut off the bean curd sheet with a knife where the overlap meets. Try to avoid a large overlap as the double layer will cause the meat to cook unevenly. The moisture of the sheet will seal the two ends naturally. Repeat until all the marinated meat is used up.

To Cook
In a wok, heat oil for deep frying. When the oil is hot add in 3 to 4 rolls to the wok at one time. Turn these over after 3 mins or so. The rolls are cooked when they turn golden brown and when the sizzling stops.
Remove the rolls and allow them to cool.
Prepare the dipping sauce by mixing all ingredients till the sugar dissolves, check the flavour and adjust accordingly. Just before serving, sprinkle on the toasted sesame seeds.
To serve, cut each roll into 6 slanted bite-sized pieces and serve with dipping sauce and cucumber slices.

Fried Dace with Noodles

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To Cook
Soak noodles in boiling water until soft.
Place fried dace in a bowl. Cover and microwave until warm.
Heat oil in wok, add garlic and fry vegetables until cooked.
Place noodles on a plate, top with dace and arrange vegetables around dace.

Sesame Balls

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To Prep
In a mixing bowl, combine the glutinous rice flour, baking powder and sugar. Pour in the boiling water and stir until the water has mixed with the flour before adding the vegetable oil.
Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes before kneading by hand for a few minutes until the dough is soft and smooth. Allow to rest for another 10 minutes.
Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces, and roll them into balls. Keep the dough balls covered with a cling film to prevent them from drying out.
Flatten the dough balls into disks and then place 1/2 tsp of red bean paste in to the center and gather the sides and roll into a ball. Set aside and repeat with the remaining dough.
Fill one bowl with water and another bowl with the sesame seeds. Transfer one of the sesame balls in to the water and then quickly transfer the wet ball in to the sesame seed bowl. Coat the balls well and then set them aside for frying.

To Cook
In a wok, heat enough vegetable oil to cook the sesame balls. When the oil has reached a temperature of about 150 degrees Celsius, add the sesame balls one at a time, and fry for about 10 minutes or until golden and puffed up
Transfer the sesame balls on to a drying rack and let cool slightly before serving!

Fried Scallop Wontons

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To Prep
Combine soy sauce, green onion, palm sugar, coriander and wasabi paste.
Place a wonton wrapper on the palm of the hand. Top with one scallop, then spoon over a little soy sauce mixture.
Brush water around the edge of the wrapper. Press edges to seal. Set aside. Continue with remaining ingredients.

To Cook
Heat oil in wok. Fry wontons, a few at a time for 2-3 mins, turning halfway through cooking.
Drain on paper. Garnish with coriander and serve with extra soy sauce.

Top Hats (Nyonya Pie Tee)

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To Prep
Mix the rice flour, bread flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Make a “well” in the flour with your hands and add in the water, oil and egg. Mix into a smooth batter (which should thinly coat the back of a spoon), rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.

To Cook
Heat up a pot of oil, drop in a little batter, when the batter floats the oil is ready.
Dip the pie tee mould into the hot oil for 10 seconds and let the oil drip off. Dip the mould into the batter (if you can hear a sizzling sound the mould is too hot, best is to let it cool down and start again). You can coat 1 time, 2 or 3 times if you want thicker pie tee’s.
Gently dip the battered mould into the hot oil (which should cover 90-95% of the mould). As the batter starts to cook, slowly lower the entire mould into the hot oil (oil will seep around the sides of the pie tee and the crispy top hat should drop off from the mould). If the top hat doesn’t drop off the mould, move it up and down in the oil a few times gently.

For the Pie Tee Filling
In pan over a medium heat, cook the shallots until they turn golden in colour.
Add in the shrimps and continue to cook until they’ve turned pink, before adding in the jicama and carrots. Season with salt, sugar and pepper and continue to cook for another 5 mins.
When the vegetables have cooked, remove from the heat and set aside.
In a non-stick pan over a medium heat, add oil and the eggs and cook the omelette. When the omelette has been cooked, transfer it on to a surface to cool before cutting in to thin strips.

To Serve
In each of the hats, place a serving of the fillings along with some of the omelette strips. Garnish with chillies or spring onions and serve!

Fried Tofu with Chilli Sauce (Tau Hu Tod)

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To Prepare the Sauce
Add water, sugar, and vinegar in a saucepan, and cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly, then add in the fish sauce and dried red chili flakes, and stir through.
Set aside.

To Cook the Fried Tofu
Dry the tofu wedges on paper towels for 1 hr.
Heat oil in a pan or wok over high heat until the oil reaches 200°C.
Carefully lower the tofu wedges into the hot oil and fry for 5 mins or until golden brown on all sides, turning the pieces occasionally with long tongs.
Drain the fried tofu on paper towel.

To Serve
Add chopped roasted peanuts, bird’s eye chilli and coriander on top of sauce.
Serve fried tofu with the dipping sauce.