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Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen (2025) Season 1 Episode 1
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00:00For marinades to stir fries, grills and glaze, seasoning or drizzling.
00:04Flavors that bind by Lee Kum Kee, proud sponsor of Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen.
00:10My name is Eva and I'm very excited to welcome you into my Asian Kitchen.
00:15In this series, I'll share the secrets behind cooking authentic, fresh, delicious Asian food at home.
00:21Recipes to breathe a bit of fresh air into your weekly meal plan.
00:25I can eat this every day.
00:26To me, food and family are inseparable.
00:30My mum and dad are from China, but we've lived in Ireland since I was one month old.
00:34So I'm a true blend of East and West.
00:37I grew up running around my parents' supermarket, so my life has always been about food, food, food.
00:43I'm not a professional chef, but cooking is my passion.
00:46So when I'm not working, I'm at home experimenting with food or thinking about it.
00:51I collect cookbooks and read them like other people read fiction.
00:55I'm very lucky that I get to travel to Asia a few times a year.
00:58I visit my granny in Hong Kong, who is still cooking at 93, and I keep up with all the
01:03food trends.
01:04So join me as we recreate the bold and vibrant flavours of Asia.
01:13When you think of Asian food, I bet the first thing you think of is rice.
01:18So that's where we're going to start.
01:20It's a remarkable little grain, a carb that is so versatile, a fantastic carrier flavour, and a daily staple for
01:28over half the world's population.
01:30Today, I'll be showing you how to make one of the most popular desserts from Thailand, mango sticky rice.
01:38I absolutely love this.
01:40Chewy rice, soft sweet mango topped with a glorious coconut sauce.
01:45A Japanese specialty, sushi.
01:48But don't panic, there is no raw fish.
01:50It's not complicated.
01:52It's a hand-rolled version, and it's so good.
01:55But first up, a classic Chinese egg and prawn fried rice.
02:04First, we're going to cook our rice.
02:06In almost every Asian household on the planet, you'll find a rice cooker.
02:11And this is my one, and it's a simple machine that makes perfect rice every single time.
02:18Now, of course, you don't have to have one, but I'm going to show you how to use it.
02:21So, there is a little rice bowl insert, and the first thing you need to do is rinse the rice.
02:27And you want to make sure that the water runs clear.
02:30If there's still starchiness in the rice, your rice will become quite gloopy when you cook it.
02:35So, you want really nice and fluffy rice.
02:42So, now we're just going to add some cold water to the rice.
02:47And so, how much water do you add?
02:50Now, there's a basic technique.
02:52It's two cups of water to one cup of rice.
02:55But actually, I've been learning since I was a little girl to be measuring it like this.
02:59So, you're going to pour some water into the rice, and then you measure with your middle finger.
03:06And the rice water line should actually reach the top of your nail.
03:11This technique gives me perfect rice every single time.
03:15Pop it into the rice cooker, and there's a very simple button, and we just turn it on.
03:20If you don't have a rice cooker, we can make it in a pot.
03:24So, I have here some rice that's all been rinsed, and then we're just going to add the water,
03:29the same method that we did there just a moment ago.
03:32So, twice the amount of water to rice.
03:35And it's really key to use cold water.
03:37Hot water really won't work.
03:39Perfect.
03:40So, we're going to pop the lid on.
03:43I can't remember the last time I actually cooked rice in a pot,
03:46so I'm actually quite curious to see how this will turn out.
03:50We are going to let it cook for 10 minutes, and then compare the results.
03:58Oh, okay.
04:00Perfect rice, just as I expected.
04:04So, I'm just fluffing up the rice here.
04:06And if you don't have a rice paddle at home, you can just use a spatula.
04:11Now, let's check on the pot.
04:15Ah, it's actually exactly the same.
04:18Well, I know then, if my rice cooker ever breaks down, I can definitely cook my rice in a pot.
04:26So, for fried rice, many people would use day-old rice, but today I have fresh rice.
04:31So, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to place some of the rice onto a plate,
04:35so that the steam evaporates out and that you'll have a little bit drier rice for when you stir-fry
04:42it.
04:43So, you want to cool it down for about 5 to 10 minutes.
04:49Time to prep the aromatics.
04:51So, I'm just going to finely slice some garlic.
04:56Next up, some ginger.
04:58Just using a teaspoon, and you're just scraping the skin off the ginger.
05:02And it should remove quite easily.
05:05So, the key to a good fried rice is actually getting these lovely aromatics finely chopped,
05:12so they almost kind of disappear within to the fried rice.
05:16Banana shallots next.
05:18These are kind of like a cross between an onion and a small shallot,
05:22but they have this beautiful purple colour, and it has a really, really nice flavour.
05:28But if you don't have a banana shallot, you can use half a small onion.
05:33These shallots are so strong.
05:35They're actually making me a bit teary-eyed.
05:39Next up, finely slice some spring onion.
05:43And some chilli.
05:48And lastly, beat two eggs.
05:51Everything is ready, and we're just going to heat up our wok.
06:04So, it's really important that you have your wok quite hot, because when the aromatics actually hit the oil, you
06:12get this beautiful aroma and smell, and that is the key to a good fried rice.
06:17Now, we're just going to add in our prawns, and you just want to lightly fry them on both sides
06:24until they turn a little bit pink.
06:26And you can see I've just pushed all my aromatics to the side of the wok.
06:31Now, the beauty of the wok is that it has different heat levels, so the high heat in the middle,
06:37and then the side, it just has a gentle heat.
06:39That way, your aromatics don't burn.
06:43So, I'm going to push the prawns to the side as well.
06:45Add in the beaten egg.
06:47Now, you want to slightly scramble the egg, but then you want to leave some slightly runny, so that it
06:53will coat the rice.
07:00So, you want to keep this moving and mixing.
07:05Ooh, this smells great.
07:09Now, for the all-important seasoning.
07:12A tablespoon of light soya sauce to add saltiness and umami-flavored, and then a little drizzle of sesame oil,
07:22and that's just to add a little touch of nuttiness to your fried rice.
07:26A pinch of white pepper.
07:30That makes a great fried rice, but we don't want great, we want amazing.
07:36So, I've got two more added ingredients, and that is a tablespoon of oyster sauce.
07:43It is a really lovely, thick, and umami-delicious-flavored sauce.
07:48And the second ingredient I'm going to add is a little sprinkle of mushroom powder.
07:54All my chef-y friends, they would say they add it into dishes that you wouldn't even know there was
07:58mushroom in it.
07:59And a sprinkle of our lovely chopped scallion, a pinch of the red chillies.
08:07Now, cooking fried rice reminds me of my mum.
08:11She always tells me that the fried rice is ready when the rice is dancing from the bottom of the
08:18wok.
08:18Oh yeah, you see? You see?
08:20Yes, so your fried rice is ready.
08:23Let's plate it up.
08:27It smells so good.
08:30Let's see if the taste matches the smell.
08:34I'm going to grab a spoon.
08:41It's so good.
08:42You can taste the lovely aromatics of the gentle ginger and the garlic,
08:47and then you have the buttery prawns, and it's all in this beautiful umami seasoning.
08:52Hmm.
09:10Rice is really quite remarkable.
09:13The simple seeds of a variety of grass plants.
09:16The grains range in colour from white through pale yellow, brown, dark brown, all the way up to black.
09:23There's long grain, short grain, wild, basmati, jasmine, glutinous, sticky.
09:29But I'm here to pick up sushi rice, because that's where we're going next.
09:41There are so many different types of sushi, but these narumaki sushi are probably the best known.
09:48They look amazing, don't they?
09:49Like little works of art.
09:51And one day, I'll show you how they're made, but today, I'm going to keep it simple with tamaki sushi,
09:57which is a hand-roll version.
10:00This requires no special equipment, no rolling, no cutting, and definitely no raw fish.
10:12So now I have my rice cooked here in the rice cooker, and to this, I'm just going to add
10:19in some Japanese rice vinegar.
10:21Also, you can get them in the shops, and they're known as sushi vinegar.
10:25So I'm going to just add it in while the rice is hot, so that all the lovely seasoning actually
10:31infuses into the rice.
10:33And add in a little teaspoon of sugar, and a sprinkling of salt.
10:40And then you just want to lightly mix it, and we're going to put a few spoonfuls of this sushi
10:48rice onto the baking tray.
10:50The reason why you want to cool down your rice is so that you don't get soggy sushi.
10:55It was my Aunt Beatrice who taught me how to make sushi when I was 11.
10:58And I was really into baking at that time, but sushi would have been the first savoury dish that I
11:05would have learned to make from her.
11:07Okay, so while this is cooling, I'm just going to prepare my fillings.
11:12There are so many different fillings you can put into sushi, but I actually really like to use crab sticks.
11:18Now, they're also known as seafood sticks in the supermarket, and I'm just going to finely slice them here.
11:25Of course, you can use real crab meat, but that will be definitely more expensive.
11:30So now we're going to mix up Japanese mayonnaise.
11:34It's tangier, so take some regular mayonnaise.
11:37Add three tablespoons into a bowl.
11:41And then I'm going to add one tablespoon of salad cream.
11:45And you just mix that together.
11:48I'm just going to add a pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt.
11:57Mix that well together.
12:01And then I'm going to add half of my crab sticks.
12:06So now I'm going to slice my pickled daikon.
12:11So this is a lovely Japanese pickled radish, and you can see that it has this beautiful yellow colour.
12:20And the flavour of this pickle is actually quite subtle, but it really adds a beautiful colour to the sushi
12:27and some crunch.
12:29But if you don't have it, you can leave it out.
12:32Slice up some cucumber.
12:33When I get a sushi craving, I like to make this simple sushi recipe, although I can make more complex
12:40ones.
12:41But this is my go-to because it's just so quick and simple.
12:47And some avocado.
12:48Isn't it sometimes quite difficult to tell whether an avocado is ripe or not?
12:54So let's hope this one is.
12:57It's perfect.
12:59Scoop the avocado out with a spoon in one go.
13:05And now we're just going to slice it.
13:09Like a knife through butter.
13:11We are nearly ready for the very fun part, but we just need to let the rice cool down a
13:16little.
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13:30Choo chow it with Lee Kum Kee, proud sponsor of Eva Pao's Asian Kitchen.
13:34For every flavour, every meal, every moment.
13:37Lee Kum Kee, proud sponsor of Eva Pao's Asian Kitchen.
13:49It's time to assemble our simple sushi.
13:51Now, final ingredient, roasted seaweed.
13:54These are really super thin sheets of roasted seaweed.
13:59And you can see there's a shiny side, and there's actually a rough side as well.
14:02So you want the rough side to face you, and you put the fillings on the rough side.
14:07I'm going to just fold the nori seaweed in half and cut it into a rectangle shape.
14:16So I'm setting the shiny side down onto my board, and we're just going to scoop some of the rice
14:22and put a tablespoon or two on top here on the side.
14:27And then I'm just going to add in some mayonnaise.
14:32And then some of my lovely crab mixture.
14:38Next, a few crab sticks, some pickled daikon, and some avocado.
14:47So if you are a sushi lover, you might recognize this as California row.
14:51Now, we're ready to row.
14:53So you want to turn it to the side, and then fold all your beautiful ingredients into the sushi seaweed.
15:01You want to add a little bit of rice to the corner of your sushi seaweed, so that it sticks.
15:08And there you have it, your tamaki sushi roll.
15:11And I'm just going to sprinkle a little bit of sesame seeds on the top.
15:16Okay, let's roll another one with some different filling.
15:21Another tablespoon of your sushi rice.
15:24You want to flatten it down.
15:28We're going to add a little bit of cream cheese.
15:34Some lovely smoked salmon.
15:38And some cucumber.
15:42Now it's ready to roll.
15:43You want to roll it into a lovely cone shape.
15:48And then add a little bit of the sushi rice to the corner here of your seaweed.
15:55And then that just sticks together beautifully.
16:00For a simple dipping sauce, I like to mix a touch of wasabi with some light soy sauce.
16:05So usually for my family and friends, I like to prepare all the ingredients, set them all in the middle
16:11of the table,
16:12and then we just make our own tamaki sushi roll.
16:15But now it's time to taste.
16:22Mmm, it's so good.
16:25Really hits that sushi spot.
16:27You have the lovely sushi rice and the creaminess of the Japanese mayo with the crab steak, avocado, and the
16:35crunchy pickle.
16:36You've got to make this.
16:37You'll be hooked.
16:39But if the hand roll isn't for you, you can still enjoy all these gorgeous flavors.
16:44Just take a bowl like this and arrange all the fillings into sections.
16:49And then slot the nori seaweed pieces around the edge.
16:53All the same great flavors in a sushi bowl.
17:09Rice, of course, can also be used for sweet dishes.
17:13And I absolutely love mango sticky rice.
17:15It's a Thai specialty, and I'm so lucky I get to travel with my work.
17:19And when I'm in Thailand, I never miss out on the chance to buy this from a street store.
17:24They cut the yellow mangoes fresh in front of you, the juice dripping from them, and they are the sweetest,
17:31juiciest mangoes you'll ever see.
17:38For mango sticky rice, we're going to need some sticky rice.
17:42It's also known as glutinous rice.
17:44It doesn't actually contain any gluten, but the name refers to the stickiness of the rice.
17:49So you can get black or white varieties.
17:53I have here some white sticky rice, and I've left it soaking overnight, and now I'm just going to strain
17:59it.
17:59It's important that the soaking is done in the fridge.
18:02So soaking adds a lot more moisture into the grains, and now it's perfect for steaming.
18:08So I have my steamer here, and I've lined it with some greaseproof paper.
18:13And then I'm just going to add the lovely rice into the steamer, and we're going to steam it for
18:1930 minutes.
18:20Now steaming this will give it a lovely chewy texture.
18:24So if you don't have a bamboo steamer, you can use a normal pot with a steamer insert, and it
18:31works just the same as well.
18:33OK, mango time.
18:34I'm just going to slice the sides of it.
18:41OK, and then I'm going to do a little diamond score.
18:46Getting a really nice, sweet mango is really important, but if you can't, you can get a red mango, or
18:53sometimes I actually have tinned mango at home, and I use that sometimes if the mango isn't that sweet.
19:01Now we're going to make our coconut sauce.
19:03So into this pan, I'm going to add some coconut milk.
19:08Get a little bit of heat.
19:11And here we're going to add a little bit of sugar.
19:16A pinch of salt.
19:19Perfect.
19:21Now we're going to just stir that around until the sugar dissolves.
19:28Another optional step is to roast your own mung beans.
19:32Now this is very traditional.
19:33In Thailand, you'll see this lovely crispy bit on the top of your mango sticky rice.
19:37So into this pot, I'm just going to add some water, and then we're going to add our mung beans.
19:44So you just want to let them simmer for about four to five minutes until they're soft.
19:50They're one of the smallest beans.
19:52These ones are halved and their skin removed, so they're extra tiny.
19:55Now strain the water.
19:57You just want to set the mung beans onto a plate with some kitchen paper so that they dry out
20:04before you fry them in the pan.
20:08When the oil is hot, in they go.
20:11So these will turn lovely and crispy.
20:17And they're the perfect topping to go onto this mango sticky rice.
20:25The mung beans are done, and I'm just going to pop them onto some kitchen roux to drain out the
20:30oil.
20:32They've turned such a lovely golden color.
20:35Now all the elements are ready.
20:37I have my coconut sauce.
20:39I have my mango.
20:41I have my crispy mung bean.
20:42But I still have about 20 minutes to go on my sticky rice.
20:45So I'm going to get a cup of tea.
21:04So much for my cuppa.
21:08Our rice is ready.
21:10So I'm going to pop it over here.
21:13And then I'm going to scoop it into this bowl.
21:16And we're going to add our lovely coconut mixture.
21:21Look how sticky the rice is.
21:24So we're going to pour two-thirds of our lovely coconut mixture onto the rice.
21:29And we're going to save some to pour over at the end.
21:34So you just want to mix that together.
21:39OK, so we're nearly there.
21:41We're just going to get this little bowl.
21:44And I'm going to use it as a mold.
21:46And I'm going to press it down a little bit.
21:50OK, now I'm going to get my plate.
21:52And I'm just going to turn it out.
21:57Perfect.
21:59Place the mango pieces around the edge.
22:03And I'm going to pour some of my coconut sauce on top of the rice.
22:09So some people like to thicken this sauce.
22:13But I actually quite like it thin like this.
22:16Because the sauce actually seeps into the rice.
22:21And last but not least, I'm going to sprinkle with some crispy mung beans.
22:28OK, time to dig in.
22:31I can't wait.
22:39It's just so completely divine.
22:42You have that lovely, chewy texture of the rice, the gorgeous coconut sauce, the juicy mango,
22:48and the sprinkling of lovely crispy mung beans.
22:51This will definitely whisk you away to Thailand.
23:11I hope today's three dishes mark a new departure on your rice journey.
23:16A flavourful fried rice fake-away that will save a trip or two.
23:21A tasty, simple sushi marking possibly your first steps down sushi street.
23:27And a sticky mango dessert that just might change the direction of your life entirely.
23:33Have fun with your cooking and see you next time.
23:42All the recipes from today's episode are available at rte.ie forward slash food.
23:48Rte.ie forward slash food.
24:19From marinades to stir fries, grills and glaze, seasoning or drizzling.
24:24Flavors that bind by Lee Kum Kee, proud sponsor of Eva Pau's Asian Kitchen.
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