6th November 2023
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With the start of another lockdown comes the end of eating out. And sure, takeaways are fab. But a student budget doesn’t always have space for another Just Eat order! Instead of ringing up your local Chinese, why not club together as a house and try out some Asian recipes? If nothing else, see it as a bonding session…
For the first of many group cooking nights, me and my five housemates tried cooking Asian-style. It was a great success! Firstly, you’ll want to pop down to your nearest Asian supermarket – ours was eJoy Asian Foods, situated near Vine Court.
Here we picked up a range of goodies: fortune cookies and seaweed for snacking, glass noodles and rice paper, panko breadcrumbs, and even some matcha cookies for dessert. But what to do with these, you ask? Here are five dishes that went down a treat at our table…
With this healthy side salad, the peeler will be your best friend.
Simply peel strands of carrot and cucumber and chop up your spring onions. Then lob them in a bowl with your cooked noodles and beansprouts. Drizzle over your dressing of choice – mine was sweet red pepper – and jobs a good’un!
While they may look fiddly, these bad boys are surprisingly easy to make.
First, dip a sheet of rice paper into warm water. Then simply fill with lettuce leaves, carrot strips, spring onions, and the star of the show: fresh prawns. Then you’re ready to roll! Finally, dip into soy or sweet chilli sauce.
I honestly can’t stop thinking about these.
Now, if we’re being completely honest, chefs all around the world are probably terrified to release their egg fried rice recipes. I mean, have you seen Youtuber Uncle Roger ripping everyone to shreds?! However, this is student cooking, not some Michelin-starred advice.
So, firstly you need to cook your rice. Then fry off your onions in a pan and add the rice, stirring to prevent sticking. Push to one side. Next, add some more oil along with your beaten egg mix. Leave to set, depending on how large you like your chunks of egg, and then mix the cooked egg into the rice. Serve sprinkled with some chopped spring onions to be a bit boujee.
The full recipe can be found here.
As the veggie of the house, I knew I had to show off tofu in its best light to get the others on board.
Firstly, press your tofu according to pack instructions. Then chop into chunky cubes and fry in oil with a heavy dosage of soy sauce on top. The tofu should take about 10 minutes, but make sure to constantly turn each side over to get an even crispy coating. Towards the end, generously grind on some salt, pepper, garlic granules and chilli flakes (if you have them), and serve with chopped spring onions.
After seeing some panko breadcrumbs in eJoy Asian Foods, I was inspired to try making these deep-fried prawns.
To prepare, set up four different bowls filled with milk, flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Warning: stuff’s about to get messy! Take the prawns, a few at a time, and dunk them through each bowl in turn (a fork can help to coat them). Once fully covered, fill a saucepan with enough oil to fully submerge the prawns in, and heat. Taking extra care not to set off the fire alarm, briefly dunk the prawns in the hot oil to get a crispy outer layer. Serve with lemon wedges.
There you have it – five delicious dishes to divide up between you and your housemates. You’ll be competing with Maggie Fu in no time!
Featured Image Credit: Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels
To find out the best food and drinks that Liverpool has to offer, and tasty recipes, check out some of our other articles!
