Milkfish Soup
Topic: Soup
I started to cook this dish since I was on high school because this is my father’s favorite way of cooking any fish. He likes soup-based dishes so much, that’s why I always miss him whenever I cook his favorites. The other day, I told my hubby that I am cooking the milkfish for our dinner and I asked him how he likes it to be cooked, he said “anything with soup”. Me too, I wanted it to be with soup and in natural way, so that’s the reason why I cooked it this way.

Ingredients:
1 whole medium milkfish, scaled, cleaned and sliced into serving portion
1 medium onion, slice thinly
2 leeks, cut into 2 inches length
1 ripe tomato, quartered
2 tbsp. crushed ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. dried lemon grass (use fresh if available)
1 tbsp. fish sauce
Water, enough to cover the fish
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp. cooking oil

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a pot, saute garlic, onion and ginger, stir for few seconds, add the sliced fish and water. Let it boil over medium heat.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook until fish are done about 7-8 minutes. Serve.

See also:
Besugo Fish Soup

Tuna Fritters
Topic: Appetizers
I just made this dish because I really miss the fresh anchovy cakes/fritters in Philippines and I cannot found even a single fresh little and tiny cutie fish in the Fish market here. My hubby always told me that he really missed it too. What we had found here are the dried only and it’s not good to cook it that way. Since no anchovies, I made this one as a substitute for our cravings for it.


Ingredients:
1 can 90 g Tuna flakes, drained
1 ? cup bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp. minced onion
? tsp. garlic powder
? tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp. tomato paste
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
? tsp. sugar
? tsp. black pepper powder
? tsp. salt
Oil for deep frying

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix and blend well.
2. Scoop 1 tbsp. of the mixture and form it into a rectangular shape about ? inch thick and 2 inches length. Repeat procedure until all mixture are done.
3. Deep fry until golden brown, drain on paper towels. Serve it woth your favorite dipping sauce.

Fried Chicken and Sweet Chili Mayo Sauce
I noticed that I didn’t have fried chicken post in this blog that’s why I decided to post this one. Fried chicken is probably the most common type of cooking the chicken and we can found it in almost all the restaurants and fastfood chains. Here in Kuwait, the fried chicken that I like most is the Hot and Spicy Fried chicken of KFC of course. How I wish that I will know the 11 ingredients that they were using, lol! Accordingly, the original handwritten recipe of KFC is suggested to be locked securely in a vault in Louisville, with partial copies stored elsewhere as backup. The company claims that suppliers of the seasonings each provide only parts of the recipe, and do not know each other's identity. KFC also claims that not even the company's president knows the ingredient list, and the few people who do are subject to a strict confidentiality agreement. Grabe! So, all we have to do is to buy their fried chicken if we are craving for it. Hehe…

Last night, I decided to fry the last pieces of chicken slices in the fridge (so it’s time to go marketing tomorrow!). My hubby seems that he missed fried chicken so much since I did not able to fry long time ago (actually I hate frying because it made me smell like a fried chicken also, lol!). Then, I made sweet chili mayo sauce as our dipping sauce. My sister made a sauce for her own but when she tasted mine, she said it taste better than what she prepared.

Ingredients:
600 g chicken, sliced into serving portions
salt and pepper
1 beaten egg
Oil for deep frying

For the coatings:
3/4 cup fine bread crumbs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ginger powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. corriander powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. chili powder/paprika
1/4 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

To make sweet chili mayo sauce:
Combine 1 tbsp. mayonnaise, 1 tbsp. sweet chili sauce, 1 tsp. hot banana ketchup, 1/4 tsp. garlic powder. 1 tbsp. water. Blend all the ingredients together, then add chopped red chili peppers, that's it!

Directions:
1. Pat the chicken slices dry using paper towel, then season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for an hour.
2. Mix the all the coating ingredients in a bowl.
3. Dip each chicken slice into beaten egg, then dredge in coating mixture.
4. Deep fry in hot oil over medium heat until golden brown.
5. Drain on paper towels.

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