Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Dessert

Houjicha and Black Sesame Mochi

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To Prep
On a baking tray, sprinkle potato starch liberally. Set aside.
Combine black sesame and red bean pasta in a small bowl. Measure 2 tsp of paste and gently roll into a ball. You will need 6 balls in total. Set aside.

To Cook
In a medium-sized, microwaveable bowl, mix glutinous rice flour, water and sugar until well combined.
Cover the bowl with cling wrap, leaving a small gap on the side to allow steam to escape. Microwave for 2 mins.
Carefully fold over cling wrap and with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, quickly stir the dough to loosen. Cover the bowl again and microwave for 1 min.
Remove cling wrap, pour in the houjicha paste and quickly stir into the dough until distributed evenly.
Tip hot dough onto the tray with potato starch. Gently roll the mochi dough over to cover entire surface with starch. Cut dough into 6 equal portions.
Cover hands liberally with starch, then flatten 1 piece of mochi dough to approximately 4 cm across. Place dough on one palm and brush off excess starch on the top surface. Place ball of black sesame paste on the dough. Pinch opposite sides of the dough to seal in the paste. Roll in between your palms to form a ball and place mochi on the starched tray.
Repeat with remaining dough and red bean paste.
Once completed, brush off access starch on the surface and place mochi on a serving dish. Serve with a cup of Japanese tea.

Sencha Daifuku

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To Prep
Steep 3 tea bags in 150ml hot water for 4 mins. Remove bags and allow tea to cool completely.
On a baking tray, sprinkle potato starch liberally. Set aside.
On a 10cm piece of cling wrap, place 3 tsp red bean paste and slightly flatten. Place a strawberry on the paste and using the cling wrap, gently move the paste to wrap around the fruit. Unwrap and set aside. Repeat with remaining strawberries and red bean paste.

To Cook
In a medium-sized, microwaveable bowl, mix glutinous rice flour, 80ml of sencha tea and sugar until well combined.
Cover the bowl with cling wrap, leaving a small gap on the side to allow steam to escape. Microwave for 2 mins.
Carefully fold over cling wrap and with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, quickly stir the dough to loosen. Cover the bowl again and microwave for 1 min.
Tip hot dough onto the tray with potato starch. Gently roll the mochi dough over to cover entire surface with starch. Cut dough into 3 equal portions.
Cover hands liberally with starch, then flatten 1 piece of mochi dough to approximately 6 cm across. Place dough on one palm and brush off excess starch on the top surface. Place red bean coated strawberry on the dough. Pinch opposite sides of the dough to seal in the red bean and strawberry. Roll in between your palms to form a ball and place mochi on the starched tray.
Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Once completed, brush off access starch on the surface and place mochi on a serving dish. Serve with a cup of Japanese tea.

Genmaicha and Red Bean Mochi

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To Prep
On a baking tray, sprinkle kinako liberally. Set aside.
Measure 2 tsp of red bean paste and gently roll into a ball. You will need 6 balls in total. Set aside.

To Cook
In a medium-sized, microwaveable bowl, mix glutinous rice flour, water and sugar until well combined.
Cover the bowl with cling wrap, leaving a small gap on the side to allow steam to escape. Microwave for 2 mins.
Carefully fold over cling wrap and with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, quickly stir the dough to loosen. Cover the bowl again and microwave for 1 min.
Remove cling wrap, pour in the genmaicha paste and quickly stir into the dough until distributed evenly.
Tip hot dough onto the tray with kinako. Gently roll the mochi dough over to cover entire surface with kinako. Cut dough into 6 equal portions.
Cover hands liberally with kinako, then flatten 1 piece of mochi dough to approximately 4 cm across. Place dough on one palm and brush off excess kinako on the top surface. Place ball of red bean on the dough. Pinch opposite sides of the dough to seal in the red bean. Roll in between your palms to form a ball and place mochi on the tray.
Repeat with remaining dough and red bean paste.
Once completed, brush off access kinako on the surface and place mochi on a serving dish. Serve with a cup of Japanese tea.

Blue Butterfly Pea Onde Onde

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Coconut Coating
Mix grated coconut with salt until well combined. Spread onto a plate and steam for 10 mins. Set aside to cool completely.

Blue Butterfly Pea Flower Extract
Combine blue butterfly pea flower powder with hot water. Set aside to cool.

Filling
Press 4g of shaved palm sugar into a ball. Place these onto a plate and set aside.

Dough
Fill a pot with 2L water, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low. Add pandan leaf and allow to infuse.
Mix together glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour, sugar, oil and 75ml blue butterfly blue pea flower extract in a large mixing bowl, and knead well to combine.
Pinch out a golf ball-sized piece of dough and drop into the simmering water for 5 mins or until cooked through. Use a slotted spoon to remove the cooked dough and add it back into the rest of the dough and knead until smooth and pliable. If the dough is too sticky, add some more of either flours. If too dry, add droplets of blue extract as you knead.
Roll out 8g balls of dough and place them on a tray lined with baking paper.
Flatten the dough and place palm sugar in the middle, and then wrap with the dough and delicately shape it into a ball.
Drop the onde onde into the simmering water. Continue until all the dough and palm sugar has been used. If the dough has slightly dried, knead it to a pliable texture.
After the last onde onde is placed into the simmering water, leave them to boil for another 10 mins, and then turn off the heat. Allow the onde onde remain in the hot water for another 10 mins.
Carefully remove onde onde from the water using a slotted spoon a few at a time, and place it gently on to the grated coconut and coat evenly.
Allow to cool before serving.

Blue Butterfly Pea Kuih Lapis

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To Prep
Grease a 20cm square or round cake pan and place in a steamer. Set over a large pan or wok filled with 5cm of water.

To Cook
In a saucepan, add caster sugar, water and pandan leaves. Bring to a boil and then strain and set aside to cool completely.
In a large bowl, combine tapioca flour, rice flour, coconut milk and cooled pandan syrup, mixing well until smooth.
Pour out 1L of batter into a medium-sized bowl. Add 4 tsp of the butterfly blue pea flower extract and mix well. Set aside remaining batter.
Heat the steamer and pan over medium heat, and then pour 200ml of blue batter into the pan and steam for 8 mins. Add 200ml of white batter for the next layer and steam for another 8 minutes. Repeat the process, alternating between white and blue batter, stirring the batter before pouring the next layer.
Finishing on a white layer, add another 1 tsp of blue butterfly pea flower extract to the remaining blue batter. Pour a final layer and steam for 8 mins.
Leave Kuih Lapis to cool completely before turning out onto a plate.
Grease a knife before slicing into the Kuih Lapis, and serve.

Blue Butterfly Pea Seri Muka

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To Prep
Grease a 20cm square or round cake tin and place in a steamer. Set over a large pan or wok filled with 5cm of water.

To Cook
In a mixing bowl, combine rice with coconut milk, water and salt. Pour into the cake tin and steam for 30 mins.
Turn off heat and leave the rice in the steamer for 10 mins. Drizzle blue butterfly pea flower extract onto the rice to create a marbled effect. Remove from the steamer and press the rice firmly to create a compressed rice base layer.
Combine all custard topping ingredients and stir over medium heat until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat.
Spread custard topping onto compressed rice base. Immediately steam for 30 minutes or until set.
Cool completely before slicing the Seri Muka to serve.

Blue Butterfly Pea Flower Chiffon Cake

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To Prep
Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
Dissolve blue butterfly pea flower powder in hot milk and set aside to cool completely.

To Cook
Sift together 100g caster sugar, flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
In a separate mixing bowl, combine egg yolks, vegetable oil and cooled blue milk together.
In a clean bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks. Gradually add in remaining caster sugar tablespoon by tablespoon, whisking well each time. Continue to beat the whites until you achieve glossy, stiff peaks.
Combine flour and blue mixture, being careful not to overmix.
Incorporate ⅓ of the egg whites into the mixture, and mix well to loosen the batter. Add in the remainder of the egg whites and gently fold through.
Pour batter into an ungreased 25cm tube pan.
Place on bottom rack of the oven, lower temperature to 160°C and bake for 1 hr.
Turn off the heat and let the cake sit in the hot oven for another 30 mins.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before turning out of the cake tin.
Slice cake and serve.

Pulut Tai Tai

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To Prep
Grease a 20cm square baking tin. Sit it in a bamboo steamer on a pan or wok filled with 5cm of water.

To Cook
Mix rice with 150ml coconut milk, water and salt in a large bowl, and pour into the baking tin. Steam for 30 mins.
Using a pair of chopsticks to loosen the rice, stir in remaining coconut milk.
Turn off heat and leave the rice in the steamer for another 10 mins.
Drizzle butterfly pea flower extract onto the rice to create a marbled effect. Remove from the steamer and press the rice firmly to create a compressed rice base layer.
Set it aside to cool completely before cutting into pieces. Serve with kaya.

Japanese Dumplings with Sweet Soy Flour (Kinako Dango)

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To Make Japanese Dumplings
In a large mixing bowl, add shiratamako, joshinko and sugar, mix well.
Add in warm water bit by bit while kneading the dough slowly until smooth and soft.
Divide the dough into 8 equal portions, then divide each portion into 3 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball.
In a large pot of boiling water, gently add in the dumplings. After they start floating on the surface, cook for 1 more min. Remove and transfer to ice water.

To Make Coating
In a plate, mix the soybean flour and sugar until well combined.

To Serve
Drain the dumplings and put 3 balls into each bamboo skewer. Coat with the sweet soy flour and serve.

Red Rubies in Coconut Milk (Thab Thim Grob)

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To Prep
Peel and cut the water chestnuts in to small, bite-sized pieces.
Add enough water just to cover the chestnuts.
Drop in around 15 drops of red food colouring, or depending on how red you would like to red rubies to be. Stir, and allow to sit for 10-15 mins.
Drain the water chestnuts and place them in a bowl.
Spoon in about 1/4 cup of tapioca flour, and toss until all the chestnuts are well coated.
Continue this process a couple more times. For a thin coating, this will require about 3/4 cup tapioca flour, and for a thicker coating, use about 1 cup tapioca flour to fully coat the chestnuts.
Remove from the bowl and shake off the extra flour using a sieve.

To Cook
Bring a large pot of water to boil and carefully place the water chestnuts into the pot to cook for roughly 2-3 min.
Once cooked, strain off into a large bowl of cold or ice water. Once cooled, drain out red rubies for serving.
In another small saucepan, combine the coconut milk syrup ingredients and heat through until all of the sugar has dissolved.
Once the sugar has dissolved, take off the heat and allow to cool down before serving.
To serve the dessert, pour some of the coconut syrup into a bowl before placing some of the drained red rubies and crushed ice. Optionally, add slices of jackfruit and coconut flesh to serve.

Spiral Yam Mooncake

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To Prep Water Dough
Mix ingredients in a large bowl and knead until well combined.
Divide into 3 equal portions and allow to rest for 20 mins.

To Prep Oil Dough
Mix ingredients in a large bowl and knead until well combined.
Divide into 3 equal portions and allow to rest for 20 mins.

For the Filling
Place egg yolks in a steamer on medium-low heat for 10-15 mins. Set aside to cool when finished.
Sprinkle salt onto yam before steaming for 20 mins on medium heat. Once finished, mash with a fork or in food processor.
Mix the yam paste with half of the cooking oil (40ml) in a non-stick pan on low heat until oil is fully absorbed. Turn off the heat while yam paste is still hot, add caster sugar, wheat starch and remaining oil to combine. Allow to cool and divide into 70g portions.
Flatten out yam portions and place steamed yolk in the middle. Wrap and gently use hands to shape into a ball. Repeat for the rest.

To Assemble
Preheat oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper
Shape and roll/flatten out one portion of water dough. Then wrap the water dough over a portion of rounded oil dough on. Seal and shape into circles. Repeat process as needed.
Using a rolling pin, roll the ball into even and thin rectangular shapes. With the shorter side pointing at you, roll the dough away from you like a Swiss roll. Flatten with rolling pin and repeat again.
Cut rolled dough into 4 equal portions. Repeat with remain dough.
Flatten dough slices thinly with a rolling pin into a disk. Place yam filling in the centre, and cover with dough. Trim off any excess dough. Repeat with rest of dough and filling, and bake for 30 mins or until golden brown.
Cool completely before cutting and serving.