Spaghetti Bolognaise (the short cut way)

My hubby loves spaghetti. So does Inez (but she only eats it with plain sauce). Mika has his moods. He prefers mac and cheese.

If I make my own sauce, it's usually a lot and I could also make lasagna with the leftover sauce.

This recipe is for when I want to whip up a meal in a short time. I usually stock my kitchen with a few tins of spaghetti sauce at a time. In Kuantan, the place to get Prego very cheap is at Eng Hong. A tin costs about RM3.90. Standard retail price is RM4.30. One tin of sauce is enough for 2-4 adults depending on their appetite and hunger level.

First of all in a pot of hot water, boil about half of the 250gm packet of spaghetti. That should be enough for 2-4 ppl. Inez likes to help me, so I let her break the spaghetti in half before throwing it into the pot. Ideally, one should put some salt and pour some olive oil into the hot water, but it's okay if you don't do that. FYI, I like to buy the really thin spaghetti, the same way I like to buy the tiniest sized macaroni. They cook faster. When it's boiled, you can either wash it or not. Jamie Oliver doesn't. His spaghetti goes directly to the plate.

In the meantime, prepare the stuff for the Bolognaise sauce.

Ingredients
1 tin of Prego Spaghetti sauce (the orange tin, with basil)
1 big onion, diced finely
1 big tomato, diced finely
Mushrooms (sometimes I even use oyster mushrooms) finely or roughly diced (My hubby isn't allergic to mushrooms but if he can see it, he sets the mushroom aside)
Green pepper, diced finely (optional)
1 - 2 pips garlic, crushed
Oregano (I usually get oregano from the bakery for under RM3)
Minced meat or chicken
Kurma powder

In your pot, heat some olive oil, throw in the garlic and some oregano (abt 1 dsp) until you can smell the delicious aroma of garlic and oregano. Then put in the diced onions. Stir until the onions go soft, then put in the mushrooms, until they too go soft. Then you throw in the green pepper if you like and tomatoes. Next, put in the meat abt 3 handfuls. Pour some kurma powder over it and stir until meat is cooked. Lastly stir in the Prego sauce and wait for the sauce to boil. Then it's ready. Serve with grated parmesan or grated cheddar cheese and garnish with parsley. Mmmmmm, I like a lot of parsley on my spaghetti.

Simple Cupcakes

I promised Inez that I'd make cupcakes with her for her birthday. Though somewhat belated and amateurish, we were quite happy with the outcome.

I bought all the stuff I needed to make Inez's cupcakes. I got myself disposable plastic piping bags, an icing nozzle, some red ladybirds (made out of sugar and damned sweet). Everything else, I figured I already have at home. I wanted something light and maybe spongy for the cake and used this lemon roll cake recipe, which thankfully has no lemon in the cake, only lemon in the filling. I wasn't sure if Inez would eat lemon cake. Since the cake is easy to make, I thought, "Perfect!"




So here's the cake recipe:


Ingredients


3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp cold water
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder


Icing
Whipping Cream
Green colouring

First, in a mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs until creamy. Then add in cold water and stir. After that, add in flour, salt and baking powder mixture and stir. Spoon batter until it fills half of the paper cups and bake in a heated oven for about 10 - 12 minutes, or until cake springs back. It makes about 10 cupcakes.

For the icing, I simply whipped some whipping cream until it's stiff. I didn't add any sugar as it was already sweet and divided it into 2 portions: one of which I added about 2 drops of dark green colouring to. In my mind, my ladybugs will be nestled in some green leaves on white background. So using my creativity, I spread some white icing over the cakes and piped some green icing over it. Voila! 3 ladybugs on some leaves, 1 ladybug on a green heart and 1 ladybug in a green circle of 'leaves', which don't look like leaves. Still need some practice I think.

Apricot Peach Cobbler

This recipe is actually courtesy of Tobi Breternitz of Bay Port, Michigan who sent in her recipe for Apricot Peach Cobbler to Tastes of Home's Recipe Card Collection Magazine (volume 5, 2004 issue). I actually first tasted this simply scrumptious dessert when my friend made it for Berbuka last Ramadhan. However, it's a little on the sweet side for me. So I usually reduce the sugar. My kids on the other hand only ate the cake topping that I just make the topping on its own sometimes in a tiny rectangular cake tin abt 3 x 5 inches. It takes about 5 minutes to mix it up and half an hour to bake. You don't even need a mixer. My kids love it. I will give the original recipe given by Toni and comment on the side the changes made.

Apricot Peach Cobbler
1 can (29 ounces) sliced peaches (I only use the Peach, hence, Peach Cobbler.)
1 can (15 ounces) apricot halves (Didn't put in apricots)
1/2 cup sugar (Give the syrup a taste, if you think it's not sweet enough, add just enough, even 1/4 cup is still very sweet for me and my family)
2 tablespoons cornstarch (abt 1 tbsp)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon butter (I like butter, but you can reduce this to 1/2 tbsp)

TOPPING
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (I usually reduce this to 1/4 cup.)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, softened

HONEY CREAM
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons honey (I usually put in a tsp of honey and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Drain peaches, reserving 1/2 cup syrup. Drain apricots, reserving 1/2 cup syrup. Cut apricots in half; set fruit aside. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg,and reserved syrups until smooth. Bring to boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter until melted. Stir in peaches and apricots. Transfer to a greased 8-in, square baking dish. For topping, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add egg and butter; mix well. spoon over fruit. Bake at 350 deg for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. In a mixing bowl, beat cream, honey and cinnamon until stiff peaks form. serve with warm cobbler. Yield: 6-8 servings.
By the way, the picture above is not my own, but it's from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peach-Cobbler-VI/Detail.aspx and it's the closest pix that resembles what the recipe above yields. You can also click on the link and try the other recipe. It doesn't use apricots either.

Miu Choy Fried with Garlic

This is another really easy recipe. In fact, it is very similar to the fried lettuce recipe but instead of using shallots or onions, you use garlic. I am not sure at the moment what the English name for miu choy is, but it could be baby green bean sprouts. It is NOT taugeh aka bean sprouts. I will post a pix of what miu choy looks like soon.

Ingredients

Miu Choy
Garlic
Cooking Oil
Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Salt, Pepper & Sugar

Method
Again, it's up to you how much of this vege you want to cook. For every 1 handful of miu choy, you crush and chop 1 garlic. So say you are cooking 4 handfuls, then slice or chop 4 cloves of garlic. You can throw in an extra clove, it's okay.
Heat oil in wok, and dump in the garlic. Fry until lightly brown, then throw in the vege. Stir in a dash of soy sauce, a drop of oyster sauce, salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Voila, it's ready. You can add some water if you want the sauce to be thinner, have a soupy like quality.

Fried Lettuce in Soy Sauce

This is one of my favourite dishes and it's one of the easiest to prepare. In fact, I only had it last night and the night before that.

Ingredients
Lettuce
Shallots
Cooking Oil
Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce

Method
If I am cooking for 2 to 3 people, I'd use half a lettuce.
Wash and drain your lettuce leaves in a collander.
Slice shallots thinly. How many depends on how much fried shallots you like with your lettuce. I usually cut 2 to 3 medium sized shallots for 1/2 a lettuce.
Then heat wok, put in enough cooking oil to fry shallots evenly until golden brown. Take out the fried shallots but leave oil in. Put in lettuce and stir. Do not overfry. Remember you can even eat lettuce raw. Then pour in about 1 tbsp of soy sauce (I use Popo brand or Lee Kum Kee) and I dollop of Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce. Turn off heat and sprinkle fried shallots over lettuce before serving. It's absolutely yummy.

I'll upload pix next time.

Welcome to my cooking blog!

I call this blog easy peasy cooking because cooking is actually easy. This blog is also for lazy people like me who take short cuts when it comes to cooking. Over time, you'll be introduced to recipes like lettuce in soy sauce, and mui choy fried with garlic, spaghetti bolognaise, Cek mek molek and sweet potato balls, prawn mee et cetera. You will also realise pretty soon that when it comes to cooking, I can be quite vague, basically because I'm the 'pincha cook'. You know, a pinch of this, a pinch of that. But hey, that shouldn't dissuade you from cooking because it's YOU who is in control. YOU decide how much salt, YOU decide how much sugar, YOU tweak your own cooking until it tastes the way YOU like it. So there you have it. Feel free to comment and criticise and tell me if you have a better recipe. I love cooking, and am always game to try new recipes.