Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Deep-Fry

Spiral Curry Puff

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Combine all water dough ingredients in a large bowl with fingers into a soft, elastic and non-sticky consistency.
Divide mixture in two and roll into balls, then place each in a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Rest for 30 mins.
Combine all grease dough ingredients in a large bowl, and knead until combined with a shiny and smooth consistency.
Divide mixture in two and roll into balls, then place each in a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Rest for 30 mins.

To Cook
In a food processor, add onion, garlic, dried chillies, and curry powder. Process into a paste.
Heat oil in a pan. Add in the paste and stir fry until fragrant. Add in chicken, frying until semi-cooked.
Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, and soy sauce. Taste and season with salt and sugar if needed. Stir curry leaves through the mixture.
Cook until potatoes are tender, then remove from heat and allow to cool.
Flatten out the water dough into a round shape large enough to wrap around the grease dough. Place the grease dough ball into the center of the rolled out water dough. Wrap the grease dough with the water dough and pinch edge to seal.
Lightly flour the bench and roll out the combined doughs into an oval shape with a rolling pin until thin and sheet-like.
Starting from one end, roll dough tightly like a Swiss roll.
Slice into 1 cm thick portions. Repeat with remaining dough. Flatten the dough slice into a circle with rolling pin.
In a curry puff mold (use hands if you don’t have one), spoon 1 tbsp of filling and 1 sliced quartered egg in the middle of the dough, being careful not to overfill.
Seal the dough by pressing the edges together. Crimp by pinching and folding in at a 45-degree angle. Repeat with remaining filling and dough. Set on a lined tray to avoid sticking.
Fill a wok with oil and heat on medium high. Carefully place curry puffs into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. Flip over to ensure even cooking. Remove from oil, shake off excess oil and drain on paper towel.
Allow to cool for 3-5 mins before serving.

Korean Red Bean Doughnuts (Chapssal Donuts)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Grease 2 large plates or trays and set aside.
Combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl and mix until they are well combined.
Divide the paste into 10-15 equal-sized pieces and roll in to ball shapes. Place them on one greased plate or tray and cover with cling wrap.
Sieve the flours into a large mixing bowl and mix together before adding the butter and hot water and kneading to make one large piece of dough.
Divide the dough into 10-15 equal-sized balls before place onto the second greased plate or tray. Cover with a damp tea towel.
Roll out one ball of dough and wrap it around one ball of the paste and seal the dough around it. Repeat with the rest of the dough and paste.

To Cook
Pour enough oil in a pot to fry the doughnuts and heat it up to 150°C.
Place a batch of the doughnuts into the pot and fry until golden brown in colour. Use a spoon to stir occasionally to ensure that the balls cook evenly and don’t stick to the bottom.
When the doughnuts have cooked, transfer them from the oil to some paper towels to drain while they cool down.
When the doughnuts have cooled down, coat them with caster sugar and serve!

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Ribs

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Add chicken spare ribs into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, salt, pepper and Shaoxing wine. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 mins.

To Cook
Heat oil in a pot or deep fryer to about 160°C.
Add egg into the marinated chicken and stir to combine.
Add potato starch into a bowl. Coat chicken spare ribs with the potato starch.
Deep fry chicken spare ribs until golden brown. Drain on paper towel and set aside.
Steam salted egg yolks for 10 mins. Allow to cool slightly, then mash well with a fork.
Heat oil and butter in a pan over medium heat.
Add the mashed yolks and fry off until foamy. Add garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant.
Add fried chicken into the pan and stir through the sauce.
Remove from the pan, garnish with coriander and serve with rice.

Panko Lamb Brains with Yuzu Mayo

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Combine the mayonnaise with the yuzu juice and set aside.
In a large pot, combine all of the poaching ingredients except for the lamb brains. Bring them to a boil and let simmer for about 15 mins.
Carefully place the lamb brains in to the pot and let them poach for about 5 mins.
Remove the lamb brains from the pot and let them drain on a wire rack or paper towels. When the brains are cool enough to handle, halve them and remove any unwanted pieces.
In a small mixing bowl, add the flour, salt and pepper, and whisk together. In another small bowl, combine the eggs and the milk and mix thoroughly. Finally, in a large mixing bowl pour in the breadcrumbs.
Coat a lobe in the flour mixture before dredging it in the egg and then crumbing it with the panko breadcrumbs.
Return the brain back in to the egg and then back in to the panko to add another layer to the crust. Repeat this process with the remaining lobes.

To Cook
In a large pot, pour enough oil to deep fry the brains. Heat the oil over a high heat until it reaches 180°C.
Fry the brains in batches until the crust becomes a deep brown colour. Drain the brains on a wire rack or paper towels to remove the excess oil.
Serve with the yuzu mayonnaise.

Prawn (Ebi) Tempura Somen

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
In a small bowl, combine Obento Mirin Seasoning, Lee Kum Kee Premium Soy Sauce, Obento Rice Wine Vinegar, Yeo’s Sesame Oil and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

To Cook
Cook somen noodles in a pot of boiling water for 2 mins, then rinse under cold water.
Heat vegetable oil in a large saucepan to 180°C.
Combine cornflour and plain flour in a bowl, then lightly whisk together with soda water until just combined, being careful not to over mix.
Pat dry the prawns gently with a paper towel before coating them in the tempura batter. Lower the prawns one at a time into oil and cook for approximately 3-4 mins.
Add the noodles, edamame beans, cucumber and daikon to a large bowl, then pour in half of the dressing mix gently until all ingredients are coated.
Divide the noodles between 2 bowls and top with tempura prawns, drizzle over additional dressing if required, then garnish with shredded nori, toasted sesame seeds and some shichimi togorashi to finish.
Serve immediately.

Thai Vegan Corn Fritters

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Mix sauce ingredients in a medium size bowl and set aside.
Mix water with baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.
Add coriander roots, garlic and white pepper into the mortar and grind into a paste, then add to a large mixing bowl.
In the same bowl of coriander root paste, add corn kernels, rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, plain flour, kaffir lime leaves, baking powder, ABC Original Chilli Sauce, dark brown sugar and salt.
Pour the baking soda mixture in and mix all ingredients together.

To Cook
Add oil into a large pot or wok, then heat on medium-high.
Spoon about 2-3 tbsp of mixture into the hot oil and repeat until the fritters cover all the pot/wok surface.
Flip after 90 secs or when you can see the edges beginning to brown. Repeat for the other side. Drain fritters on paper towel.
Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

Tempura Mushroom Bao with Pickled Radish and Miso Mayo

by Leave a Comment

To Make Fillings
Place all pickled radish ingredients in a bowl and massage the salt, sugar, vinegar and chilli into the radishes. Leave in the fridge for 5-10 mins.
Place tofu, miso paste, rice vinegar and rice malt syrup in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Set the blender on high speed and drizzle in the oil so it emulsifies. Store the mayo in the fridge.
Mix sake, sugar, mirin, soy sauce, and water in a saucepan. Cook on medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
Add mushrooms and cook for 5 mins or until tender. Remove and pat dry with paper towel.
Return half the liquid to the heat and reduce by half.
Heat the oil in a large wok. Mix the corn flour, plain flour in a large bowl, add soda water and mix quickly.
Add mushrooms and turn them to coat. Lift one mushroom at a time to let the excess tempura batter drip off, then lower into the hot oil. Repeat until all mushrooms are golden brown. Drain them on paper towel.

To Make Bao
Place the milk, flour, baking powder, yeast and sugar together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix the oil and water together.
Make a little well in the middle of the bowl with the dry ingredients and add the water oil mix.
Stir with a spoon and use your hands to knead until the dough comes together.
If the dough is too sticky add a little more flour and keep kneading. Knead for about 5-8 mins or until it is smooth. Cover and leave it in a warm place for 90 mins to rise (roughly double its size).
Once the dough has risen place on a floured surface and knead for a further 5 mins to get the air out. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough about 1 cm thick.
Grease the top with oil then use a glass or rough cutter that is roughly 8 cm in diameter to cut out 12 circles. Remove the excess dough.
Fold the circles in half and slightly roll with a rolling pin. Place each bun on a square of baking paper and pop in bamboo steamer to rise for 30 mins.
Fill a third of a wok or saucepan with water and heat on high.
Place the bamboo steamer on top and steam buns for 12 mins.
Then turn off the heat and let it sit for 4 mins before taking the lid off.

Assembling the Bao
Take your bao bun, open it up and fill with shredded wombok, green onions and pickled radish.
Place your tempura mushrooms on top, then add a drizzle of the reduced mushroom liquid and a dollop of miso mayo. Enjoy!

Meat-Free Okonomiyaki

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
In a small glass bowl, steep all the dry shiitake via packet instructions.
Add some cold water into a bowl. Make thin strips of the white part of spring onion and cut length ways. Then, add the spring onions into the bowl.
Drain mushrooms, reserving 1 cup shiitake flavoured water.
Chop half of the shiitake up roughly and add to a large bowl. Finely chop the rest.
Press dry with paper towels and toss in cornflour.
Shallow fry in some oil for a few mins until crunchy.
Using a food processor and thin slicing tool, shred the rest of the vegetables.
Whisk eggs, soy and shiitake water in a large bowl.
Add plain flour slowly while whisking. The batter will need to be of a thickened cream consistency.
Fold the vegetables into the egg mix.

To Cook
Add oil and butter into the frying pan.
Add in roughly half the vegetable batter mixture to coat the bottom.
Press down the vegetables on top to make the perfect circle. Add lid and cook for 5 mins on a low-medium heat. Take lid off.
Put a plate over saucepan and flip pancake onto plate.
Once flipped, put saucepan back on stove and add another dob of butter and oil.
Gently slide pancake into saucepan and cook with lid on for another 5 mins. Set aside.
In a bowl, add tomato ketchup, soy, Worcestershire, honey to make Okonomiyaki sauce. Mix well.
Drizzle the Okonomiyaki sauce over pancake. Add Japanese mayonnaise, shredded pickled ginger, crunchy shiitake mushrooms and strips of spring onion on top of the pancake.

Agedashi Fish

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Mix plain flour, baking powder, egg white and soda water to prepare tempura batter.

To Cook
Heat vegetable oil to 175°C.
Coat each slice of fish with tempura batter, deep fry each piece for approximately 6 mins or until cooked and batter turns crispy and brown. Set aside.
Combine Wafu Curry ingredients in a pot, boil until curry blocks are dissolved and turn off the heat. Put vegetables in the pot and mix well.
Arrange fish tempura on a serving plate, pour the cooked sauce over the fish. Garnish with spring onions and black sesame seeds.

Karaage Chicken

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces, leaving a little skin/fat on for extra crispiness.
Add Japanese soy sauce, Obento Cooking Sake, egg, ginger and garlic in a bowl and mix well. Then, add the chicken, coat well and allow to marinate for 30 mins.
Drain any excess liquid from the chicken and coat with potato starch.

To Cook
Heat cooking oil in a pan to 180°C. Fry 3-4 pieces at a time for 3-4 minutes until they are golden brown, then remove and allow to drain on a wire rack or paper towel.
Mix S&B Wasabi Paste and Kewpie Mayonnaise. Then serve hot. For a savoury dip, try Obento Tonkatsu Sauce.

Crispy Chicken with Thai Basil

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
In a stock pot, fill sufficient water to be able to cover all chicken breasts, bring to a boil. Add chicken and boil for 15 mins, then lower heat to simmer for another 10 mins until meat is tender. Remove from stock pot and set aside to cool for 15 mins.
Tear the chicken into 2-3cm thick strips. Mix in garlic and chilli powder, and add salt and pepper to taste.
Heat cooking oil in a wok and deep-fry chicken strips until they are golden brown. Remove and set aside.
In a clean wok, heat 1 tbsp cooking oil on medium high. Add all the Sauce ingredients and stir well for 1 min.
Add the chicken and Thai basil leaves, toss for 5 mins, allowing the basil leaves to turn slightly crisp and aromatic. Remove from heat and serve.

Quick and Easy Prawns

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Remove veins from the prawns, snip off the pointed ends on the heads and tails. Trim off the legs. Rinse and pat dry.

To Cook
Heat oil in a saucepan or wok. Deep fry prawns for about 30 secs, then remove.
Let the oil heat up again before returning the prawns to deep-fry further. Repeat 3 times, remove and drain well.
Place garlic, chilli and spring onion into a large bowl. Pour in about ⅓ cup hot oil to cook until fragrant.
Add fried prawns and seasonings. Stir briskly to combine well. Transfer to a serving plate and serve immediately.