Real Cream of Chicken & Asparagus Soup
Topic: Soup
Cream of asparagus, my father’s favorite cream soup and he usually bought ready to cook soup powder ever since he tried it. I never tried cooking fresh asparagus cream soup before, whenever we had fresh one, I will cook it different way, not a soup base. We still had some fresh asparagus left in the fridge from the Shrimp and Vegetables Guisado that I cooked before so an idea came to my mind to make it into a cream soup. I also add chicken slices, with bones to enhance the flavor.

Ingredients:
300 g chicken, sliced
10 pcs. fresh asparagus, cut into 2 inches length
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
? cup milk
? cup all purpose cream
1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
? tsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 tsp. black pepper powder
3 tbsp. melted butter
1/3 cup grated quick melting cheese
1 egg, beaten
Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Heat butter in a pot, stir fry the chicken until lightly brown, stir in the garlic, then onions. Stir until the onions become transparent in color.
2. Add broth, coriander, sugar, salt and black pepper powder. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the chicken is done, add more water if desired.
3. Add the asparagus, cook until the asparagus are almost done.
4. Add milk, cream and cheese, stir and let it boil. Stir in the beaten egg and cook until the egg is done.

Serve hot.

Spaghetti Guisado
Topic: Pasta
Here's my another style of cooking spaghetti:

Ingredients:
250 gram spaghetti, cooked according to package instructions
1 cup ground beef
2 pcs. chicken franks, sliced thinly
1 medium carrot, julienned
1/4 head of cabbage, sliced thinly
1/3 cup black fungus, soaked in water and sliced
1 large onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bell pepper, sliced into strips
2 1/2 cups broth
1 cup spaghetti sauce, traditional flavor
? cup tomato sauce
? cup tomato catsup
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. soy sauce
3 tbsp. cooking oil
Salt and pepper to taste
chopped green onions for garnish

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a pan. Saute garlic until brown, then add onions and saute until smooth. Add ground beef and chicken franks, stir until the beef change its color.
2. Add broth, tomato sauce, tomato catsup, soy sauce, sugar, black fungus, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the vegetables and cook until done. Stir in the pasta and mix well until all are well incorporated. Turn off heat.
4. Sprinkle with chopped green onions.

Pickled Milkfish (Daing na Bangus)
Topic: Fish
Pickled Milkfish or Daing na Bangus is one Filipino's favorite dish. When I was in Philippines, my mother always made it during our fishpond's harvest time, she pickled it first for several hours and then put it under the sun for not more than an hour, then we fried it in the evening. She did it always because my father really liked it until such time that I was overly satiated with it and I didn't want to eat it anymore. Now that I am here in Kuwait, I'm always longing for it, we did not able to try a fresh milkfish here even once, all frozen from Thailand or Taiwan. I tried my best to pickle it like the taste of the one made by my mother but I can't, because that was freshly caught from our fishpond.

Ingredients:
1 Milkfish (bangus), about 750 kg after cleaning
2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed then minced
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper powder
1/4 cup vinegar or lime juice
2 tbsp. Italian Dressing (optional)
Cooking oil for frying

Directions:
1. Remove the fish scale. Cut the fish lengthwise along the back, trying not to damage the skin. Remove the large bones. Place the fish in a shallow dish or marinating container, outer skin side down.
2. Combine the other ingredients, except the oil, and pour over the bangus. Marinate in the refrigerator 1 day or at least overnight. Turn the fish over once to marinate the open side as well.
3. Drain the bangus. (Put it under the sun for at least 15 minutes if you want it to be a little bit dry)
4. Heat oil in a frying pan. Fry the fish until golden brown.

Serve with hot rice and Jackfruit with Shrimp Salad

Jackfruit with Shrimp Salad
Topic: Salad
Since we tasted the canned jackfruit in the Jackfruit Salad that I made last week, my husband bought again the other day, it seemed that he was starting to like the canned jackfruit now, tasted almost the same with the fresh one, that was he said. Now I add shrimp and cucumber to taste different from the one I made before.

Ingredients:
1 can 565 g boiled young jackruit
200 g shelled deveined shrimps
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, minced
1 cucumber, sliced very thinly
1/2 of small bell pepper, chopped
1 ripe tomato, sliced thinly
1 tsbp. fish sauce
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsbp. olive oil
1 lemon, sliced (optional)

Directions:
1. Drain the jackfruit in the can, wash with cold water, thin slice. Squeeze out all the water and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a skillet. Saute garlic and onions, then add shrimps, sugar salt and pepper. Cooked until the shrimps are done.
3. Combine the jackfruit, cucumber, bell pepper, tomato and the cooked shrimps in a bowl. Set aside.
4. Combine fish sauce and coconut milk, add this mixture to the jacfruit mixture and toss well. Adjust the seasoning accoring to your taste.
5. Serve with lemon sliced. (Some people like to add lemon, others may not)

Besugo Fish Soup
Topic: Soup
Besugo is very common in Philippines and it is one of our favorite fish, my father always bought it whenever he saw it in the fish market and asked my mother to cook it immediately while it was still very fresh. We usually broiled it or boiled it with some vegetables. It has a very delicious soup.

When we went to the fish market last week, my husband saw a few of it and he did not hesitate to buy it even the price was 3x more than its price in the Philippines. It is not common here in Kuwait, we rarely saw it in the market and if there were some, then only very few of it.

I know there will be many variations to cook it but I always cook it this way:

Ingredients:
500 g Besugo fish, scaled and cleaned
1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium ripe tomato, quartered
1 thumb-size ginger, crushed
2 bay leaves
3 cups water
1 tbsp. fish sauce (optional)
2 stalks green onions, cut into 2 inches length (separate white part)
vegetables of your choice (pechay, chayote, zucchini, lettuce, etc.)
1/4 tumeric powder (optional)
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Combine water, onion, tomato, ginger and bay leaves in a pot. Put over high heat and bring to a boil.
2. Sprinkle tumeric powder to the fishes. (optional)
3. Add the fishes, white part of green onions and fish sauce to the boiling mixture. Reduce heat, simmer until the fish is done, season with salt.
4. Take out the fishes from the soup and transfer to a dish.
5. Add the vegetables of your choice to the soup and cook until the vegetbales are done.
6. Turn off heat and add the green onions. Add the soup mixture to the fish very gently, the fish is very fragile that time. Serve.