Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

Thai Glass Noodle Soup with Tofu (Kang Jued Woon Sen)

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To Prep
Mix the minced meat, soy sauce and ground white pepper until well combined. Form into approximately 12 small meatballs.

To Cook
Heat oil in a frying pan on high heat, then add in garlic and fry for 30 secs.
Pour in the soup stock and bring to a boil.
Add meatballs, onion, Chinese cabbage and carrot, simmer until tender.
Add in the noodles and stir thoroughly.
Add the fish sauce, sugar and white pepper.
Carefully add Japanese tofu and stir gently to avoid breaking the tofu. Remove from heat.
Transfer to serving bowls and garnish with coriander. Serve.

Thai Crispy Pork Skin Salad (Yum Sam Grob)

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To Cook
Place onions and coriander in a bowl, cover with cold water, add 6 ice cubes, and place in refrigerator for 5 mins or until ready to use.
Blend garlic, chilli flakes, and chillies into a fine paste. Add sugar, fish sauce, and lime juice, and continue to blend until the sugar is dissolved. Taste test and add more sugar, fish sauce, lime juice or pepper flakes to taste.
In a mixing bowl combine prawns, crispy pork skin, cashew nuts, tomato and blended paste. Mix through and transfer to a serving plate.
Remove onions and coriander from fridge and drain. Garnish salad with lettuce, onion and coriander. Serve.

Creamy Tom Yum Soup with Prawns

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To Cook
In a food processor, blend lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and chillies into a paste.
In a stock pot, boil chicken stock and bring to a simmer, then add blended paste and galangal. Simmer for 5 mins.
Add evaporated milk and bring to boil. Add mushrooms and broccoli and cook for 1-2 mins or until cooked through.
Add Thai chilli paste and fish sauce, stir to dissolve the chilli paste. Add prawns and cook for 1 min or until done.
Turn off the heat and add lime juice while stirring. Adjust taste with more seasoning if needed. Garnish with chilli and coriander, serve.

Thai Stir Fried Vermicelli with Chicken

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To Cook
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok, scramble eggs until cooked, remove and set aside.
Heat 2 tbsp oil over high heat, stir-fry chicken for about 3 mins or until just cooked through. Remove from wok and set aside.
Add 1 tbsp oil and ginger to sauté for 1 min, then add vegetables to the wok and stir-fry for another 2 mins.
In a mixing bowl combine chicken stock, soy sauce, oyster sauce and corn flour.
Add egg, chicken, noodles, coriander and broth mixture to wok and stir-fry for 3 mins or until everything is cooked and heated through.
Drizzle some sesame oil for added flavour. Transfer to serving plate and sprinkle some chilli powder, serve.

Green Curry Fried Rice with Chicken (Kao Pad Gaeng Keo Wan Gai)

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To Cook
Stir-fry coconut milk over low heat until oil appears. Stir in Valcom Green Curry Paste until fragrant. Turn up the heat. Add chicken fillet and stir-fry until well cooked.
Add fish sauce and sugar, and stir-fry until the sauce reduces. Stir in eggplant and pea eggplant and cook until tender, then add rice and mix through. Add Valcom Kaffir Lime Leaves, basil leaves and red chilli, then remove from heat.

Green Papaya Salad with Grilled Chicken (Som Tum Gai Yang)

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To Prepare
Prepare the paste by pounding coriander roots, garlic and white pepper in a mortar.
Marinate the chicken with the paste, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, palm sugar and oil for about an hour.

To Cook
Grill chicken in an oven or charcoal grill.
Peel the green papaya (can be substituted with apples, jicama or carrots), and shred into strips using a grater.
In the mortar, pound the garlic and chilli, then add papaya, lime juice, fish sauce and toss with green beans and cherry tomatoes. Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with peanuts.
Serve grilled chicken with papaya salad on the side.

Thai Chicken Green Curry (Gaeng Kiew Wan Gai)

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To Cook
Clean the chicken and pat dry with paper towel. Slice vertically into thin slices. Add 1 cup light coconut milk into a pot and bring to boil. Add chicken and reduce the heat to simmer the chicken until meat is tender. Dish out the chicken and set aside.
Add the vegetable oil into a pan and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the curry paste and stir-fry until fragrant. Slowly add 1⁄2 cup of thick coconut milk and stir-fry until fragrant. Add chicken to the pan and stir-fry to evenly coat chicken in the curry paste. Remove pan from heat.
Transfer curry and chicken into a large pot and heat over medium heat. Add in 3 1⁄2 cups light coconut milk and kaffir lime leaves. Bring to boil then add fish sauce and sugar.
Add pea eggplant and make sure they are submerged in the curry. Continue cooking until eggplant is cooked through, then add the remaining 1⁄2 cup thick coconut milk. Bring to boil and add Thai basil leaves and red spur chillies.
Taste the curry and adjust the spiciness to your liking. If the curry is too spicy, add some coconut milk to bring down the heat level. Turn off the heat and remove from the stove. Dish out the curry into a bowl and garnish with Thai basil leaves. Enjoy with steamed rice or rice noodles.

Tips: When cooking the chicken, make sure the thin coconut milk is boiling before adding the chicken meat. This will tenderise the meat and remove any foul smell. The thin coconut milk that was used to boil the chicken should be discarded as it will contain a foul smell.

Thai Crispy Fish with Mango Salad (Yum Pla Duk Fu)

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To Cook
Cut the fish into chunks, season with soy sauce or salt, then steam for 5 mins until the meat is fully cooked. Set the fish aside to cool.
In the meantime, prepare the mango salad. In a mortar, pound 2-3 bird’s eye chillies until there are no big chunks, then add palm sugar and mash to a paste. Add fish sauce and lime juice and mix until sugar is completely dissolved. Transfer paste to a bowl and add the shallots, dried shrimp, and julienned mango. Set aside to sit while you fry the fish.
Once the fish is cool, transfer it to a bowl lined with muslin cloth. Wrap the cloth around the fish, twist, and squeeze as hard as you can to remove as much liquid as possible.
Then, transfer the fish to a mortar and pestle and pound it until it’s fluffy with no chunks left.
In a wok or a large pot, heat about 3 cm of oil over high heat. Now to put the fu (fluffiness) in the fish, the oil has to be heated to about 200℃.
Once the oil is hot enough, sprinkle half of the fish into the oil. Be careful as the oil will bubble aggressively. While the fish cooks, try to tuck the edges of the fish and push the fish down to submerge in oil to fry and brown evenly. Once fish is golden brown, remove from oil with a slotted skimmer and set it on paper towels to drain.
Place the fish on a serving plate and sprinkle with roasted peanuts. Garnish mango salad with chopped coriander (optional) and serve beside the fish. Serve the yum pla duk foo as a snack or as a main dish with steamed rice.

Sichuan Hot Garlic with Shredded Pork (Yu Xiang Rou Si)

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To Prep
Mix pork with the marinade ingredients and set aside.
In a bowl, mix all sauce ingredients and set aside.

To Cook
In a wok, heat 2 tbsp of oil, stir-fry pork strips until they turn white. Remove.
With 1 tbsp of oil in the wok, stir-fry garlic, ginger and onion. Add vegetables and stir-fry for about 1 min, then add in the pork strips.
Pour in the sauce and stir-fry until ingredients are evenly coated.
Transfer to serving plate and garnish with spring onions.

Japanese Omelette Rice (Omurice)

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To Cook
Heat up some oil in a wok. When the wok is hot, add the onions and mushrooms. Saute until softened.
Add the beef and cook until the meat has browned. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the rice, 1 tbsp of ketchup and soy sauce. Stir until well-combined. Take off of the heat and leave to the side.
Scoop half of the rice into a bowl and cover with a plate. Put one hand on top of the plate and one hand at the bottom of the bowl. Turn it upside down so that the plate is now at the bottom. Remove the bowl to reveal the mound of rice.
Heat up a large pan on medium-high heat. Add some cooking oil and pour in half of the whisked eggs. Stir the eggs with chopsticks to form small egg curds but do not scramble the eggs.
Once cooked, take the egg and gently place it over your rice.
Cook the remaining half of the eggs.
In a small bowl, combine 2 tbsp ketchup, Worcester sauce, tonkatsu sauce and honey. Cover the omelette with this sauce. Serve while hot.

Spinach Soup with Fried Anchovies and Salted Eggs

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To Cook
Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a pot, add dried anchovies and garlic, stir-fry until fragrant. Then pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Reduce to medium heat and simmer for 15 mins.
Add spinach and salted egg yolks, simmer for a further 5 mins.
Finally, add in the beaten egg and also salted eggs whites, while gently stirring. Bring the soup to a boil, then turn heat off. Serve immediately.