Chicken Lollipop
Topic: Appetizers
Lipipop, as my 2 years old son called it! Chicken lollipop is an appetizer that is made from the segments of chicken wings. The middle segment has one of the two bones removed, and the flesh on the segments is pushed to one end of the bone. That will make it into lollipop. It is very popular in some Indian and Chinese restaurant, they colored it red but I don't like adding colors to the foods I cooked, I like it very natural.

Ingredients:
12 pcs. chicken wings
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp. black pepper powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. chili powder
Oil for deep frying

Marinade:
1/3 cup Italian Dressing (original flavor)
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. ginger powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Directions:
1. Break each chicken wing into two parts at the joint. Take each part and pull back the meat from one end of the bone to the other carefully, making sure that you do not pull the meat completely out.
2. Combine the marinade in a bowl and marinate the chicken for at least 1 hour in the fridge.
3. Transfer the mixture to a pan and heat, simmer for about 5 minutes. Drain and let dry.
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, broth, black pepper, salt and chili powder. Blend until smooth.
5. Dip each meaty section of the chicken to the flour batter.
6. Deep fry the chicken lollipops in the hot oil by holding the tip of the bone and placing the meaty section of the lollipop in the oil. Fry until golden brown.
7. Drain on paper towels and serve hot.

Tips: Cover the bones with aluminum foil so that it will be more comfortable for you to hold it.

Vegetable Chow Mein
Topic: Noodles
Chow mein is an American Chinese stir-fried dish consisting of noodles, meat, chicken and vegetables. It is often served as a specific dish at westernised Chinese restaurants with soy sauce and some other spices. The first tasty chow mein that I tried was from a Chinese Restaurant in Jabriya, Kuwait, it was purely Beef Chow Mein with no vegetables added and it made my husband asked for more! It has only few noodles, 1/3 noodles and 2/3 beefy sauce. I also tried their vegetable chow mein and wow, very delicious too! That was almost 3 years ago and we did not visit there again, I just cooked it home. It taste almost the same or let me say perfectly the same, I dare say! I always cooked this recipe whenever we held a party at home and there were no leftovers even a single strand of noodles.

Ingredients:
200 g dried egg noodles
1 cup, chicken flakes
15 pcs. baby corn, cut 1 inch length
2/3 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 carrot, sliced into strips
1/4 head of cabbage, slice very thinly
1 green bell pepper, sliced into strips
2 onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup black fungus, soaked in water and sliced
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tbsp. cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tbsp. water
1 tsp. sugar
2/3 tsp. black pepper powder
2 tbsp. sesame seed oil
3 tbsp. cooking oil
2 stalks green onions, chopped
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Combine dissolved cornstarch and oyster sauce.
2. Heat oil in a pan, stir fry the chicken flakes until golden brown, stir in the garlic and onions. Add soy sauce, stir.
3. Add carrots, corn, mushrooms, black fungus and broth. Bring to a boil.
4. Add add noodles, cabbage and bell pepper. Mix well. Add black pepper and sugar. Stir until all the vegetables are well incorporated with the noodles.
5. Pour in the cornstarch and oyster sauce mixture. Stir and cooked until the noodles are tender and liquids are no longer cloudy.
6. Remove from heat, stir in the sesame seed oil and garnish with the chopped onions.

Coconut Macaroons
Topic: Desserts
Macaroons are a cookie or confection, or a cross between the two, depending on where they are made. Macaroon cookies (or "macaroon biscuits") often use egg, chocolate or dates as the binder of a food fabric, such as ground or powdered nuts, coconut, cocoa, potato starch, peanut butter, toasted sesame seed paste, etc. The coconut macaroons is the most common in Philippines, fruits macaroons are also available in some bakeries. We always cooked this at home after dinner, we ate it as our midnight snack and I always left some for me to take it to the office in the morning.

Ingredients:
2 cups dessicated coconut
2/3 cup condensed milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lime juice
small paper cups

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients together, stir well until blended.
2. Fill each paper cup with the coconut mixture, about 3/4 full.
3. Bake in a preheated 190 degree oven for 20 minutes or until the surfaces turn golden brown.

Vegetable Samosa
Topic: Appetizers
Samosa or sambosa in arabic is a common snack in South Asia and as usual very common here Kuwait. It generally consists of a fried triangular-/pyramid-shaped pastry shell with a savory potato, onion and pea stuffing, but other stuffings like minced meat and fish are often used. There are many variations nowadays to the stuffings and wrapping, some add cheese to the stuffings and other used spring roll wrappers instead of making a dough (like me) to minimized the preparation time.



Ingredients:
1 cup cooked potato, sliced in very small cubed (as in very small)
1/3 cup ground beef
2/3 cup mixed vegetables (carrots, peas and corn)
1/2 cup shredded cheese
1 onion, minced
1 tsp. ginger powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp. melted butter
spring roll wrapper or dough (see below for dough's recipe)
Oil for deep frying

Directions:
1. Saute onions in heated butter until translucent then add ground beef and stir until brown.
2. Add potatoes and mixed vegetables. Stir in the ginger powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well and saute just until heated through, then remove from heat and let cool.
3. Stir in the grated cheese.
4. Separate the wrappers and place enough amount from the mixture to the center and fold to make like a triangular shape, seal the edges with a little amount of water.
5. Deep fry until lightly brown, drain on paper towels and serve.

If you want to used dough as your wrapper, then here's how:
Ingredients:
1 cup white flour
1 1/4 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tsp. rice flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until Add water gradually (about 1/8 cup) until the dough holds together, and knead well. Roll into a ball and cover with a moist cloth. Let rest about 20 minutes.
2. Break off 1 1/2"-2" pieces of the dough, and roll out into 6"-8" diameter circles. Cut each circle in half. Fold each half-circle in thirds to make a pie-wedge shape. Seal the point by pressing or pinching. Pick up the dough, and seal the outside edge by pinching to form a cone.
3. Fill the cone two-thirds with potato mixture. Moisten the lip of the cone with a little milk or water, and pinch to seal. Press the samosa between your palms to remove air pockets. Flute the top edge and cover with a moist cloth until ready to fry.

Fish Stew
Topic: Fish
Fish stew is a classic Muslim Filipino Dish and is very common recipe in every household. Usually the fish being used are lapu-lapu, mayamaya, tuna, salmon, milkfish,etc. There are many variations in cooking this dish, the Maranaos add more tumeric powder and chilis, hence the soup will turn very yellowish. The Maguindanaons will add tumeric powder but unlike the Maranaos, they add only very little of it.

Ingredients:
500 g fish, cleaned and sliced (if you used small fish then no need to slice)
3 cups water
1 onion, sliced thinly
1 thumb-size ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 ripe tomato, sliced
1 stalk green onions, cut into 2 inches length
1 tsp. peppercorns
1 tbsp. fish sauce (The one from Thailand is the best)
1/2 tsp. tumeric powder
1/4 head of cabbage, sliced
3 tbsp. cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Sprinkle tumeric powder to the fish and mix well.
2. Heat oil in a pot, saute garlic, onions, ginger and tomatoes for 3 minutes.
3. Add the fish, water, peppercorns, salt, pepper and fish sauce. Simmer until the fish is cooked.
4. Add the cabbage and green onions and cook until the cabbage is done. Serve.

Tips: Fish is very fragile when cooked this way, to make it intact while serving, remove from broth when cooked, transfer to a bowl and cook the cabbage on the broth until done. Pour in the broth with cabbage to the fish and serve.