Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

Korean Taro Soup (Toran Guk)

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To Prep
Prepare a little more than 450g of taro to get 450g of peeled taro.
In a medium pot, bring 4-5 cups of water to boil, add taro and cover.
Cook for 10 mins over medium-high heat. Then, drain the taro and immerse in cold water to cool down the taro before peeling. Peel and rinse the taro. Cut taro into bit-sized pieces and set aside.

To Cook
In a pot, boil 6 cups of water over medium-high heat. Add garlic and beef to the pot when the water starts to boil. Cover and cook for about 10 mins.
Add the peeled taro, salt and fish sauce. Cover and continue to cook for another 20 mins.
Using a fine strainer, add perilla seed powder to the strainer and immerse partially into the pot of soup. Stir perilla seed powder with a spoon until it gets absorbed into the broth but be careful to keep the sludge in the strainer. Once the soup turns milky, remove and discard leftover sludge in the strainer.
Add the green onions and cover. Continue cooking for 1-2 mins.

To Serve
Serve toran guk with steamed rice and your favourite side dishes.

Spicy Korean Radish (Mu Saengchae Namul)

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To Prep
Thoroughly clean the radish by scrubbing with a brush or, scrape off dirt with a small knife. Peel skin only if necessary. Cut radish into matchsticks of about 0.3cm thick.
Place radish in a large bowl, and sprinkle salt all over. Toss to coat evenly. Set aside for 20 mins until the radish sticks soften and some liquid is released.
Drain and gently squeeze out excess liquid from the radish sticks but do not rinse. Add in the rest of the ingredients. Mix well using your hand. Do a taste test and add more salted shrimp, or fish sauce if necessary.

Seasoned Mung Bean Sprouts (Sukju Namul Muchim)

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To Cook
In a pot, boil water and add 1 tsp of salt. When the water beings to boil, add the mung bean sprouts and blanch for 2 mins or until the sprouts have lightly wilted.
Drain the water and immediately rinse the sprouts in cold water to stop the cooking. When the sprouts have cooled, squeeze lightly to remove the excess water and then transfer in to a bowl.
Add the seasoning sauce in the bowl and mix well before setting aside.

To Serve
Serve them on a plate and enjoy sukju namul muchim on its own, or as a side with rice and other dishes.

Braised Stuffed Bitter Melon in Black Bean Sauce

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To Prep
Combine all stuffing ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, marinade for 15 mins.
Add salt liberally to bitter melon and rest for 15 mins. Wash and drain, set aside.
Put stuffing mixture into bitter melon with a teaspoon, flat at the bottom and domed on the top. Repeat for all bitter melon slices.

To Cook
In a frying pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil over medium heat. Pan-fry the bottom of bitter melons until browned, about 3 mins. Remove and set aside.
Increase the heat to high, sauté garlic and chilli for about 2 mins or until fragrant. Other than the cornflour mixture, add the remaining sauce ingredients and bring to boil.
Place the bitter melons back into the pan and simmer covered until they are slightly translucent and stuffing is done, about 15 mins.
Add the cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce and turn off the heat. Serve immediately.

Green Curry Beef with Coconut Water (Kang Khiew Wan Beef)

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To Cook
In a pot, stir-fry the green curry paste with oil on medium heat until fragrant.
Add 100ml coconut milk, keep on medium heat until the oil splits then put the beef in.
Add all remaining ingredients except fish sauce and basil leave; bring to boil.
Continue cooking for 3-4 mins, add fish sauce and mix through.
Garnish with basil leave, served with steamed rice.

Crispy Pork Belly (Moo Krob Nam Ma Prow)

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To Cook
In a large pot, stir-fry the coriander roots, garlic and white pepper with oil on medium heat until fragrant.
Add pork belly and all the remaining ingredients except baby carrot, hard-boiled egg and broccolini and bring to a boil; lower the heat and let it simmer.
In the meantime, pre-heat oven to 230°C fan forced.
Then place pork belly in cente of baking dish, skin side up and gently pour liquid from the pot into base with pork skin above liquid. Cook for 10 mins, until skin starts to dry and liquid is hot.
Remove from oven, cover with 1 layer of baking paper and seal tightly with aluminium foil. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C and cook for 35-40 mins.
Remove from oven, uncover pork and increase oven temperature back to 230°C.
Return pork to oven for a further 20-25 mins until pork skin is crispy and slice into 3-4cm pieces.
Blanch carrot and broccolini, place in bowl along with the sliced crispy pork and halved hard-boiled egg.
Serve with steamed rice.

Slow-cooked Pork Belly (Moo Sam Chun Tom Khem)

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To Cook
In a large pot, stir-fry the coriander roots, garlic and white pepper with oil on medium heat until fragrant.
Add all the remaining ingredients except baby carrot and broccolini and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat, put a lid on and continue to cook for 25 mins.
Add carrot and broccolini, and continue to cook with the lid off for another 25 mins.
Serve with steamed rice.

Claypot Seafood Tofu and Vegetable

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To Cook
In a bowl, mix all the gravy ingredients until well combined. Separately, mix the corn starch with 3 tbsp of water, making sure there are no lumps in the mixture. Set both aside for later.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a clay pot. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant.
Fry the tofu in the clay pot for 2 minutes. Then add the prawns and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the gravy mixture, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, and baby corn. Mix well and allow to simmer on low heat for a few minutes.
Stir in the corn starch mixture and bring the contents up to a boil.
Remove the claypot from the heat and serve in the claypot with cooked white rice.

Pad Thai with Prawns (Pad Thai Goong)

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To Cook
Heat 1 tbsp oil over medium heat and stir-fry prawns until just cooked. Add Valcom Pad Thai Paste and mix well. Stir in fish sauce, tamarind puree, sugar and chilli powder.
Rinse rice noodles then add to pan and stir through. Push the mixture to one side of pan, heat 1 tbsp oil, then add beaten egg and allow to cook.
Stir-fry the egg with the noodles. Toss with beansprouts and chives, then garnish with peanuts.

Chicken Katsu Hand Roll

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To Prep
Cut the cucumber in to thin horizontal strips before removing the seeds. This should leave strips of just the flesh that should be trimmed to fit the hand roll.
Add the sushi vinegar to the cooked sushi rice and gentle fold in to the rice until well incorporated.
Pound the chicken using a meat tenderiser to make it thinner and flat.
Dip into the flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.

To Cook
In a pan with enough oil to fry, cook the chicken until golden and then drain on paper towels.
When the chicken has cooled slightly, cut it in to sections that are small enough to fit on to the hand roll.

To Make the Roll
Cut nori sheets in half. Place sushi rice and then the lettuce, cucumber and chicken slices onto one side of nori.
Fold the nearest corner of the nori over the filling and start to shape.
The finished hand roll should be shaped conically to prevent any rice from falling out from the bottom.
Sprinkle some tonkatsu sauce over the top and serve!

Stir-Fried Chicken & Vegetables with Green Curry

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To Cook
Heat 1 tbsp oil in the wok, add vegetables and stir-fry for 1 min, coating well with oil.
Add water, cover and boil for 1 min. Remove and set aside.
Add 1 tbsp oil and fry curry paste until fragrant; add chicken and stir-fry for 4 mins; add coconut milk and simmer for a further 3 mins.
Return the vegetables to the wok and combine well.