Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Dessert

Thai Mock Fruit Mung Bean Dessert (Luk Chup)

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To Make the Mung Bean Paste
Rinse the split dried mung beans 2-3 times in cold water until water is clear. Drain through a sieve, then add to a bowl and soak in cold water for 4 hrs.
Drain through a sieve, then place soaked beans in a cheese cloth. Place in a steamer and cook for 15-20 mins, or until softened.
Carefully remove from the steamer, then spread out on a tray and allow to cool completely.
Place beans in a food processor and process until fine.
Add beans, sugar and coconut milk to a large non-stick pan and stir together until well combined.
Turn on heat to medium-low and cook for 15 mins until mixture becomes a smooth, dry paste.
Transfer the paste to a tray, spreading it out into a single layer. Cover the surface with cling wrap, then allow to cool at room temperature until completely cool.

To Make Luk Chup
Take a small amount of cooled mung bean paste and shape it into a fruit or vegetable of your choice. Slide a toothpick into the paste, then stick this on a piece of foam. Repeat with remaining paste.
Use a clean paintbrush or cotton bud to paint the fruits and vegetables in different colours. Once completely painted, allow to dry for 1 hr.
In a saucepan, whisk together the agar-agar powder, sugar and water. Bring to the boil, then remove from heat and allow to sit for a few mins until bubbles dissipate. Pour into a heatproof cup.
Dip the mung bean fruits and vegetables into the glaze, then allow to dry for 10 mins, then repeat 1-2 times depending on how thick you want the glaze to be. Allow to set completely.
Carefully remove from toothpick, then trim any excess glaze with kitchen scissors.
Enjoy!

Coconut Pudding

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To Prep
Soak agar-agar in 1.5L of warm water for 15 mins. The agar-agar will settle to the bottom of the bowl in a watery paste. Drain the excess water from the top of the bowl, leaving the agar-agar.
Blend corn flour, coconut milk and evaporated milk. Set aside.
Boil 1.5L of water in a saucepan, add agar-agar and sugar and continue boiling until dissolved.
Add corn flour mixture slowly to the boiling water and stir constantly for about 3 mins.
Pour mixture into oiled moulds. Place in refrigerator to chill.
Before serving, cut the pudding into diamond shaped pieces, serve topped with lychees.
Hint: The amount of white sugar can be adjusted to taste.
Other fresh or canned fruit such as strawberries, peaches or mango can be used instead of lychees.

Thai Coconut Ice Cream

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To Prep
In a food processor, combine egg yolks, castor sugar and vanilla essence.
Heat milk until warm to hot, and add to food processor.
Transfer mixture to a stainless steel bowl which will fit tightly over a saucepan ¼ filled with boiling water.

To Cook
Turn the saucepan down to a gentle simmer and whisk mixture continuously until it coats the back of a spoon, or reduces by one-third.
Cool bowl over a sink filled with ice water.
Whip the cream until thick and mix in the coconut milk powder.
Add the ice cream base and combine well. Taste and adjust.
Place in an ice cream maker and churn.
Hint: If you do not have an ice cream maker, place the mixture in a tray in the freezer. When the ice cream starts to crystallise around the edges, place in the food processor and blend for 1 min; then return to the tray and freeze. Let the ice cream stand for 5 mins before scooping.

Glutinous Taro Balls in Coconut Syrup

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To Prep
Combine the taro, rice flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.
Roll into balls about the size of a macadamia nut.
Boil coconut milk, palm sugar and water on low heat.

To Cook
Gently place taro balls into the syrup and cook for 3-5 mins. Serve warm.
Your Glutinous taro balls in coconut syrup is ready!

Cendol

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For Cendol
Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Cook the mixture on low heat, stirring constantly until batter thickens and turns into translucent green.
Have a big bowl filled with water and ice.
Put a small amount of batter into potato ricer or colander and squeeze into iced water. Repeat until all the batter is used up.
Drain cendol and transfer into container and set aside.

For Palm Sugar Syrup
Place palm sugar, pandan leaves, salt and water,  in a small pot and let it simmer until all the palm sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat, discard pandan leaves and set aside.
Do the same with the coconut milk, boil the coconut milk with pandan leaves and salt. once boiled, discard the pandan leaves and set aside to cool.

To Serve
In small bowl, layer the gula melaka first, then pack bowl with crushed ice. Add glutinous rice (optional), coconut milk, and top with creamed corn and kidney beans (optional). Drizzle with more palm sugar syrup and serve immediately.

Mango Sticky Rice (Kao Nieo Mamuang)

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To Prep
Wash rice well in running water, then soak in cold water overnight.

To Cook
Strain rice in a colander and place in a steamer. Cover and cook for 45 mins. Remove and allow to cool.
Skim 100ml of coconut milk from the top of the can. Keep aside to finish dish. Add remaining coconut milk to cooled rice, with dissolved pinch of salt. Add sugar syrup. There is no need to chill rice if you are using it on the same day.
If using fresh mango, cut in half and discard seed. Peel each half, slice and ‘fan’ decoratively on plate.
Top with the coconut cream and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Glutinous Rice Balls in Coconut Milk (Kuih Badak Berendam)

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To Prep
Make some pandan leaf extract by blending the leaf in 1 ½ cups of water. Strain the liquid to remove the bits of leaves.
Add the salt to the pandan extract, and slowly add the flour until you get a soft dough.
Dissolve the palm sugar in a pot filled with water over medium heat.
Next, add the grated coconut and stir continuously for about 10-15 mins until the mixture has dried up and then, remove it from heat.
Let it cool down then shape into balls about the size of a marble and set aside.
Combine the coconut milk, rice flour, salt, and pandan leaves for the sauce in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Stir the mixture continuously for about 10 mins until it thickens. Add salt to taste.
Remove from the heat and set aside.

To Cook
Grab a portion of the dough and flatten it on your hand.
Place a ball of filling into the middle of the dough and bring the edges together.
Roll it in the palm of your hand to get a nice sphere. Repeat until all the dough has been used up.
Drop the stuffed balls into the boiling water.
Allow it to boil until the balls start to float to the surface.
Remove the balls from the boiling water and mix in with the sauce. Serve.

Pandan Glutinous Rice Balls with Palm Sugar (Onde-Onde)

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To Cook
Put 2 tbsp glutinous rice flour (from the 200g) in a pan with 4 tbsp water over heat and stir until transparent.
Mix all the ingredients together except the water and coconut. Slowly mix in the water until dough forms.
Divide into 15gm balls, flatten dough and insert cubed gula melaka. Wrap them into a ball.
Cook the balls into a pot of boiling water and when they float, remove and coat with grated coconut.

Tofu Pudding (Tau Foo Fa)

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To Cook
Remove as much of the skin from the soybeans and rinse.
Using a blender, blend the soybeans with some water until soybeans are finely minced.
Transfer the blended soybeans into a stock pot with 2 liters of water.
Boil the mixture on medium heat. Make sure to stir every now and then so that the soybeans do not stick to the bottom of the pot.
Bring the heat down to medium-low once the mixture boils and allow simmering for about 40mins.
Remove the milk from the heat and filter the mixture through a tea sock or cheesecloth. Squeeze the residue in the tea sock to make as much soy milk as possible. Set it aside.
Add 250g of gula Melaka, 1 cup sugar, 1 knotted Pandan leaf and 1 cup of water into a pot and bring to boil.
Make sure the sugar has dissolved completely and removed from heat once it has achieved your desired consistency.
Next, mix the gypsum with the water in a bowl.
Boil the soymilk and skim off any bubbles or foam. Remove from heat.
Make sure the gypsum has completely dissolved, then add to a large pot.
Gently pour the soymilk into the pot to avoid the formation of bubbles.
Do not stir the mixture/ Cover the pot with a kitchen towel, followed by the lid and allow it to set for about an hour.
Scrape the top layer of the tofu with a shallow ladle and into a bowl. Add a few tablespoons of syrup and serve.

Banana Fritters (Pisang Goreng)

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To Prep
Peel the bananas, and slice it once or twice lengthways to get a long slice of banana.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and slowly whisk in the cold water until you get a smooth batter without lumps.
Add oil to the batter and mix until combined.
Add the bananas into the batter and make sure they are all fully covered in batter. Leave the bananas for 5 mins in the batter.

To Cook
In a large saucepan, heat oil until 180°C and deep fry the bananas until golden.
To absorb excessive oil, remove the bananas from the oil onto paper towels. Serve crunchy and hot.

Steamed Pandan Tray Cake (Nyonya Kuih Talam)

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Preparing the Green Layer
First extract the pandan juice by finely blending 15-20 pandan leaves with 300ml of water. Strain the blended mixture to get 300ml of pandan juice.
Make a simple sugar syrup by mixing the sugar, salt and plain water in a pot and bringing it to a boil, making sure all the sugar and salt has dissolved.
Then, combine the pandan juice with the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Slowly mix in the hot sugar syrup into the green mixture while stirring constantly.
Then strain the mixture into a metal mixing bowl.
Bring a pot of water to a boil, reducing the heat to medium when it does. Set the mixing bowl with the green mixture over the pot and cook until it has thickened. Remove from heat and mix until smooth.
Pour the thickened mixture into a greased 20cm baking tin and steam over medium heat for 15 mins. Try to make an uneven surface to help the two layers stick to each other.

Preparing the White layer
Combine the coconut milk, rice flour, green bean flour and salt. Then, slowly pour in the hot water gradually while stirring constantly.
Once smooth, strain the mixture into a metal mixing bowl.
Repeat the same cooking process as with the green mixture.
Pour the white mixture on top of the steamed green layer and steam over medium heat for 15 mins.
Set aside to cool, and serve. Make sure to cut the Kuih Talam with a greased knife as it is quite sticky.