Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Seafood

Penang Nyonya Lam Mee

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To Cook
To prepare the stock, rinse the pork bones with water. Transfer the bones in to a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 mins while scooping out any scum that floats to the surface.
After boiling, drain, rinse again and return to the empty pot. Fill the pot with 4L of water and the crushed peppercorns. Add soaked dried scallop into the stock pot and continue boiling for another 1 ½ hours.
Add the chicken breast and pork belly in to the stockpot and boil till cooked. Once done, remove both from the pot, shred chicken meat and sliced up pork belly. Set aside.
Boil prawns with shell on in the pot until cooked. When the prawns are cooked, remove them from the pot and peel the shells.
Put the prawn’s shells back into the boiling prawn water and boil for another 5 mins before removing them.
Season the stock with salt, pepper and rock sugar and continue to cook for another 30 mins.
While the stock finishes cooking, whisk the eggs to make a thin omelette and then cut it in to strips. Set aside.

To Prep the Sambal Belacan
Using a pestle and mortar, grind all of the chillies and the belacan into a thick paste. Add in the calamansi lime juice and mix well. Adjust according to taste.

To Serve
Blanch the yellow egg noodles and bean sprouts in boiling water for 1 min. Transfer the cooked noodles in to a serving bowl.
Place a serving of the chicken, prawn, pork belly, dried scallop, egg omelette and bean sprouts on to the noodles. Ladle in hot stock and a few pieces of pork ribs.
Garnish with some garlic, oil, fried shallots, spring onions, chives and coriander.
Enjoy the lam mee with sambal belacan!

Calamari Salad

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To Cook
Clean the squid, score the inside in a criss-cross pattern and cut into bite size pieces. Boil in water with a little vinegar added (this enhances the whiteness) until tender – approx. 30 secs.
Pound the chilli and the garlic in a mortar and stir in the fish sauce and lime juice. Pour this mixture over the squid.
Add the sliced lemon grass, spring onions, celery, mint and coriander leaves and mix lightly.
Line a serving dish with the lettuce leaves and spoon the salad on top. Garnish this Calamari salad with extra chillies.

Grilled Octopus Balls (Takoyaki)

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To Cook
Make the batter by whisking together the flour, yamaimo, eggs, and dashi until smooth.
Brush sesame oil on the insides of the takoyaki pan to generously coat the entire surface, and then place the pan over low heat. Preheat for about 2 mins.
When the pan is ready, pour batter into each mould to fill in three-fourths full. To each mould, add about 2 pieces of octopus and a pinch of spring onions. Add more batter to each mould until they are full. Make sure to not overflow the moulds.
Cook for about 3 mins. Carefully dip each takoyaki using chopsticks or a skewer.
Cook for about 3 more minutes. At this point, the takoyaki should be nicely browned all over and is springy and soft in the inside.
Use chopsticks or a skewer to transfer the takoyaki to a plate.
Drizzle okonomiyaki sauce over the takoyaki, garnish with aonori and bonito flakes, and serve immediately.

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.

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!

Soft Tofu Soup (Sundubu)

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To Cook
Start boiling a 1 litre pot or clay pot of water.
Combine the soup seasoning ingredients. Mix well and reserve.
Sprinkle salt on the soft tofu and let it absorb the salt for about 10 minutes.
Chop spring onions, red and green peppers. Set aside.
Wash and rinse oysters using salted water (1L water and 1 tbsp salt). Drain and remove any excess moisture. Set aside.
Let the pipi clams exude debris by soaking them in salted water (1L water and 1 tbsp salt). Set aside.
Add vegetable broth and all ingredients with seasoning to a clay pot and heat till boiling.
Add soft tofu, oysters and clams to the boiling clay pot. Continue boiling for 1 min so the flavours blend together making soft tofu soup.
Garnish the boiling soup with mushrooms, Korean Red Peppers and green pepper and spring onions.
Break the egg and add it to the boiling soup. Serve.

Sambal Ladies Fingers (Sambal Okra)

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To Cook
Boil water in a pot and blanch the okra for about 3 mins. Drop them into a bowl of cold water to stop these from cooking further.
When these have cooled down a bit, slit the tip of the stalk, peel off the center and remove the seeds. This can take some practice as you want to create a pocket for the sambal to sit in, Try not to mutilate the okra too much.
Mix the dressing ingredients together and leave for 15 mins to dissolve the sugar.
To serve, stuff the okra with sambal.

Vermicelli Salad (Kerabu Bee Hoon)

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To Cook
Prepare vermicelli as per instructions on package. Ensure that vermicelli is not overcooked, then refresh in cold water, drain and set aside.
Steam the prawns with their shells on for 10 mins until cooked and then peel off the shells. This helps as the prawns will not shrink.
In a big bowl, mix the shallots with the dressing and add in the vermicelli. When evenly mixed, add in prawns, half of the toasted groundnuts and kerisik.
Garnish with the remaining toasted groundnuts, coconut and curled coriander sprigs.

Abalone Porridge (Jeonbok Naejang Jook)

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To Prep
Rinse the medium grain (calrose) rice and soak thoroughly in 950ml water for about 2 hrs at room temperature.
Pry the abalone from its shell using a spoon. Take a 1.5cm incision on the end of the abalone closest to the adductor muscle and remove the abalones tooth. Cut open the intestine and remove the debris.
Clean the abalone by rubbing it with salt. Rinse the abalone and separate the intestine. Cut the intestine into small pieces and thinly slice the abalone meat.

To Cook
Heat a flat pan over a medium heat and season with sesame oil. Add the sliced abalone meat and intestine to the pan and saute. Then, add rice and saute for about 1 minute.
Add 1.9L to the flat pan and increase to high heat to make the porridge.
Once the porridge starts boiling, lower to medium heat. Let the porridge continue to cook until the rice grains become extremely soft making the jeonbok naejang jook.
Transfer the jeonbok naejang jook to a serving bowl and garnish with pine nut powder. Serve with salt and soy sauce on the side.

Note: When buying abalone, ensure that they are still alive in their shell, stored on ice or it is still in the water. Make sure your abalone does not have any fishy smell as that is a sign it is not fresh. Quickly refrigerate them in the coldest part of the fridge and store them in a bowl and cover it with a wet cloth. Use within 24 hours.