Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Vegetables

Japanese Curried Pork Buns

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For the Dough
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Slowly add water, mix with hands until combined. Cover, rest at room temperature for 30 mins. Divide dough into 80g balls and cover on a tray.

For the Filling
Slowly saute vegetables in oil until soft. Add pork, cook through. Stir in curry, mix until dissolved, cover and cool in fridge.
Roll dough into small balls, flatten on bench and place 70g of filling in centre. Bring dough up to enclose filling, pinching to seal.
Steam in a lined steamer for 20 mins until cooked through. Serve hot.

Japanese Curry Soba Tsukemen

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To Cook
Curry sauce: heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring for 4-5 mins until soft. Stir in stock and curry, simmer until thickened.
Soup: in another saucepan, bring soup ingredients to the boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
Cook noodles as per packet instructions. Refresh in cold water, drain well, divide noodles and salad among 4 bowls.
In 4 separate bowls combine 1 tbsp curry sauce and ⅓ cup soup. Serve with noodles and salad for dipping.

San Choy Bow with Rice Vermicelli

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To Cook
Deep-fry vermicelli according to instructions.
Trim edges of each lettuce leaf to form a bowl shape.
Combine pork, oyster sauce and corn flour.
Heat wok, add oil. Add sausage and mushroom; stir-fry for 30 secs. Add pork mixture and hoisin sauce; stir-fry for 5 mins.
Add spring onion, combine well.
Fill lettuce cups with stir-fried mixture. Garnish with extra spring onion and deep-fried vermicelli. Serve.
To eat, fold over bottom edge of lettuce to cover filling, fold in the sides; roll up to make a parcel.
Hint: For the filling, minced chicken or quail can be substituted for pork. For a completely vegetarian version, minced water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and Chinese mushrooms make a delicious substitute for meat.

Indonesian Tofu Kecap

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To Cook
In a wok, deep-fry the tofu in 180ml of the oil at high heat for 2-3 mins or until golden brown, set aside and allow oil to drain.
In a wok, fry the garlic and shallots in the remaining 15ml of cooking oil for 3 mins or until light brown and fragrant.
Add red and green capsicums and stir-fry for a further 2-3 mins. Add the ginger, bay leaves, sweet soy sauce, sugar, pepper, water and tofu and simmer for 10-15 mins. Serve hot with rice.

Korean Chives Pancake (Chives Pajun)

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To Cook
Mix water to the pajun mix in a bowl and lightly whisk.
Add chives to the mix. The batter should have a crepe batter consistency.
Heat frying pan with 2 tbsp of oil. Ladle ½ – ¾ cups of batter to the pan and spread batter thinly.
Pan fry until crisp on either side, turning over once. Place on a plate with kitchen towel to drain oil.
Repeat with the remaining batter and oil.
Serve with soy dipping sauce.

Korean Fish Cake Soup (Odeng Gook)

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To Cook
Place kombu, dried anchovies, Korean radish and onion in a saucepan with cold water.
Bring it to a boil and discard kombu when the stock has just started to boil. Continue to simmer the stock for about 15 mins. Discard the anchovies and onion.
Add the fish cakes, mirin, soy sauce, hon dashi and salt, cook for about 5-7 mins.
Add the pickled chilli and enoki mushrooms, simmer for another 5 mins. Discard the chilli and season to taste.
Serve into individual bowls, top with some crown daisy and parsley. Sprinkle in some green onions and ground pepper, garnish with sliced chilli.

Korean Pork Bibimbap

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To Cook
Set aside each type of vegetables on one big plate after the following cooking steps.
Heat pan and ½ tbsp oil. Add carrot and cook briefly about 20 secs. Season lightly with salt.
Repeat sauté process as above with zucchini but add ⅛ tbsp garlic and ½ tbsp green onions.
Repeat with shitake mushrooms but season lightly with soy sauce.
Mix salad leaves with ⅛ tbsp garlic, ½ tbsp green onions and 1½ tbsp of sesame oil.
In a saucepan, place soybean sprouts with ⅛ tbsp garlic, 1 tbsp sesame oil and 2 tbsp water. Cook for about 5 mins until sprouts are cooked.
Drain and add ½ tbsp green onions and ¼ tsp Korean chilli powder. Season with salt.
In a bowl, ladle 1 cup of cooked rice. Arrange vegetables, meat and then an egg on top. Drizzle some sesame oil and sprinkle some sesame seeds. Serve with Korean chilli paste for individual taste. Repeat with another 3 bowls. Mix Korean chilli paste with rice and topping before eating.

Braised Chicken and Bitter Melon in Black Bean Sauce

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To Prep
Combine all Seasoning ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
In another bowl, combine all Marinade ingredients and mix well. Coat Marinade mix with chopped chicken and leave in the fridge for at least 30 mins.

To Cook
Heat wok with 2 tbsp oil and fry bitter melon for about 3-4 mins. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat the same wok with 1 tbsp cooking oil on high, add chicken and stir-fry for about 3-4 mins or until chicken is brown. Remove and set aside.
Reheat wok on high, add remaining cooking oil, add the Seasoning sauce mixture. Stir-fry until fragrant and aromatic.
Add in bitter melon to braise. When sauce boils, add cooked chicken, stir to combine.
Cover the wok and cook until chicken is tender. Serve.

Chicken Lettuce Cups

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To Cook
Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Sauté garlic until fragrant. Toss in chicken and stir fry until cooked through.
Add in carrots and asparagus, stir frying until heated through.
Mix in oyster sauce and plum sauce until well combined.
Stir in roasted pine nuts and remove from heat. Leave to cool slightly.
Wrap chicken filling with lettuce leaves and serve immediately.

Thai Fried Broccoli with Salted Fish (Pad Khana Pla Kem)

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To Cook
Mix the crushed chilli peppers in a bowl with the Chinese kale, sugar and oyster sauce.
Now, heat the pan and put in vegetable oil. Put in the salted fish when the pan has heated up. Fry the salted fish until it has turned yellow, ensuring that it does not turn into a sauce.
Cut the fried salted fish into medium pieces and increase the heat.
Add garlic and stir it quickly to avoid burning.
Add the Chinese kale when the garlic yellows slightly.
Stir until cooked, make sure that the vegetable does not overcook.
Take off the heat and serve.

Chicken Spring Roll (Chun Juen)

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To Prepare
Ensure the vegetables are cut as specified in the ingredients list. Do the same with the dried shrimp and wood fungus, ensuring that both are drained. Marinate the chicken.
Heat up the pan with some cooking oil and fry half of the chopped garlic and grated ginger for a few seconds before adding the chicken. Take the pan off the when the chicken is cooked.
Saute the chopped dried prawns and the remaining garlic and ginger for a few seconds, until fragrant. Add the cabbage, beans, carrot and wood fungus, cooking until slightly wilted. Add the chicken with stock powder, salt, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and white pepper.
After a minute, add the bean sprouts and thicken with some corn flour solution.
Prepare an area to wrap the spring rolls. Take one spring roll wrapped and scoop approximately 2 tbsp of the filling into the middle of the wrapper.
Wrap the spring roll by lifting the closest corner and pulling it over the filling. Pull the left and right side over the filling, the spring roll should resemble an open envelope.
Roll the spring roll into a small cylinder and seal the roll by brushing some egg white onto the top corner.
Fry the spring rolls, making sure that there are not too many in the pan in one batch. The spring rolls are ready when they look golden and crispy.
Remove from the pan and place on absorbent towels to remove excess oil.
Serve with your chosen sauce.

Braised Chicken with Radish

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To Prep
Wash the chicken thighs and pat dry with paper towels. Then chop into bite-sized pieces and mix with all the marinade ingredients and set aside to marinate for half an hour.

To Cook
Heat some vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat. When the oil begins to smoke add the ginger, garlic and shiitake mushrooms and sauté until fragrant.
Next add the radish and carrots and continue to sauté for another 5 minutes.
Push the vegetables to the side of the wok and add more vegetable oil. When the oil heats up, add the chicken and brown on all sides.
When browned, mix the chicken with the vegetables and mix in ¾ cup of water and cover the wok with a lid.
Let the chicken cook covered until it is done, and the sauce has reduced by half. Season with salt to taste.
Make a simple corn starch slurry by mixing the corn starch with 2 tbsp water making sure there are no lumps. Then pour the slurry into the wok and mix well.
The slurry will thicken the sauce after a while, so keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t become too thick.
Stir in the spring onions and serve with cooked white rice.