Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Steam

Steamed Fish Fillet with Fragrant Preserved Mustard

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To Prep
In a bowl, mix the fish fillets with the cooking wine, set aside.

To Cook
Heat some oil in a wok, add in the minced meat and stir fry until the meat changes colour.
Add in the preserved mustard and stir for another 1-2 mins until the meat is cooked. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Prepare a steamer with boiling water. Arrange the fish fillets onto a serving plate, top with the meat mixture. Place the plate of fish in the steamer and steam on medium high heat for 3-5 mins or until the fish is cooked.
Remove from heat and garnish with coriander. Serve immediately.

Steamed Pork Spareribs Rice with Black Bean Sauce

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To Prep
Place spareribs into a bowl and mix in marinade ingredients. Combine well and leave to marinade for 30 mins.
Place rice into a bowl suitable for steaming. Drizzle in oil and stir to mix well. Pour in water and place the bowl of rice into a bamboo steamer. Steam for 15 mins.

To Cook
Once ready, put marinated spareribs on top of the rice in a single layer. Steam for another 15 mins until spareribs are cooked.
Remove from heat and garnish with spring onions. Serve hot.

Chinese Steamed Rice Cake (Pak Thong Koh)

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To Begin
In a large bowl, sieve in rice flour. Mix in salt until well combined. Add water into the flour mixture and stir with whisk until well combined.
Prepare the syrup by putting in sugar, pandan leaves and water into a pot. Bring to a gentle boil for 5 mins. Stir occasionally and ensure it does not get burnt. Discard the pandan leaves and slowly pour the syrup through a sieve into the rice flour mixture. Stir often to obtain a smooth mixture without lumps.
In a separate bowl, put in yeast and dissolve it with water. Set aside for 5 mins until it bubbles. Then, pour the yeast into the rice flour mixture and stir to mix well. Add oil and mix well. Cling wrap the bowl and set aside at warm temperature for at least 2 hrs until the mixture bubbles.
Lightly oil a 20cm stainless steel plate. Prepare a steamer and bring water to a rolling boil. Stir the rice flour mixture well and pour into the plate. Place the plate into the steamer and ensure it is levelled. Cover the plate with aluminium foil and steam for 20 mins. To test if the cake is ready, insert a toothpick into the centre of the cake. It is ready if the toothpick comes out clear.
Remove the plate from the steamer and remove the aluminium foil. Allow the steamed rice cake to cool before cutting. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Crispy Chicken and Prawn Gyoza

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To Prep
In a bowl, combine salt, ginger and garlic with the minced chicken. Mix well. Add chopped prawns and mix to combine. Add white pepper, sesame oil, soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine. Mix well.

To Cook
Fry a teaspoon of filling in a hot pan and taste. Adjust filling mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
Place a rounded teaspoon of filling into the centre of a dumpling skin. Dip your finger in water and moisten the edges of the wrapper. Fold the dumpling wrapper in half and press around the edges to seal. Alternatively, you may want to pinch a small portion of the edges together to form a pleat. This will help seal the edges and prevent the filling from falling out during cooking. Continue to form 4-5 pleats.
Heat a fry pan with a drizzle of oil. Add dumplings to the hot pan in a single layer and fry for 3-4 mins until deep golden brown. Add 50ml of water and cover with a lid. Allow to steam for a further 5 mins or until water has evaporated.
Serve immediately with soy sauce, vinegar and ginger.

Steamed Red Bean Buns (Dao Sha Bao)

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To Prep
Combine sugar, yeast, oil and warm water in a bowl and gently stir to mix. Allow to rest for 10 mins. Combine flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Pour all ingredients into a mixing bowl and knead until a smooth, non-sticky dough is formed. Kneading by mixer using a hook will take about 2 mins while hand kneading will take about 10 mins. Lightly oil a bowl and place in the dough. Cover with cling wrap and allow to rest for 1 hr in warm temperature so that the dough will double up in size.
Meanwhile, split the red bean paste into 12 equal portions and shape them into balls.
Once the dough has risen, punch the dough down in order to release any air bubbles. Fold and knead the dough a few times and then reshape it back into a smooth ball. Dust some flour on your working bench. Cut the dough into 2. Keep one dough covered with damp cloth and roll the other into a log. Cut the log into 6 equal sizes and shape them into smooth balls. Store the smooth dough balls on parchment paper and keep covered with damp cloth. Repeat with the other dough.
Using a rolling pin or your palm, flatten one dough at a time. The centre of the dough should be slightly thicker while the edge should be rolled out thinner. Put one ball of red bean paste in the middle of the dough. Gather and pinch the edges to seal the bun. Repeat with remaining dough and red bean paste balls. Place all buns in a large tray and cover with damp towels. Allow to proof for 15 mins. To know if they have proofed, gently press the side of a bun. If the indentation stays, they are ready.

To Cook
Using a large, clean towel, wrap the lid of your steamer and tie with a string to secure the towel in its place. The towel helps to prevent water droplets from dripping back to the bun. If steaming with bamboo basket, the wrapping step is not required. Steam buns over boiling water for 10 mins. Remember to space the buns out a little as the buns will expand once steamed.
At the end of the steaming time, turn of the heat and allow to rest for 5 mins in the steamer without opening the lid. Serve fresh from the steamer. To store them, simply keep them in individual zip lock bags and freeze once they have cooled down. Steam them straight from the freezer.

Steamed Rice Rolls with Sweet Sauce

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To Prep
In a large bowl, combine all the flour ingredients. Pour in oil while using your other hand to slowly knead. Then, gradually pour in water while continuing to knead and mix, getting rid of any lumps until a smooth, watery batter is obtained.

To Cook
Prepare a steamer over high heat. Using a rectangular tray, lightly brush it with oil. Slowly pour in a thin layer of batter to cover the tray. When the water is boiling, place into the steamer and steam for 3 mins or until set.
Remove from steamer and allow to cool for 2 mins. Tilt the tray and gently scrape off the layer while rolling into a long log. Transfer to a plate that has been lightly coated with oil. Repeat Step 2 and 3 with remaining batter. Slice the rolls just before serving.
Mix sauce ingredients into a bowl and pour over steamed rice rolls. Garnish white sesame seeds.

Steamed Pork with Rice Powder (Fen Zheng Rou)

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To Prep
In a bowl, mix pork belly slices with marinade ingredients. Set aside.

To Cook
In a pan over medium heat, place in rice, peppercorns and star anise. Fry until lightly browned. Then, pulverize the mixture using a food processor until fine.
Add the fine rice mixture to the marinated pork. Mix well.
Line the base of a heat proof steaming plate with lettuce leaves and then layer with potato cubes. Spread out the pork belly slices on top of the potato cubes. Steam over high heat for 30 mins.
Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with spring onions. Serve.

Chinese Steamed Egg Custard

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To Cook
Combine the water and rock sugar in to a saucepan and cook under medium heat until the sugar has dissolved before letting it cool.
Beat the eggs before adding in the milk and the cooled syrup and mixing.
Pour the custard mixture through a fine sieve and in to ramekins or bowls that can be used to steam with.
Wrap each individual serving in cling film and place in to a steamer to steam for about 8 mins.
Once the custard has cooked, remove it from the steamer and let it cool and set for at least 15 mins.

Siu Mai

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To Prep
In a large bowl, combine the pork and prawns with the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, sesame oil and salt and pepper.
Place a teaspoon of the filling in to the centre of one of the wrappers and then bring in the sides and gently squeeze to set the shape.
To ensure that the siu mai stands, make sure that the bottom is relatively flat.
If desired, place some of the fish roe on to the top of the siu mai.
Repeat this process until there is no more filling left.

To Cook
Set up a steamer with enough water to cook all of the siu mai and line with baking paper to stop it from sticking to the steamer.
Steam the siu mai in batches for at least 8 minutes or until they are cooked through and then serve!

Blue Butterfly Pea Kuih Lapis

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To Prep
Grease a 20cm square or round cake pan and place in a steamer. Set over a large pan or wok filled with 5cm of water.

To Cook
In a saucepan, add caster sugar, water and pandan leaves. Bring to a boil and then strain and set aside to cool completely.
In a large bowl, combine tapioca flour, rice flour, coconut milk and cooled pandan syrup, mixing well until smooth.
Pour out 1L of batter into a medium-sized bowl. Add 4 tsp of the butterfly blue pea flower extract and mix well. Set aside remaining batter.
Heat the steamer and pan over medium heat, and then pour 200ml of blue batter into the pan and steam for 8 mins. Add 200ml of white batter for the next layer and steam for another 8 minutes. Repeat the process, alternating between white and blue batter, stirring the batter before pouring the next layer.
Finishing on a white layer, add another 1 tsp of blue butterfly pea flower extract to the remaining blue batter. Pour a final layer and steam for 8 mins.
Leave Kuih Lapis to cool completely before turning out onto a plate.
Grease a knife before slicing into the Kuih Lapis, and serve.

Blue Butterfly Pea Seri Muka

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To Prep
Grease a 20cm square or round cake tin and place in a steamer. Set over a large pan or wok filled with 5cm of water.

To Cook
In a mixing bowl, combine rice with coconut milk, water and salt. Pour into the cake tin and steam for 30 mins.
Turn off heat and leave the rice in the steamer for 10 mins. Drizzle blue butterfly pea flower extract onto the rice to create a marbled effect. Remove from the steamer and press the rice firmly to create a compressed rice base layer.
Combine all custard topping ingredients and stir over medium heat until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat.
Spread custard topping onto compressed rice base. Immediately steam for 30 minutes or until set.
Cool completely before slicing the Seri Muka to serve.

Pulut Tai Tai

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To Prep
Grease a 20cm square baking tin. Sit it in a bamboo steamer on a pan or wok filled with 5cm of water.

To Cook
Mix rice with 150ml coconut milk, water and salt in a large bowl, and pour into the baking tin. Steam for 30 mins.
Using a pair of chopsticks to loosen the rice, stir in remaining coconut milk.
Turn off heat and leave the rice in the steamer for another 10 mins.
Drizzle butterfly pea flower extract onto the rice to create a marbled effect. Remove from the steamer and press the rice firmly to create a compressed rice base layer.
Set it aside to cool completely before cutting into pieces. Serve with kaya.