Mushroom and Raisins Pilav
Topic: Rice
Pilav or Pilaf is a Middle Eastern and Central Asian dish in which a rice is first browned in oil and then cooked in a seasoned broth. Sometimes it also contain variety of meat and vegetables. I always tried my best to cook this kind of dish at home for trial and error cooking and fortunately I learned a lot from my experiments. For the past 2 years, I cooked many variations already before I started this blog and unfortunately everytime I cooked it after I started this blog, either I got a blurred image :D or my camera run out of battery, so I did not able to take a photo of it, lol! I also cooked this dish during my vacation last year, my family and relatives there love it. Sometimes, I just cooked it plainly with butter and onions only or with mixed vegetables (carrots and green peas), in this post I used mushrooms and raisins.

Ingredients:
3 cups long grain rice (basmati rice)
3 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 tbps. grated ginger
1 bellpepper, chopped
1 cup mushroom, sliced
1/2 cup golden raisins
4 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup melted butter
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper powder

Directions:
1. Wash the rice, then drain for 10-15 minutes.
2. Heat 1 tbsp. of butter in a cooking pot, stir fry mushrooms for few minutes or until tender. Take out from the pot and set aside.
3. On the same pot, add the remaing butter, stir fry the rice until slightly brown, about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add onions, ginger and bell pepper. Mix well and stir for 2 minutes.
5. Add chicken broth and salt, bring to a boil and simmer until the liquid are reduced.
6. Cover the pot, lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes.
7. Transfer to a rice dish and mix in the mushrooms, raisins and black pepper powder. Serve.

See also:
Rice with Fried Cauliflower, etc.
Aroz Mofalfal (Arabian Rice)
Fried Chicken Biryani (Pinoy Style)

Cucumber with Coconut Milk
Topic: Salad
One of our favorite salad at home especially when we had grilled milkfish or any fried fish.

Ingredients:
5 medium cucumber, sliced into thin strips
1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
1 stalk green onions, chopped
1 cup coconut milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mix well, chill for few minutes before serving if desired.

Rice with Sprouts and Dried Shrimps
Topic: Rice
Very simple fried rice and quick to prepare also. Sorry the picture is not so clear, anyway it taste so good even the pic is blurred. lol :)

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked rice
2 cups mung bean sprouts
2/3 cup dried tiny shrimps
2 stalks green onions, separate the white part, chopped
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp. cooking oil

Directions:
1. Heat half of the oil in a wok, add the white part of green onions, saute, add dried shrimps and stir for few seconds, then stir in sprouts. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a platter and set aside.
2. Heat the remaining half of oil to the wok, add the cooked rice, stir until heated through.
3. Add oyster saue, mix well.
4. Add beaten egg, stir for 2 minutes.
5. Turn off heat. Add the 2/3 of shrimp mixture and green onions to the rice. Mix well.
6. Transfer to a platter and garnish with the remaining shrimp mixture on top.

Grilled Fish Fillet
Topic: Fish
Whenever I grilled fish fillets, I always make sure to marinate it for at least 2 hours to enhance the taste. The longer I marinated it, the more it taste better. Here's one of my favorite way to grill fish fillets.

Ingrdients:
400 g Fish Fillets
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 tsp. cornstarch dissolve in 2 tbsp. water

Marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Directions:
1. Combine marinade. Arrange fish fillets in a shallow dish and pour in the marinade over it.
2. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
3. Drain and reserve marinade. Grill the fish over low-medium heat for 5-8 minutes each side. Transfer to a platter.
4. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in a skillet, saute onions until tender, add the reserve marinade, corn kernels and cornstarch mixture. Cook over medium heat for few minutes.
5. Turn off heat and pour the mixture over the grilled fish fillets. Serve.

Stir Fried Mushroom with Beef and Baby Bok Choy
Topic: Vegetables
This is one of my simpliest vegetable stir-fry recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup mushrooms (fresh or canned)
1 cup beef, thinly sliced
1 small bundle of baby bok choy
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
soy sauce to taste
1/4 cup oyster sauce
pepper to taste
2 tbsp. cooking oil
1 tsp. sesame seed oil

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a wok, stir fry the sliced beef until tender about 10-15 minutes, add onions, stir for a minute.
2. Add mushrooms and soy sauce, cook for 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the baby bok choy, oyster sauce and pepper. Cook for 1 minute.
4. Turn off the heat, add sesame oil, mix well. Serve immediately.