orange and poppy seed cake

250g Butter, room temperature

300g Sugar

3 Egg

300g Flour, sifted

2 Orange juice

2 Orange rind

2 tbspBlue Poppy Seeds

100mlMilk

3 tsp Baking powder

Method

Cream butter and sugar till white, roughly 4-5 minutes on medium speed. while waiting for the butter, sift flour and baking powder. then add in eggs one by one to the creamed butter. add in the poppy seed, rind and juice of orange and the sifted flour. mix on low speed(fold in), then add in milk and fold.

Pour in to a baking vessel, bake in a pre-heated oven of 160C and bake for 45min or until its cooked. To check if its done, use the skewer method where by the bamboo skewer is stuck in to the middle of the cake and comes out clean.

yes it didn't rise at the sides my oven was a bit too hot.

Happy trying:)

Bread pudding

Ingredients

1lit milk

8 eggs

2 egg yolks

150g sugar

Left over Bread*

Butter

20-50g sugar, just for coating

Method

Butter the baking dish that your using and coat it with the sugar. Cut bread in to cubes and place in to buttered dish

Place the eggs in to a bowl and in another pot bring the milk and sugar to the boil. Then whisk the eggs and add a ladle of the milk mixture and mix well, now pour in the milk in a long thin stream while whisking the mixture together. then pour the mixture in to the buttered dish with the bread, and soak for at least 1 hr.

Bake in a pre-heated oven of 150-140C for 30-45 min or till cooked. To test if its cook give it a little shake if its still jelly like in the middle it not done or you could use a small knife to poke in the middle and see if there is still liquid that has not set.

To be served warm. with a side of ice cream/ berry compote/ vanilla custard

Have A wonderful Day!!

Drunken chicken my style

2 bottles Shau xing rice wine

200g chicken feet, cleaned and nails cut

10-15 dried mushroom, soaked in hot water till soft, remove stems

1 bulb garlic

1 thumb size ginger, smashed with a cleaver

3-4 small onions, peeled and halved

1 whole Chicken, cut up

2 tbsp chinese wolfberries

water just enough to cover the chicken

Salt and pepper

Method

Put everything in to a pot and bring to boil. then simmer for 1.5-2 hrs or till chicken feet falls off the bone.

Serve with a bowl of rice or freshly cooked mien sien(chinese noodle)

This dish/soup goes well with hard boil egg:)

* a chinese spoon of Rice wine can be added to the bowl of soup just before serving to give it an extra boost

Hope you enjoy what i enjoyed.

Lamb with home made mint sauce

Mint sauce

Lamb chops

Garlic, crushed

Salt

Pepper

Desire Potatoes(any potatoes will do), cut in to bite size

Oil

Dried mix herbs

Fresh/ frozen vegetable of your choice

Butter

Marinade the lamb in the mint sauce, garlic, salt and pepper for 2 hrs or over night.

In a bowl mix potato, oil, a bit of garlic, mix herbs, salt and pepper. place in a baking tray and roast for 20-35 min or till cook in a pre-heated oven of 180C.

For the Lamb heat a pan with a little oil till smoking point is reached, place lamb in to the pan and cook it 2 min on each side. set a side to rest. while its resting, blanch the vegetable in hot water (you can boil water in the kettle and pour it in to a pot). then transfer the vegetables to the pan, over high heat toss the vegetables with some butter and season to taste:)

Plate the food up, eat it while its hot:)

Enjoy:)

Mint Sauce

I did some gardening and found a whole lot of mint growing wild. So decided to harvest it.

But what to do with it???

well mint sauce(jelly)

We start off with the Apple Stock

2.5kgs of cooking apples(granny smith)rough chop, skin seeds and all

1.25lits of water

1.25 lits of white vinegar

Method

Place apples and water in a pot and bring to boil and simmer for 45 minutes or until soft and pulpy. add vinegar and cook further 5 min. then strain the liquid thru a muslin cloth or tea towel and with pulp and all let it stand for 3-4 hrs or over night.

2-3 tbsp mint leaves, blanched, chopped fine

1 lit apple stock

0.75 g sugar

Bring the stock and sugar to boil and boil for 5-10 minutes, take it off the heat. then test if it has reached its setting point by placing a bit of the stock on to a plate to cool. once cooled when you run your finger thru the plate it should crinkle up, if not then return it to the boil for another 5-10 min and retest it again.

when setting stage has been reached skim off the scum and stir in the mint and pour in to sterilised jars and cover immediately with plastic wrap and cover or vinegar proof covers.

Baked Sambal Fish (flat head)

I manage to catch this fish the other day and baked it:)

to make the sauce

1 fish

2-3 small onion(1/2 if onions are big)

2 tbsp garlic chopped

150ml lemon/lime juice

2tbsp chili paste

2 tsp shrimp paste

2 tbsp sugar

salt to taste

Method

pan fry onion and garlic with a little oil, add chili and shrimp paste. fry till fragrant, add sugar mix thru and add lemon/ lime juice. season to taste.

lightly season the fish in side and outside the fish. Fill the cavity of the fish belly with some of the filling, place the fish on baking tray line with baking paper. pour the rest of the filling/sauce over the fish. bake in preheated oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes. (well depends on how big the fish is) serve with steamed rice.

yum yum!!

All gone...

Plain Scone

Ok just a quick one:)

Ingredient

400g Plain flour

25g Baking powder

100g Butter, room temperature

2 nos Egg

85g Sugar

150ml Full Cream Milk

Method

Sift plain flour and baking powder in to a bowl. make a well in the middle and put the rest of the ingredients in to the bowl. Mix it together just until it combines (you don't want to over mix it it will cause it to be rock hard ) lightly flour your bench.

Then transfer the dough on to the bench, flour your hands or you could also lightly flour the top of the dough and gently press it down to a thickness of 3-4 cm.

With a round cutter, cut the dough and place it on a lined baking tray about 1.5-2 cm a part (but its too close you say?)this will help in the rising of the product:)

I am sure at this point you will be wondering what to do with the scraps of dough. what i did is i push it all together (with out kneading it) to form a ball or sort of round disk to the same thickness and cut it again till its all gone.

Now in a pre-heated oven of 160-170C, place the scones in the oven and bake till golden brown, roughly 10-15 min

serve it warm with tea or coffee with a side of jam and whipped cream.

* if you like to add dried fruit to the scones you can but make sure you soak it in juice or some alcohol or both so that it would not be dry. for this recipe about 400g of dried fruit(raisin) would do the trick.(to be added with the rest of the ingredients after the flour has been sifted)

have a wonderful day!!