Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

Japanese Style Savoury Pancake (Monjayaki)

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To Prep
Mix the flour, water and Worcestershire sauce in a bowl and set aside.
In a separate bowl, prepare and mix all other solid ingredients.

To Cook
Place the solid ingredients on the pan or hot plate. Cook and cut the ingredients at the same time with two teppanyaki grill spatulas.
Once the ingredients are cooked, form the ingredients into a donut shape, creating a circle in the middle, and then pour the mixed batter in the middle of the donut and bring to a boil.
Mix everything up to form a pancake and let it cook thoroughly.
Once cooked, add mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce on top for extra flavour. Eat by scraping off pancake mixture with a small spatula, directly from the hot plate.

Milky Japanese Salmon Hot Pot

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To Prep
Cut the salmon into bite-size pieces at an angle by holding your knife diagonally, nearly parallel to the cutting board. This method gives the ingredient more surface area so that it cooks faster and soaks up flavour quickly.
Season fish with ½ tsp salt and a pinch of black pepper.
Cut the cabbage into large pieces. Wash and peel the potatoes, cut into cubes. Then cut the onion into wedges.

To Cook
Pour 3 cups of water into a clay pot; add miso paste, heat until it boils. Add in onions, potatoes and cabbage; cover and let it boil until potatoes are soft. Then remove lid, add the salmon, cover and cook quickly.
Once all ingredients are cooked, add milk and butter and mix thoroughly. Black pepper may be added to taste.

Korean Mix Vegetables and Seafood in Mustard Sauce (Yang Jang Pi)

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To Cook
Bring a pot of water to boil and add yang jang pi noodle sheet. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the starch noodles are al dente. Drain noodles into a colander and rinse under running tap until the noodles are cool.
Season the noodles with ½ tbsp soy sauce, ½ tbsp. sugar, 2 tsp sesame oil and a pinch of salt in a small bowl and set aside.
Marinate pork using the pork marinade and set aside. Mix mustard sauce ingredients and set aside.
On a large round platter or plate, arrange squid, prawns, cucumber, capsicum, 5 shitake mushrooms and omelette in a circular arrangement and place yang jang pi noodles in the middle.
Heat up a wok with oil and add marinated pork. Saute pork over high heat and add onions, ¼ carrot and the remaining 2 shitake mushrooms and briefly saute. Add garlic chives and spring onions and quickly saute for about 15- 20 seconds.
Pour pork stir fry over the noodles in the middle. Serve yang jang pi with mustard sauce poured over.

Spring Onion Pancake (Congyoubing)

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To Prep
Thinly slice the spring onions, then mix with sesame oil and ½ tsp of salt. Set aside and refrigerate.
In a large bowl, mix the plain flour and ½ tsp of salt. Pour in the boiling water and mix together thoroughly.
Gradually add the cold water and knead the dough until you obtain a soft and smooth dough. Set aside and let stand for 45 mins.
Divide the dough into 10 even pieces. Using a rolling pin, thinly roll each piece of dough to a thickness of about 1cm.
Brush each piece of dough with oil and generously sprinkle with the sliced spring onions.
Using your palm, roll each piece of dough to form a long stick, and then twirl each stick to form a snail shell shape. Let stand for 30 minutes.
Roll each snail using a rolling pin to form thick circles, no more than 1cm in thickness.

To Cook
Heat a lightly oiled pan over medium heat and cook each pancake for about 3 to 4 mins on each side.
Slice and serve warm.

Korean Vegetable Tempura (Yache Twigim)

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To Cook
Add water to the twigim mix. Mix lightly using chopsticks.
Add the vegetable ingredients to the batter and mix.
Heat oil in a wok or saucepan and fry the battered vegetables in small batches, dropping about 2 tbsp of mixture at a time. Take twigim (Korean tempura) out of the oil when they turn pale gold or when the vegetables have started to soften. This should take about 2 mins.
Drain fried vegetables on paper towel. Leave it to cool. Re-fry twigim or tempura in moderately hot oil, until it turns golden and crisp. Drain well on paper towel before serving with dipping sauce.
Note: If not using the Korean tempura flour, substitute with ¾ cup flour, ¼ cup of cornflour, 1-2 tbsp rice flour, 1 egg and ½ tsp salt. You can substitute sweet potatoes or potatoes with other root vegetables.

Mixed Vegetables with Fermented Beancurd (Chai Choy)

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To Prep
Soak shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, lily bulbs and dried black moss in water for 15 mins. Once soften, remove hard stems in black fungus by tearing and cutting them into bite-sized pieces. Once black moss is softened, use a scissors to snip it shorter.

To Cook
In a hot wok, heat oil and stir fry garlic. Add fermented beancurd and smash them. Stir fry until fragrant.
Put stem in wok and stir fry for 5-8 mins until soft. Then combine cabbage leaves and stir fry for another 4-5 mins.
Add mushrooms, black fungus, lily bulbs, black moss and stir fry for 3 mins.
Add enoki, stir fry for 2 mins before adding in soy sauce and fried beancurd.
If you find it is too dry, add in a bit of water and salt according to taste. Serve with white rice.

Korean Egg Roll

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To Prep
Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and add in milk and salt. Whisk until evenly mixed.
Sieve to remove lumps.
Mix in carrot, onion, spring onion, and pepper.

To Cook
Heat oil in a fry pan on low, pour in ½ egg mixture and cook until half done.
Roll the omelette half way from the right to the middle. Lightly grease the pan if it is too dry and move the egg roll to the right edge.
Add in ½ of the remaining egg mixture to cover the left half of the pan and cook until half done.
Roll half way up from the right to the middle, grease the pan and move the egg roll to the right side of the pan.
Add in the remaining egg mixture and cook until half done. And finally roll all the way up.
Transfer to a cutting board and let cool.
Drizzle tomato sauce, mayonnaise and sprinkle parsley flakes on top. Slice into bite-size pieces and serve.

Tips
The egg roll breaks easily when it is hot, so let cool before cutting.

Prosperity Toss Salad (Yu Sheng)

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To Cook
Cut wonton wrappers into strips. Deep fry them in hot oil and drain. Set aside.
Combine all dressing ingredients in a small pan over medium heat. Stir until sauce is thickened and well mixed. Set aside in a small bowl and let it cool down.
Arrange all other vegetables and fruits in a round large platter neatly.
Place salmon in a bowl and squeeze with lime just before tossing.
Sprinkle the five spice powder, coriander and sesame seeds over the vegetables just before tossing. Once ready, everyone joins in to toss the Yu Sheng with their chopsticks.

Yam Basket (Fatt Putt)

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To Prep
Skin off the yam skin, cut into pieces and steam until soft.
Transfer yam (hot) into bowl and combine wheat starch, sugar, five spice powder, cooking oil and salt. Mash the yam and knead it until it forms a pliable dough – add additional wheat starch if it is too sticky; if it is too dry, increase amount of cooking oil.
Place the yam paste in a ziplock bag and seal the opening. Compress until it forms a thick piece and place in freezer for about 20-30 mins.
Once the yam paste is slightly firm (but still pliable), open the ziplock bag. Cut into 3 equal parts of about 5cm wide each.
Take one part and connect both ends together. Pop it back into the freezer until firm for deep frying. Just remember to defrost the ring slightly before deep frying.

To Cook
In a wok, put 1 tbsp of cooking oil and stir-fry the shitake mushrooms. Add the other ingredients and have a quick stir. Dish up and set aside.
Put all the sweet and sour sauce ingredients in the bowl, stir until well mixed. Pour the sweet and sour sauce ingredients in and use medium heat to cook the sauce until it thickens before adding the vegetables. Turn off the heat and stir until well mixed. Set aside.
Heat up adequate oil to cover the whole yam ring under medium heat. Then, deep fry the vermicelli. Once it starts to float upwards, drain and set aside.
Put the yam ring onto a ladle with holes and slowly immerse onto the hot oil (medium heat) until yam ring is submerged. Fry until golden brown and crispy.
After draining, place the yam ring on the serving plate. Pour the vegetarian fillings on the yam ring and the deep fried rice vermicelli surrounding the yam ring. Garnish with roasted cashew nuts, pine nuts and coriander.

Emperor Herbal Chicken

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To Prep
Steam the herbs with 500ml water for 5 mins.
Place chicken over an aluminium foil and stuff half of the herbs in chicken. Place the rest around the chicken.
Pour the water used to steam the herbs inside foil with the chicken.

To Cook
Wrap the foil up into bundle and steam chicken for 2 hrs.
Add salt to taste, then serve.

Teochew Style Steamed Fish

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To Prep
Clean the fish, make a few cuts and rub a little salt all over. Set aside for 15-30 mins.
Mix marinade and set aside.
Line the bottom half of the green onion and some sliced ginger on a plate. Place fish on top. Insert the rest of the sliced ginger into the cavity of the fish.
Scatter julienned ginger, tomato wedges, mushrooms and cubed pickled mustard evenly over the fish. Line diced tofu and crushed salted plum on both sides of the fish.
Drizzle the marinade all over the fish.

To Cook
Bring water to boil. Lower fish into steamer and steam on high heat for 8-10 mins.
Garnish with green onion and finely sliced ginger. Serve hot.

Thai Leaf Wrapped Grilled Fish (Miang Pla Pao)

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To Prep
Stuff 3 stalks of bruised lemongrass and 1 cup of basil leaves inside the fish. Then rub 2 tbsp salt all over the fish.

To Cook
Heat up the grill and cook the fish for 15-20 mins on each side.
Prepare the sauce while the fish is grilling. Combine all the ingredients for the spicy sauce in a food processor and blend until it becomes a thick paste. Spoon out and set aside.
To make the sweet sauce, add all ingredients to a saucepan and heat over low heat. Keep stirring until palm sugar is fully dissolved. Turn off the heat, add in crushed peanuts and stir to mix well.
The fish should be ready by now. Serve whole fish with fresh vegetables, rice noodles and sauces on the side. Simply peel off the skin and scales of the fish to reveal the moist and tender fish meat.
To enjoy, take a betel leaf, add some rice noodles, fish meat and other vegetables. Wrap it up and dip it into either sauce and shove it into your mouth!