Recipes: Sharing dish

Serves 12-15

Make the Red Rubies

1. Bring a medium pot of water to the boil.
2. Meanwhile, add the chopped water chestnuts to a medium sized zip lock bag. Add food colouring then mix to colour the chestnuts. Add tapioca floor. Seal the bag then toss to coat all the chestnuts with the tapioca starch.
3. When the water is at a raging boil, slowly pour in prepared chestnuts, dispersing them in the water to avoid clumping. The red rubies will rise to the top when cooked. Allow them to continue to bubble for a couple of minutes before draining/scooping out into a colander. Rinse with cold running water to remove any excess starch and colouring. Add cooked red rubies to a bowl of iced water.

Put it All Together

4. Drain lychees, jackfruit, longan and coconut jelly, but reserve the syrup in a large jug.
5. Slice lychees in half and jackfruit into strips. Add them, along with the longan and coconut jelly into a large mixing bowl.
6. Add in grass jelly cubes and rinsed toddy palm seeds.
7. Add in evaporated milk.
8. Add in reserved syrup to taste (about 2 cups).
9. Finally, drain red rubies from their cold water bath and add them in this mix. Stir to mix everything through then chill well before serving.

1. Add everything to a large mixing bowl. Stir then taste and adjust sugar and water to taste.

1. Preheat grill to very hot (maximum heat).
2. Add corn, onion, mayo, sugar, and salt into a bowl and mix to combine.
3. Melt butter in a small 8” cast iron skillet (or any stove to oven safe vessel) on the stove. Add corn mix and stir to heat through or until it starts to bubble. Turn off heat. Add half of the mozzarella and stir through. Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella on top of corn mix.
4. Place skillet under a hot grill to cook until the cheese has melted.
5. Serve immediately.

Makes 50 small rolls or 15-20 medium sized ones

1. Thaw frozen wrappers in the fridge (in its wrapper, unopened). This will take a couple of hours.

2. Meanwhile, add noodles to one bowl, and dried mushrooms to another. Add boiling water to both bowls to fully cover. Leave to soak for 10mins then drain & rinse dry.

3. Slice noodles into shorter strands and finely chop mushrooms. Add both to a medium sized bowl, along with the rest of the filling ingredients. Mix thoroughly to combine.

4. Take wrappers out of its packaging & carefully separate each one by peeling them away from each other. Stack wrappers on top of each other and cover with a clean tea towel.

5. Prepare the slurry by mixing the flour and water together in a saucer.

6. Wrap your rolls with the prepared filling & secure the end with a dab of slurry.

7. Heat oil in a wok/pan and deep fry your rolls until golden. Drain on a wire rack lined with kitchen paper.

Serve these rolls with a side of nuoc mam dipping sauce.

(You can reheat cooked spring rolls in the oven or air fryer to bring back their crunch)

Makes approx 22 balls

1. Thaw out your spring roll wrappers and carefully separate into individual sheets. Using scissors, cut strips out of the sheets and separate into loose strips.

2. Blitz all the filling ingredients in a powerful food processor. You can have your balls chunky or blitz the mix longer for a sticky paste to get smooth and bouncy balls. Chill this filling mix for 30mins.

3. Take out your chilled filling and form into balls. This mix will yield about 22 balls.

4. Roll each ball into the strips of spring roll pastry to completely wrap each ball in pastry. Gently press in the pastry so that it sticks to the balls and trim off any long strands with scissors.

5. Heat up your oil to 180C and deep fry until golden. Drain on kitchen paper then serve hot with sweet chilli dipping sauce and/or yuzu mayo.

1. Start by adding all filling ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. Chill for 30mins.
2. Make each dumpling by adding 1T of filling to the centre of a wrapper and form your dumpling. Repeat until all the filling is used up. Make sure your dumplings are placed on a clean, dry surface and that they are not touching each other.
3. Prepare your slurry for the lace skirt by mixing the water, flours and vinegar in a bowl/jug.
4. To make one batch of dumplings, heat 1T of oil in your skillet. Add in 8-10 dumplings, making sure the dumpling bottom is sitting in the oil on the pan. When the bottoms start to brown, add in the slurry and cover with the lid. Allow the slurry to bubble in the pan. The steam created will cook your dumplings.
5. Once the water has largely evaporated, uncover your pan and allow any remaining steam to escape to leave behind a dry, crispy, lace skirt at the bottom of the pan.
6. Turn off the heat. Cover your dumplings with a large plate and invert your pot stickers in one action from the skillet to the plate.

Enjoy immediately. 

1. Scoop out the thick cream from the coconut cream container/tin and add to a small pot (leave behind the thin, watery liquid).
2. Add in sugars, salt and a couple of drops of pandan flavouring (a little goes a long way). Gently and stir everything in the pot until all the sugar has dissolved. Turn off the heat.
3. Place egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Whisk to combine.
4. Continue to whisk the egg yolks as you gradually add in the warm coconut cream mix.
5. Add this egg and coconut cream mix back into the pot and gently heat. Continue stirring this mix with a spatula until it thickens (about 5-8mins) in the gentle heat.
6. Toast some bread & spread your kaya jam over. Add a slab of butter as pictured. PURE INDULGENCE! 

Notes:

• Your kaya will thicken further after it cools.
• Allow your kaya to cool then spoon into a sterilised jar and chill before serving.
• You can use real pandan leaves but we find using pandan flavouring saves so much time! 

1. Peel bananas and slice in half lengthways. Sprinkle on sugar and gently toss to coat. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours.

2. In a very large mixing bowl, add condensed milk, coconut milk, fresh milk, melted butter, egg, vanilla and salt. Whisk to combine.

3. Cut baguettes into 1” long slices on the diagonal. You should roughly get 5 slices out of each baguette. Add baguette slices into the mixing bowl and coat with the ‘custard’. Leave for 15mins to soak.

4. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm tall round cake tin.

5. Build your cake, layer by layer. Start with a base layer of soaked bread. Make sure the pieces are tightly packed and there are no gaps. Use half of your bread for this layer.

6, Next, arrange half of your bananas to form the next layer. Keep your bananas flat with no overlapping.

7. Add the remaining soaked bread to form the next (third layer). Gently pressed down on the cake to remove any air gaps.

8. For the final top layer, arrange your bananas, cut side up. This is the presentation layer. Gently press down so that the bananas nestle into the bread layer.

9. Bake for about 70 mins.  Cover the top with a piece of foil at around the 45min mark to prevent the top from getting too dark. Remove the foil 15mins later to allow for the top develop a nice golden top until the end.

10. Leave the cake to cool in its tin. Chill overnight to set in its tin.

11. Turn out cake and then serve.

Pork chops:

1. Add the lemongrass, eschalot and garlic into a food processor. Pulverise everything into a fine straw and add to a large mixing bowl. (If you don’t have a powerful processor, you can finely slice rings from your lemongrass before chopping it into small pieces. Mince your garlic and finely dice your eshalot)
2. Add the remaining marinade ingredients to the mixing bowl and stir to combine
3. Tenderise pork chops by pounding each side with a meat mallet or the back of a knife. Cut 3-4 slits into the skin side of each chop and place into the marinade. Coat all sides of each pork chop with the marinade then cover and chill overnight.
4. When ready to cook, spray pork chops with oil. Place chops flat, in a single layer in your AirFryer basket*. Air fry for 10 mins on 230C. Turn, then air fry for a further 10 mins**

Spring onion oil

1. Place your spring onions to a heatproof bowl.
2. Add oil to a small skillet and bring to smoking point.
3. Pour the hot oil onto the onions. The onions will spit so be careful. Stir to mix and spoon them onto each pork chop

Enjoy as is or serve with broken rice and a fried egg (com tam) or even eat with rice vermicelli (bun) and salad. Don't forget the fish sauce! (nuoc cham)

* These can also be deep fried, or thrown onto the barbeque as well 

** Turn your chops again and air fry further if you like your chops dark.

Makes 24 cookies 

Quickest method and little time to make these cookies!

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius 
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. 
3. In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar and butter with a wooden spoon. Make sure all the mixture is smooth  
4. Stir in slightly beaten eggs and vanilla extract 
5. Add flour mixture until just mixed. Stir in white choc melts, macadamia nuts and dried cranberries.
6. Use an ice cream scooper or tablespoon to form balls or drop on a baking sheet
7. Bake in the oven for approximately 12 minutes (use a toothpick to poke the cookie and if if it comes out clean, it’s done) 
8. Remove from the oven and let cool. 

Enjoy 

Note: We like our cookies slightly salty. If you don’t, you can lessen the salt (1 tsp will suffice). We also don’t like our cookies too sweet, since you get sweetness from the choc chips, but if you prefer a sweeter cookie, you can add another ½ cup sugar

Pro tip: Break down your sugar first so there are less clumps. You can also soften your butter in the microwave for approx 45 seconds if you don't have the time.

Chicken: 

1. Heat up oil in a pan on medium heat. When hot add in chicken. Season with salt and pepper on one side. 

2. After 7 minutes, flip and add salt and pepper to the other side for another 7 minutes or until cooked.  Flip over once more so the salt and pepper on the other side transfer into chicken. Slice when cool

Boiled Eggs: 

1. Bring water to boil in a pot. Carefully add in your eggs and boil for 8 minutes. Peel and slice into wedges when cooled 

Assembling: 

3. Add in the lettuce on the bottom as a base, then all other other ingredients. Add dressing when ready to serve and mix. 

For a traditional dressing: 

Combine:

• 3Tbsp balsamic vinegar 
• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 garlic clove, finely minched
• 1/3 extra virgin olive oil
• Pinch of salt and pepper 

Otherwise this salad works with a creamy mayo dressing, a zesty dressing or even just kewpie mayo. 

Please note: This is not a traditional cobb salad. A traditional one usually consists of blue cheese instead of feta, but this is just our preference. Any cheese works really. Also you can add crispy bacon for that extra texture and I mean... bacon's good on anything right? 

1. Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl and give it a good mix. 

Pro tip: If you have time, let the salad sit for 30 mins so that the salt and vinegar can do its thing in bringing you more flavour. Feel free to jazz it up with olive oil, add in eggs or other veggies you want. This recipe is so versatile that it virtually works with so many different vegetables.