The Asian Cooking Society

Such A Unique Chicken! I just HAD HAD HAD to share!

2008-07-24T03:45:10Z

I have been dying to share this recipe! It is ridiculously easy and so so tasty. The chicken ends up tasting very very similar to the Hainanese Chicken you get from chicken rice stall, but with a lot less work.

I prepped the dish in the morning before work (took all of 15 minutes), turned off the heat before leaving for work, and the chicken was ready when I got home from work!

In essence, you boil the chicken on high heat in a covered heavy pot for 30 minutes (this is when you get ready for work), and turn off the heat before leaving for work. It has to sit in the pot for 6 hours, so by the time you reach home from work, the chicken is cooked. Take the stock and substitute it for the water you would have added to cook rice, and you have a healthier version of chicken rice!!

Click here for the recipe and step by step pictures

Seafood Glass Noodle

2008-07-23T07:12:31Z

Tung Hoon, also known as Glass noodle, Mung Bean Threads or Cellophane noodles has got to be one of my favourite noodles. It cooks quickly and it absorbs the flavours from whatever you are cooking it in. They are clear coloured noodles made of Mung Beans (but of course!)

I had a craving for tung hoon and seafood. I had some seafood from my last loot sitting in my freezer…perfect! I made such a huge batch…enough to feed 8! Total cost of making this one dish meal which was totally satisfying…all of SG$13

Click here for the recipe and extremely detailed step by step pictures on how to make this dish

Roast Pork (Chinese Version)

2008-07-22T02:10:25Z

Over the weekend, I was pouring over cookbooks, and I chanced upon a recipe on how to make roast pork, and it was the Chinese version. It is slightly different to western roast pork.

The pork is marinated with different spices, and the pork belly is used. Dipped with a side of English Hot mustard and you are all set.

I am so glad I no longer have a phobia of making roast pork…and much to my waistline’s despair…I think this is something I will be making again REAL soon!

Click here for the recipe and step by step pictures

Fish & Watercress Soup

2008-07-21T04:01:40Z

I grew up on a different version of watercress soup. The authentic Chinese version uses pork bones and red dates for the stock. Because I had some fish stock sitting in the freezer, all ready to be used, I made a variation of it. A healthier version.

I was pleasantly surprised that the soup turned out so well. It was so good, I had to share. This version is a quick whip up after work. The night before, take the soup stock out of the freezer, marinate some fish slices, and you can have a nice soup with rice after work within 15 minutes. A one dish meal.

Click here for the recipe and more pictures

Yakiniku

2008-07-16T22:09:30Z

Any specialists of the Japanese variety here?

I have been recently craving yakiniku and I feel like preparing it myself rather than preparing a hotplate or mini-grill and having my guests cook it themselves and dip any sort of tare (dipping sauce).

I googled around and the only recipe I found was this:

Yakiniku

Ingredients:

3/4 lb beef loin, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp grated apple
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp grated garlic
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp white sesame seed

Preparation:
Mix apple, soy sayce, garlic, sesame oil, and sesame seeds in a bowl. Marinate beef in the sauce for 30 minutes. Heat a large skillet on high heat and stir-fry the beef.
Makes 4 servings

Does anyone have any other ideas on how to grill up some meat along this style?

Also, what do I serve beside it? I've had it served before with steamed rice, bean sprouts and scallions before, heck even had it with a fried egg on top once. So I was thinking of chopping some scallions and stir frying them in a light butter sauce. But I'm not sure how I would prepare bean sprouts.

Your help and thoughts would be much appreciated!

Yong Tau Foo Soup

2008-07-16T06:11:21Z

The fried bean curd yong tau foo is featured here

I am a huge fan of Yong Tau Foo Soup. Actually I think most gals are. It's healthy, soupy, what's there not to like! My interpretation of Yong Tau Foo is simply various tofu or vegetables filled with a yummy fish paste. Of course fish balls are also good.

My personal favourite of yong tau foo pieces has got to be a toss up of either the green chilli or dried bean curd stuffed with fish piece. The bean curd absorbs the gorgeous soup... out of this world...yummy!

Ingredients:
3 yellow onions, sliced (you can use any sort of onion, amount is also up to you)
1 head of garlic, skin on and bruised
1 tablespoon white pepper corns
2 cups dried anchovies (ikan bilis)
2 cups dried soya beans
2 inch ginger, skinned and sliced
14 cups hot water
Yong tau Foo pieces

Method:
1) Saute the yellow onions, dried anchovies and soya beans in 2 tablespoon of oil till the onions go transparent.
2) Add the garlic, pepper corns and ginger and continue to stir till fragrant.
3) Add the water, and allow this to simmer for about 3 hours.
4) Drain the stock, throw the anchovies etc away. You just want the stock
5) Bring the stock to a boil and add your yong tau foo. Boil for 4 minutes.
6) Serve immediately.

Note: If you want to make your own yong tau foo pieces. It is possible. Just buy some firm white fish fillets with the skin off. Batang is a good choice. Put it in the food processor to blend till a paste, add some salt, pepper and corn flour to help it along. Cut up some vegetables (capsicum, okra, green seeded chilli, red seeded chilli) and add the fish paste on them. You can also buy some firm fried bean curd, slit a hole and stuff the fish paste in. That is it!

Click here to raed more and for step by step pictures

Chinese Style Braised Duck

2008-07-15T07:02:32Z

I love duck. I have been meaning to attempt making braised duck for ages, but duck is such a tricky meat to handle. Duck is one of those meats that needs “special care” when preparing, or else it has a strong “smell” to it.

It took all of 45 minutes to cook, it was a lot easier than the braised pork. Why does Duck have to be considered a red meat!!

Ingredients:

1 whole duck, cleaned and quartered

5 cinnamon sticks

4 star anise

1 tablespoon white pepper corns

¾ cup light soya sauce

½ cup dark soya sauce

½ cup Chinese wine

¼ cup rock sugar

7 cups hot water

7 cloves garlic, skin on and bruised

2 inches ginger, skinned and sliced

5 stalks spring onion, bruised

4 hard boiled eggs (optional)

1 firm tofu, sliced (optional)

Method:

1) Place the duck, cinnamon, star anise, pepper corns, light and dark soya sauce, Chinese wine, rock sugar, water, garlic, ginger and spring onion into a large stock pot. (if the liquid isn’t covering the duck pieces, add a little more water)

2) Bring it to a boil and allow it to boil for 5 minutes.

3) Reduce the heat to a simmer and allow this to simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered.

4) Add the hard boiled eggs and tofu after it has been simmering for 30 minutes. Take this time to skim off all the excess oil on the surface. Duck is very fatty, it is best to remove this fat. It will not affect the taste of the dish.

5) After the 45 minutes of simmering, cover the pot and bring it to a rolling boil.

6) Once it boils, turn off the heat and allow the duck to stand covered for 2 – 3 hours.

7) Take the lid off and do a final skimming of oil.

8) Take the duck out and chop it into bite size pieces.

9) Remove the spring onion, ginger, spices, garlic from the gravy.

10) Plate your duck, and drizzle it generously with the gravy.

11) Serve either room temperature or heat up the gravy before serving.

Click here to read more,detailed pictures and special tips

Tempura with an experiment

2008-07-13T22:43:55Z

I made some tempura today and when I was done I thought I would try an idea I had floating around my head. I took a cube of tofu and put chili sauce on it, deep fried onions (from a can) over that, and three finely sliced scallions on top. It tasted really good. I also dipped it in ponzu sauce before eating it.

the simple joys of a bento box

2008-07-10T00:48:24Z

I think that one of the most simple joys of Asian/Japanese cooking is a bento box. I make one of these to bring to work every so often, and it makes my time in the cubical of hell a bit happier.

Bento box, how great you are. Too bad some places charge so much for a cute plastic box.

I just wanted to share the photo. I love how the box can hold some potstickers/dumplings, smoked salmon, salad, and steamed rice, while making the simple preparation of each piece look so great together.

Clear The Fridge Rice Noodles

2008-06-18T04:07:08Z

I had some leftover stuff in the fridge, oyster mushrooms, honey baked ham, red pepper, carrots, celery, a tonne of eggs, chicken fillets, that needed to be cleared out of the fridge. After much pondering on how I should use them before they go to waste, I decided to just make a simple rice noodle dish.

Visually, this was also very appetizing with all the wonderful colours, it looked really vibrant. It didn’t take long to whip up, in total half an hour was all it took. It was half an hour well spent! We tucked into a hearty meal, and we had a very contented look on our face at the end of it.

Seriously, it is what you have left in the fridge or you need to clear. No hard and fast rule here. If you have other green vegetables in the fridge...use them instead of the bok choy and bean sprouts. Don't have a particular ingredient, don't go purchase....it is meant to just clear what you have leftover in your fridge. It is just a guide on what to do....let your imagination run wild :).

Click here for the recipe and step by step pictures of the process

Sharksfin Melon

2008-06-17T03:07:23Z

I tried sharksfin melon at soup restaurant ages ago and fell in love with the texture! Texture wise it is very similar to sharksfin! Sharksfin is something I no longer eat for obvious reasons, though I must admit it is very tasty…but no! Cannot! The poor sharks…it is just not right. Anyway…back to my sharksfin melon.

Got my hands on some yummy pork bones and pork ribs…and it has been ages since I made a nice pork bone soup. Seriously I must say that it beats chicken based soups hands down. The flavour is so robust!

This was a soup i thoroughly enjoyed.

Click here to check out the soup and recipe

Chinese Popiah

2008-06-05T03:49:12Z

Popiah is the the non-fried version of Chinese spring roll....It is filled with prawns, chinese sausage, turnip, garlic and a tonne of other stuff. The fun part is you can choose to add or omit what you want....there is no right or wrong... :).

It is a great way to get everyone interacting at a party. My "I heart Moo" party was modelled along the same line.

It is just so much fun. Everyone sits around, grabs a popiah skin, spreads the luscious sweet sauce, followed by the garlic paste and chilli sauce, top it with some veggies, turnip mix, Chinese sausage, the crunchy bits which I can't figure out what it is, egg and prawn…wrap it up and viola!

Click here to read more and step by step pictures of how I created my Popiah

Steam Fish (Cantonese Style)

2008-05-23T04:00:37Z

When we were at the supermarket buying the produce for the red curry prawn and mango curry, we chanced upon a great deal. 2 Japanese Sea Bass (Air Flown) on offer…they were going for less than SG$5!

We just couldn't resist purchasing 2 after closer inspection. They were really fresh. The eyes were very clear and the gills were deep red. It was a great deal.

With fish that fresh....I made steam fish Cantonese style and it was DELISH

Click here to read more and for the recipe

Krispy Green

2008-05-16T04:12:08Z

I am a huge fan of Krispy Kreme Donuts…. I think they are little pieces of heaven.Unfortunately, Krispy Kreme isn't in Singapore, so to satisfy my occassional craving, I have been working on a donut recipe….I wanted something different. I wanted a little asian twist to it…give it a little something extra.

I have come up with these little babies…it has a matcha glaze to it, and I must say they are pretty good!

Click here for the recipe and step by step pictures

Intro + question

2008-05-10T21:40:54Z

Name: Hello, my name is Sarah and I've been eating Asian foods...
Age: 23
Ethnicity (optional, but preferred): Whitest white person ever
Favourite food: DUMPLINGS.
Interesting fact about yourself: Urh... um... I'm studying Computer Networking in college at the moment? :Da

So I have a quick question. I'd like to make some dango, but I do not have a steamer. Is there some way I can rig up my rice cooker to steam those things, or maybe from some pots over the stove?

Essential ingredients

2008-05-07T12:31:19Z

Hi all! First off :
Name: lisa
Age: 22
Ethnicity (optional, but preferred): Caucasian (Irish-Australian)
Favourite food: Flash fried chilli tofu with vegetables and vegetarian fried rice
Interesting fact about yourself: Too many to list ;-)

Okay, so I've been reading this book on Thai food, and at the back it has a little essential ingredients bit, for ingredients that should be on hand as they're common in a lot of Thai food. The book lists : baby eggplant, bamboo shoots, bean thread noodles, red Thai chillis, Chinese cabbage, coconut cream and milk, corriander, galangal, pickled ginger, green curry paste, pickled green peppercorns, jasmine rice, ka chai, kaffir lime leaves, kumara, lemongrass, lychees, massaman curry paste, peanut oil, palm sugar, green papaya, pomelos, red curry paste, stick rice noodles, rice vermicelli, snake beans, dried shrimp and paste, star anise, tamarind, Thai basil, Thai shallots, tofu, turmeric, vietnamese mint and yellow curry paste.
What would you folks add for the other flavours of Asian cooking, like anything different for Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian and so on?

Tom Yam Soup

2008-04-30T02:53:42Z

HUG POT OF SOUP...YUMMY!

This has got to be one of my favourite Thai soups....the sour spicy broth is just to die for....so with our loot of over 40 prawns...we brought them home and made a yummy Tom Yam Soup....ah.....this is MY comfort soup!

Click here for the recipe and more pictures

Click here of our video of the loot

waves

2008-04-29T20:26:20Z

Name: Amber
Age: 25
Ethnicity (optional, but preferred): French, Italian, Mexican
Favourite food: botamochi, tamago sushi, red bean buns, Chinese meat buns, ume wine, rice + furikake
Interesting fact about yourself: My love of Japanese cooking is from my French mother who lived in Japan for most of her teen years and a good portion of her adult life

asian_cooking @ 2008-04-29T13:33:00

2008-04-29T17:39:50Z

I just joined so here is my info!

Name: Sen
Age: 20
Ethnicity (optional, but preferred): Pakistani & Irish-American
Favorite food: Keema, shabu-shabu, and udon.
Interesting fact about yourself: I'm a college student who loves cooking and I'm always looking for new delicious recipes! Sadly the only thing I can't eat is pork (or any other kind of pig products including pork broth and gelatin) which sucks because a lot of Japanese dishes have pork in them.

Substitute Lime Basil for (Kaffir) Lime Leaves

2008-04-27T21:29:46Z

It's pretty hard for me to find lime leaves and I don't have room for an actual lime tree in my apartment, but while surfing herb seed websites, I had a random thought..

Would it be possible to substitute lime basil for lime leaves in thai dishes? I've never had lime basil, so I don't know how strong it is... what do you all think?

(cross-posted to cooking)

Soup!

2008-04-27T16:01:05Z

Hi all
SE Asian soups are one of my favourite things in the world, and I've been experimenting with different recipes recently. Here's a recipe for

Banana soup - claims to serve 4 but my boyfriend and I ate the lot as a starter, it was so good!
1 tbsp oil
50g spring onions, sliced (save some for garnish)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
200ml coconut milk
400ml vegetable stock (or chicken if you don't want a veggie version)
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
3 tsp fish sauce (I used a veggie version, or you can replace it with soy sauce)
1 large banana, peeled and sliced
1 large red chili, sliced (save a few bits for garnish)
Fresh coriander to garnish

1. Fry about half of the banana in hot oil until golden and slightly crispy, then set aside.
2. In the same pan, fry the spring onion and garlic in the hot oil.
3. Add the coconut milk, stock, lime juice, pepper, fish sauce, the rest of the banana and the chili.
4. Cook for about 5 minutes until hot, then blend in a food processor.
5. Add the reserved banana slices, and garnish with a few chili slices, spring onion and coriander leaves.

Does anyone have any recipes for SE Asian style soup that's either vegetarian or doesn't rely on meat or fish for the taste (i.e. meat/fish could be left out or replaced with tofu)? I'm running out of recipes in the books that I have!

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

2008-04-23T03:06:13Z

This is my adaptation to Vietnamese Spring Rolls...they were yummy! Economical use of leftover chicken, beef, pork, fish, pretty much any meat...:)

Click here for more pictures and for the recipe.

I hope this is the right place to post this...

2008-04-21T03:08:38Z

Name: Becca
Age: 22
Ethnicity (optional, but preferred): Caucasian
Favourite food: Pancit, Sushi and Fruit Salad ^^
Interesting fact about yourself: I have a friend that is Phillipino that lives in France :) oh and...I cook really good Pancit and make the best Fruit Salad ever(but that's just my opinion, haha)

P.S. Hi everyone, I hope to learn alot about different kinds of cooking and learn different recipes! =^.^=
<3 B.

oyaki

2008-04-16T16:55:22Z

http://24hourkitchen.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/leftover-potato-oyaki/

I Heart Moo party

2008-04-14T04:43:35Z

Previously I posted on the cooking my idea of a I heart Moo party. I organised the "cow" themed party over the weekend, and it was a roaring or should I say Moo-ing success.

first course we had Make your own pizza, second course was Thai Red Curry kebabs, third course was Vietnamese Spring Rolls, and for dessert we had tiramisu.

The entry on how the party went is here (too picture heavy to add everything on the forum)