As many people know we used to live in Singapore and I do generally incorporate some of the flavours and ingredients in my cooking.  I've always loved cooking Asian food, long before we lived there, but of late I haven't been cooking as much as John would like!

Late last year, John and some of our regular diners persuaded mets hold another Asian weekend at Knife & Fork, as they all thought that one weekend a year was not enough.  I have no idea why I was not keen but once it was in the diary and advertised it filled up extremely quickly so there was no going back; I had been proven wrong - it was a popular weekend and I needed to write a menu.

Once I sat down to write the menu I realised I had actually missed cooking Asian food.  I had a great time writing the menu, trying out a few new ideas and also a few ways of improving some previous dishes and John was extremely happy to be my main dish sampler!

So, last weekend we served the following set menu and it was extremely well received.  Not only did we receive lots of compliments on the night but also some lovely Facebook reviews too, which is always much appreciated.

Singapore Sling & monkey nuts ( Raffles Hotel, Singapore)

Prawn Laksa ( Singapore)

Beef noodle salad ( Vietnam)

Nonya chicken curry with asparagus rice ( Malaysia)

Coconut & chilli sorbet ( Asian inspired)

Rojak - fruit salad ( Indonesia)

Kulfi with candied red chilli, Thai basil sugar, coconut & crushed pistachio ( India & Asian inspired)

Chocolate Mendiants  (Asian inspired)

We usually serve Prosecco on arrival but we decided to serve Singapore Slings instead, as it complimented the whole menu. This turned out to be a great success ; so much so that many diners asked me for the recipe.

So here's the recipe taken from the internet after a lot of research. There are many recipes out there claiming to be the original and having tried many in Singapore, we tried a few recipes before we were happy that it was as near as possible to what we had experienced at The Long Bar at Raffles Hotel, Singapore.  It's a rotten job but someone has to do it...

We also served it with monkey nuts, which is the traditional accompaniment in the Long Bar.  If you have ever visited Raffles, you will know that it is traditional to throw the shells on the floor.  I've never been able to discover why  but we did ask our diners not to do this.  I am so boring!

So, how much interest is there in Asian food?  Please do leave a comment or email me as I really would be interested to know if this is something I should be doing more regularly.  I loved prepping and cooking it, so why not if there are lots of diners wanting to experience some Asian food that is not normally available to them?