Lazy girl guide : Stuffed Capsicum/Pepperbell

Imagine this. You wake up late. You are hungry. Since you are skipping breakfast and about to have lunch soon, you need to prepare something convenient, satisfying and  can be cooked while you are in the shower.

Well, this is not a fast food but it is definitely a menu for a lazy girl who wanted to stay away from carbohydrate. The original recipe does involved rice/rissotto but today my friend, lets just keep em' in the jar shall we?

Okay, here's what you need to prepare:

Ingredients:
1. 3 capsicum/pepperbell
2. 100g minced beef (or chicken)
3. 1 tomato (diced)
4. 1 egg
5. 1/2 onion & 2 clove of garlic (diced)
6. 1tbsp oil

Optional
1. Cheese
2. Tomato puree

Direction:
1. Pre-heat an oven in 180°C & marinate the beef with salt & pepper for 5 minutes.
2. Remove top of capsicum. You may retain the top and baked it together in the oven but I prefer to cut it off and diced up the remaining (except for the stem part & seeds clinging to it)
3. Heat oil/butter in a frying pan. Add in onion & garlic and saute until fragrant
4. Add minced beef and fry until browned then add in tomato & diced capsicum for 10 mins
5. Remove the meat mixture in a large bowl. Add in egg and mix well before filling it into the capsicum
6. Baked for 30-40mins. If you prefer, topped the stuffed capsicum with  tomato puree and cheese.

While the capsicum is doing it's 'thang' in the oven, you can enjoy your shower, make yourself a coffee and select a movie that you wanted to watched for quite sometime. I always prefer to cook something with oven. You have more time for yourself. Am such a lazy girl :-)

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Lazy girl guide : Crispy Roasted Pork Belly (Siu Yuk)

Krukk! Kruukkkk!

That is the sound you will be making while eating 'siu yuk', the crispy pork belly that you can find in nearly all non-halal Chinese restaurant and hawker stall. Sometime I get disappointed when I ordered a plate of pork rice and end up with a fraction of the pork and almost equivalent to two bowls of rice. Huh! And get charged for tiny weeny pork. Can I seek justice for this? Haha..

Anyway, I have seen lots of siu yuk recipes and it seems like a hard work. Until, I found out about this simple way to prepare your own version of siu yuk at home. I think it is because most of the recipes show how to prepare roast pork, big enough to feed a family of four (providing each and one of them are not greedy enough, like me). This recipe works great if you cut the pork belly into a size which is less thicker (refer picture below) horizontally. You can cut down the cooking time and it is easier to cut into small pieces for serving.



You can easily buy pork belly this size in major supermarket. In choosing the right kind of pork belly, please avoid the 'pork tits' as it can be a bit chewy (besides looking kind of gross, to me.sorry). Below are the ingredient in preparing your DIY siu yuk:

Ingredient:
1. Pork belly (refer picture for sizing)
2. 1 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder
3. 1 tbsp vinegar
4. Salt (based on your preference)
5. White pepper (based on your preference)

Optional:
1. Tomatoes
2. Zucchini
3. Olive oil

Direction:
1. Wash & dry pork with paper towel. Make sure it is really dry
2. Rub the meat side with 5-spice powder & salt, avoiding the skin. Marinate for 30mins
3. Cut tomatoes & zucchini into small pieces. Transfer in a food container. Add in olive oil & salt. Shake the container vigorously
4. Preheat oven at 180c
5. Place pork belly in the oven rack. Make sure the skin side is dry and free from any marinate. Arrange tomatoes & zucchini on the rack. Bake for 10-15mins
6. Meanwhile, mixed vinegar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl
7. After 10-15mins, remove the rack from oven. Prick the pork skin with fork (by this time the skin will become softer) and brush the vinegar mixture onto the skin before putting it back in the oven
8. Baked for another 30-44mins. You have to observe the progress of your meat to make sure the skin is turning into crispy form and not burnt.


If your oven have the option to choose roasting side, you can change it after the meat is well-cooked and to speed up the roasting process. After removing the meat from oven, allow it to rest for 10mins before cutting them for serving. Cutting the meat proved easier in this portion, you may have to use clover to chop pork belly in bigger size.

You can listened to the cracking sound while cutting the meat..oh, so heavenly :-)

Warning: The whole thing can disappear in less than 15mins.

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Lazy girl guide : Blender Banana Cake

Last Wednesday is my sister's birthday. How old? Forever 21. You can expect the same answer from me for my birthday until..err forever?

Anyway, I really suck at picking up presents for people that I cared about. I will end up thinking about it over and over, whether they are going to like it, whether it is usable, whether the gift give impact in their life (I know, I'm drama like that)..and the list goes on. For other people, easy peasy. 1.buy them lunch/dinner; 2. Photo frame (I know, everybody goes digital but what the heck) 3. Buy the lunch/dinner

As usual, because my sister know me too well, she told me something that she wanted. Since it is a very simple request, nothing OTT,  I felt like, why not bake her a cake instead? She always have a soft spot for banana cake and my mixer is not functioning (bought it during sale, only used less than 5 times before malfunctioning.if I have the money I would invest in a good cake mixer *day dream*). I've heard something about blender cake but never got to try them so let's explore!

Ingredient:

1. 2 banana (fresh or overipe), cut into small bits (I just pinched them)
2. 2 eggs
3. 2 tbsp milk
4. 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
5. 1 cup white sugar
6. 125g butter
7. 1 1/2 cup (185g) self raising flour (or used 2 teaspoon baking powder with 1/2 teaspoon salt mixed with plain flour)
8. 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonat soda

Optional:
1. Cinnamon powder (1 teaspoon)
2. Choc chip
3. Chopped nuts (I used almond)

Direction:

1. Creamed butter and sugar in a small hot pot
2. Mixed flour with bicarbonat soda (both sieved beforehand). Mixed it also with cinnamon (optional)
3. Blend item 1-4 for 2 mins
4. Add creamed butter and sugar into blender
5. Pour mixed flour into blender, in phases. Add in chopped nuts (optional)
6. Blend until smooth and creamy before pouring the batter into cake mould
7. Topped with choc chip (optional). Or prepared icing (best paired with cream cheese or peanut butter icing)
7. Bake for 30mins in 180deg Celcius

You can refer to the original recipe here : Recipe 1 & Recipe 2

I have tweaked the ingredient based on my gut feeling (and which one is the simplest of course). Ignore the choc chip as I knew it would be haywire once the cake is in tne oven. I'm too lazy to prepare icing, besides I personally think with the choc chip/almond bits/cinnamon, my cake is way too heavy/fancy for an additional topping.

Not bad for a blender cake.

Lazy girl guide : Fluffy buttermilk pancake

Feeling nostalgic.

When I was a kid, I day dreamed alot. A LOT. I always imagined myself living the luxurious life (who doesn't?) with a butler to attend to my every need. Now I still imagined the same thing, especially living alone everything I have to buy or prepared it for myself. I miss you mama!

To be honest, I'm not a morning person. Eventhough I love cooking, I can barely remember when was the last time I'm in the kitchen preparing something for brekkie. Since the waking up early part would not be a reality during working days, I took up the challenge to prepare myself breakfast during my off day (at 10am, nonetheless).

This is a no-fail recipe. First time whipping up my own pancake, was really happy with the result.

Fluffy Buttermilk Pancake

Ingredient:
1. 3/4 cup of milk
2. 1 tbsp of white vinegar/ lemon
3. 1 cup all purpose flour (sieved)
4. 2 tbspwhite sugar
5. 1 teaspoon baking powder
6. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
7. 1/2 teaspoon salt
8. 1 egg
9. 2tbsp butter, melted
10. Butter/cooking spray to grease pan

Optional:
1. Choc chip (I opt for this)
2. Honey(I opt for this)
3. Whipped cream/ fresh fruits for serving

Instruction:
1. Preparing buttermilk: combine milk and vinegar/lemon, left for more than 10mins. Or you can buy buttermilk on its own (both is easy peasy, better diy)
2. Combine ingredient 3-7 in a small container
3. Whisk egg and butter into the soured milk/buttermilk
4. Pour flour into the wet mixture and whisk until lumps are gone
5. Pour batter into hot pan, cook until bubble appear on the surface. Flip the pancake and cook till browned on both side
6. Serve warm with honey

This recipe creates 3 humongous pancake. To adjust the ingredient you can refer to the original recipe here

I know you may be turn off by the look of it (was too hungry to be creative) but it taste exactly like the one they served at Nanny's Pancake, if not better. If you have time to get creative you can 'draw' a heart shape or cute bears on your pancake. Just don't end up with something like this:

Lazy girl guide: Easy spaghetti bolognaise

Today is your off day. Looking outside the window, you can see series of greyed cloud with light cold drizzle. Somehow your blanket is your BFF, you are still in your pajama and you have the feeling of love-and-hate relationship over why you should go outside and do something instead of sitting down whole day watching you favorite tv series, warm cuppa hot choco and your soft pillows.

Seems familiar? I always enjoy a day out when it gets breezy (soft breeze, not the cold wet ones) but sometime I felt like I deserve that sit-around-and -do-nothing day. And when I do, I always make a trip or two in the kitchen preparing comfort food. One of the easiest are Spaghetti Bolognaise. As per mentioned, it is a lazy guide not restaurant specials ;-)

Here are the basic item:
1. 200g of minced meat (I prefer beef over chicken as chicken tends to be 'plasticky' when over cooked).
2. Can of tomato puree (optional: with one cup of diced tomato laying around.sometime, the puree is too sour for my liking) OR Ready made spaghetti sauce (Preggo etc)
3. Chopped garlic & onions
4. Spaghetti (cooked al dente, with olive oil and some salt)
5. Salt & black pepper for seasoning

Optional (for that extra kick)
5. Dried chillies - boiled with hot water then strain. Fry over with a table spoon of oil till crispy & fragrant
6. Diced carrot
7. Grated parmesan for serving

Instruction:
1. Marinate minced meat 15 minutes before it hits the pan with salt & pepper
2. Slightly heat chopped onions and garlic until fragrant then add in the marinted beef. Stir the meat until browned then add on diced tomato and/or diced carrot.
3. Stir again for 5 minutes then add on tomato puree/ready made sauce
4. Stir everything together, add a bit of water if necessary (to ensure the meat is properly cooked especially if half thawed). Add on the fried chillies and reduce the heat.
5. Simmer until the meat and veges are evenly cooked. Once the sauce thickens, voila! Serve on top of the spaghetti, with a dash of grated parmesan.

Bon appetitè!
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