Crab Curry
Topic: Crabs
This dish was product of my experimentation again, I just want to try how does it taste and fortunately it was good.



Ingredients:
5 medium crab, raw or pre-boiled
2 cups thick cups coconut milk
1 cup broth
2 tbsp. green curry paste
1 eggplant (big variety), sliced
1 carrot, sliced thinly
5 pcs. lemon leaves
crushed ginger, grated
1 medium onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. sugar
1 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. cooking oil
1 fresh stalk of lemon grass
1 stalk green onions, cut into 1.5 inches diagonally
salt to taste

Directions:
1. If using raw crab, clean it, and take the legs off the body. Cut the body into 2 pieces, discard the hard shell.
2. Heat oil in deep pan and saute garlic, onions and ginger. Then,add the crabs and curry paste, stir fry for 5 minutes then add broth, lemon leaves and lemon grass. Cook until liquids are reduced.
3. Stir in carrots, eggplants and coconut milk. Simmer until the vegetbles are done.
4. Add fish sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook for 1 minute.
5. Off the heat and add green onions. Serve.

Beef Fried Noodles
Topic: Noodles
We were fasting with my hubby yesterday and I had no prior plan on what to prepare for our Iftar, Donna cooked rice and she asked me what should we cook for viand, being not used of eating rice during Iftar time it seemed that I was not interested with it so I plan to cook some noodles, and this was what I prepared. Actually this dish was almost similar to Pad Thai that I posted before, however I used ground beef this time, I added carrots and I used sweet soy sauce instead of fish sauce. I did not include vinegar also, I wanted it to be a combination of sweet and salty noodles, no pepper at all. It was really something different.


Ingredients:
100 g flat rice noodles
2/3 cup ground beef
1 ? cup mung bean sprouts
1 medium carrot, julienned
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, minced
3 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. light soy sauce
2 tbsp. sweet soy sauce
Salt to taste
1 stalk of green onions, cut into 1 inch length

Directions:
1. Soak noodles for 10-15 minutes. Drain, then cut into 4 inches length.
2. Heat oil in a wok, saute garlic and onions. Stir fry ground beef until color changes. Add carrots and salt. Stir for 1 minute.
3. Add noodles, stir to mix well. Sprinkle some water if the noodles will tend to stick in the wok. Then add light and sweet soy sauce. Stir gently, be careful not to break the noodles. Cook until the noodles are tender.
4. Add the sprouts and green onions, mix well. Cook for 30-45 seconds then remove from heat immediately.
5. Add lemon and chili powder if desired.

Tuna Cucumber Salad
Topic: Salad
This salad was made of 3 ingredients only:
Tuna flakes in oil, tomatoes and cucumber seasoned with salt and pepper. My husband’s favorite salad, actually he was the who introduced it to me during the early years of our marriage. He said this was one of his meals before we were married, he always prepare it when he was home after work because it’s very easy to prepare and very healthy also.

Now that I am here to cook for him, he was still requesting for it sometimes and I learned to like this dish also because of him.

Chicken with Mung Bean Sprouts 2
Topic: Chicken
This dish is different from the Chicken with Mung Bean Sprouts that I posted before, this is the simplier version of it but deliciously different.
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Ingredients:
500 g chicken, sliced into serving portion
2 cups mung bean sprouts
1 medium carrot, julienned
1/2 cup canned mushrooms, sliced
2 leeks, cut into 1 inch length
1 stalk green onions, cut into 1 inch diagonally
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
3 tbsp. sesame seed oil
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Salt the chicken slices and let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Heat sesame oil in a wok and fry the chicken until brown, add garlic and half of the light soy sauce, cook until the chicken are done.
3. Add carrots, leeks and mushrooms, stir for 4-5 minutes, then add sugar and the remaining light soy sauce. Season with salt and pepper if desired.
4. Add the sprouts and green onions, stir to mix well and cook for 20 seconds. Remove from the wok immediately.

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!