Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

Red Braised Lion’s Head Meatballs (Hong Shao Shi Zi Tou)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Make the potato starch flurry by combining the potato starch and water together and mixing. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the pork and the water together and mix. Add in the ginger, water chestnuts, scallion, rice wine, sesame oil and salt. Stir well to combine and then divide in to 5 large meat balls.
To help sear the meatballs, dust them lightly with cornstarch.

To Cook
In a wok or frying pan, heat up the oil over a high heat. When the wok begins to lightly smoke, add in the meatballs and fry until the meatballs have evenly browned.
When the meatballs have browned, remove them from the wok and set them aside. Don’t worry about if the meatballs are still uncooked as they will be braised.
In a steamer, steam the wombok leaves until the leaves are soft and wilted. Remove them from the steamer and set them aside.
In a claypot, place some of the wombok leaves on to the bottom to form a base. Add in the meatballs and pour in the stock, soy sauce and sugar. Cover the meatballs with the remaining wombok leaves and cover with the lid.
Set the claypot on to a stove and bring to a boil over a high heat before reducing to a simmer and letting braise for 60-90 mins.

To Serve
When the dish has finished braising, transfer the meatballs on to a serving plate and garnish with the wombok leaves.
Retain the braising liquid and add in the slurry to thicken the broth. Spoon the thickened broth on to the serving plate and garnish with spring onions.

Lion’s Head (Shi Zi Tou) Meatballs with Mung Bean Threads

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
In a mixing bowl, break up the tofu in to really small pieces.
Add minced pork, soy sauce, white pepper, sesame oil, wine, minced ginger, 1 tbsp of salt and corn starch into the mixing bowl. Mix well.
Start making your meatballs. It should be the size of your fist as it is called Lion’s Head.

To Cook
In a frying pan, add oil and heat over medium heat. In small batches, sear meatballs until golden brown on one side carefully as you do not want to break them. Rotate them to sear evenly and to maintain its round meatball shape. Transfer seared meatballs to a bowl.
Retain the fat and oil from cooking the meatballs and add in the wombok to saute until they have turned slightly yellow and wilted. Remove the wombok from the pan and set aside.
In a claypot, add meatballs, followed by shiitake mushrooms and stock. Bring to boil and simmer for 30-45 mins. Add wombok to the claypot 10 mins before serving.
Then add the soaked mung bean threads to the pot, close the lid. This should take about 1-2 mins to cook.

To Serve
Remove the claypot from the stove and garnish with spring onions on top. Serve immediately with rice.

Chicken Congee

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Place chicken drumsticks and a teaspoon of salt in six cups of boiling water and bring back to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on.
Remove chicken and set aside to cool down. Add cooked rice to the broth and boil until rice thickens into porridge, stirring the whole time.
Chop up the white section of the spring onion and thinly slice up the green part.
Saute the chopped onion and the white spring onion with oil until fragrant. Add julienned ginger and continue to saute until onion is caramelised. Turn off heat.
Remove meat from chicken drumsticks and coarsely chop up chicken. Return chicken pieces to rice congee. Add extra water to congee if it becomes too thick.
Taste test. Add remaining salt as necessary. Add pepper, stir through and remove from heat.
Serve congee garnished with caramelised onion, ginger and sliced onion.

Japanese Rice Balls (Onigiri)

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Cook rice in accordance to instructions.
Combine rice wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pour into rice with sesame seeds and mix well.
Cut the seaweed sheet into six strips. You may further cut the seaweed into any shape to decorate the onigiri.
Place 1/3 cup of rice over the centre of the cling wrap. Gather the ends of the cling wrap and squeeze to form a ball. To add filling, press an indent into the rice, add filling and mould the rice into a triangular shape or a ball.
Remove the cling wrap and cover the bottom of the onigiri with a seaweed strip.
Serve with Japanese soy sauce.

Japanese Green Tea Rice (Ochazuke)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Prepare hot Japanese green tea
Microwave cold rice and divide into two bowls.
Layer rice with salmon flakes, seaweed, sesame seeds, spring onion, mirin and however much wasabi you like.
Pour hot green tea over rice and serve immediately. Garnish with crispy puffed rice.
Add the desired amount of soy sauce to your personal liking.

Indonesian Fried Rice (Nasi Goreng)

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Prepare the optional accompaniments – Javanese Fried Chicken, Beef Satay, Crispy Fried Shallots, Sambal Kecap, Krupuk and Mixed Vegetable Pickles.
Lightly grease a non-stick skillet with a little oil and fry the eggs sunny side up. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat the wok and add oil over medium heat and stir-fry the shallots, garlic, minced chilli and dried shrimp paste until fragrant for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the prawns and stir-fry until almost cooked and then add the cabbage and leftover cooked meat and continue to stir-fry until the cabbage is slightly wilted. Increase the heat to high, add the rice, salt and sweet Indonesian soy sauce and stir-fry until all the ingredients are mixed well and heated through, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Transfer the fried rice to a serving platter, top with the fried eggs and arrange the accompaniments at the side, around the plate. Garnish with cucumber and tomato slices and serve with the accompaniments on the side.

Potato Croquettes (Begedil)

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Pan fry potatoes until cooked through and golden brown. Set aside.
Pan fry dried shrimps until it’s aromatic for approximately 3-5 minutes.
Mash potatoes up using a masher.
Dish into a bowl, add fried shrimps, parsley leaves, fried shallots, salt and pepper and mix well.
Shape into patties and coat over with egg.
Pan-fry or deep-fry on medium heat until golden brown on both sides.

Fried Rice Vermicelli (Fried Bee Hoon)

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Prepare rice vermicelli by soaking in warm water until they turn soft. Drain and set aside in a colander to rid of excess water.
In a small bowl, mix chicken slices with cornstarch and 1 tsp soy sauce then, set aside to marinate.
Heat 2 tbsp oil a frying pan or wok. In the meantime, whisk 2 eggs in a bowl and fry the omelette. Set aside to cool then, slice omelette into thin long strips. The omelette will be the finishing touch to the fried bee hoon.
Mix all the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
In a frying pan or wok, heat 4 tbsp oil over medium-high heat. Stir-fry garlic until aromatic, then add chicken slices and continue cooking until half done.
Add in rice vermicelli to the frying pan/wok, then followed by the seasonings. Using a pair of chopsticks or tongs, stir and mix the rice vermicelli continuously to blend well with the seasoning. Continue cooking for a few more minutes until the rice vermicelli is soft and no longer wet. Then, add in the bean sprouts and chopped spring onions and stir-fry for another couple of minutes.
Remove from heat and serve on a sharing platter or in individual plates. Top with sliced omelette, a sprinkling of chopped spring onions and fried shallots.

Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls (Nem rán / Chả giò)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Boil water and soak noodles for 30 mins.
Combine all the ingredients for the filling together to form a sticky mixture.
Chop the soaked mung bean noodles into shorter threads and combine with filling.
To roll the cha gio, place a piece of spring roll paper on a clean, wet kitchen towel. Place 1 heaped tablespoon of filling on the moist rice paper, fold the rice paper over the filling, tuck in the sides, then roll to form a cylinder about 3 inches long.
Seal the wrap by dabbing a finger in the corn starch and lining the end of the wrap.

To Cook
Heat oil over medium heat in a wok or a large frying pan. When the oil is smoking, gently place a few cha gio in the oil. Fry them slowly until they turn lightly brown. Drain the excess oil by lining them over some paper towels.
Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Japanese Pancake (Okonomiyaki)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Partially freeze pork belly. Slice pork belly into thin pieces.
For the batter, combine and mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Add cabbage, pickled ginger and calamari to batter mix.

To Cook
Heat oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the mixture to frying pan, then 3 slices of pork belly. Cook okonomiyaki for 5 minutes until bottom is golden brown. Flip over.
Cook the other side for 7 minutes until it is golden brown.
Place on a plate.
Top with tonkatsu sauce, mayonnaise, bonito flakes and yaki nori strips. Serve hot.

Ants Climbing on a Tree

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Marinade the minced beef or pork with pinch of salt. Soak vermicelli as per instructions on packaging, drain and set aside.

To Cook
Heat oil in wok and fry the ground pork until aromatic. Set aside.
Add doubanjiang, minced garlic, sliced ginger and chopped shallot in wok and stir-fry over medium fire until the oil turns red and aromatic. Return pork to wok and add soy sauce. Mix well.
Pour water and bring everything to boil. Add soaked vermicelli and sugar, and stir-fry to mix everything well. There is no need to cook off all the liquid as the vermicelli continues to adsorb liquid after transferring out of the wok.
Sprinkle chopped green onions and serve hot.

Stir Fried Beef with Kai Lan

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Add 1 tsp each of corn starch, oil, and soy sauce to the beef in a bowl. Use your hands to massage these ingredients into the beef and set aside to marinate for 20 mins.
Heat a wok over high heat and add a tbsp of oil. When the oil starts to smoke, sear the beef for 30-60 secs, just until browned.
Remove from the wok and set aside.
Add 2 more tbsp of oil to the wok along with the ginger. Let the ginger caramelize for 15 secs.
Add the garlic and Chinese broccoli and stir fry for 1 min.
Add the beef, oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt, sugar, sesame oil, and hot beef stock then stir fry until mixed thoroughly.
Once the liquid comes to a boil, push the beef and vegetable away from the middle of the wok.
Stir in the corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce. Mix everything until the beef and vegetables are thoroughly coated.
Plate and serve over hot steamed rice.