Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

Beef Chow Mein

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To Prep
Combine cornflour and soy sauce in a small bowl. Add beef strips and coat in mixture. Set aside to marinate for 10 mins.

To Cook
To make the sauce, combine soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sugar and ground ginger.
Bring a pot of water to the boil. In batches, blanch broccoli florets for 60-90 secs, then remove from boiling water into an ice bath.
Strain in a sieve to remove excess water.
Heat oil in a wok or large pan over medium-high heat. When oil has come to temperature, add garlic and carrots, and stir-fry for 2 mins or until carrot has slightly softened. Add beef and stir-fry for 1 min or until nearly cooked to the desired doneness. Add in blanched broccoli, and then add in noodles. Stir through noodles with beef and vegetables, making sure evenly distribute the ingredients. Stir through sesame oil and serve.

Spicy Salad with Fried Egg (Yum Khai-Dao)

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To Cook
Heat the vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. When the oil turns hot, break 3 eggs into the wok. When the fried egg is 70% cooked, flip the eggs. By doing this, the fry eggs will become puffy and crispy.
After the eggs are cooked, remove and drain the excess oil using kitchen towels. Cut the fried eggs into bite-sized pieces after they cool down.
In a small mixing bowl, mix fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice until sugar is completely dissolved.
Use a pestle and mortar to grind the chillies. Transfer into the mixing bowl and mix well.
In another mixing bowl, add in the sliced tomato, spring onions, celeries and fried eggs.
Pour in the spicy salad dressing and mix well.
Transfer the salad onto a serving plate and garnish with coriander and sliced cucumbers.

Miso Udon Noodle Soup (Miso Nikomi Udon)

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To Cook
Season chicken slices with salt and set aside.
Boil water in a pot and dissolve the miso. Add additional amount of miso according to taste.
After boiling, add chicken, cabbage and carrot.
When ingredients soften, add udon and cook for another 4-5 min. Top with asparagus and garnish with spring onion. Serve hot.

Simmered Kabocha with Shio Koji

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To Cook
Place the kabocha squash in a medium saucepan, pour in water, enough to just cover the kabocha, then add the shio koji.
Bring to boil then reduce the heat to simmer for about 4-5 mins until kabocha is cooked through.
Cover and set aside, allowing the kabocha squash to cook slowly with the residual heat while absorbing the flavor from the stock. The kabocha squash may get mushy if overcooked. Serve this dish cold, at room temperature, or warm.

Water Kimchi (Nabak Kimchi)

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To Prep
Scrub the radish with a clean brush, leaving the skin on. Cut radish into 2cm cubes and place them in a large bowl.
Cut each cabbage leaf into quarters, lengthwise. And then cut across into 2cm pieces.
Place the cut cabbage leaves into the large bowl along with the radish and sprinkle 2 tbsp of salt. Mix thoroughly and let it sit for 30 minutes until the leaves are wilted.
In a separate bowl, soak the gochugaru in 1/2 cup of water.
Cut carrot into thin slices, and pears (or apples) into small cubes. Cut spring onions into 2cm lengths. Add the cut carrots, pears, spring onions, garlic and ginger into the bowl of salted radish and cabbage.
In a separate large bowl, dissolve 4 tbsp of salt with 8 cups of water. Then strain the soaked gochugaru into the large bowl of water through a fine mesh or a cheese cloth.
Pour the salt water and gochugaru mix over the radish mix and combine well.
Keep the kimchi in an airtight glass container or jar. Leave it out to ferment at room temperature for 2 days before storing in the fridge, to be eaten over the next two weeks.

Three Friends Spring Onion Rolls (Tam Huu)

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To Prep
Combine pork with marinade ingredients and mix well. Marinade at least 5 mins. Set aside
Combine prawn with marinade ingredients and mix well. Marinade at least 5 mins. Set aside.
Combine all dipping sauce ingredients and mix well. Set aside.

To Cook
In a frying pan, heat oil over medium high heat and stir-fry pork for 2 mins. Add the prawns and stir-fry until cooked through. Add black pepper and stir well before turning off the heat.

To Assemble
For each strand of spring onion leaf, place mint and coriander on the green edge. Top with a piece of pork and prawn, and a slice of chilli, wrap around the group of ingredients with the rest of the spring onions and tuck in the end section.
Place on serving plate and serve with dipping sauce.

Harusame Salad

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To Prep
Prepare all the ingredients as specified in the ingredients list.
Follow the cooking instructions for the glass noodles.
Put the seaweed in water for 15 mins before squeezing and leaving to dry.
Sprinkle some salt over the cucumber and carrot, leaving the salt on for 5 mins before washing the salt off.
In a small bowl, combine the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and plain oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Combine all the ingredients together and drizzle.
Mix the salad together and chill in the fridge for approximately 30 mins.

Stir Fried Vegetarian Singaporean Noodles

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To Cook
Coat the tofu with the seasonings and pan-fry until brown and chewy.
In a wok, heat oil over high heat and add in the snow peas, carrots, red capsicums and onions. Lower heat is needed, stir-fry 5 mins or until softened but not fully cooked.
Add in the garlic, ginger, curry powder and turmeric powder, combine and stir-fry for 1-2 mins.
Add in the noodles and toss to coat evenly. Stir-fry 2-5 mins or until noodles are heated through and all ingredients are evenly coated.
Add in tofu, green onions, bean shoots and soy sauce, toss for 1 min. Serve hot.

Simmered Kabocha Squash

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To Cook
To prepare the katsuo dashi, bring 2 cups water to boil. Add katsuobushi, stir through, and then turn off the heat. Set aside for 15 minutes. Strain the katsuo dashi and discard the katsuobashi. Set the katsuo dashi aside.
Cut the kabocha into half, remove the seeds and pith using a spoon. Then place it in a bowl and briefly cook it in the microwave on high for 2 minutes. Cut the kabocha into equal wedges lengthwise, and then cut them into 5cm pieces, leaving the skin on.
Place the equally sized kabocha pieces in a large wide pot, skin side down. Make sure that the pot will fit all of the kabocha pieces in one single layer.
In a bowl, add in the prepared dashi, sake and sugar. Mix well until sugar is dissolved, then pour into the large pot with kabocha pieces. Bring it to a boil and continue to cook on medium high heat. Add soy sauce and salt, and swirl the pot to mix the liquid well. Make sure that the liquid covers most of the kabocha, you may add a little more water if neccesary. Once the liquid is boiling, turn down to medium low heat to and allow to simmer. Cover with lid and cook for 15-20 minutes or until kabocha is cooked and tender.
Remove from the heat and let it cool for about 30 minutes. This dish may be served at room temperature.

Mee Rebus

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To Prep the Gravy
Boil and mash the sweet potatoes, set aside.
Poach beef until cooked and cut into small pieces. Set aside.
Place in a blender dried shrimps, shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger and fermented soybeans. Add about ½ a cup of water and blend until fine.
In a large pot, heat up the oil and then add the blended paste, meat curry powder, and lemon grass stalks.
Sauté on medium heat until fragrant and oil begins to split. This should take 10-15 minutes.
Add about 2 cups of beef stock, and stir until combined.
Next, add the mashed sweet potatoes, cooked beef and palm sugar to the pot of gravy and mix well.
Slowly add more beef stock until the gravy has reached your desired consistency.
Bring to a boil and set aside.

To Prep the Noodles and Garnish
Separately, blanch yellow noodles and bean sprouts then set aside.
Pan-fry the bean curd until golden brown, and then cut into 2cm pieces.
Hard boil the eggs and cut into halves.

Final Assembly
In a bowl, portion out yellow egg noodles and bean sprouts.
Ladle gravy over noodles and bean sprouts to sufficiently cover the noodles.
Garnish with egg, bean curd, sliced chillies, fried shallots, Chinese celery, spring onion and calamansi lime.
Serve hot.

Braised Noodles with Long Beans and Pork (Dou Jiao Men Mian)

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To Cook
Heat oil in a wok, fry the spring onion and garlic.
Add in pork belly slices and fry for 1 min.
Then, add dried chilli pepper, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, and salt, stir for a few seconds and put in green beans and mix them evenly.
Pour water in the wok, cover and bring it to a boil, then spread the noodles evenly on top of the mixture.
Cover and braise with low heat. After 5 mins, uncover and stir the noodles to make the taste even, then cover again and braise until the water has reduced completely.
Serve with chilli oil or brown vinegar.

Korean Sushi Roll (Kimbap)

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To Cook
Mix rice with 2 tbsp sesame oil and ½ tsp salt in a bowl and set aside.
Pour 1 tbsp oil to a heated pan and pour in eggs to make a thin omelette over medium heat. The omelette should be pale in colour. Remove and let cool. Cut into thin strips and set aside.
Pour ½-1 tbsp oil to a heated pan and quickly sauté carrots for about 30 secs. Season with salt and set aside.
Saute the zucchini with minced garlic and ½ tbsp sesame oil. Remove and set aside.
Sit a sushi mat on a board and place a nori seaweed sheet on top. Add ⅓-½ cup of rice on nori sheet, covering about ⅔ of the sheet. Place each ingredient on top of the rice, lining them up horizontally and close together. Roll the nori sheet using your mat until you have a cylinder shape. Squeeze the roll inside the mat gently so that the kimbap is not too loose.
Repeat with the remaining ingredients until you have a desired number of kimbap rolls. Cut kimbap into bite sized pieces, usually 8-10. Garnish with sesame seeds.