To Cook
Clean fish, cut open and lay flat. Deep-fry until crispy and drain.
Toss together mango, chillies and peanuts.
Add sugar, lemon juice and fish sauce to taste.
Arrange the fish on a platter and the mango salad on a side dish.
Garnish with coriander and garlic chives.
Vegetables
Betel Leaves Wrap (Miang Kham)
To Prep
To prepare the palm sugar dressing, pound shrimp paste, galangal, shrimp floss, toasted shredded coconut in pestle.
To Cook
In a saucepan over high heat, caramelise sugar with 50ml water. Then, add pounded ingredients from Step 1 to the saucepan together with 100ml of water and fish sauce. Reduce heat to a simmer for 1-2 mins, then remove from heat and set aside to cool.
To serve, place palm sugar dressing in a small bowl and arrange ingredients (betel leaves, shallots, ginger, dried shrimp, toasted shredded coconut, lime and chillies) on a serving platter.
To enjoy miang kham, roll the betel leaf into a cone, fill it up with the various ingredients and top with sweet and tangy sauce.
Steamed Custard in a Pumpkin Shell (Sankaya)
To Prep
Combine coconut cream, eggs and sugar.
Slice off the top of the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds.
Fill the pumpkin with coconut mixture and steam gently for 30 mins.
Refrigerate and serve chilled.
Stir-Fried Beef with Black Pepper and Garlic Sauce
To Prep
Combine the sliced steak, oil, garlic paste, black peppercorns and white pepper in a small bowl and allow to marinate. (up to 24 hrs)
To Cook
Heat wok over a medium high heat and stir fry the beef 2-3 mins
until browned. Remove and set aside.
Add the carrot and bok choy to the wok and stir fry 1-2 mins, stir in the oyster sauce and fish sauce. Return the steak to the wok and toss through.
Serve hot garnished with spring onion curls.
Assorted Sushi Rolls (Nori Maki)
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.
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.