Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Seafood

Fragrant BBQ Fish

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Vietnamese Slaw
In a bowl, combine the wombok, spring onions and carrots, roughly mix together.
Add in the Thai basil, coriander and chilli, lightly mix.
In a small bowl, combine the rice wine vinegar, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, ginger and garlic, stir thoroughly until the sugar has dissolved.
Pour dressing over salad, ensuring all salad components are covered in dressing. Top salad with the roasted peanuts. Put into the fridge to chill whilst making the fish parcels.

Fish parcels
Using a large bowl, combine the lemongrass, shallots, turmeric, garlic, pepper and salt, mix well. Then add in the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar, mix again to combine.
Heat the BBQ to medium heat. Place banana leaf onto the bbq to soften (about 15-20 secs). Remove banana leaf from heat.
Lay out banana leaf, then place a piece of fish in the middle along with half of the lemongrass mixture. Fold the banana leaf over the fish covering all sides and secure with toothpicks to ensure it remains closed while cooking.
Place banana leaf parcel onto the grill at medium heat, close lid and cook for 8-10 mins.
Remove parcel from the grill and let it rest for 1 minute.
Serve the fish parcels with the fresh Vietnamese slaw.

Pomelo, Prawn & Green Mango Salad Bowl

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To Cook
Marinate prawns in mixture for 1 hour.
Assemble salad in 4 bowls and stir through salad dressing.
Stir fry prawns for 2-3 mins in batches in a hot wok with peanut oil. Place on top of each bowl.
Garnish with some toasted coconut flakes, sliced red chilli (optional) and remaining mixed herbs.
Enjoy with cold beer!

Prawn Red Thai Curry

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To Cook
Stir fry 2 tbsp Valcom Thai Red Curry Paste (add more if hot curry is preferred). Cook rice at the same time.
Add vegetables to stir fry.
Add TCC Light Coconut Milk.
Add shelled tiger prawns, stir fry until prawns are just cooked through. Place cooked rice on plate, then add the curry prawns.
Add sliced red chilli, shallots, coriander and lime to garnish.
Serve.

Mud Crab Vermicelli with Home Made XO Sauce

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To Make the XO Sauce
Drain the shrimp and discard the water. Chop finely.
Drain the scallop, keep the water for later. Using a fork or your fingers, break the scallops into thin strips.
Heat the oil until it is hot, turn down the heat to medium then add the scallops and fry until lightly brown. Stir constantly to prevent burning.
Add the chopped shrimp into the wok and fry for about 3-5 mins.
Add bacon and fry for another 3 mins.
Using a slotted spoon or strainer, take the mixture out of the oil and transfer it to a separate fry pan.
Cook this meat mixture over medium heat and season with oyster sauce, soy sauce, cooking wine, pepper and sugar. Add the water from the scallop and cook until the liquid disappears.
Use the oil in the wok to fry the chillies for 3-5 mins and then add the shallots. Keep stirring to prevent burning.
Add the garlic and fry until they are golden brown.
Return the scallop/shrimp/bacon into the wok. Turn off the heat immediately and stir and mix well.

To Cook the Crab
Put the mud crab in the fridge or freezer for 20-30 mins to immobilise it. This will put it to sleep.
Separate the crab body from the shell, remove the dead man’s fingers and cut the body in quarter. Crack the claws and legs using a rolling pin or meat tenderiser. Toss them in corn flour until lightly covered. Shake off excess flour.
In a deep wok, heat the oil and fry the crab lightly until it changes colour. There is no need to fully cook the crab at this stage as we will cook it further later. Set aside.
Tip off the oil and leave about 2 tbsp in the wok. Toss the garlic, ginger, and chilli and fry until fragrant. Add the XO sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce and the stock, letting it simmer for 1 min.
Add the vermicelli and let it soak the liquid until the vermicelli becomes soft. If it needs more liquid, just add more stock and adjust the flavour.
Just before the liquid is fully absorbed by the vermicelli, add the crab and mix well. Put the lid on the wok and turn down the heat to low-medium. Let it cook for about 10 mins.
Sprinkle the coriander and fried shallot, mix well.
Transfer it into a big deep dish, garnish with extra coriander and spring onion.
TIP: Put the leftover XO sauce in an airtight jar and store it in the fridge

Braised Mushroom and Pork Belly with Sea Cucumber

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To Cook
Bring water to a boil in a large pot for approximately 1 hr, until the sea cucumber has softened. Cut into suitable pieces.
Bring a new pot of water to a boil in a large pot. Place the pork belly in the pot, blanching for 3-5 mins. Leave to the side.
Heat up a wok and add some oil. Saute the ginger and garlic until the aromas are released.
Add the pork, sea cucumber and mushrooms to the wok mixture. Add the light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Stir-fry for 2-3 mins.
Add the water, cinnamon and star anise.
Stir often to ensure everything is mixed well. Bring to a boil.
Transfer the wok mixture to a big pot. Cover with a lid and leave to simmer for approximately 1 hr until both the pork and sea cucumber are tender.
Garnish with spring onion and serve while hot.

Thai Steamed Clams with Lemongrass (Hoi Tom Takrai)

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To Prep
You can easily pound the birds eye chilli and kaffir lime leaves using a mortar and pestle.

To Cook
Heat up a wok with some oil. When the oil begins to smoke, quickly add the lemongrass, galangal, bird’s eye chilies and stir fry until fragrant.
Add the clams to the wok and combine with the previous ingredients. Follow up by adding the coconut water.
Add the kaffir lime leaves before covering the wok. Let the clams cook covered until they are done. You can tell the clams are done when they are all open and should only take a couple of minutes, try not to overcook the clams.
Add some lime juice and fish sauce to taste. Give it a good stir to mix.
Transfer to a serving bowl and serve immediately with some steamed rice.

Chinese Steamed Ginger Clams

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To Prep
In a bowl, mix all the seasoning ingredients together and set aside. Make sure all the ingredients are well mixed.
Place the clams on a suitably sized stainless steel deep dish plate. Make sure the plate deep enough to hold any juices that may come out of the clams.
Add the seasoning and ginger to the clams and mix well.
Add the spring onions and garlic oil and prepare the steamer.

To Cook
Steam for about 15 mins or until cooked. Make sure the water is boiling before placing the plate of clams in the steamer.
When the clams are done, garnish with more coriander and spring onion. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Radish Cake

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To Prep
Grate your radish using a handheld grater, then using your hands squeeze out any excess water. Place in a bowl and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine rice flour, tapioca flour and water to form a flour paste and set aside.

To Cook
Start boiling 500ml of water in a pot and separately heat up some cooking oil in wok, and stir fry the shallots for a few minutes. Add the Chinese sausage, mushrooms and dried shrimp to the wok and stir fry until aromatic.
Next add the ingredients for the seasoning and stir fry for a few more minutes. Then pour all the fried ingredients into the pot of boiling water.
If the water has stopped boiling, bring it back up to a boil. Then pour the contents of the pot into the flour paste we made in step (2). Using a large spoon, mix to combine the flour paste with the water and other ingredients.
Next, add the grated radish into the flour mixture in 4 separate batches. Make sure each batch of grated radish has been properly combined with the mixture before adding the next batch.
Then add in the radish in 4 portions and use wooden spoon to separate the radish evenly and stir well.
Pour the radish cake mixture into a 20cm by 10cm loaf pan. Then place the loaf pan into a steamer on high heat and steam for 35 minutes.
Once the radish cake is done, remove it from the steamer and allow it to cool.
Slice the radish cake into 2cm thick slices. Pan fry each slice until golden on each side and serve with dipping sauce of your choice. Usually dipping sauces used are a simply chilli sauce, but can be easily replaced with Sriracha sauce or similar. Enjoy! These steamed radish cakes also go well with a bowl of piping hot rice or porridge

Mixed Vegetable Stew (Nyonya Chap Chye)

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To Cook
Heat up some oil in a wok over medium high heat. Add the garlic and onions and sauté until fragrant. Add the taucu and sauté for another minute.
Add the chopped cabbage and continue cooking until the cabbage becomes soft.
Add the other ingredients to the wok except the glass noodles. If the ingredients had to be soaked, toss them into the wok together with the soaking liquid, then top up with enough water to cover all the ingredients.
Bring to a boil then cover the wok with a lid. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Check the vegetables to see if they are done. When they are, add the glass noodles and mix well. Let it stew simmer uncovered until the sauce reduces, but make sure not to let the sauce completely dry up.
Season with salt and pepper and serve with steamed white rice.

Spicy Cucumber Salad (Kerabu Timun)

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To Prep
When the dried shrimp have soaked enough to be soft, coarsely chop them into smallish pieces.
Peel the cucumbers, and cut in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and proceed to cut the cucumbers into large matchsticks about ½ cm thick.
Mix in 2 tsp of salt with the cucumber in a bowl and let it sit for 20-30 minutes. Drain off any liquid that is extracted from the cucumber.
In a large mixing bowl, add the cucumbers, shallots, sambal belacan, dried shrimp, salt and sugar. Toss and mix the salad well, making sure that all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
Transfer the completed salad to a serving bowl and serve immediately with steamed rice.

Prawn Fritters (Cucur Udang)

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To Prep
Combine plain and rice flour together in a large bowl.
Add prawns, onions, bean sprouts, spring onions and carrots in the bowl.
Slowly add in the water and mix well. The mixture shouldn’t be too thick or runny. Ensure that all ingredients are coated well with flour.
Season with a pinch of salt, sugar and pepper.

To Cook
Heat up oil in wok. Slowly put in some of the fritter batter into the hot oil and deep fry for a few minutes until crunchy. The size of each fritter is up to you, smaller ones give more crunch, while larger ones have a soft, fluffy texture on the inside.
Drain and remove excess oil. Allow to cool for a bit and serve warm.

Spicy Seafood Japchae

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To Prepare
Soak the noodles according to packet instructions or until soft, then drain.
Mix 1 tbsp sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar and garlic in a bowl to make the sauce.
Combine oil, 1 tbsp sesame oil and chilli powder in a pan over low-medium heat, ensuring that you are stirring often. When the oil starts to run red, turn off the heat and remove the pan.
In a new pan, combine the noodles and 1 tbsp of the sauce over medium heat. Fry for approximately 3-4 mins, till the noodles have softened.
Set the noodles on a plate. Stir-fry the onion briefly in the same pan and add the carrots and mushrooms till wilted. Add a little bit of water if the vegetables seem dry. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add the seafood and sauce and cook until the seafood is fully cooked. Add the optional mushrooms and scallions.
Add the noodles back in the pan and combine. Add more seasoning to taste if required.
Serve while hot.