Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Dessert

Melon Pan

by Leave a Comment

To Make Main Dough
In a mixing bowl, whisk bread flour, cake flour, salt, sugar and yeast to mix well.
Add in the egg, milk and water. Use an electric mixer with dough hook to knead on low speed until the dough come together, with the sides of the bowl clean.
Add the butter and continue kneading on low speed until well combined with the dough. Change the speed to medium, knead until the dough is silky and smooth.
With your hand, form the dough into a ball by pulling the edges of the dough downwards to the bottom center. The dough ball will have a smooth surface, then pinch the bottom together.
Place the dough in a clean bowl, seam facing down, proof covered at a warm place for 1-2 hrs or until it doubles in size.
Transfer the dough on a clean floured surface, press to deflate. Fold ⅓ in from the left, then ⅓ in from the right.
Flip over and shape the dough into a ball. Turn the dough clockwise continuously with both hands, sealing the seam with work surface.
Weigh the dough and divide into 10 equal portions, making sure each weigh the same. Knead each portion and shape into balls, pulling down the sides to the bottom. Place onto lined tray, cover with cling wrap and rest for 15 mins at room temperature.
Flatten each dough with hand and fold in ⅓ from left and ⅓ from right. Pinch both ends together to form a ball. Pull the edges down to form a smooth ball, keeping the seam at the bottom.

To Make Biscuit Dough
Add butter and sugar into a large bowl and mix until smooth with an electric mixer.
Gradually add the beaten egg in small portions, blend well before adding more. Mix until all eggs are added and well combined.
Sift in the cake flour and baking powder, mix until well incorporated. Remove and form a ball.
Weigh the dough and divide into 10 equal portions, making sure each weigh the same. Roll each into balls and place onto lined baking tray. Cover the tray with cling wrap and rest in the fridge for 10 mins.
On a lightly floured surface, flatten each dough with hand and roll into 10-12cm flat circles with a rolling pin.

To Make Melon Pan
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Wrap the flat biscuit dough onto the main dough ball, seal all edges at the bottom.
Coat the surface with caster sugar, gently remove excess sugar. Score the surface with a knife, making a crisscross pattern.
Place the doughs on lined baking tray, proof covered for 50 mins in a warm place, or until it gets 1½ size bigger.
Bake for 10 mins, then rotate the tray and bake for 3-5 mins to get all buns evenly browned. Remove and transfer to wire rack. Let cool.

Mango Coconut Jelly Cubes (Woon Mamuang)

by Leave a Comment

Making the Mango Layer
In a blender, blend the one mango and orange juice until smooth.
In a small pot, add 1¼ cups water and bring to boil. Add agar-agar powder and stir constantly to make sure the agar-agar powder is well dissolved. Add sugar and mango purée to the pot, and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat. Taste-test and add more sugar and/or lime juice as needed.
Pour the mango mixture into a 20cm tray or divide equally into serving cups. Quickly add the 1cm mango cubes and chopped mint leaves (optional) into the base of the tray or cups. Distribute them evenly and make sure they are well submerged. (Note: Agar-agar jelly sets at room temperature, so you will need to work quickly especially if you are making small ones).
Refrigerate or leave at room temperature until the surface is set and no longer jiggles when you tap the tray or cups.

Making the Coconut Layer
In a small pot, add 1⅓ cups water and bring to boil. Add agar-agar powder and stir constantly to make sure the agar-agar powder is well dissolved. Add sugar, salt, and stir until dissolved. Then add coconut milk, stir to mix and remove from heat.
Gently pour the coconut layer over the back of a spoon onto the mango base. Make sure the mango layer has set before adding the coconut layer. If the coconut layer is not hot enough, the layers will slide off when cut.
Refrigerate for 2-3 hrs until thoroughly chilled. Then, cut into cubes (or diamond shape) with a sharp knife. Serve chilled.

Dried Beancurd with Gingko and Barley Dessert (Fu Chuk Yi Mai)

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
In a large pot, add water, barley, pandan leaves (screwpine) and pitted red dates. Bring to boil, then leave to simmer for another 20 mins or until barley is soft.
Add gingko nuts and soaked beancurd sheets. Continue to simmer for another 10 mins or until the beancurd skin softens to fine, silky-smooth texture.
Add rock sugar and stir until the sugar is fully dissolved. Discard the pandan leaves.
Serve warm or chilled.

Mango Sago Dessert

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Soak tapioca pearls for at least 3 hrs.
In a saucepan, add water to fill about 3cm of the pot. The amount of water should just be enough to submerge all the tapioca pearls. Bring water to boil then, add tapioca pearls to the pot. Lower heat to medium and stir constantly to make sure they don’t start clumping together. Continue cooking for about 10 mins, then remove from heat. Set aside to rest for another 30 mins. The tapioca pearls are ready when they turn translucent without any visible white dots in the middle. If they are not ready, return pot to stove and cook for a few more minutes, and set aside to rest again. Drain tapioca pearls and rinse under cold water.
Cut mango into cubes, about 1½ cm in size. Save ⅓ of them and blend the rest with ice cubes and sugar in a food processor. Blend for about 1-2 mins, or to a thick juice consistency, Transfer into a large bowl and stir in the tapioca pearls.
Divide the mango sago dessert into small bowls and top with mango cubes. Serve with a drizzle of coconut milk to add creaminess to the dessert. Serve cold.

Thai Mango Sticky Rice (Khao Neow Ma Muang)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
For the sticky rice, rinse it 6 – 10 times, making sure most of the starch is removed until the water is clear. Soak the rice in water for about 6 hrs.

To Cook
Using a steamer basket or other type of steamer, steam the sticky rice for about 15-20 mins until fully cooked. Set aside.
To prepare the coconut cream mixture, add coconut cream into a pot over medium heat and gently stir in one circular direction. Add sugar and salt, and keep stirring until fully dissolved. When the coconut cream mixture comes to a boil, turn off the heat.
Put the fresh sticky rice into a mixing bowl, and begin to slowly add in the coconut cream and sugar mixture. Stir constantly to slowly incorporate coconut mixture into the rice. Once all combined, the rice should look glossy with a grainy pudding-like texture. The hot sticky rice will absorb all the coconut milk.
In a separate saucepan add the other portion of coconut cream with salt and stir on low heat. Bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat and set aside in a bowl. This will be served alongside the mango sticky rice as a topping.
For the yellow mung beans using low heat and with a frying pan or wok, dry-fry the yellow mung beans for a few minutes until they turn golden crispy. Set this aside as a topping.
For the mango, first peels off the skin, then cut off the meat from either side of the mango seed and slice the mango.
On a serving plate, add a portion of sticky rice, top it with mango and a sprinkling of crispy mung beans, and then drizzle coconut cream all over.

Fruit in Coconut Milk (Es Kolak)

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Add the sweet potato, palm sugar, pandan leaf and water into a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then lower heat and simmer until sweet potato becomes tender.
Add the coconut milk, sliced banana and jackfruit. Add salt to taste.
Bring heat up to medium until mixture begins to boil, stirring occasionally.
Serve while warm, or cool and serve cold with ice.

Glutinous Rice with Pandan Custard (Kuih Seri Muka)

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
Place soaked rice in a 23cm metal tray.
Add coconut milk making sure it is enough to cover rice, add water if insufficient. Add salt.
Steam rice mixture until cooked. When cooked, mix well and press down in tray until firm.
In a mixing bowl, add in eggs and sugar and mix well. Then, add coconut milk and pandan juice.
Mix in plain flour.
Sieve mixture and add to the top of cooked rice and steam for another 30 mins.
Leave to cool entirely before slicing. Serve with coffee or tea.

Biskut Makmur

by Leave a Comment

Preparing the cookie dough
Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Then add the ghee into the flour and mix until you get a soft dough.
Next, portion out the dough using a tablespoon to get even sized balls.

Preparing the filling
Blend the peanuts together with the icing sugar. Make sure not to blend the nuts too finely – you want some crunch to the filling.
Grab a prepared ball of cookie dough, and flatten it. Then, put some of the filling (about ½ a tsp) on the center of the dough and bring the edges of the dough together to reform balls. Repeat until all the cookie dough is used up.
Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes at 160°C.
Allow the cookies to cool before rolling them in some icing sugar.

Avocado Smoothie (Es Alpukat)

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Peel and pit the avocados, then cut the flesh into cubes and set aside.
In a blender, puree all the ingredients together except for the cocoa powder or chocolate syrup. Serve chilled with a sprinkling of powdered cocoa or a drizzling of chocolate syrup along the insides and on top of the glass if desired.

Note: If you’re craving for some caffeine, add 1 cup of chilled strongly-brewed coffee to the blender while making your very own es alpukat.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

by Leave a Comment

To Prep
Set oven to heat-up at 150°C.

For Ingredients B
Mix egg yolk, sugar, oil, coconut milk and pandan paste into a bowl. Then, sieve self-raising flour into the bowl, and use a spatula to mix evenly with egg yolk mixture.

For Ingredients A (Meringue)
Add 7 egg whites to the mixing bowl, and beat the egg white until frothy. Add cream of tartar and sugar, and turn up the speed to high and whisk for another 3 mins, until it just reaches stiff peak, with a glossy look. Do not overbeat the meringue or the batter will be lumpy.
Fold in ingredient B into ingredient A mixture in 3 batches, and mix well.
Transfer the cake into an ungreased tube pan and bake at 150°C for 50-60 mins. If the top of the cake cracks or becomes too brown, place a sheet of aluminium foil over it and continue baking.
Once baked, invert the pan and place it on a raised wire rack to cool completely before unmoulding.

Korean Rice Cakes (Songpyeon)

by Leave a Comment

To Make the Filling
Grind the sesame seeds in a grinder or blender for about 20 secs. Then transfer ground sesame to a bowl and mix in ½ cup of brown sugar and a pinch of salt.

To Make the Dough
Prepare 3 cups of rice powder and sift into a large bowl.
Equally divide the rice powder into 3 bowls. Each bowl should now contain 1 cup of rice powder.
To prepare the basic white dough, add 3 tbsp boiling hot water to the rice powder and mix it with a spatula. When the dough is cool enough to handle, knead for about 5 mins, then wrap with cling film and set aside.
To prepare the green dough, add 1 tsp of ssukgaru (mugwort powder) and 3½ tbsp boiling hot water to the rice powder and mix it with a spatula. When the dough is cool enough to handle, knead for about 5 mins, then wrap with cling film and set aside.
To prepare the pink dough, add a pinch of strawberry Jell-o powder and 3 tbsp boiling hot water to the rice powder and mix it with a spatula. When the dough is cool enough to handle, knead for about 5 mins, then wrap with cling film and set aside.

To Assemble the Songpyeon
Cut off a piece of the dough and roll tightly between your palms in order to make a ball.
Press in to the ball with your thumb to stretch the dough slightly outwards and then use both of your thumbs to expand the opening.
Fill the well with ½ tsp of sesame filling, then seal tightly by squeezing the edges together. When the rice cake is sealed, shape them in to a half moon shape and set aside. Repeat until all the dough has been used.

To Cook
Prepare a steamer by bringing water to boil over high heat. Using pine needles or a damp kitchen cloth, line the bottom of the steamer to stop the rice cakes from sticking to the steamer.
When the water begins to boil, place the rice cakes on to the steamer ensuring that the pieces do not touch each other. Cover the rice cakes with a final, thin layer of pine needles if using.
Cover the steamer and let steam for about 20 mins.
Prepare a bowl of cold water and transfer the rice cakes in to the bowl when they’ve been cooked. Rinse the dumplings and then transfer to a rack to drain.
Lightly coat your hands with the sesame oil and use them to rub the oil on to the rice cakes.

To Serve
Serve immediately and while warm! Enjoy!

Sweet Sago Rolls with Palm Sugar Syrup (Ongol-Ongol)

by Leave a Comment

To Cook
In a saucepan, bring the palm sugar and water to a boil over high heat to create the Palm Sugar Syrup. Reduce the heat to low, simmer uncovered for about 10 mins while stirring from time to time until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture turns syrupy. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
In another saucepan, mix the sago/tapioca flour, palm sugar and water. Mix well. Add the pandan leaves or extract and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 30 mins, stirring from time to time until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and discard the pandan leaves if using. Set aside to cool slightly.
Let mixture cool down enough to handle, and form compact cylinder shapes by rolling the mixture on top of banana or parchment paper. Use toothpicks to fasten the ends of the rolls. Set aside to cool.
Combine the grated coconut and salt, and mix well.
Serve the rolls by slicing them into discs and coating them with the grated coconut, along with a drizzle of Palm Sugar Syrup on top.