To Prep
Stir through the rice using a paddle to separate and cool the rice a little. When rice is cool to touch, add 3 tbsp sushi rice seasoning and mix well. Set aside.
Prepare the sushi by placing 1 sheet of nori (shiny side down) onto the bamboo rolling mat, moisten your hands with water and take a handful sushi rice.
Spread the rice evenly over the surface of the nori, to within 1cm of the edge.
Add the desired amount of wasabi along the middle of the rice.
Add your preferred fillings in the middle and on top of the rice.
Begin rolling up the mat over the ingredients – stop when you get about 2.5cm from the edge of the nori. Lift the mat and roll forward again to join the edges of the nori – keep applying a gentle pressure to make the roll firm.
Use a sharp knife to cut the completed rolls in half, place the halves side-by-side and cut into thirds. Each roll makes 6 pieces of nori maki.
Vegetables
Mushroom Rice Tomato Pots
To Cook
Preheat oven to 180°C. In a wok, heat oil over high heat before adding in sambal oelek and stir-frying for 1 min or until fragrant.
Add cooked rice and mushrooms and stir-fry for a further 2 mins. Turn off heat and add in the sweet soy sauce, coriander and pine nuts, mix well.
Spoon mixture into tomatoes. Place tomatoes in a heat-proof dish and bake for 5-10 mins. Serve hot, garnished with coriander leaves and drizzled with more sweet soy sauce.
Tip: Serve as a light meal or as part of a bigger meal. Also try stuffing with eggplants, zucchini or capsicum.
Prawn and Vegetable Tempura
To Prep
Make the batter by mixing half a packet of tempura batter with 200ml iced water and whisking gently leaving the batter lumpy.
To Cook
Heat the oil to about 180°C, then dredge ingredients one by one in dry Nisshin Tempura batter flour, then into the batter and fry till golden brown.
Then, prepare dipping sauce by combining all three ingredients in a bowl. Serve tempura with dipping sauce and grated daikon on the side. When eating tempura, mix the grated daikon into the tempura dipping sauce, and take the dipping sauce bowl in hand, quickly dipping the tempura in the mixture before eating.
Thai Lamb and Mango Salad
To Cook
Heat a slightly oiled griddle or fry pan on high. Fry lamb for 2–3 mins each side. Lamb is best cooked until pale pink, so that it stays tender and moist.
Remove from heat and rest in pan for 5 mins, then slice thinly.
Toss the sliced lamb in combination of sauces, oil, lime juice and coriander. Add lamb to remaining ingredients and toss.
Serve with fried cellophane noodles or crusty bread.
Japanese Fried Noodle (Yakisoba)
To Prep
In a small bowl, mix all ingredients for sauce and set aside.
Prepare and slice all vegetables and meat.
To Cook
In a frying pan, heat oil on medium-high heat, and then add meat to cook for 2-3 mins.
Add onions, carrots and cabbage, and cook until almost tender. Then add spring onions and shitake mushrooms and cook for another 1 min. Season with black pepper and stir-fry to mix well.
In the meantime, prepare yakisoba or ramen noodles as per instructions on packaging. Before adding the yakisoba or ramen noodles to the frying pan, separate the noodles with your hands. Lower the heat to medium and add the yakisoba or ramen noodles. Pour yakisoba sauce over the noodles, and stir-fry to combine yakisoba or ramen noodles with ingredients.
Transfer yakisoba to plates and serve with benishouga (pickled red ginger) and aonori (dried green seaweed).
Note: Adjust the amount of yakisoba sauce used according to the amount of ingredients. Too much sauce will make your yakisoba soggy, while too little sauce will result in the lack of flavour.
Chicken Red Curry with Pumpkin (Gaeng Phed Gai Sai Fak Tong)
To Cook
Add some oil to the pot and fry the red curry paste until fragrant.
Add chicken and pumpkin and stir fry until chicken and pumpkin is halfway cooked through for approximately 10 mins. The pumpkins will turn soft which will add volume and thickness to the curry after boiling.
Pour in the can of coconut milk then stir to combine all of the herbs. You may add pumpkins now if you want whole chunks in your curry.
Boil until the chicken is cooked.
When cooked add the sweet basil leaves or kaffir lime leaves. Stir into mix and remove from heat.
Season to taste with fish sauce.
Pandan Glutinous Rice Balls with Palm Sugar (Onde-Onde)
To Cook
Put 2 tbsp glutinous rice flour (from the 200g) in a pan with 4 tbsp water over heat and stir until transparent.
Mix all the ingredients together except the water and coconut. Slowly mix in the water until dough forms.
Divide into 15gm balls, flatten dough and insert cubed gula melaka. Wrap them into a ball.
Cook the balls into a pot of boiling water and when they float, remove and coat with grated coconut.
Spicy Fish Stomach in Coconut Sauce (Lemak Perut Ikan)
To Prep
Grind the spice paste ingredients until fine.
Soak the tamarind in water. Squeeze the soaked tamarind in the water to release the flavour, until the water turns a creamy brown. Remove the pith and set the tamarind water aside.
To Cook
Add the spice paste and tamarind water to a pot, bring to a boil and stir well. Lower heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
Add in ingredients A to the pot and cook for 6 minutes.
Add in ingredients B, seasoning and herbs and simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
Garnish with sliced torch ginger flower and serve with rice.
Malaysian Hand-Torn Noodles (Hand-Torn Pan Mee)
To Make the Dough
Combine the flour and salt together in a bowl and mix well, before making a well in the centre of the flour and adding in the egg. Mix the ingredients together till clumps form and then add in the water.
Continue mixing until a dough forms. Add more water if required or more flour if the dough becomes too sticky.
Continue to knead the doughy until it becomes elastic. At this point, cover with cling wrap and set aside for an hour to soften.
After the hour has passed, remove the dough and divide in to 2 or 3 smaller sections to be handled easier.
Take 1 section of the dough and press the top side of the dough to form a lip. Continue to press this section to stretch it until you get a bite sized piece that is evenly thick and relatively thin.
When you have your desired noodle size, tear it off and set it aside under a damp towel to stop it from drying out.
Repeat until all of the dough has been used.
To Make the Broth
Add the anchovies and water in to a large pot over a high heat. When the stock begins to boil, reduce the heat, add in the salt and let simmer for 15 mins.
When the stock has finished simmering, remove the anchovies form the pot and reduce heat to low or remove from the heat until ready to cook the noodles.
To Cook the Meat and Mushroom Topping
Heat oil in a pan over high heat and when hot, add in the garlic and pork and fry until the meat is mostly cooked through.
Add in the mushrooms and continue to cook for a couple mins.
Reduce the heat and add in the rest of the meat ingredients. Stir well to evenly coat all of the ingredients before adding some water to balance the seasoning.
If the seasoning is good, remove from the heat and set aside.
To Cook the Noodles
Over a high heat, bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. If the stock was removed from the heat, return it to the stove and warm it up over a low heat.
Add the noodles in to the pot one batch at a time, making sure they have enough room to cook and won’t clump together.
Once the noodles begin to float to the surface, let them cook for further min before removing from the pot and setting aside.
Once you’re done with the noodles, add in any vegetables you want and blanch them before setting them aside to serve.
To Serve
Add the cooked noodles in to the broth to heat them up and then transfer a serving in to a bowl and top with the vegetables. Garnish with the cooked meat and mushroom, as well as fried anchovies and fried shallots.
Turmeric Rice with Chicken Curry (Nasi Kunyit)
For the Nasi Kunyit
Wash the glutinous rice and soak with turmeric powder for at least 2 hours.
Boil water in a steamer for 15 minutes. Place a muslin cloth inside the steamer and evenly spread the soaked rice onto the cloth.
To cool down the rice, use your finger or a spoon to make holes in the rice. Steam for 15 minutes and then sprinkle the rice with some water and mix into the rice. Steam for a further 15 minutes.
Add half of the coconut cream to the rice and mix well. Steam for a further 15 minutes.
Finally, add the remaining coconut cream, salt and white pepper to the rice and mix well and steam for another 3 minutes with the pandan leaves.
For the Chicken Curry
Grind or blend spice paste A ingredients together. Add in water (a third of the height of the paste).
Add spice mix B ingredients in and mix well with a spoon (adding powder to the wet paste will help to dry it out). Rest for 15 minutes.
Mix 20ml coconut cream with 270ml water to make a light coconut milk. Set aside 70ml of coconut cream.
In a pot or wok and cooking oil, cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves and fry quickly at medium heat. Add the spice mix and saute. Keep stirring to prevent the paste from sticking to the sides of the wok or pan.
When the bubbles become smaller, add in the chicken. Keep stirring to make sure the chicken is coated with the curry paste. Maintain heat on medium to avoid burning the chicken.
Add the light coconut milk and potatoes and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium to allow the chicken to cook and reduce the gravy by half (this should take about 20 minutes).
When the chicken is tender add salt and the remaining 70ml of coconut milk and bring to the boil for 2 minutes. Serve warm with nasi kunyit.
Japanese Chicken & Egg Rice Bowls (Oyakodon)
To Cook
Cut the onions in half lengthwise, from top to bottom. Cut each half into ¼ inch slices and cutting lengthwise.
Combine the onions, mirin, chicken, soy sauce, sake and dashi in a saucepan and place over high heat. When the liquid comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for approximately 5 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Mix the ingredients occasionally as they cook.
To prepare the oyakodon one serving at a time, break 2 eggs into a bowl, and lightly beat the eggs. You want part of the yolk and whites to be lightly mixed, while the other parts are still separated.
Transfer one fourth of the chicken mixture (about 1½ cups chicken, onions and broth) to a small skillet. Place the skillet over high heat. When the liquid comes to a boil, reduce the heat so the broth is simmering.
Pour three-fourths of the egg mixture over the chicken, onions, and broth, Do not mix. Cook for about 1 minute, and then add the remaining one-fourth egg over the ingredients in the skillet. Cover the skillet and cook for 30 seconds more. Turn off the heat, and let the oyakodon rest, covered, for 1 minute.
While the oyakodon is resting, scoop the cooked rice into a serving bowl. When the oyakodon is ready, uncover and slide the entire contents out of the skillet to rest over the rice. Tilt the skillet and use a spatula if necessary as the oyakodon should slide out easily. Garnish with nori, mitsuba and scallions. Add shichimi togarashi to accentuate the taste. Serve immediately and repeat this preparation for the remaining servings.
Potato Croquettes (Potato Korokke)
To Cook
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Arrange the potatoes on a sheet pan and bake for 30 minutes, until a knife goes through the potatoes easily. When the potatoes have cooled, peel and set aside.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Saute the onion for about 1 minute, until they turn translucent. Add the pork and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes, until the pork cooks through. Transfer to a large mixing bowl when cooked.
Add the potatoes to the pork and mash together until just combined. Add the soy sauce, sugar pepper and mash together. Add the heavy cream and mash until all the ingredients are just combined.
Transfer the potato mixture to a sheet pan and spread it out to make a flat disk about ½ inch thick. Place in the refrigerator uncovered to cool and firm up for about 1 hour.
While the potato mixture is cooling, prepare 4 plates. Pour the flour onto the first plate, beaten eggs, panko into the subsequent plates separately. Pour the beaten egg onto the second plate and pour the panko onto the third plate. On the fourth plate, leave it empty as this plate will hold the breaded korokke.
Place a cast-iron skillet on a burner. Fill the skillet with vegetable oil to a height of at least 1 inch. Attach a deep-fry (or “candy”) thermometer to the side of the skillet. On a work surface near the skillet, set up a tray lined with paper towels to drain the cooked korokke.
When the potato mixture is ready, remove from the refrigerator and cut into 8 even pieces. Form 8 korokke patties, one at a time. Wet your hands, then place one of the pieces of the cooled potato mixture onto your palm. With both hands, gently form it into a flat, oval patty. Repeat for the remaining patties.
Turn on the heat under the skillet to high. Heat the oil to 170°C.
While the oil is heating, bread the korokke patties one at a time. First, dredge a patty in flour on both sides and shake off the excess flour. Second, dip the patty in the egg, coating both sides. Finally, lay the patty on the panko crumbs. Pile panko on top of the korokke with your fingers, then gently press the panko onto the patty so a generous layer of panko sticks on both sides. Be careful to handle the korokke very gently so it doesn’t break apart. Place the completed korokke on the empty plate. Repeat with the remaining patties.
When the oil has reached 170°C, carefully slide the korokke into the skillet. Deep-fry to korokke in batches. Regulate the heat to maintain a constant 170°C oil temperature. If the oil is too hot, the korokke will burn; if too low, the korokke will come out soggy and greasy.
Cook the korokke for about 3 minutes, until they heat through and turn golden brown (they’re already cooked inside). When they’re ready, transfer the korokke to the paper-lined plate to cool.
Serve immediately, with tonkatsu sauce.