Ultra Easy Side Dish - Zucchini with Truffle Paste

Made this as the side dish of our KFC dinner ;)
Super easy, and what's not good with truffle paste (poor me obviously can't afford to buy fresh truffle)?

Recipe 
- 1 or 2 zucchini, cut into 1cm thick chunks
- 1 tbsp butter, a touch of oil, salt, truffle paste
Heat up frying pan, melt butter and a touch of oil, add zucchini chunks, brown them a bit, season with salt, transfer to plate, toss with about 1-2 tsp truffle sauce.

Yum! Perfect for a quick weekday dindin.

Easy Microwaveable Side Dish: Zucchini & Mushroom in Butter & Herbs

When I saw Little Corner of Mine's Microwaved Broccoli in Butter Thyme post, I thought OMG! Brilliant! Genius! What a fantastic idea! I was so inspired...and finally I did it last night.

We had some leftover pasta dish, and all I need for a balanced dinner is a vegetable side dish...and something microwaveable, how cool is that! No sauteeing, no frying, no steaming, no nothing! Just ding! (Ding = Cantonese for "to heat in a microwave")

Instead of broccoli, I used zucchini with some mushrooms, adding some more herbs, etc, but the principal remains the same...easy and tasty side dish for weekday dinners :)

Recipe
- 1 zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 2-3mm thick slices
- about 10 pieces of fresh straw mushrooms, halved
- 2 teaspoon of butter
- a drizzle of olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed
- 1 sprig of rosemary, a few sprigs of thyme (you can use dry herbs if you don't have fresh ones)
- salt, black pepper, a dash of Worcestershire sauce

Throw all ingredients into a microwaveable bowl, mix well, nuke covered on high for 5 minutes. Done!

Sweet, earthy, buttery, herbalicious goodness!

YUMS!

Now use the time on your hand to do more important things...like buying fried chicken :D

Spicy Sardines with Tomatoes and Zucchini

My love for canned food and anything lazy-ass-friendly is no secret.
But this spicy sardine dish is something that's rather far from lazy. It's doing a lazy dish the un-lazy way, as it involves a bit more than opening a can of sardines and reheating it in a microwave, which would've been nice too, but we wanna bring canned sardines to another level ;)

It's a dish that's always served back home in Indonesia when I was growing up...minus the zucchini. I simply added the zucchini as I want it to be a one-dish-dinner (as always).

It takes more than opening a can of sardines, but it is by no means difficult (you know me and my limited skills ^_*)

Recipe
- 1 large can of sardines in tomato sauce
- 1 zucchini, cleaned and sliced to 5mm thick slices
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 onion, sliced thinly
- 1 red chilli, sliced thinly (or more depends on how spicy you want it to be)
- 2 tomatoes, cut into 8 sections
- olive oil, salt, pepper, kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), light soy sauce, fish sauce, hot water, crispy shallot (for garnish)

Saute 1 clove of garlic in hot olive oil, add zucchini pieces, season with salt, pepper and a touch of fish sauce, let cook (add a bit of hot water if necessary), set aside. Saute the other clove of garlic, onion and chilli in hot olive oil until fragrant, add sardines including the juice, let cook for a while, season with fish sauce, light soy, kecap manis, and pepper. Add hot water if you want more "sauce", pour over zucchini, garnish with crispy shallot and serve with steamed rice.

Quick, easy, tasty, although not too lazy :)

Easily Cheesy - Zucchini, Mushroom & Chicken Franks Slices

Please excuse below uncreativity...

Grated mozzarella and parmesan mix on promo at City Super = HK$39 for two packs
Overpriced zucchini sold at the only supermarket below my apartment = HK$9.80 for two small ones (Robbery!)

Leftover grated mozzarella and parmesan mix and zucchini + seeing just the right recipe for them = priceless!

Saw this recipe of Ham, Zucchini & Mushroom Slice over at Daphne's blog, and I knew I just had to try it. The cheese, the zucchini in my fridge....it's fate!

...no it's not! You bought them especially to make this recipe.
Oh yeah, serendipity? Not so much!

The recipe is idiot & failure proof, I wonder if Daphne tailor made it for me?

Hop over to Daphne's site for the recipe, I simply changed ham to chicken franks (it's all I had in my fridge).

Soon after messing about with ingredients and warmed my home with the hot oven, while radiating delicious cheesy scents to make my neighbors drool (without offering them any of the end products - wow. I AM mean!)...I ended up with this tray of gloriously golden, cheesy deliciousness.

Perfect for breakfast, snack or light lunch with a side salad/bacon/fried chicken? :D

Chicken Franks and Zucchini in Japanese Instant Tomato Sauce

In my city, quick doesn't cut it. We want things instant.

Instant noodles, ding-a-meal (to ding = to heat using microwave, Hong Kong slang), fast food restos which slam your orders down the table even before you finish uttering them (except KFC. Hong Kong KFC is slow), MTR trains arrive and gone before you figured out where you're going....they're beyond fast, they're instant.

Good for me, as I am one good ol' impatient bitch.

There are so many obvious reasons why I should love instant sauces, but there is one reason why I hate some of them. I hate it when flavors had been compromised too much, it diminishes the benefit of convenience.

I've bought a pack of Japanese Instant Tomato Sauce, let's see how it did.

The packaging does look appealing....plump, shiny, dewy red tomatoes glistening in front of some cute Japanese fonts. I was so sold!

All I did were chopping up some chicken franks (I allowed 2 chicken franks per person), a large zucchini and slicing an onion. I sauteed the onion in olive oil, add chicken franks until they are browned a bit, add zucchini, add hot water as instructed in the package, add the instant sauce cubes, sprinkled some freshly ground black pepper and served the dish with steamed rice.

It looked gorgeous, didn't taste that bad....but I can't get over its corn starchiness and the deep red stain it left on my bento box.

Hello, food coloring. Goodbye, not looking forward to see you again anytime soon.

Lemon Curry Grilled Pork Neck & Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Stir Fry

Maybe I am crazy, but I hate taking naps. When I took afternoon/evening naps, especially on weekends, it felt like I had wasted a good few hours sleeping when I could be doing something else (like updating this freakin' blog?). When I woke up from naps, I felt feverish, weak, tired, and not at all refreshed. Does anyone else feel the same? What's wrong with me?

I like to be out and about on Fridays. I need to shake the weekday feel off and unwind. Dining out, having a drink or two, out shopping with my girls, catching a show, or whatever. Just like how I planned today. We were supposed to have dinner, then go out cruisin' the hood. It didn't happen, and I'd like to blame it on my dinner.

Tasty dishes generally make us consume more rice...and put us to sleep. Sigh.

Lemon Curry Grilled Pork Neck & Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Stir Fry

Recipe
Lemon Curry Grilled Pork Neck
- 1 lb pork neck, poked all over with fork
- marinate with juice of half lemon, zest of 1 lemon, curry powder, ground cumin, ground corriander seed, salt, pepper, sugar for at least 30 minutes
Preheat oven to 250C. Grill pork neck until golden brown, slice and serve

Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Stir Fry
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 red chilli, chopped
- half onion, finely chopped
- 1 small pineapple, remove core, cut into bite sized chunks
- 1 zucchini, cut into 3 mm thick chunks
- olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar
Saute garlic, chilli, onion in hot oil until fragrant, add pineapple and zucchini, cook until zucchini pieces are softened, season, serve

The spicy, savoury, tangy, and sweet flavors of these dishes pretty much ruined my Friday. Hmm, but at least I got high.........on carb.

Pork Teriyaki Stew & Roasted Zucchini with Balsamic Vinegar

Against all Halloween odds, tonight our celebration doesn’t involve pumpkin, candies or any other spooky-cutey-halloweensy food. We’re going to a Chinese HOT POT joint! Awwww!!!

I stopped by a costume shop yesterday night…and boy! It was a total chaos! All kinds of slutty nun, dirty school girl, naughty nurse, sexy policeman, chubby skeleton, and kinky emperor wannabes were so close to groping each other while trying to grab anything (and anyone) in sight. There were at least 10 languages being shouted to and from every direction and there was almost no more red devil horns head gear by the time I elbowed my way in.

After dodging flailing bloody arms, scary masks, kinky costumes, and neon colored wigs, I got my horns…and the food devil was born…

I was sooo close to wearing the free cut-out mask from yesterday

This dish below has nothing to do with Halloween, but the food devil just loves teriyaki sauce. It is her poison of choice.

Pork Teriyaki Stew & Roasted Zucchini with Balsamic Vinegar

Recipe
Pork Teriyaki Stew
- 1 lb pork ribs (I had some with soft bone)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
-1 cm ginger, crushed
- teriyaki sauce, pepper, olive oil, hot water
Saute garlic, ginger and onion in hot oil, add ribs, add teriyaki sauce, add hot water, stew for 2-3 hours until the meat’s tender. If you have a pressure cooker...grrrr...I am green with envy!

Roasted Zucchini with Balsamic Vinegar
- 2 zucchini, peeled, sliced into 1 cm thick slices
- 4 cloves of garlic
- balsamic vinegar
- salt, pepper, olive oil
Preheat oven to 200C, arrange zucchini in a tray, scatter garlic, rub some oil, add balsamic vinegar, season, roast until zucchini pieces are a bit charred.

Now, ready or not...here I come!

Easy Bacon, Corn and Zucchini and My Pot Envy

Bacon, bacon, bacon.

Why isn't there a restaurant called "BACON" or "PANCETTA"? (or whatever fancy word that means bacon)...and bacon shall magically appear in every parts of the menu, beautifully stuck in the servers' cleavage (and we can pull 'em with our teeth-hoho), everything else only exist to glorify the majestic flavor of bacon, and I shall go home smelling deliciously like bacon. Hehe.

...and with the dish below, we can either flavor something healthy with bacon (and turn it unhealthy by adding wayyy too much bacon until all the good vegetables are buried and unrecognizable) or turning bacon to be something healthy (by adding more vegetables). Your choice ;)

Bacon, Corn & Zucchini

Recipe
(everything's adjustable to suit your taste)
- 1 can of corn kernels, drained
- 1 medium zucchini, cut into cubes, marinate with some salt to remove excess water, then rinse
- a few (or many) strips of bacon, cut into chunks
- salt, black pepper, sugar (optional)

Pan fry bacon pieces in a non stick pan (you don't need any oil for this), add corn kernels, add zucchini, cook until everything are cooked through, season with a bit of salt, sugar, and black pepper if necessary (probably not hehe, it should already taste fan-bloody-tastic)

That's it. I must stop this ridiculous crush on bacon (although I think it is not possible), and move on to bitch about my major pot envy. My sneaky, sneaky sis went back to my home town in Semarang, and cleverly raided my mom's kitchen! That biyatch!...and she scored this lovely little old tin pot in which we used to carry our take away food, and some gorgeous old pale salted egg blue tin plates. What's the big deal, right? Just get more from my mom....I wish!!! Those are the only ones left! ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!

Maybe I could ask my mom to raid my auntie's or cousin's place?