Citrus Poppy Seed Syrup Cake

It had be a very long time since I wanted to try making this Citrus Poppy Seed Syrup Cake. It's a very common cake found in western country where they have different varieties of recipe on making this.

The seeds of the poppy are widely used as the popular "poppy seed" found in and on many food items such as bagels, muffins and cakes. The seeds can be pressed to form poppy seed oil, which can be used in cooking. The sales of poppy seeds is banned in Singapore due to the morphine content. Although the drug opium is produced by "milking" latex from the unripe fruits rather than from the seeds, all parts of the plant can contain or carry the opium alkaloids, especially morphine and codeine. This means that eating foods (e.g. muffins) that contain poppy seeds can result in a false positive for opiates in a drug test.


I got these Poppy Seeds from my best pal Tracy who bought it from one of the spice shop in Malaysia. Thank Tracy or else I won't be able to try out this wonderful cake. Although the adding of poppy seeds doesn't seems to make any different to me but those who tried this cake all said that it's very nice so I guess it might be due to the content of the seeds...... :)

For those who wish to try this cake but cannot find the poppy seeds in Singapore. I also encourage that you can go ahead trying without adding it. Because the citrus favour without the Poppy Seeds will also make this a very good and moist afternoon Tea Time Cake. The combination of the citrus syrup with the cake really make it sweet, sour and fragrant.

Ingredients:
250g Butter, chopped
3/4 Cup Castor Sugar
3 Eggs
1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Essence
1 1/2 Cups Self-Raising Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Cup Poppy Seeds
1/4 Cup(60ml) Fresh Milk
2 Tablespoons Mixed Citrus Juice
1 Tablespoons Grated Lemon & Orange Rinds

Methods:
1. Cream butter and sugar together on medium speed in a large bowl until light and fluffy.(about 5 - 8 mins)
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla essence/orange liqueur.
3. Sift flour and baking powder together, fold into creamed mixture with poppy seeds, milk, juice and rind.
4. Pour the mixture into a prepared 8" kugelhopf tin or round baking tin and smooth the top.
5. Bake in a moderate 180 degree oven for 50 - 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre and comes out clean and dry.
6. Pierce cake in several places with a skewer, spoon over half the syrup.
7. Allow to cool, remove cake from tin, transfer to a wire rack over a tray.
8. Pour over the remaining syrup and serve warm or cold with cream and fresh fruits of choice.

Citrus Syrup:
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup(60ml) Orange Juice
1/4 Cup(60ml) Lemon Juice

Methods:
1. Combine sugar and juices in a small saucepan.
2. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.
3. Reduce heat and simmer without stirring for 3 minutes.
4. Remove from stove and set aside.

Notes:
a) I replace the Vanilla Essence with 2 Teaspoons Grand Mariner(orange liqueur) because I want it to have more citrus favour.
b) You can add in more citrus juice if the final batter is too dry.
c) I mixed about 1 1/2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to 5 tablespoons of batter some citrus juice to form a cocoa batter to do the swirl effect on this cake.(optional)
d) You can prepared the juice 5 - 10 mins before the cake is ready from the oven.

Claypot Minced Pork Rice

For those busy and working mum when you just got home from works and the kids are waiting for their dinner. You might want to give this easy and nutritious dish a try. You can use any kind of minced meat like chicken, beef or pork according to your preference. If you want it to have taste and look green you can even add in a few bunch of those Baby Bok Choy(xiao bai cai) to make it a complete one dish meal.


This is a super easy to prepare one pot dish and it works well in cold raining evening....... Be creative and add in whatever ingredients that you prefer to make your home cook 1 pot rice dish.
Ingredients:
200g Minced Meat
1 Chinese Sausage
1 Egg
1 Cup Uncooked Rice
1/2 - 3/4 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
Seasoning:
1/2 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1/2 Tablespoon Cooking Wine/Mirin
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1 Teaspoon Cornstarch

Methods:
1. Wash and remove the plastic skin from the Chinese sausage then cut into thin slices and set aside.
2. Marinate the minced meat with seasoning then set aside.(or you can marinate it on the night before)
3. Wash and cook rice in a claypot with a few drops of oil over low-medium heat by absorption method.
4. Midway through cooking when the water starts to go below the rice level, arrange the sausage slices around the side of the claypot.
5. Drizzle the 1/2 to 3/4 Tablespoon of Dark Soy Sauce onto the rice.
6. Then spread marinated minced meat on top of rice, leaving a hole in the centre.
7. Cover and cook for another few minutes(3 - 5 minutes depending on the thickness of the meat you spread) until you see the meat turn white or half way cooked through.
8. Crack an egg or two into the centre and cooked(covered) for 1 - 2 more minutes, till the white is set but the yolk is still slightly runny.
9. Remove the cover, sprinkle some chopped spring onion, chillies and dried shallot on top of the meat and mix well before serving.
10. You can also serve it with an extra dish of cut chillies with dark soy sauce for dipping.

Notes:
a) You can use either pork, chicken or beef minced meat depend what you prefer.
b) The water used in claypot is 1 cup rice= 1 3/4 cups water
c) The reason to add oil into the rice it to prevent it to be too soft and stick to the pot.
d) Prepare some chopped spring onion & chili as garnish.
e) If you wish to add in green vegetables, add in at the same time with the egg and drizzle some sesame oil on it to that the vegetables will not taste blend.

Animal Pasta

It had being a long long time that I didn't post anything on Toddler Meal. You must be wondering what are the things that I always feed my dear reyon. Actually when kids get older, they tend to share what we eat so it's rather common that we don't really make just something special for them. But recently I found these cute little animal pasta from one of the supermarket. So I decided to get it home for Reyon and not surprised he loves them. Especially those little turtle, he even started to count how many turtle he had eaten during his meal.


Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Uncooked Animalet
2-3 Pieces Of Pork Ribs/1 Chicken Drumstick
1 Medium Potato, cubes
1/2 Medium Carrot, cubes
1/2 Brown Onion, finely chopped

Methods:
1. Blanch the pork ribs or chicken drumstick in boiling water, rinse and set aside.
2. Heat up a small saucepan with 1 teaspoon of oil then saute the chopped onion until fragrant then add in the pork ribs, carrot and potato and stir-fry for a few minutes.
3. Add in suitable about of water(600ml) and bring it to boil then simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the potato and carrot are tender.
4. While preparing the soup stock, cook the Animalet according to the packet instruction then rinse with water and set aside.
5. When the soup is done, add in the cooked animalet and bring the soup to boil again, simmer for a few minutes then remove from stove and serve warm.

Red Raddish Soup

Have you ever seen this Holland Red Raddish in any of the supermarket or wet market before? I just bought one from NTUC after Tracy's recommending me to try on this soup which she got to learn from her mum. So far I still have not find out what is this Raddish good for, for those who had cooked this before. Maybe you wish to share your experience or recipe with us, you can email me. Thanks.

Ingredients:
300g Pork Ribs/Chicken Drumstick
1 Medium Size Holland Red Raddish, about 200g
10g Dried Longan,龙眼干
10g Dried Huai Shan,淮山
10g - 15g FoxNut,茨实
5g Gou Qizi,枸杞子
5 Red Dates, 红枣

Methods:
1. Wash and trim the pork ribs/chicken drumstick then blanch in boiling water, rinse and set aside for use.
2. Wash, peel the skin of the raddish and cut into thick wedges.
3. Rinse all the dried herbs and set side.
4. Bring 1 litre of water to boil, add in all the ingredients and bring to boil again then transfer it to a slow cooker and simmer over Auto Heat for about 2 - 3 hrs.
5. Season the soup with salt before serving.

Ondeh Ondeh WIth Shredded Coconut Fillings

My mother had being asking me to teach her how to make this Local Noya Kueh called Ondeh Ondeh which is commonly Jade Green in colour. Usually the normal Ondeh Ondeh will be wrapped with Gula Melaka sugar but not for this version that we are making today.


For this, I had follow the recipe from Lily's blog(please click for recipe) which she used shredded coconut mixed with gula melaka for the fillings. It's taste much more fragrant and with the busting favour. For those who is interested in trying out this, you can refer to Lily's blog link.

Sweet Lemon Pork Chop

There are all sort of ways and methods to cook Pork Chops and Pork Ribs. For eg: Sweet and Sour, Coffee, Beer and etc. Today I am trying a very simple way using Lemon slices and juice. The gravy taste just nice which is not sour as what we might thought because of the Lemon.


The original recipe used Spare Ribs but i replace it with Pork Loin Meat instead for the convenient of the kid. You don't need any of those fancy sauce, the main sauce ingredients are just Lemon, Tomato and Chilli Sauce.
Ingredients:
250g Of Pork Loin Meat/300g Spare Ribs
1/2 Fresh Lemon, thinly sliced
Marinade:
1/2 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Egg
1/2 Tablespoon Cornstarch
Sauce: (mix well)
2 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce
1 Tablespoon Chilli Sauce
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon Sugar
125ml Water

Methods:
1. Rinse the spare ribs or pork chop and cut into convenient pieces.
2. Season with marinade for about 30 minutes or longer.
3. Dust with extra cornstarch and set aside for 2 minutes before deep-frying in hot oil and golden in colour.
4. Dish up and keep aside.
5. Cook the sauce mixture in the preheated wok until boiling, add in the meat and stir-fry over low heat until the sauce is thicken.
6. Lastly add in lemon slices and simmer for a while until the meat are well coated with sauce.
7. Dish up and serve hot with garnish.

Notes:
a) You can add 1/2 Tablespoon extra Lemon Juice to the sauce if you prefer a bit sour.
b) If using pork chop, wash and dry the pork cutlet with kitchen towel then use the back of the knife/or a meat mallet to flatten the pork before seasoning.
c) You can garnish with some spring onion, chilli strips or extra lemon slices.

Stir-fry Assorted Mushrooms With Roast Pork

Recently I really loves to stir-fry assorted mushrooms with different type of ingredients. My favour is the Shimeji Mushroom which is fragrant and smooth when cooked. I love to add in into soup noodles, stir-fry with oyster sauce or braised it with noodles.


In this assorted mushrooms dish, I used 4 different types of mushrooms which are Straw Mushroom, Shiitake Mushroom, Shimeji Mushroom & Enokitake together with some roast pork. If you want to have pure vegetarian dish then u can omit the meat.

Ingredients:
6-8 Honey Peas
1 Packet of Shimeji Mushroom
1 Packet Of Enokitake Mushroom
4 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms, soaked till soften
8 Straw Mushrooms, cut into halves
2 Slices Of Ginger
6 Slices Of Carrot
150g Roast Pork, optional
1 Tablespoon Oyster/Abalone Sauce
100ml Water
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch water

Methods:
1. Wash and trim all the mushrooms and honey pea then set aside.
2. Preheat a pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, stir-fry the roast pork for a few minute until abit crispy on all sides then remove and set aside.
3. Next saute the ginger until fragrant then add in the honey pea, carrot and shiitake mushroom, sitr-fry for a few minutes.
4. Add in the rest of the mushrooms and oyster sauce then pour in about 100ml and let it simmer on low heat for a while then thicken it some cornstarch water and serve.

Stir-fry Bittergourd WIth Prawns & Salted Egg

Saw this interesting dish from Lilian's Blog(Food Heaven). She had it on a local coffee shop stall and had briefly share the idea and recipe on how to replicate this dish. I had never used salted egg as a seasoning for dish before and this is my very first time.


So far whenever I cooked this stir-fry bittergourd dish, I always followed what my dad did as to add in prawns and egg then season with some oyster sauce. So the adding of salted egg is really something new for this dish. I follow the guideline from what Lilian had mention and come up with my own version.

Ingredients:
1 Small Bittergourd, about 150g
100g Minced Pork/Pork Slices
6-8 Medium Prawn, shelled and devein
1 Salted Egg
1 Fresh Chicken Egg
3-4 Garlic Cloves, minced

Methods:
1.Remove seeds from the bitter gourd and slice it thinly before rubbing it with with 1 teaspoon of salt and rinse well with water.
2. Crack the salted egg in a bowl, remove the egg yolk and mashed it with a folk to break up into pieces, do keep the egg white for later use.
3. Preheat a pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, saute the garlic until fragrant, add in pork and prawn and stir-till half done.
4. Add in the bittergourd and salted egg yolk, stir for a few second until the yolk changes colour then add in 100ml water and let it simmer for about 2 minutes.
5. Lastly add in the salted egg white and fresh egg, stir until well combine. Dish up and serve.

Notes:
a) The salted egg should be able to flavour the dish, you might need 2 salted eggs if you used a lot of bittergourd.
b) The end result of the dish should be mushy dish with lots of eggs.