NO MORE BELLS ...

Day 75 ... Orange Poppy Seed Cake

The Ingredients ...

flour (2 cups), milk (3/4 cup), brown sugar (3/4 cup), 

grated orange rind (1 tsp), orange juice (1/2 cup), butter (200g), 

baking powder (1/1/2 tsp), eggs (3), poppy seeds (1/3 cup)

The packet of poppy seeds is from Grace.

 Justine did the mixing of the ingredients until they were creamy and smooth.

She had to take over from me, cos it was all lumpy and stiff when I was at it, 

and I was going to throw the batter out and start again, 

when she said the magic words: Let Me Do It.

Pour the batter onto a pre-greased baking tray.

My mother-in-law would be pleased to see her pyrex 

being put to such good use. :D

Pop into the oven (pre-heated) at 160 degrees celcius 

for 60 minutes.

The Syrup

While the cake is baking, we made the syrup with

brown sugar (1 cup), orange juice (1 cup) 

and shredded orange rind (1/2 cup).

While the cake was baking in the oven, we noticed that it was kinda rising like there was no tomorrow. Realised that we had used self-raising flour and baking powder at the same time. Amelia had mentioned that if we use self-raising flour, we don't need baking powder. I think that explains why the cake was like rising oh-so-high and the resulting surface appeared kinda cracked. 

Oh no ... :(

I tried pouring some of the syrup over the cake and used the shredded orange rinds to hide the cracks. I guess I had some time to waste. Oh well ... 

Next time, I will have to check on the flour. As for the syrup, will pour it over the cake on individual serving plates and not on the cake tray itself. Yeahh? That way, we can control the sweetness. Some like it sweet, and some not, right?

This is my slice. I like the crusty side. We had the cake with vanilla ice-cream.

You know, if You ask me, I think the texture of the cake is actually quite good. :D Justine says the cake is Yummy (that's because she likes it sweet). Bryan found the cake too sweet but says he likes the orange rinds. It was he who suggested to make the syrup an option.

Lesson learned today :

1. check the type of flour before baking
2. not everyone likes syrup over their cake

Funnily, I am beginning to appreciate and enjoy baking. :D Excuse me, while I help myself to another slice. :D Bryan's  just finished his 3rd helping.

Time of Posting : 9:45pm (Wed)

Day 75 ... Kari Kepala Ikan Parang

KARI KEPALA IKAN PARANG
CURRY WOLF-HERRING FISH HEAD

This evening, we made curry fish. 

Bryan had taken out an ikan parang (head portion) and a ma-yau (fillet) to thaw. Checke the english names for the two fishes and learned that, ikan parang is "wolf-herring" while ma-yau is "threadfin." So, if You want to have a more exotic name for this dish, ahh, a more kuai-low name, well, we could say, we're cooking wolf-herring & threadfin curry this evening. In short, fish head curry la.

The Ingredients.

Bryan bought a packet of instant fish curry paste (brand A1), 

so we decided to just use that.

1. The Curry

Add filtered to the curry paste.

Prepare some tamarind juice.

Add the fish.

2. The Vegetables

Chop the vegetables into bite size.

Add the vegetables.

Allow the brinjals to cook a bit.

Then add the bean curd puff.

This is Bryan's favourite. He loves taufu pok.

Add the tamarind juice, and some seasalt as desired.

3. Garnish

with a bunch of coriander leaves.

That's my plate. Those lil bits of fish that broke was from the ma-yau. 

Not suitable for curry purposes, I guess.

The parang was really good. Flesh was actually quite sweet.

We ate our dinner, with our fingers.

Yummy!

LUNCH

We still had some leftover soup from the night before, so we had noodles again for lunch. My mother had bought us a packet of fish paste, and we added that in. The above is my bowl. :D

Justine's bowl. Notice the chilly-padi and garlic sambal.

Bryan's bowl.

The soup, as always taste even sweeter the day after.

Slurpppp ...

Time of Posting : 12:02 pm (Thursday)