Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

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!

Buddha’s Delight (Lo Hon Chai)

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To Cook
Soak shitake mushrooms, black fungus, rice vermicelli/glass noodles, foo chook, lily bulbs for about 40 mins.
Heat oil in the large wok, add red fermented beancurd and stir fry briefly.
Add in water, followed by the fermented bean curd water, cabbage, fried beancurd, red dates, mushrooms, lily bulbs and black fungus. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 mins.
Add carrot and fresh lotus seeds, let simmer for 5 mins. Season with salt and sugar according to taste.
Lastly, add rice vermicelli/glass noodles and simmer for 2 mins.

Thai Spicy Stir Fried Crispy Pork Belly with Beans

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To Cook
Place the whole piece of pork belly in boiling water and simmer until tender. Pierce the skin with a fork. Allow to cool, then fry in hot oil until crispy. Allow to cool, then cut into bite-sized pieces. Discard all but 1 tbsp oil.
Blanch beans in boiling water until tender, then refresh in ice-cold water. Drain and set aside.
Heat the reserved oil over low heat. Add Valcom Red curry paste and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the pork, beans, palm sugar, Valcom Kaffir Lime Leaves and water and stir through. Remove from heat.

Prosperity Treasure Pot (Pun Choy)

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For the Braised Pork
Blanch pork trotter in water and 3 slices of ginger for 5 mins. This will lessen the porky smell. Drain and rinse the pork. Set aside.
Rub salt and dark soy sauce on pork trotter.
In a wok, heat 2 tbsp oil and sear all sides of the pork trotter until browned and set aside.
In the same wok, pan-fry shiitake mushrooms and dried oysters for 1-2 mins and set aside.
Prepare a pressure cooker. Add pork trotter, shiitake mushrooms, dried oysters and all the remaining ingredients. Fill pressure cooker with water enough to immerse the pork. Seal the lid and cook on high for 30-40 mins and until sauce thickens slightly. Add in the black moss fungus and stir.
Taste test and adjust with more rock sugar or soy sauce if necessary.

For the Seafood Vegetables
In a small pot, fill half full with water and bring to boil. Add Shaoxing wine, spring onions and ginger slices. Keep boiling for another 5 mins.
Add prawns and scallops to the pot to poach for about 2-3 mins. Drain prawns and scallops and set aside.
In another pot, bring chicken stock, wombok and daikon to boil then simmer until daikon is tender. Remove wombok and daikon from the pot and set aside.
With the chicken stock still boiling, add abalone into the pot to cook for 1 min and set aside. Then, blanch broccoli until tender and set aside.

To assemble the Pun Choy
Prepare a large pot, about 28-30cm in diameter and 10-15 cm in depth.
Layer the base with wombok. Save some to place on top with the other ingredients.
Carefully arrange the rest of the ingredients around the pot. There are no set rules, but you’d want to display all the ingredients in their full glory.
Lastly, get your loved ones together and dig in!

Sweet and Sour Pork

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To Prep
Add all marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add pork and mix to coat evenly. Set aside to marinade for at least 30 mins or up to 8 hours in the refrigerator.

To Cook
Add about 5cm of oil into a large pot and heat oil over high heat. To test if the oil is ready, dip a bamboo chopstick tip into the oil. If it bubbles vigorously around the chopstick, then the oil is ready.
Combine plain flour with cornstarch. Dredge pork pieces in flour mixture and gently lower the pieces into the oil to fry in batches. Fry for about 3-5 mins until they are lightly browned. Remove the pork pieces and drain over wire rack.
Once all the pork pieces are fried and drained, double fry the pork pieces for another 1 min or so until golden brown. Set aside to drain over wire rack.

To Prep Sauce
In a bowl, add constarch and water. Stir to combine until cornstarch is fully dissolved. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, pineapple syrup, vinegar and ketchup. Mix well and set aside.
In a wok, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add in onion and sauté until onion is translucent. Then add garlic and sauté till fragrant. Add capsicum and pineapple. Keep cooking until capsicum softens slightly.
Add slurry into the wok. Bring wok contents to boil then simmer until sauce thickens.
Lastly, add in the pork pieces and coat them evenly in the sauce. Dish out onto a serving plate, top with a sprinkling of sesame seeds, and serve!

Lotus Root Soup (Leng Ngau Tong)

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To Cook
Rinse dried cuttlefish.
In a medium pot, fill half-full with water, add pork bones and bring to boil. Once boiled, drain the bones and wash any dark marrow or coagulated blood off from the pork with cold water. This helps to reduce scum appearing on top of the surface of the soup.
Then fill a pot with 2.5L of water, add in blanched pork bones, lotus root, red dates, raw peanuts and dried cuttlefish. Bring contents to boil.
Once boiling, reduce heat to low and allow soup to simmer for 2-3 hrs.
Skim off any scum appearing on top of the surface.
Taste test and season with salt.
Serve hot in individual bowls.

Grilled Rice Ball (Yaki Onigiri)

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To Prep
Lightly season the cooked rice with table salt.
Using a generous piece of plastic wrap, place portion of cooked rice, add filling in the center (optional), wrap with plastic wrap, then mould into balls.

To Cook
Lightly spray the grill of the broiler grill with cooking spray to prevent the rice ball from sticking.
Over medium heat, allow the rice ball to grill on both sides until golden brown and slightly crisp. Time may vary from 15 to 20 mins depending on your grill.
Drizzle soy sauce over yaki onigiri and serve immediately.

Grilled Pork Belly (Samgyupsal Gui)

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To Cook
Prepare the vegetables. Mix the sauce ingredients.
Heat the grill (or a flat pan). Cut the pork belly strips in shorter bite size pieces. You can also grill first and then cut the meat into bite sized pieces.
Add the meat to the grill along with the garlic, chili peppers, and any other vegetables you are using. Grill over moderate heat until cooked through.

Korean Egg Rolls (Gyeran Mari)

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To Cook
In a bowl, crack and whisk eggs with a fork. Mix in a pinch of salt, sliced spring onions and chopped carrots.
In a frying pan or skillet, spread 1 tsp oil evenly and heat over medium-high heat. When the pan feels hot enough, turn heat down to low. Give the egg mixture a stir before adding to the pan. Add ½ of the egg mixture and swirl the pan to coat evenly.
Using a spatula, gently lift one end of the egg and fold it over by 3cm. Lift the folded side and continue folding over until the omelette forms a log. Set aside to cool, and repeat with the rest of the egg mixture.
When omelette is cool to touch, slice them into3-4cm thick pieces.