Asian Inspirations

Discover the authentic in Asian cuisine food

Dessert

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.

Harajuku Crepes

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To Prep
In a large bowl, sift in flour, sugar and salt. Then, add in eggs and half the milk. Beat until the batter is smooth without any lumps. Pour in the remaining milk, melted butter and beat until well combined. Cover the batter and allow to stand at room temperature for 30 mins.

To Cook
Using a pre-heated (medium heat), 30cm non-stick pan, pour in a little batter and quickly tip the pan in a circular motion to allow the batter to spread out. Cook over medium high heat until the underneath is golden brown. This will take about 2 mins. Gently lift the edges of the crepe using a spatula and flip the crepe. Cook for 30 secs and remove from heat. Repeat with remaining batter.
Fill each crepe with your desired ingredients. Try both sweet and savoury fillings! Refer to our suggestions for ideas.
To assemble the crepes, place the filling on ¼ of the crepe’s surface. Do not overstuff. Fold the crepe in half and start rolling the crepe from one end into a cone shape.

Red Bean Daifuku

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To Cook
Combine glutinous rice flour and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk all together.
Add water and mix well until combined.
Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap. Put the bowl in the microwave and heat it on high heat (1100w) for 1 min. Take it out and stir with wet rubber spatula. Cover again and cook for 1 min.
Stir again, cover, and cook for 30 secs to finish cooking. The color of mochi should change from white to almost translucent.
Cover the work surface with parchment paper and dust it generously with corn starch. Then transfer the cooked mochi on top.
Sprinkle more corn starch on top of the mochi to prevent it from sticking.
One it’s cook down a bit, spread the mochi into a thin layer with your hands or with a rolling pin.
Transfer the mochi with parchment paper onto a large baking sheet. Refrigerate for 15 mins until the mochi is set.
Take the mochi out from the refrigerator and cut out 7-8 circles with the cookie cutter.
Place a plastic wrap on a plate and then mochi wrapper on top, then lay another layer of plastic wrapper down. Repeat for all wrappers.
Place one sheet of plastic wrap on the work surface with a mochi layer on top. Using the cookie scoop, scoop out red bean paste on top of the mochi.
Pinch the four corners of the mochi layer together to wrap the red bean paste. Then, pinch the remaining corners together.
Put some corn starch on the sealed area and set aside. Continue making the rest of daifuku mochi.
Store in a cool dry place and enjoy within two days.