Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

Thai Chicken and Lemongrass Salad

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
For the dressing, create a coarse paste by using a pestle to pound the garlic, chillies and palm sugar in a mortar. Combine with the fish sauce and lime juice and set aside.

To Cook
In a saucepan, place the chicken inside and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, cover the saucepan and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 mins.
Remove the pan from the heat and leave the chicken to rest in the liquid for 40 mins to cook completely.
Remove the chicken and drain well, and then shred into thin strips.
Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat up vegetable oil for deep frying. Deep fry the cashews for 1 min or until golden brown. Remove immediately with a mesh skimmer and leave to drain on a paper towel.
Place the chicken in a bowl with the spring onion, lemongrass and ¾ each of the ginger, chilli and coriander.
Roughly crush 2⁄3 of the cashews, then add to the chicken mixture. Pour over ¾ of the dressing and toss well.
Place the salad on a serving plate and garnish with the remaining cashews. Drizzle with a little more salad dressing and scatter with the remainder of the ginger, chilli and coriander. Serve with the remaining dressing in a bowl to the side.

Mung Bean Vermicelli Salad with Chicken (Yum Woon Sen)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
For the dressing, create a paste in a mortar and pestle by pounding the garlic, chillies and coriander root.
Add the palm sugar and lightly grind until dissolved.
Add the fish sauce and lime juice and pound until well combined.
Set aside.

To Cook
Cook the minced chicken in a small saucepan of boiling water for 3 mins or until cooked through. Drain and set aside.
Place the vermicelli in a heatproof bowl, then cover with boiling water and leave to soak for 2 mins. Drain well and place in a mixing bowl.
Add the dressing, chicken and dried shrimp and mix well, then add the spring onion, coriander, shallot and peanuts and combine.
Use the chilli and extra coriander as garnish on top and serve.

Pan-fried Beef Steak with Thai-style Noodles

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Mix the beef steaks in 2 tbsp of the oil, sliced garlic, chilli and lemongrass and marinate for 15 mins.
Place 1 tbsp of the oil in to a pan and cook the steak to the desired level of doneness. Remove from the pan and let it rest while making the sauce.
Add the last of the oil in to the pan and fry the onions till they start to brown. Add the coconut milk to the pan and let the sauce reach a simmer.
When the sauce has reached a simmer, add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, tamarind and palm sugar. Stir and continue to simmer until the palm sugar has dissolved fully.
In a separate bowl, blanch the vermicelli noodles.
When the sugar has dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and add the Thai basil leaves and mix.
To serve, spoon the sauce mixture on to a plate, place the vermicelli noodles on top of the sauce, and finish with slices of the steak. Garnish with more basil and chillies.

Bok Choy with Minced Pork and Dried Beancurd

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Heat oil in a wok, put in minced pork and stir-fry until fragrant. Add Shaoxing wine and stir-fry for a few mins.
Add the diced mushrooms, bean curds, carrots and light soy sauce, then stir-fry well.
Add water, sugar, salt, pepper and sesame oil, then bring to a boil. Stir in the flour solution.
Arrange bok choy on a plate and transfer minced pork and dried bean curd sauce to the side. Serve.

Chinese Stir-Fried Pork

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
In a large bowl, combine the pork slices and the marinade ingredients together and mix well. Set aside to marinate.
Make the sauce by mixing together the light soy sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese Shaoxing wine, dark soy sauce, Chinese five spice and sugar. Set aside.
​
To Cook
In a wok or large frying pan, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the garlic, ginger and the bottom parts of the spring onion stems and stir-fry for 30 seconds.
When the ingredients have started to become aromatic, add in the pork cook the meat over a high heat until almost cooked.
Add in the sauce and stir-fry for another 30 seconds or until the sauce thickens slightly and the pork is cooked through.
Turn the heat off and toss through the green parts of the spring onion and the sesame oil.
Serve with any leftover spring onions!

Salt and Pepper Prawns (Tom Rang Muoi)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Clean the prawns and then cut off the whiskers and horn with a pair of scissors.
Without removing the shell, take out the veins by using a toothpick placed under the shell and then slowly pulling up. If the vein breaks, you should be able to pull out the remainder with your hands.

To Cook
In a pot, heat oil to 180°C.
While the pot of oil is heating up, dry roast the salt and pepper in a pan until the pepper becomes fragrant.
Once the pepper has become fragrant, remove from the heat and add the sugar, mix and set aside.
Coat a batch of the prawns in corn starch and shake off the excess before frying in the oil.
Cook for about 1-2 mins before transferring to a plate with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Continue to cook the remaining prawns in batches until finished.
In a wok, heat up 1 tbsp of oil and add the chilli, onions and garlic.
Sauté until fragrant before adding the deep-fried prawns and the salt and pepper mix.
Toss lightly until combined and then serve!

Homemade Thai Red Curry Paste (Prik Gaeng Ped)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Soak the chillies in hot water for 5 mins to hydrate, before draining and cutting in to sections.
Slice the shallots, coriander roots, galangal and lemongrass into small sections.
Add the chillies in to the pestle and mortar and grind lightly to break the chillies up. When the sections have begun to break down, add the salt and continue to grind.
Add in the lemongrass and grind till the sections have broken down. Repeat this process next with the galangal, garlic, kaffir lime zest, cilantro roots and lastly with the shallots.
Continue to grind all of the ingredients together until the mixture turns into a fine paste.
At this point, add in the shrimp paste and continue to grind until shrimp paste has been fully incorporated in to the paste.

Miso Grilled Vegetables

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Cut the vegetables into bite sized chunks to be skewered.
Finely grate the zest of the lime in to a bowl. After this, juice the lime in to the same bowl.
Combine the lime juice, zest and the rest of the marinade ingredients in to a small bowl and whisk together until combined.
Thread the vegetables on to either a metal or bamboo skewer and then place in to a large container. (If using bamboo or wooden skewers, allow them to be soaked in water prior to using them.)
Once the vegetables have been skewered, pour over the marinade and let marinate for at least an hour.

To Cook
Remove the vegetables from the container and shake off any excess marinade.
Grill the vegetables, basting once every few minutes and turning over occasionally to ensure that the vegetables are cooked evenly.
Continue to cook until they become soft and tender.
Season the skewers to taste and serve!

Fried Shallots

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Place the shallots in to a saucepan and fill with enough oil to cover the shallots.
Turn on the stove and set it to a high heat, stirring occasionally.
Once the shallots start to turn brown, reduce the flame to low and continue to cook them until they turn golden brown.
Once the shallots have turned golden brown, remove them from the oil and allow them to drain on a plate with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
Season lightly with salt and serve.

Rainbow Rice Paper Rolls

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
In a small saucepan, add the hoisin sauce, peanut butter, sesame oil and garlic and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Stir through a little water at a time until sauce appears smooth and glossy, with a slight runny consistency. Set aside to cool.
To make the rice paper rolls, fill a large bowl with warm-hot water. Working quickly, carefully dip the rice paper into the water, making sure to wet the whole sheet. Move the rice paper onto a plate.
Arrange equal amounts of capsicum, carrots, takuan, cucumber and red cabbage, with 2-3 mint leaves towards the bottom of the rice paper, being careful not to use too much filling.
Starting from the bottom, fold the rice paper over the vegetables. Tuck in the sides of the rice paper, and then roll the rice paper tightly to complete the rice paper roll. Continue with remaining ingredients.
To serve, cut rice paper rolls in half to reveal colours and serve with peanut hoisin sauce.

Char Siu Barbecued Lamb Chops

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Combine all of the marinade ingredients and mix well.
Transfer the marinade into a resealable bag and add the lamb. Mix the lamb to coat with the marinade, seal and marinate for at least 3 hrs.
Once the meat has marinated, cut the bok choy in half lengthwise.

To Cook
Prepare the barbecue to cook.
Remove the lamb from the bag and transfer to the barbecue.
While the lamb is cooking, add the halves of bok choy to the barbecue to cook.
Grill the lamb chops until lightly charred on both sides.
When the lamb has been cooked to the desired level of doneness, remove from the barbecue and let the meat rest for at least 5 mins.
While the meat rests, in a small bowl combine the honey and water together.

The leftover marinade can also be used to make a savoury sauce for the lamb chops. To do this:
Transfer the leftover marinade in to a small saucepan and add about 4 tbsp of water.
Bring the mixture to a light boil and continue to cook for about 5 mins to ensure that the sauce has cooked through.
Serve with the lamb chops and bok choy.

Chinese-style Barramundi

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Cut the vegetables as instructed.
Remove the skin from the Barramundi fillets and set aside.

To Cook
Roll out a large piece of foil, big enough to fit all fillets.
Arrange the fillets in the centre of the foil and evenly top with the cut vegetables, garlic and ginger.
Mix the soy sauce, rice vinegar and vegetable oil together and pour over the fish and vegetables.
Cover the ingredients with another large piece of foil, ensuring that all the edges are sealed.
Place the sealed ingredients in the oven for about 15 mins or until the fish would be just cooked through.
While the ingredients are in the oven, dry the leftover fish skin with a paper towel and season with salt.
Heat up a small saucepan with enough oil to deep fry the skin. Deep fry the fish skin until golden brown in colour.
Remove the fish from the oven and unwrap from the foil.
Arrange the fish meat, skin and vegetables to serve.