Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura
Topic: Appetizers
This dish was cooked last week, Sunday, the last day of Ramadan, I served it as an appetizer for our last Iftar this year.

My original plan was to cook shrimps only but my mind was changed when I saw many fresh vegetables in the fridge. I like crispy vegetables a lot, hence I decided to include it in the shrimps. Tempura is a Japanese dish refers to classic Japanese deep fried batter-dipped seafood and vegetables. The batter is made of ice cold water, flour, and eggs. Here’s how I made my Tempura, first I prepared the shrimps and the vegetables that I want to use (I used carrots, cauliflower, string beans and white onions, actually any vegetables will do even the leafy one) I cut all the vegetables into bite size, sliced the onions into rings and I peeled the shrimps leaving the tails on. Then I made the batter consist of 1 ? cup tempura flour, 1 cup cold water, 2 eggyolks, salt and pepper. I mixed it altogether and stirred it gradually, without over-stirring of course. Third, I dipped each pieces of shrimps into the batter and let it drained a little, I dropped a few pieces at a time into hot oil and deep fried it until golden brown, after the shrimps, I cooked the vegetables with the same procedure until done, I served it immediately with sweet chili sauce and that’s it. We had an assorted Tempura for Iftar with no leftovers!

Jong's Kutsinta
Topic: Desserts
Kutsinta is very famous in the Philippines and it seems that majority of the Filipinos knows how to cook this food. It is made of rice flour, sugar, water and lye water, it is usually served with freshly grated coconut. Last Eid, my sister Jong decided to make Kutsinta since she saw the lye water that I bought from the Filipino supermarket few days ago. We don’t have fresh coconut so she used desiccated coconut as a topping combined with the sweetened roasted coconut (also made from desiccated).





When she was almost done, she decided to add some chocolate powder to the remaining mixture, she wanted to try how will Chocolate Kutsinta taste like, LOL! The result was satisfying, we had a traditional and chocolate Kutsinta for Eid!

Grilled Shrimps
Topic: Shrimps
We went to seaside last Wednesday,3rd day of Eid, the last holiday, my husband said he wanted to take our lunch there, I was not prepared since he told me late already, almost 11:00 in the morning. So I suggested to drop by at the fish market to buy some shrimps there so that we can grill it and he said it's a good idea. So I brought some seaonings and spices for the grilling.
The weather was very good since it's autumn season in Kuwait nowadays, it's very perfect to grill outdoors. If he told me earlier then probably I can marinate chicken for barbeque but it was already late. Anyway we still had the shrimps to grill. My husband prepared the charcoal while I prepared the shrimps. I made a slit to the back of each shrimps, then I mixed light soy sauce, olive oil, minced garlic, minced onion and red chili powder together. I rubbed the slits of every shrimps from the olive oil mixture, then I grilled it for few minutes until done. We made the remaining mixture as our dipping sauce, then we ate our lunch while savoring the cool yet warm autumn breeze. Our son Azhfaar fall asleep afterwards.

Hot Cucumber Salad
Topic: Salad
It's Autumn season in Kuwait, few days from now we will be freeze with the cold winter, so if you still want to eat salad, then this will be the good summertime salad substitue.

Ingredients:
2 cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 tomato, thinly sliced
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. red chili, chopped
1 tbsp. chopped fresh corriander
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Combine cucumber, tomato and corriander in a bowl.
2. Mix together vinegar, sugar, pepper and salt. Pour the mixture over the cucumber, mix well.
3. Chill before serving if desired.

Shrimps and Chicken Stir Fry
Topic: Shrimps
I wanted to cook StirFried Shrimps last night but we had only few shrimps left in the fridge, not enough for our dinner so I added some chicken fillets on it.

Ingredients:
300 g shrimps, peeled
300 g chicken fillet
2/3 cup dried mushrooms, soaked in water and sliced
1 medium carrot, sliced
1 cup baby corn, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 stalks green onions, cut into 1.5 inches length
2 tbsp. light soy sauce
1 tbsp. sweet soy sauce
1 tbsp. tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp. cooking oil

Directions:
1. Salt chicken fillets and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a pan, fry the chicken until golden brown, then add shrimps, mushrooms, carrots and garlic. Stir until the shrimps turns pink, then add light soy sauce and tomato paste. Mix well.
3. Stir in the baby corn, add salt and pepper. Cook until all the vegetables are done, then add green onions, stir for 30 seconds, turn off heat.

See also Stir Fried Shrimps, Chicken with Black Beans