Banana Blossom with Coconut Milk
Topic: Vegetables
I rarely find good quality and fresh banana blossoms here, whenever I buy one, I always noticed that it was already stocked several days ago. I always wanted to make banana blossoms salad because I really miss my mother’s salad way back home but I was always frustrated whenever I opened and tried to slice it and found out that it wasn’t fresh at all. So I have no choice but to cook it over HOT FLAME!

Ingredients:
1 medium banana blossom, sliced
Water
1 large zucchini, sliced
2 cups thick coconut milk
3 cups chicken broth
1 onion, sliced
1 ripe tomato, quartered
2 tbsp. crushed ginger
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 medium sliced of smoked tuna mackerel
? tsp. sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Put banana blossoms in a pot, add enough water to cover, heat over medium-high and bring to a boil, simmer until tender. Remove from the heat and drain.
2. Return the drained banana blossoms into the pot, add broth, zucchini, onion, ginger, fish sauce and smoked tuna mackerel. Put over medium heat, let it boil. Cook until the zucchini are tender.
3. Add tomato, coconut milk and sugar, season with salt and pepper. Cook for 3 minutes. Serve.

Maja ala Rieaane's
Topic: Desserts
I named it Maja ala Rieaane's because I've been cooking this dish since I was 14 years old as a product of my experimentation before, until I made it exactly what I wanted it to be. When I perfected it, I prepared one during my graduation day in Arabic (8th grade)before and it was really "sold" out. Somebody asked me what was its name, I just simpy answered that it was Maja, they never recognized it, I don't know why. It's been a long time that I never cook it until last night and this is the first time that I will share its recipe.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup evaporated milk
2 cups coconut milk
1 cup buko juice
1/2 cup powdered milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup corn kernel, drained
1/2 cup shredded buko (young coconut)
1/2 cup red nata de coco, drained
1l2 cup green nata de coco, drained
1 tsp. vanilla
ground roasted peanuts for garnish

Directions:
1. Combine cornstarch, powdered and evaporated milk in a bowl, mix well until all the powder are dissolved.
2. In a pot, put coconut milk, buko juice, sugar and salt, heat and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat, add the cornstarch mixture and the rest of the ingredients, stir constantly in one direction only until well blended.
4. Don's stop stirring until fully cooked, about 4-5 minutes.
5. Off the heat, transfer to a molder.
6. Chill for half an hour before serving. Garnish with the peanuts. (Garnish only when you are about to serve it to retain the crispiness of the peanuts)

Tips: Slice the nata de coco into half so that it will be easy to bite. If you can make it smaller than that then it would be much better.

See also:
Maja Maiz
Maja Ube

Steamed Milkfish (Bangus)
Topic: Fish
I did not able to finish my fasting yet, I have 6 absences in the month of Ramadan but my hubby asked me not to fast on Friday since he wanted to eat lunch at home, I don't know why he said that, I can still cook for his lunch even I'm fasting, why he did not tell me "I wanna eat lunch with you at home" instead, I wonder why! Lol :).

So yesterday I planned to broil the Milkfish but I just found out that I ran out of aluminum foil at home when I'm about to cook it and lunch time is already near, my hubby arrived already from the mosque. So the most fastest way to cook it is steaming as an alternative. There are many variations to steam the fish, some are adding olive oil, sesame oil, lemon juice, fish sauce, soy sauce etc. all variations has its own unique delicious taste. For the one I prepared yesterday, I just made it simple because I was in hurry but sometimes things when made in a simple way are the best. Lol! For the 1 Bangus, I just cleaned it, split and open the fish into the middle lenghtwise but without separating it, then put it in a dish, sprinkle some black pepper on it, add slices of ginger and scallions, then added few light soy sauce ands sesame seed oil on it, then I steamed the fish for 15-20 minutes. That's it! :) The simple combination of the ingredients was really satisfying, try it!

Ants Climbing a Tree
Topic: Noodles
Very interesting name! I already cooked this dish before I knew its name. I just knew it recently while I was browsing a Thai cooking website.

Accordingly, this is a classic dish in Chinese Cuisine. It consists of a ground meat cooked in a sauce and poured over bean thread noodles (Sotanghon). It is so called because the bits of ground meat that cling to the noodles evoke an image of ants walking on twigs of a tree. Some ingredients to be used in this dish are soy sauce, vegetable oil, sesame oil green onions, garlic and pepper.

There are many variations in cooking this dish, while me, I cooked it this way:

Sorry, the ants are not clearly visible in the picture, they are very tiny. LOL :)

Ingredients:
100 g bean thread noodles (sotanghon)
1/2 cup dried mushrooms, soaked in water then sliced
2/3 cup ground beef
2 tbsp. ginger, crushed then sliced thinly
1 stalk green onions, cut into 1 inch length diagonally
1/4 cup broth
1 red chili pepper, chopped
1 tsp. chili sauce
2 tbsp. vegetable oil

Marinade:
1 tbsp. light soy sauce
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. fish sauce
1/2 tsp. cornstarch

Directions:
1. Soak noodles in hot water until they are pliable (about 5 minutes). Drain well. Cut the noodles into shorter lengths.
2. Mix all the marinade ingredients then marinate ground beef for 15 minutes.
3. Heat 1 tbsp. vegetable oil in a wok. Add the marinated beef. Stir-fry until the beef has changed color and is nearly cooked through. Remove from the wok. Clean out the wok.
4. Add 1 tbsp. vegetable oil to the wok. Add the chili pepper and ginger. Stir-fry briefly until aromatic. Add the dried mushrooms. Stir-fry fro few seconds, then stir in the chili sauce and the noodles. Add the broth in the middle of the wok. Add the ground beef to the mixture. Stir until cooked through.
5. Stir in the green onions. Mix everything together and cook for 30 seconds. Serve.

Egg Omelet
Topic: Breakfast Recipes
My son's favorite, egg omelet. He liked it to be plain only with no additional ingredients. But sometimes I cooked it this way and I served it with fried rice and chicken franks, and he still eat it.

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1/4 cup fresh Milk
1 tsp. Flour
a pinch of Baking powder
1 stalk green onions, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil

Directions:
1. Beat eggs, milk, baking powder, flour, salt, and pepper. Mix in green onions.
2. Heat oil in small skillet. Pour in enough mixture just to cover bottom of the pan. Cover and cook slowly until firm. Continue until mixture is finished. Serve.