Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Seafood

Indonesian Stir-Fry Seafood Noodle (Bakmi Goreng)

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To Cook
Place noodles in a deep bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to stand for 2-3 mins until separated. Drain and set aside.
Heat 1 tbsp oil, pour in eggs to make an omelette. When cooked, slice and set aside.
In a bowl, mix together chilli sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil.
Heat remaining oil. Add garlic, stir-fry until fragrant. Add prawns and squid. Cook for 2 mins, or until prawns turn pink and squid curled up.
Add the bowl of mixed sauces, and then the mushrooms, cook for 2 mins.
Add the noodles and toss to coat the noodles in the sauce, ensuring all ingredients are well coated. Season with salt and pepper.
Garnish with sliced omelette and spring onion. Serve.

Tips
For any successful stir-fry, have all the ingredients prepared and sauces on ‘stand-by’. As food is cooked on high heat, the order of adding the raw ingredients into the hot pan is important so as not to undercook, nor overcook them.
For a vegetarian option, replace seafood with a variety of fresh mushrooms like oyster, brown, white, chanterelle and enoki to give both flavour and texture to the dish.
Chinese families often fry a bowl of finely chopped garlic in a cup of oil, until golden brown. Store in a jar, and drizzle over food as a finishing touch to dishes as you would with extra virgin olive oil. Or use this fragrant oil to fry your eggs.

Tempura with Wasabi Tartar Sauce

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To Cook
Add tempura batter mix to cold water and whisk through, do not over mix. Coat your choice of ingredient in the batter and deep fry in hot oil (150˚C -180˚C) until golden brown.
Mix wasabi paste, mayonnaise, capers, gherkins and chopped parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve with assorted tempura, fish and chips or use as a dipping sauce.

Steamed Coral Cod with Goji on Lotus Leaf

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To Prep
Score the fish by making 2 cuts on each side of the fish. Use 2 tbsp vegetable oil to brush over the fish.

To Cook
Line bamboo steamer with lotus leaf. Place fish on a lotus leaf and sprinkle goji berries on top of fish. Steam for 15 mins or until cooked.
Heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in fry pan. Sauté ginger and spring onion. Add seasoning mix, stir through to combine well. Pour over the fish. Serve hot with steamed Jasmine rice.
Enjoy your Steamed Coral Cod recipe!

Stuffed Hairy Gourd in Oyster Sauce

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To Cook
Cook hairy gourd in a pot of boiling water until tender. Drain and let cool.
Combine minced shrimp meat with marinade ingredients. Mix well. Dust the inner part of hairy gourds with corn starch and stuff with marinated shrimp.
Prepare a steamer over high heat. Steam hairy gourds for 8 mins. Remove from heat and discard excess juice.
Sauté mushrooms and pour in sauce mix ingredients. Stir and heat through. Pour over steamed hairy gourds and serve. Garnish with chopped spring onions and red chillies if desired.

Steamed Fish Cake

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To Prep
Separate ½ cup coconut milk into small saucepan, mix with flour, stir until smooth, place over low heat until thickens. Remove from heat and set aside in a container for topping.
Mix light coconut milk with the curry paste in a mixing bowl. Stir well with wooden spatula, combine the fish, stir gently and slowly, pour coconut milk into the mixture little by little, keep stirring until the fish absorb the curry. Add beaten egg and fish sauce, stir through, and then ½ cup basil leaves and 1 tbsp kaffir lime until the mixture becomes smooth.
Put the vegetable or few basil leaves at the bottom of the prepared ramekins or bowls, place 4 tbsp of the fish curry mixture over the vegetable. Top with thick coconut milk and garnish with a little kaffir lime and red chilli.

To Cook
Place the bowls in the steamer, steam over boiling water at high heat for 20 mins or until cooked. Remove from heat.
Your Steamed Fish Cakes are ready!

Korean Soft Tofu Hotpot (Sundubu Jjigae)

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To Cook
Heat cooking oil in a saucepan. Cook pork quickly for about 2 mins over medium heat. Add garlic and continue cooking for 10 secs.
Turn heat down to very low and add the chilli powder and chilli oil and cook for 2 mins. Stir well and make sure you don’t burn the chilli powder.
Add water and onion and bring it to a boil. Simmer soup for about 5-7 mins. Add in pipis and cook for about 2-3 mins until shells have opened.
Add the tofu with the rest of other ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer soup for about 1-2 mins and season with extra salt if necessary.
Add 1 egg yolk to soup towards the end of cooking time, careful not to stir yolk until its set.

Hot and Spicy Rice Cake (Tteokbokki)

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To Cook
Soak rice cakes in a bowl of cold water for about 20 mins if using rice cakes stored in the fridge or freezer. If using fresh rice cakes, there is need to soak. Pull rice cakes apart into individual pieces is they are stuck before cooking.
Fill saucepan with water and gochujang. Bring this to a boil. Put in the fish cakes and onions and simmer for about 5 mins. Alternatively, to lessen the spiciness, reduce gochujang and substitute with some tomato sauce for colour.
Add the rice cakes, garlic, gochugaru (chilli flakes), soy sauce, sugar and corn syrup and cook until the rice cake are soft, this should take about 5 mins.
Drizzle in some olive oil before serving.

To Serve
Tteokbokki can be served with hard-boiled eggs, cooked instant ramen or even fried mandu (Korean dumplings).

Mamak Mee Goreng

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To Make Fritters
Mix all the ingredients for fritter to form batter. Use a tablespoon to scoop a big dollop into hot oil and deep fried till golden brown. Cooled and cut into chunks.

To Make Chilli Paste
Remove seeds from dried chillies, soak in hot water for 15 mins and blend with 2 tbsp of water.
Heat up frying pan with 3 tbsp of oil and sauté the chilli paste over low heat till fragrant and oil is separated. Add in brown sugar, tamarind juice, salt and cook for 1 min. Set aside to cool.

To Cook Mamak Mee Goreng
Put 2 tbsp oil into frying pan and sauté the chopped onion and garlic.
Toss in fried tofu slices and boiled potatoes and fry for 1 min.
Add in 1 tbsp fried chilli paste (add 2 tbsp if you prefer spicier), squid and fry for 1 min.
Toss in the choy sum and squid, stir and put in the fritters and tomato wedges. Cook for 1 min.
Toss in the noodles then the sauce ingredients and stir for further 30 secs or till well mixed.
Push noodles to one side, pour beaten eggs, stir it till half cooked.
Bring noodles together with the eggs and fry till cooked.
Toss in bean sprouts and chillies, cook for 1 min and plate up.
Garnish with cucumber julienne, sliced green chillies and lime wedges. Serve.

Otak-Otak

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To Prep
Blend the spice paste ingredients in a food processor until fine.
Chop the fish fillet into small pieces; blend it with rice flour, kaffir lime leaves, salt and sugar until fine.
Combine the blended fish paste and spice paste mix well, add in eggs and coconut milk and stir well.
Spread a tablespoon of the combined paste in the middle of the banana leaves, fold the leaf over the paste, tuck both ends underneath the parcel and secure with toothpicks in both ends. Repeat until all paste is used.

To Cook
Heat up wok and boil water. Steam for 10 mins over rapidly boiling water.
Unwrap the leaves and serve this otak-otak immediately.

Assam Fish Curry

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To Prep
Blend chilli paste ingredients into paste.

To Cook
Heat oil in a wok or pot, add in blended chili paste, sauté till fragrant.
Add curry powder, curry leaves and lemongrass, stir to mix well.
Add tamarind juice and tomato, bring to boil.
Add the water and bring it all to boil again.
Add fish cutlets, season with salt and sugar, cook fish till done.
Add in okra and cook for 1 min.
Dish your Assam Fish Curry and serve with rice.

Penang Prawn Noodle (Hokkien Mee)

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For prawn Soup Stock
Place 600g pork rib in a pot. Separately boil some hot water. Once boiled, scoop hot water over pork ribs, lightly blanch it and drain water out.
Add all stock ingredients including 600g blanched pork rib. Bring to full boil and then turn over to low heat and leave to slow boil for 1½ hrs. Season with rock sugar and salt.
Strain stock, retain soup. Add in the sambal chili paste – sambal recipe below (2½ tbsp or adjust to your preference).

For Sambal Chilli Paste
Blend (Part A) till it becomes a paste.
Heat oil in wok, add in blended (Part A), sauté for 10 mins.
Add in chopped dried shrimps from (Part B), continue to cook for 5 mins.
Add in seasonings in Part B and dish out set aside.

For Other Ingredients
200g fresh shrimps, stir fry in the same wok after dishing out the sambal paste, season with salt, set aside.
200g chicken breast, blanch in the prawn soup stock for 15 mins, remove and sliced or shredded then set aside.
Water spinach (kangkung), blanch in hot water. Drain and set aside.
Bean sprouts, blanch in hot water, drain and set aside.
Yellow noodles and rice vermicelli, blanch in hot water, drained and set aside.

To Serve
Place noodles into serving bowl, top up with prawn soup stock and garnish with bean sprouts, water spinach (kangkung), hard-boiled eggs, chili shrimps, pork slices, sliced fish cakes, fried pork lards and fried shallots.

Nasi Goreng Kampung

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To Cook
Puree everything in (Part A) except oil. If you can’t get it smooth, add the oil, stir and blend again. It’ll get finer.
Heat wok on medium heat. Add oil and if including anchovies, fry anchovies till golden and crispy, drain and dish up.
With remaining oil in wok, put in (Part A) and 1 tsp salt and carefully fry it until fragrant.
Put in rice and turn the heat on high. Toss until it looks even, push the rice aside.
Crack your eggs and put it in the center. Spread the eggs around. Immediately push the rice onto the eggs and toss the rice, making sure the eggs at the bottom are all brought up and broken up. Fry for a while.
Put water convolvulus or choy sum. Toss for 5-10 secs, not too long. Dish up and serve this delicious Nasi goreng kampung.