Sunday, August 24, 2008

Cherry Madeira - Oops! We're in a Papaya Season!


Dear folks!

Finally, I would like to thank for those who could contiually reading my 'not-so-catchy' entries, whereas I was unable to spend even a minute or two in front of my lovely laptop, even in the free times, as the main gadget box in my house refuse to open the 'pod bay door'.

It was a long haul, shortly after the projects deadlines, activities with a similar threats, and all of the goodies work handed to me short after where the box get mad and got the blink eyed in front of it - shows it's unability to connect via the world. It is the what so-called streamyx ADSL modem, shared by 4 to 5 computers at my home. Whenever the middle light shows this blink, it means no WORLD! And it last till a couple of weeks, to about a month later.

And miracleously, by the end of this week(where I'm writing now), it comes back, almost AMAZING!.

Ok. The fruit season is here. Last night I've caught for about 7 pieces of our King of Fruit(Ask Malaysian, if you want to know) until I got almost sick, but it's still mild for someone else. There is a plenty of days until we step into a holy month again, and this time the fruit is still on the way to go. I'm glad to have it again and again and again, but the source never tried to stop. And this is the very good of the Malaysian's goodness, where one could repay their own sweat by just using their tasty buds as well, and the value comes next.

All of these stuffs gives me my very basic ideas, by what I may called the prototype of my forthcoming recipes. All fruits has been put over, be it the puddings, the main dishes, the cookies, the sweet threats, tid bits for occasions, and so on. Say it what you want it to be. By using my creativity, I've invented(still saved somewhere in my brain's RAM) about nearly a hundredth kind of recipes, just waiting to be write to another known to be disk, as long as I don't 'switched off' my memory.

However, I need to test it first. Then only I got to publish it. You just wait for it, and you might know it. Besides, there's also a gifts, it's so many we can afford to have it - even at my office. There should be some tea threats, or even some leftovers, brought by some of my colleagues, and we have it for some times together. One of the famous threat is Bubur Kacang Hijau served with Durians, and this may welcomed some person by make them saying "Just to see, not to have!". You sure know what kind of person who falls into this category, where the amount of calories counted for them.

For this time, the recipe I would share with you is yet a British cake, but has been altered a bit by me, by adding some bits of papayas, dried fruit mix and orange juice instead of lemon juice.


Recipe:

Cherry Madeira

6-8 oz. glace cherries (use a mix of other fruits, eg: papaya, raisins, etc.)
6 oz. butter or margarine
6 oz. caster sugar
3 large eggs, size 2
1/4 level teaspoon almond essence
8 oz. plain flour
1 1/2 level teaspoons baking powder

2-3 tablespoons milk or lemon juice (or orange juice, or most preferably local fruit juice, like pineapple juice, for example)
A few flaked almonds (I've omitted this)


Method:


  • Set oven to moderate, Gas Mark 4, or 350oF / 180oC.
  • If the cherries are very sticky wash them under warm water then dry thoroughly on kitchen paper. Cut 2 oz. in half for the top and quarter the rest.
  • Cream the butter or margarine until soft, add sugar and cream until light and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the almond essence. Sift together the flour and baking powder then, with a metal spoon, fold into the creamed mixture with milk or lemon juice to give a dropping consistency. Fold in the cherries.
  • Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the top. (If a cake tin is used, hollow out the centre to a depth of about 1 inch.)
  • Place reserved cherries over top of cake and scatter over the almonds.
  • Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour or until firm and springy to the touch. An inserted skewer should come out clean.
  • Note: If you have a curved-based ring tin, scatter cherries and almonds over base before topping with cake mixture.

Now, that's all for the cherry Madeira cake, I'll look up like this some more soon. Right now I'm wondering for a right match for a local buds, as we have too many combination nowadays in Malaysia - western, Arabic, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesians and the list is still counting...

What makes the perfect taste is never ends. If you like chocolate, for instance, there may be a blend of chocolate and any other things. And the things goes on, you'll probably switch to another flavour, but the things keep changing. While all of the ingredients keep interacting within each others, I'll like to try to look up in my brain, (if any) where can I pops up a perfect match of most of my ideas, like what it would be the next perfect threats this season! The time is rolling, yet, however, I would like to think out of the box. There could be the ready-made recipes in my collections, but, to make it meet the current season, I need to deal with the extra occasion-like theme held at my local place, whereas many of thousands of participants from the background of agricultural and the industries beyond it took part in it. Thanks for the MAHA exhibition, thanks to a lot of stuff which will be integrated to my popping ideas. Right now I have one of those pop-up menu in my brain, thinking to choose from what menu to what menu to be prepared soon. I have this in my mind: Asam Pedas Tempoyak, Biskut Durian Coklat, Chocolate Gratitude(which may be made of tapioca flour), Durian Talam pudding cake, and at last but least - Noodles in Sweet n sour souce.

Wait it till I announce it, where I should put this into the 'untested recipe' list first - and I'll looking up on how can I improve this blog in order to have this kind of menu at the right side. Also, should I modify this site, and I'd like to put on whatever I feel is beautiful, like java drop-down menus or the like.

Bye for now, hi for next!