Shrimp Suman
Topic: Shrimps
I called this recipe shrimp suman because traditionally it is being wrap with banana leaves like suman but since it's very hard to find banana leaves here in Kuwait,I wrapped it with aluminum foil and it tasted almost the same.

Ingredients:
1 cup shrimp, ground or mashed
1 cup dessicated coconut ( freshly grated coconut taste better)
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 small tomato, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. ginger powder
1/4 cup shrimp broth
1 small size onions, minced
1 stalk of green onions, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Mix all the ingredients together.
2. Scoop 1 tbsp. out of the mixture and flat it in a 7x7 inches aluminum foil, the flattened batter should be around 2x3 inches size. Wrap carefully. Repeat this procedure until all the batter are done.
3. Bake in a preheated 250o oven for 15 minutes.

Usually yields 10 pcs.

Tom Yum Soup
Mood:  party time!
Topic: Soup
Tom Yum is one of the famous Thai recipes which refers to spicy fish or seafood soup. But it can also be chicken or other meats, too. It is a combination of hot and sour and it will draw your sweat and tears while eating. My husband introduced it to me 3 years ago and I tried to cook it with trial and error until I almost perfected it now.
My sister Jong who is staying with us told me last week that when I cook Tom Yum Soup, I must have to teach here because she likes this Thai soup also. So last night I decide to cook Tom Yum, hence,we took our supper very late already because I waited for her to come home, their office time off is 9:00 pm and it takes 15 minutes to arrive at home if there were no traffic, I prepared all the ingredients so that by the time she will arrived we can start to cook immediately. Usually, when I cooked Tom Yum I will include shrimp of course but last night I didn't because my sister is allergic of shrimp. They arrived with my brother at 9:40, we cooked the soup together and we ate our supper at 10:00 pm. Unfortunately I did not able to take picture for the soup because by the time I place it on the dining table, everybody grabbed their individual spoon & soup bowl and take their share from it and we began to eat, hence I lost my mood of taking a good picture. Anyway, here's a pic I got from a recipe website. It's almost similar to the one we cooked last night but ours looks palatable than this! Next time I will try my best to take photo first before I will serve it insha Allah.

Ingredients:
5 cups water
100 gram chicken breast thinly slice
100 gram shrimp
100 gram medium squid/calamare slice thinly
100 gram fish fillet (optional)
100 gram button mushroom
2 stalks fresh lemon grass, trim off the very end of the root and cut into 1 inch pieces;
3 slices of fresh galangal root (smashed)
4 fresh kaffir/lime leaves
1 medium size tomato slice quarterly
2 tbsp. lime juice
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tom yum broth cube (optional)
1 tsp. sugar
3 pcs. chilli peppers or more
1 small onion slice thinly
2 spring onions or fresh cilantro for garnish

Directions:
1. Bring water to boil over high heat in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, fish sauce and tom yum broth.
2. Add the chicken and mushroom, bring to boil and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add the onion, shrimp, calamare and fish and boil until they are cooked through.
4. Add the chili peppers and tomatoes.
5. Turn off the heat. Add the lime juice and sugar.
6. Taste to adjust the seasoning, adding more fish sauce or lime juice to taste. Garnish with cilantro or spring onions if desired.

Serves 4-5

Chili Fried Rice
Topic: Rice
Here's the fried rice that lets you feel hot and sweat!


Ingredients:
4 cups cold cooked rice
5 long green pepper, sliced thinly
1 medium size onion
1/2 cup tomato paste
2 tbsp. cooking oil
1 egg beaten
salt to taste
black pepper (optional)

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a wok. Add the egg and scramble it until the egg is all cooked. Put the egg aside or just push it aside and make some room on the bottom of the wok.
2. in the remaining oil, saute onions, then add rice and the rest of the ingredients. Keep stirring and mixing until all the ingredients are blend well with the rice.
3. Mix in the scrambled egg. Stir and sprinkle with black pepper. Serve hot.

See also:
Tips on Cooking Fried Rice

Tips on Cooking Fried Rice
Topic: Rice
I always love fried rice since I was a child. The first time I made a fried rice was when I was 13 years old and from that on, I always tried to cook different variations until now. Base on my experience, I learned some tips to achieve the perfect fried rice. Here are my techniques:

1. WOK is the best tool to fry the rice, if you don't have it, then its okay, it still manageable though tricky.

2. COLD and DRY cooked rice works well, it prevent the rice from clumping. One night old is the best. If you don't have it, then you can refrigerate the warm rice for an hour.

3. USED OIL from previously fried meat is good to fry the rice, not the dark one of course. The taste of the meat will remain on the oil, hence it will be a nice contribution to the fried rice's taste. If you don't have it, then try using butter. (note: if you want to use butter, then use ordinary pan instead of wok)

4. HIGH HEAT, always make sure that the wok is really hot before starting to cook, aside from preventing the rice to stick, it will also prevent the meat or seafoods to be juicy.

5. DON'T MASH the rice to separate the grains, it will destroy it's texture and you might break it. Use your hand to separate the grains, it will make your fried rice looks perfect.

Eggplant with Oyster Sauce
Topic: Vegetables
When I was a kid, I never eat any vegetable. I only started to eat vegetables when I was in high school and eggplant was not in my list. When I was in college, I learned to eat any vegetable served in the dining table, asked me why? The answer is I don't know, now eggplant is one of my favorite.

The first time I cooked eggplant with oyster sauce (some named it braised eggplant), I just cooked it plain and it doesn't look good, however it taste good as well, and my hubby is very particular with the way how the foods look, he want the foods to be attractive, that's why whenever I cooked braised eggplant now, I add mixed vegetables (carrots and green peas).

Ingredients:
4 medium size eggplants, sliced diagonally
1/3 cup chicken breast, sliced thinly
1 medium onion, quartered
1 tbsp. garlic (minced)
1 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 cup mixed vegetables
1 medium size green bell pepper, slice into strips
3 tbsp. cooking oil
pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Heat a skillet. Pour in the cooking oil until start to smoke. Saute the garlic for about 30 seconds, then add the chicken and soy sauce. Stir to blend well until the chicken are fully cooked.
2. Add the eggplants, cook for about 4-5 minutes.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients and continue to stir for 1-2 minutes. Serve hot.