Mongo with Coco Milk
Topic: Vegetables
This is very classic Filipino dish and very common in the provinces where fresh vegetables are abundant. Usually cook with seafoods, chicken or meat. My mother always cooked it with smoked Tuna or Salmon and it was one of our favorite recipe until now.

Ingredients:
1 cup mongo (mung beans),washed and soaked in water for 1 hour or more
1 eggplant (big variety) sliced
100 g squash sliced
1 small bunch of camote tops or water spinach
1 ripe tomato, sliced
1 onion,sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp. ginger, shredded
1 1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp. fish sauce
200 g chicken, sliced
1 long green pepper, sliced
2 tbsp. cooking oil
chicken broth or water
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Drain mongo and discard the water. Transfer it to a cooking pan and cover with enough water. Set over high heat and bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.
2. While simmering the mongo, heat oil in another pan and stir fry the chicken until golden brown. Add garlic, onions, ginger and tomatoes. Stir for about 3 minutes. Add 1 cup broth or water and simmer until the chicken is done.
3. When the chicken is done, pour the cooked mongo on it with its liquid. Bring to a boil.
4. Add eggplant, squash and pepper on the mixture, add more water if desired and cook until the vegetables are done.
5. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, salt and pepper, let boil, then add the camote tops. Cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and serve hot.

Jackfruit Salad
Topic: Salad
It is very hard to find fresh jackfruit here in Kuwait, I stayed here for more than 3 years but I did not able to see even one of it. I was very hesitant to buy the canned one because aside from being canned I wasn't sure if it taste good but not today, I did not hesitate to buy it when we bought our grocery stuffs last 2 weeks ago because the picture in the label was very tempting, however it still stayed in the kitchen cabinet for almost 2 weeks, it seems that I was not interested on it anymore. Yesterday, we ran out of fresh vegetables,so it's time for the canned and frozen stuffs, I decided to open the canned jackfruit and try how does it taste, I made it into salad and my husband was the first one to taste it and he said it tasted almost the same with the fresh one, I tried it and yes it's almost 75% the same, 75% only because nothing beats the fresh one.

Ingredients:
1 can 565 g boiled young jackfruit
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 onion, minced
1 ripe tomato, sliced
1 long green pepper sliced
pinch of black pepper
1/2 tsp. sugar

Directions:
1. Drain the jackfruit in the can, wash with cold water, thin slice. Squeeze out all the water and set aside.
2. Combine all the remaining ingredients. Pour over the jackfruit and mix well. Serve.

Chicken Roll-up with Mushroom
Topic: Chicken
I stayed almost 1 hour in the kitchen last night to decide what to cook since it seems that we were out of stock already, so I need to go to the market this afternoon. What was left in the fridge was only few chicken breast, no fresh vegetables at all, what were left were the canned and frozen vegetables only. So I decided to cook those breast, frozen and canned vegetables together. Chicken Roll-up, this recipe was sent to me by a recipe website a year ago but I did not able to try it yet since I was not interested on it, the ingredients were quite not good combination, hence I add some ingredients on it, the canned shitake mushrooms and the mixed vegetables, I also add oyster sauce and a little soy sauce because it seems that it doesn't taste good to me with those ingredients only.

Ingredients:
500 g chicken breast fillet
2/3 cup mushrooms
1/4 cup mixed vegetables
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup tomato ketchup
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
3 tbsp. melted butter
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, sliced
1 tsp. sugar
50 g cheddar cheese, sliced into strips
Oil for deep frying
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Slice chicken fillet to make 12 flat slices (4"x4"). Pound each piece to flatten. Place 1-2 slices of cheese on each chicken piece. Roll up and secure with a toothpick. Do the same with the other pieces. Dip in butter, then roll in breadcrumbs.
2. Deep fry the chicken until golden brown. Transfer to a dish and set aside.
3. Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a skillet and saute garlic and onions, add the mushrooms and mixed vegetables. Stir.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Pour over chicken rolls and serve.

Deep Fried Fish Fillet
Topic: Fish
This recipe would be best if you used Tangigue fish or similar to it.

Ingredients:
300 g fish fillet, cut into 2"x2" and 1/3 inch thick
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
2/3 cup water
salt and pepper
Oil for deep frying

Marinade:
1/3 cup Italian Dressing (original Flavor)
juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar

Directions:
1. Combibe marinade and marinate fish fillet overnight.
2. Drain and reserve marinade (you can used it as a dippping sauce, just heat it and adjust the seasoning).
3. Mix flour, water, egga, salt and pepper, blend until smooth.
4. Add the fish fillet to the mixture, make sure that each fillet will be covered by the batter.
5. Deep fry in hot oil until brown. Serve with dipping sauce.

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.