Cookbook Challenge (Citrus) - My Mother-In-Law's Madeira Cake

I should be working on my 3rd or 4th cookbook challenge but I'm so disorganise that I only manage to finish the 2nd challenge. But it's better to be late than never right? Hopefully I can catch up, work on the 3rd challenge next week and 4th the week after. Wish me luck!

The theme for the 2nd challenge is Citrus. I love this theme because I jus simply love lemon and lime. Do you know I can actually eat fresh lemon and I enjoy it. Especially when having fish and chips, I can squeeze the juice onto the fish, peel away the skin and eat the pulps away.

For this challenge, I chosen My Mother-In-Law's Madeira Cake by Nigella Lawson How To Be a Domestic Goddness. I'm visiting a ex-colleague tomorrow and felt this will be a great gift. Not nice to turn up empty handed.

I added more lemon and poppyseed into the basic recipe. So it can also be consider as Lemon Poppyseed cake. I have never came across poppyseed till I stayed in Aust. Bought a pack of poppyseed and kept it the pantry but never managed to use it till now. Poppyseed is actually banned in Singapore, I had never seen it available. In fact, a SG blog which I followed experienced Central Narcotics Bureau knocking on her door and confiscated all her poppyseed. Is it really necessary? It's for own consumption anyway.



Did a taste test just now when it had cooled. Smell lemony but find it a bit dry. Quite crunchy on the outside. Taste a bit like pound cake, guessing due to the amount of butter used.





My Mother-In-Law's Madeira Cake


240g softened unsalted butter
200g caster sugar , plus extra for sprinkling
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 large eggs
210g self raising flour
90g plain flour
23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin, buttered and lined


Preheat oven to 170 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar, and add the lemon seat.
Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of flour for each.
Then gently mix in the rest of the flour and,finally, the lemon juice.
Sprinkle with caster sugar (about 2 tablespoons) as it goes into the oven, and bake for 1 hour. (mine was done before 1 hour)
Remove to a wire rack, and let it cool in the tin before turning out.


Variation:
For lemon poppyseed cake, add the juice of another half lemon and a tablespoon or two poppyseeds. I added two tablespoons.

Ayam Nasi Briyani

I'm now in bed, suppose to be resting but got woken up by a phone call. Since I'm awake, might as well make use of the time. Post a entry and go back to sleep.
This is the Ayam Nasi Briyani I tried from the newly added cookbook "The Best of Singapore Cooking". It's the 2nd recipes I tried and I loved it!




This is the picture taken from the book. It looks yummy isn't it? Comparing the appearance of the Chicken dish, it's quite different. Guess that's most probably I didn't really follow the recipe very closely.


For this entry, I'm going to post the recipe on. I love going to food blogs not only to look at photos, finding out where the good foods are. I also love to hunting down recipes and try it out myself. So why not start posting recipes on my own blog too. Right? If I need to cook when I don't have my cookbooks with me, I can just refer from my own blog. How easy is that???





(A)

1 thumb-sized piece ginger
3 cloves garlic
4 green chillies (left them out during marketing)

(B)
1 handful mint leaves (skipped, because he doesn't like it)
2 stalks coriander with roots,rinsed (skipped because he think this is poisonous)
2 tomatoes,cut in eighths
2 tablespoons tomato puree (instead of opening up a big can of puree and used only 2 tablespoons, I put in more fresh tomatoes)

(Seasoning)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon msg (skipped, I never cook with msg)

1.6kg chicken quartered (I used 6 chicken drumsticks)
225g Ghee or 112g butter with 112ml oil (I used butter and definitely didn't use that much!)
1 teaspoon dry chilli powder mixed to a paste with water
1 level teaspoon garam masala
170ml evaporated milk mixed with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 112ml water
285g shallots, thinly sliced

Marinate chicken pieces with 1 level tablespoon salt for 1 hour.
Heat a large saucepan with half of the ghee. Fry shallots till golden brown. Set aside.
Fry (A) till fragrant. Add chilli paste and garam masala, then add in (B), seasoning and 1/2 milk mixture. Stir-fry till oil bubbles through.
Put in chicken pieces, fried shallots, remaining milk and oil. Cook over high heat for 10 mins,
Reduce heat to low and cook gently till chicken is tender. Drain chicken, keeping oil to cook the briani rice.





(C)
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
4 shallots, thinly sliced

(D)
5cm cinnamon bark
8 cardamoms,lightly bashed
6 cloves

600g Basmatic rice, washed and drained (I didn't measure my rice, I cooked closed to 2 cups. Enough for dinner + CL next day lunch)
55g ghee (I used butter instead)

(Seasoning)
1 chicken cube
1.5 teaspoons salt
1.1 litres boiling water

(Colouring)
Mix 1 teaspoon yellow food colouring with 0.25 teaspoon Rose essence (skipped, because I didn't have any in my pantry) and 4 tablespoons water

Heat wok with ghee to fry (C) til lightly browned, add (D) and stir-fry for 0.5min. Add in the remaining oil and rice. Stir in pan till oil is absorbed into rice.

Pour n the boiling water and seasoning. Cook rice in electric rice-cooker till dry and fluffy. Do not stir while cooking.


Remove lid and sprinkle yellow colouring mixture over rice. Continue to cook for another 10mins. Remove from heat. Loosen rice,mixing colours evenly.

The rice was really fragrant. The whole house was filled with the fragrant smell while the rice was the the rice cooker. As for the Ayam, the gravy was a bit too watery. Maybe if I use tomato puree, it will have thicken it. But I like the taste, not too spicy, can still taste the sweetness of the tomatoes. As it used evaporated milk instead of coconut milk, it very different from Curry Chicken, not heavy. Overall, I feel it's a more healthy alternative.