To Cook
Heat oil in a wok and deep-fry the eggs until golden. Drain and set aside.
Carefully pour out most of the hot oil, leaving approximately 2 tbsp in the wok. Return wok to the heat and add the ginger, lemon grass, sambal oelek, garlic, shallot and shrimp paste.
Stir until fragrant, then add in the tomatoes and sugar. Cook until sauce thickens, then add the dark soy sauce and lime juice.
Add eggs, fold through the sauce and serve hot with steamed rice and garnish with herbs.
Deep-Fry
Deep-fried Barramundi with Mango Sauce
To Cook
Clean fish, cut open and lay flat. Deep-fry until crispy and drain.
Toss together mango, chillies and peanuts.
Add sugar, lemon juice and fish sauce to taste.
Arrange the fish on a platter and the mango salad on a side dish.
Garnish with coriander and garlic chives.
Japanese Pork Cutlets (Tonkatsu)
To Prep
Pound the pork to make ‘schnitzels’. Dip into the flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.
To Cook
Fry in a pan until golden, then drain on paper towel and serve with the sauce.
Mix together dipping sauce ingredients, adding more tomato sauce if you prefer a sweeter sauce.
Lemon Chicken
To Prep
Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add in the chicken pieces and set aside for 30 mins.
In another mixing bowl, sift together the coating ingredients, mix and set aside.
To Cook
In a small saucepan over a medium heat, mix all the ingredients for the sauce and stir well. Reduce heat once the sauce begins to boil and continue to stir until the sauce has thickened. Remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside.
Heat the oil in a wok to 180ºC for deep frying.
In a bowl with the beaten egg, coat the chicken pieces.
Transfer the coated chicken in to the bowl with the coating ingredients and coat evenly. Shake off the excess coating and then drop the chicken pieces into the oil.
Deep fry the chicken until the coat has turned light golden brown. When the chicken has cooked, remove it from the oil and let drain on a dish lined with paper towels.
When ready to serve, drizzle the sauce over the fried chicken and garnish with toasted sesame. Serve immediately.
Prawn and Vegetable Tempura
To Prep
Make the batter by mixing half a packet of tempura batter with 200ml iced water and whisking gently leaving the batter lumpy.
To Cook
Heat the oil to about 180°C, then dredge ingredients one by one in dry Nisshin Tempura batter flour, then into the batter and fry till golden brown.
Then, prepare dipping sauce by combining all three ingredients in a bowl. Serve tempura with dipping sauce and grated daikon on the side. When eating tempura, mix the grated daikon into the tempura dipping sauce, and take the dipping sauce bowl in hand, quickly dipping the tempura in the mixture before eating.
Rice Crackers
To Cook
Combine the cooked rice, rice wine vinegar and salt, mix well.
Place baking paper onto baking tray. Place rice on the baking paper on the tray, and then cover with cling wrap. Flatten rice by rolling out into a thin sheet using a rolling pin. Keep the thin rice sheet between 2-5 mm in thickness, according to your preference. Cut into triangles, square, rectangles or into any shapes you like using a cookie cutter or mould.
Place baking tray into the oven and bake at 180°C for about 10-15 mins. Bake them enough to hold together, as over-baking may cause rice cakes to be too chewy. Remove from oven and leave to cool and dehydrate for about an hour.
Deep-fry rice crackers in hot oil until rice crackers float to the surface and puffed up.
Deep Fried Wonton
To Prep
Combine the minced pork, shrimp and corn-starch in a large mixing bowl. When they are well combined, add the salt, fish sauce, sesame oil and white pepper. Stir until all the ingredients are mixed well and set aside.
In a small bowl, combine the Thai sweet chilli sauce with the lime juice and mix well. Then add the coriander leaves and sesame seeds and lightly stir. Set aside for serving.
Now that the filling is done, we’ll start to wrap the wontons. Simply place a wonton wrapper on the palm of your hand then add ½ a tsp of the filling in the middle of the wrapper.
Next we need to seal the wrapper. Dip a finger into a small bowl of water and smear it on the edge of the wrapper. With the edge of the wrapper moistened you can now fold the edges of the wrapper together. Pinch the edges together to seal, making sure there are no openings in the wrapper. Repeat until all the wrappers or filling is used up.
To Cook
Heat up a sufficient amount of vegetable oil in a wok or deep pan. Drop the wontons into the oil and deep fry until they are golden brown.
Remove the wontons from the oil and allow them to drip dry. You could also lay them on some paper towels to remove any excess oil.
Serve hot with sweet chili sauce or eat plain. Yields 12-24 wontons depending on how much meat you put into each wonton.
Potato Croquettes (Potato Korokke)
To Cook
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Arrange the potatoes on a sheet pan and bake for 30 minutes, until a knife goes through the potatoes easily. When the potatoes have cooled, peel and set aside.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion for about 1 minute, until they turn translucent. Add the pork and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes, until the pork cooks through. Transfer to a large mixing bowl when cooked.
Add the potatoes to the pork and mash together until just combined. Add the soy sauce, sugar pepper and mash together. Add the heavy cream and mash until all the ingredients are just combined.
Transfer the potato mixture to a sheet pan and spread it out to make a flat disk about ½ inch thick. Place in the refrigerator uncovered to cool and firm up for about 1 hour.
While the potato mixture is cooling, prepare 4 plates. Pour the flour onto the first plate, beaten eggs, panko into the subsequent plates separately. Pour the beaten egg onto the second plate and pour the panko onto the third plate. On the fourth plate, leave it empty as this plate will hold the breaded korokke.
Place a cast-iron skillet on a burner. Fill the skillet with vegetable oil to a height of at least 1 inch. Attach a deep-fry (or “candy”) thermometer to the side of the skillet. On a work surface near the skillet, set up a tray lined with paper towels to drain the cooked korokke.
When the potato mixture is ready, remove from the refrigerator and cut into 8 even pieces. Form 8 korokke patties, one at a time. Wet your hands, then place one of the pieces of the cooled potato mixture onto your palm. With both hands, gently form it into a flat, oval patty. Repeat for the remaining patties.
Turn on the heat under the skillet to high. Heat the oil to 170°C.
While the oil is heating, bread the korokke patties one at a time. First, dredge a patty in flour on both sides and shake off the excess flour. Second, dip the patty in the egg, coating both sides. Finally, lay the patty on the panko crumbs. Pile panko on top of the korokke with your fingers, then gently press the panko onto the patty so a generous layer of panko sticks on both sides. Be careful to handle the korokke very gently so it doesn’t break apart. Place the completed korokke on the empty plate. Repeat with the remaining patties.
When the oil has reached 170°C, carefully slide the korokke into the skillet. Deep-fry to korokke in batches. Regulate the heat to maintain a constant 170°C oil temperature. If the oil is too hot, the korokke will burn; if too low, the korokke will come out soggy and greasy.
Cook the korokke for about 3 minutes, until they heat through and turn golden brown (they’re already cooked inside). When they’re ready, transfer the korokke to the paper-lined plate to cool.
Serve immediately, with tonkatsu sauce.
Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls (Nem rán / Chả giò)
To Prep
Boil water and soak noodles for 30 mins.
Combine all the ingredients for the filling together to form a sticky mixture.
Chop the soaked mung bean noodles into shorter threads and combine with filling.
To roll the cha gio, place a piece of spring roll paper on a clean, wet kitchen towel. Place 1 heaped tablespoon of filling on the moist rice paper, fold the rice paper over the filling, tuck in the sides, then roll to form a cylinder about 3 inches long.
Seal the wrap by dabbing a finger in the corn starch and lining the end of the wrap.
To Cook
Heat oil over medium heat in a wok or a large frying pan. When the oil is smoking, gently place a few cha gio in the oil. Fry them slowly until they turn lightly brown. Drain the excess oil by lining them over some paper towels.
Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
Potato Croquettes (Begedil)
To Cook
Pan fry potatoes until cooked through and golden brown. Set aside.
Pan fry dried shrimps until it’s aromatic for approximately 3-5 minutes.
Mash potatoes up using a masher.
Dish into a bowl, add fried shrimps, parsley leaves, fried shallots, salt and pepper and mix well.
Shape into patties and coat over with egg.
Pan-fry or deep-fry on medium heat until golden brown on both sides.
Japanese Fried Oysters (Kaki Fry)
To Prep
Use salted water to wash the oysters and dry the oysters with paper towels.
Season with salt and pepper.
Heat the canola oil in a medium pot at medium-high heat.
Clean your work station. Put the flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs in separate dishes.
Cover the oysters in flour, then egg, then the breadcrumbs.
Fry in the canola oil at 350°C until it has browned. Cook the oyster for about 1-2 mins on one side and turn it over.
Put the cabbage on separate dishes and serve fried oysters on top of the cabbage.
Put 1-2 lemon wedges on each plate and serve with sauce if desired.
Banana Fritters (Pisang Goreng)
To Prep
Peel the bananas, and slice it once or twice lengthways to get a long slice of banana.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and slowly whisk in the cold water until you get a smooth batter without lumps.
Add oil to the batter and mix until combined.
Add the bananas into the batter and make sure they are all fully covered in batter. Leave the bananas for 5 mins in the batter.
To Cook
In a large saucepan, heat oil until 180°C and deep fry the bananas until golden.
To absorb excessive oil, remove the bananas from the oil onto paper towels. Serve crunchy and hot.