Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

Classic Tofu and Vegetable Salad with Peanut Dressing (Gado Gado)

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To Prep
To make the peanut Sauce, coarsely grind the peanuts, garlic, chillies and galangal in a mortar or blender.
Adding small amounts of water, just enough to keep the mixture turning.

To Cook
Place the ground mixture in a saucepan with all the other dressing ingredients, except lime or lemon juice, and simmer uncovered over very low heat for about 1 hr.
Stir constantly to prevent the sauce from sticking to the pot and burning. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Add the lime or lemon juice, mix well and sprinkle 1 tbsp of the fried shallots over the sauce just before serving.
In the meantime, bring a saucepan of water to a boil over medium heat, and briefly blanch the vegetables. About 30 secs for bean sprouts, 1 min for spinach, 1-2 mins for carrot, and 2-3 mins for green beans and cabbage.
Remove from the heat and strain vegetables.
On a serving platter, arrange all the vegetables and top with the tofu and egg wedges.
Garnish with the remaining fried shallots and drizzle the peanut sauce on top. Serve with the deep-fried krupuk on the side.

Braised Pork Belly (Nyonya Hong Bak)

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To Cook
Grind all ingredients for spice paste A then add in 50ml water.
Place ground spice paste A in a bowl, and mix in ingredients for spice mix B.
Dissolve 1 tbsp sugar in 3 cups water.
Heat up a wok or pot and add oil. Fry the ground spice paste at medium to high heat. When the paste becomes aromatic, add the pork belly and fry until it is half cooked.
Add in the sugar water and cook on high heat, then add the raw potatoes.
When it reaches to a boil, turn to medium heat and simmer till the meat is tender for about 40 to 60 mins. Check the meat with a fork, when tender the fork should go through it easily. Once the meat is tender, turn the heat to high to thicken the gravy. This should take about 10 mins. Keep stirring to avoid gravy from burning.
Add salt and dark soy sauce to taste. Dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

Soba Noodle Salad

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To Cook
Prepare soba noodles in accordance to packet instructions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drain well.
Place noodles and salad in a bowl. Add dressing ingredients. Toss well to combine.
Taste test and add extra dressing of choice to personal liking.
Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds over noodle salad.

Oriental Fried Rice

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To Cook
Heat wok and add oil and diced onion, stir fry for a couple of minutes until fragrant. Add beaten eggs and let it set slightly before scrambling it to break it up.
Add diced luncheon meat, diced carrots and snake beans, stir fry until fragrant. Add in rice, breaking up any big chunks with the back of the spatula.
Season with white pepper, oyster sauce and soya sauce. Stir through. Taste test and adjust taste to personal liking. Sprinkle with spring onion and serve hot.

Stir-Fried Beef with Lemongrass

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To Prep
Cut bottom 7cm off the lemongrass stem, and slice very thinly (keep the remaining portion to flavour soup stocks if you like)
Marinate beef in lemongrass, corn flour, fish sauce and soy for at least 1 hr.

To Cook
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok, add watercress and 2 tbsp water and toss for 1 min. Arrange on a plate and keep warm.
Heat remaining oil in the wok, add beef and stir-fry for 3-4 mins or until cooked. Add sweet chilli sauce, stir through, and serve over watercress.
Garnish with coriander and sliced chilli.
Serve with Jasmine rice.

Quick Coconut Noodle Soup

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To Cook
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Add noodles, cook for 2-3 mins. Drain and set aside.
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add chicken, cook for 3 mins until cooked through.
Add lemongrass, garlic, ginger, curry paste and turmeric. Stir-fry until fragrant (about 1 min).
Add coconut milk, spring onion, bean sprouts, fish sauce, stock and lemon juice. Bring to the boil, simmer for 2 mins.
Divide noodles among 4 bowls; add soup. Garnish with spring onion slices, chilli and lemon wedge. Serve.

Soft Tofu Soup (Sundubu)

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To Cook
Start boiling a 1 litre pot or clay pot of water.
Combine the soup seasoning ingredients. Mix well and reserve.
Sprinkle salt on the soft tofu and let it absorb the salt for about 10 minutes.
Chop spring onions, red and green peppers. Set aside.
Wash and rinse oysters using salted water (1L water and 1 tbsp salt). Drain and remove any excess moisture. Set aside.
Let the pipi clams exude debris by soaking them in salted water (1L water and 1 tbsp salt). Set aside.
Add vegetable broth and all ingredients with seasoning to a clay pot and heat till boiling.
Add soft tofu, oysters and clams to the boiling clay pot. Continue boiling for 1 min so the flavours blend together making soft tofu soup.
Garnish the boiling soup with mushrooms, Korean Red Peppers and green pepper and spring onions.
Break the egg and add it to the boiling soup. Serve.

Korean Pickled Cabbage (Kimchi)

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To Prep
Cut a whole wombok/napa cabbage into quarters 8 parts and chop into rectangles.
Pour salt over cabbage in a large bowl and let it stand for at least 3 hrs or until the cabbage is wilted. Wash cabbage three times, drain well and set aside.
Mix 1½ tbsp salt to sliced mu (radish) bowl, leave for 15 mins, drain and set aside.
Make rice paste by mixing water with rice flour in a small pot. Bring the paste to a simmer, stirring constantly. This should only take a few mins. Turn off the heat a set rice paste aside to cool.

To Make
Mix gochugaru (Korean chilli powder) with rice paste. Set aside.
Blend garlic, ginger, onions, salted shrimp and fish sauce in a blender or a stick blender.
In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix all ingredients together. Towards the end, add green onions and mix briefly.
Pack kimchi into a clean glass jar to about 85% – 90% full and let it ferment for 2-3 days at room temperature. Place kimchi in the fridge when it’s fermented to your liking.

Sambal Ladies Fingers (Sambal Okra)

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To Cook
Boil water in a pot and blanch the okra for about 3 mins. Drop them into a bowl of cold water to stop these from cooking further.
When these have cooled down a bit, slit the tip of the stalk, peel off the center and remove the seeds. This can take some practice as you want to create a pocket for the sambal to sit in, Try not to mutilate the okra too much.
Mix the dressing ingredients together and leave for 15 mins to dissolve the sugar.
To serve, stuff the okra with sambal.

Top Hats (Nyonya Pie Tee)

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To Prep
Mix the rice flour, bread flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Make a “well” in the flour with your hands and add in the water, oil and egg. Mix into a smooth batter (which should thinly coat the back of a spoon), rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.

To Cook
Heat up a pot of oil, drop in a little batter, when the batter floats the oil is ready.
Dip the pie tee mould into the hot oil for 10 seconds and let the oil drip off. Dip the mould into the batter (if you can hear a sizzling sound the mould is too hot, best is to let it cool down and start again). You can coat 1 time, 2 or 3 times if you want thicker pie tee’s.
Gently dip the battered mould into the hot oil (which should cover 90-95% of the mould). As the batter starts to cook, slowly lower the entire mould into the hot oil (oil will seep around the sides of the pie tee and the crispy top hat should drop off from the mould). If the top hat doesn’t drop off the mould, move it up and down in the oil a few times gently.

For the Pie Tee Filling
In pan over a medium heat, cook the shallots until they turn golden in colour.
Add in the shrimps and continue to cook until they’ve turned pink, before adding in the jicama and carrots. Season with salt, sugar and pepper and continue to cook for another 5 mins.
When the vegetables have cooked, remove from the heat and set aside.
In a non-stick pan over a medium heat, add oil and the eggs and cook the omelette. When the omelette has been cooked, transfer it on to a surface to cool before cutting in to thin strips.

To Serve
In each of the hats, place a serving of the fillings along with some of the omelette strips. Garnish with chillies or spring onions and serve!

Spicy Fried Coconut Flakes with Peanuts (Serundeng)

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To Prep
Grind the shallots, garlic, sugar, shrimp paste and tamarind juice to a smooth paste in a mortar or blender. Add 1-2 tbsp of water for the blender to blend better. Add the grated coconut and mix well.

To Cook
Dry-fry the mixture in a wok or skillet over very low heat for 15-30 mins until golden brown and flaky. Add the peanuts and salt, and mix until well blended. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Serve in small bowls or sprinkle over rice or side dishes. Serundeng keeps for 2 weeks in an airtight container.

Mixed Vegetable Pickle (Acar)

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To Prep
Soak cucumber in salt and wash away the salt after 30 mins.
Boil all other cut vegetables with vinegar and drain. Set aside to dry.
Toast sesame seeds and set aside.
Roast peanuts, remove and cool. Crush the peanuts.

To Cook
Heat oil and fry blended spices with oil until golden in colour. Set aside.
Add sugar and tamarind to taste.
Mix all pickled vegetables with fried spices well. (Squeeze cucumber dry before adding to fried spices)
Add ground peanuts and sesame seeds to complete the acar. Pack acar in tightly sealed jars it can be refrigerated for 2-4 weeks.