Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Seafood

Singapore Chilli Crab

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To Prep
To prepare the crab, remove the top shell, and then remove the lungs using your hand. Use a small brush to gently scrub the crab to remove the mud on the shell and claws. Set aside in a bowl. By the time the crab is ready to be cooked, the ‘juice’ will seep out into the bowl. This ‘juice’ will be used to make the sauce.

To Cook
In a wok or a shallow saucepan, heat the oil over medium high heat.
Add garlic, ginger, and shallots and stir-fry for 1 min.
Add the preserved soya beans and chilli, and stir-fry till fragrant.
Add in spring onions, stir-fry for another minute
Add in the crabs and its liquid, and give it a quick stir before placing a lid on the wok or pan.
Leave crabs to steam and cook on medium high heat.
Combine all ingredients for Sauce, mix well and set aside.
Break the egg into a separate bowl, gently whisk to break the yolk and set aside.
When the crab is cooked (the crab shell will turn to bright orange when it is cooked), remove lid and give the crabs a stir again before adding the sauce.
As the sauce come to a boil, pour in the egg and stir to combine with the sauce and crabs.
Remove from heat and serve in a platter. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with steamed mantou.

Vietnamese Crab Noodle Soup (Bun Rieu)

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Broth
Add half of the water in to a pot and boil. Put the pork bones in to the pot and continue to boil for a few minutes before draining the water and washing the bones to remove any impurities.
Rinse the pot before returning the bones back in and adding the remaining water in to the pork bones pot. Bring the broth back to a boil before reducing to a simmer and cooking for an hour or longer.
Peel the shells off from the shrimps and separate the meat from the shells. Set the meat aside and put the shells in to the broth. When the broth begins to turn red from the prawn shells, remove them along with the pork bones.
Add in the remaining broth ingredients except for the tomatoes and stir well till all the soluble ingredients have dissolved. Bring the broth back up to a boil before finally adding in the tomatoes.

Meatballs
Put the saved meat from the peeled prawns as well as all of the meatball ingredients except for the crab meat into a food processor and blend them together until they have formed a paste.
When the paste has been made, add in the crab meat and hand mix the meat in to the paste until it is relatively evenly mixed in.
Cook the meatballs in the soup broth until they begin to float on the surface of the broth, which means that they have cooked through. Add in the fried tofu at this stage too.

To Serve
In a bowl, add in the noodles and add any of the toppings you want. Pour the broth over the noodles and place a few pieces of the tomatoes and meatballs. Finish with a lime wedge and serve!

Fish Fillet Rice Vermicelli

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To Prep
Marinate the fish meat with white pepper, sesame oil, tapioca flour and salt for about 1 hour.

To Cook
In a heated pot with adequate cooking oil, deep fry fish fillets until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
In another stock pot, add 1-2 tbsp of oil, sesame oil and ginger slices, then sauté until fragrant. Add the anchovies, the white parts of spring onion, and for about 5 minutes until fragrant. Add chicken stock and bring to boil. Then let it simmer for half an hour.
Strain the soup into another pot to remove anchovies, ginger and spring onions. Bring soup to boil again then add tomatoes and salted vegetable. Continue boiling for another 10 mins.
Place a serve of noodles and choy sum into a bowl, ladle soup and top with fish. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.

Note: If you’d wish to keep the fried fish fillets crispy for longer, serve them on a separate plate.

Pork and Prawn Wonton

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To Prep
Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix well with your hand.
Set up plate, wonton skin, filling tray, and a little bowl of water for wrapping the wontons. Dust plate and tray with a little plain flour so that the wonton will not stick.

To Cook
Prepare the soup by bringing the chicken broth to boil. Add salt, white pepper, and sesame oil to taste.
Start wrapping wontons by placing about 1 tsp of meat filling on a wonton wrapper. Dip finger into water and apply around the bottom edges (U shaped). Fold and seal the edges. Fold in half again length wise and pinch the ends together. Repeat until all meat filling is used up. To store for later use, freeze wontons on the tray.
Cook wonton in a boiling pot of water. After wonton is cooked, take it out and set aside in a bowl of room-temperature water to prevent the wontons from sticking to each other.
Transfer the wontons out with a strainer and into the soup and serve immediately.

Note: To improve the taste and texture of the wonton filling, buy pork mince that contains at least 30% fat. Mince with less fat will make the wonton’s texture harder and less juicy.

Japanese Dashi Stock (Awase Dashi)

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To Cook
Combine water and kombu kelp in to a saucepan over medium heat. When the water almost boil, remove the kombu.
Add the bonito flakes to the pot and bring to boil. Lower the heat to simmer for a further 30 secs.
Turn off the heat and set aside for 10 mins.
Strain the broth through a fine strainer to remove the bonito flakes. Refrigerate to use later.

Tom Yum Fried Rice (Khao Pad Tom Yum)

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To Make the Sauce
Pound lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, and chillies until fine. Add in the fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar and lime juice. Alternatively, blend all ingredients in a blender.

To Make Thai-style Fried Egg:
In a wok or small frypan, heat about 1cm of oil to very hot over medium high heat, before smoking.
Crack egg into the oil, then reduce the heat to medium. The egg white would bubble immediately if the oil is hot enough. Fry the egg for about 1.5 mins or until the edges are browned. For non-runny yolk, reduce heat to medium low after adding the egg. If the egg sticks to the pan, gently nudge it with a thin spatula after frying for 1 min for the bottom of the yolk to get firm. Keep the oil for later.

To Make the Fried Rice
Coat a wok with the oil from fried egg, heat over medium high until hot. Sear the prawns until browned on each side and cooked. Remove and set aside.
Add a little oil to the work and saute onion until translucent. Add the Chinese broccoli and toss slightly until the leaves turn bright green, then the rice and toss until most lumps are loosened.
Add the sauce over the rice and toss until they are evenly coated by the sauce and dry.
Remove from heat and stir in green onions. Serve with fried egg, prawns and cucumber. Garnish with spring onion, coriander, chillies and lime.

Salmon in Red Curry (Choo Chee Pla Salmon)

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To Cook
Heat ½ cup coconut milk over low heat. Add Valcom Red Curry Paste and stir-fry until fragrant.
Mix the remaining coconut milk with water. Turn up the heat, then slowly add milk mixture to curry, along with fish sauce and sugar.
Bring to the boil over high heat, then add the fish, one piece at a time, until well cooked.
Garnish with Valcom Kaffir Lime Leaves and red chilli, then remove from heat.

Marinated Shrimps

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To Cook
Bring the shrimps and water to a boil in a large saucepan. Immediately reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 mins until the shrimp turns pink. Quickly drain and plunge the shrimps into a basin of iced water for 30 secs to stop the cooking. Drain, peel and devein the shrimp. Transfer to a serving platter and set aside.
Grind the chillies, shallots and belimbing or tamarind juice to a smooth paste in a mortar or blender. Add a little lime or lemon juice for a more sour taste if desired. Set aside.
Add the ground paste to the shrimp and toss gently until well coated.
Garnish with parsley or coriander leaves, and serve with a small bowl of sweet chilli sauce on the side.

Stir-fried Jicama with Shredded Cuttlefish (Ju Hu Char)

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To Cook
In a small pot, boil water and cook the pork belly for about 20 mins. Let it cool and cut into long strips. The water now becomes the stock base for the dish. Set stock aside.
Heat 6 tbsp of oil to saute ingredients A till fragrant. Dish out the garlic and shallots and set aside roughly 3 tbsp of the now flavoured oil.
With the remaining oil in the wok, add the thinly sliced pork, ingredients B and saute till cooked. Dish out on a large plate.
In the same wok, pour in the balance of the flavoured oil and ngredients C. Add enough stock to cover vegetables and simmer until all the moisture dries up. Add in stir fried ingredients B and mix well.
Ju Hu Char is great eaten in a lettuce wrap, topped with sambal belacan. You can also garnish with crispy shallots or chopped coriander.

Thai Fried Rice (Khao Phat)

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To Cook
Heat oil in a wok, add onions and fry until soft.
Add prawns, pork and red curry paste, saute until pork is done.
Add rice and stir continuously until well mixed and fairly dry. Push the mixture to one side of the pan.
Add eggs, stir-fry until done and stir into rice.
Garnish and serve with cucumber.

Ayam Semor with Sambal Goreng Buncis Udang Petai

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Sambal Terasi
Pour oil into a frypan and stir in the chillies, garlic, shallots and belacan. Continue stirring until soft.
Transfer into a food processor or mortar & pestle together with the sugar, salt and chicken stock powder. Blend until smooth.
When cool transfer to a jar with a airtight lid, store in refrigerator.
WARNING:- Best to cook this outside as the fumes from the chilli while cooking can be very overpowering, making it hard to breathe.

Ayam Semor
Place the chicken pieces into a large bowl. Rub the salt & white pepper together with 1 tbsp of the ABC Kecap Manis, cover and let stand for ½ hour.
While the chicken is marinating, cut the eggplant into 1cm thick slices, spray with cooking spray and bake under a grill until golden brown on both sides. Set aside.
In a jug make up the chicken stock powder with the cup of boiling water, stir to dissolve.
In a deep pan heat the remaing oil and brown the chicken pieces. Set aside.
Without adding extra oil fry the onions, garlic and ginger until soft.
Add the cloves, nutmeg and return the chicken pieces together with any resting juices to the pan. Pour over 3 tbsp of ABC Kecap Manis and the stock liquid. Stir to make sure each piece of chicken has been costed with the sauce. Salt & pepper to taste.
Bring to the boil, cover and reduce the heat and simmer for 25 mins. Remove the chicken from the sauce and arrange the eggplant in a single layer on the base of the pan. Return the chicken back on top. Cover and simmer for a further 5 mins.

Sambal Goreng Buncis Udang Petai
Top and tail the beans and slice on the diagonal.
In a saucepan pour in the oil and fry the onion and garlic on a medium to low heat until the onions have softened.
Toss in the fresh beans and continuously stir for 5 mins.
Add the sambal terasi, tamarind paste, shaved palm sugar and the petai beans.
Pour in the TCC Premium Coconut Milk, salt & pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, cover and reduce heat and cook until the beans are just tender.
Add the prawns in a layer on top (do not stir through). Cover and cook until they have just turned a lovely pinky orange. This step will not take long, so do not leave the kitchen, as you do not want to overcook them. Remove from heat and stir through.
Serve both dished with fluffy white Jasmine rice.