Sunday, June 5, 2011

Local Edible Produce Swap and Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Our local community organise fruit and vegetable swap on the first Saturday of the month during winter and spring season. You don't have to live in our community to join in. If you want to know when the next swap will be held, the organiser will send you an email or I can email you the address. Yesterday, we participated and brought some of our excess fruit, herb and vegetable seedlings. The only fresh produce that we managed to pick early in the morning to share was yellow cherry tomatoes, chilies, snow peas and lemon grass.
We came back with a nice basket full of produce ~ Pumpkin, lemons, eggplant, persimmon and quince jelly. Our fisherman brought back 3 salmon trouts. Since winter season has begun, it is salmon trout and bream season. There will be many salmon trout to fish in St. Kilda and Mr. Fisherman will have frequent trip there  early Saturday morning during winter. So with fresh fish and eggplant, we made ikan masak assam pedas for lunch. I have not bake a cake since I gave birth to our first child Ilhan, and when I visited A Nyonya's Kitchen ...for all season blog, the lemon poppy seed cake look so delicious I decided to have a go making it. Thanks to Catmint, we have some poppy seeds and lemons from the local swap to bake this cake.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake  (recipe from A Nyonya's Kitchen...for all season, terima kasih)
Ingredients:

10g poppy seeds (actual was 40gram)
125ml milk
250g butter, softened
1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind
275g caster sugar
4 eggs
335g self-raising flour
110g plain flour
240g sour cream
Method:
1. Combine poppy seeds and milk, soak for 10 minutes.
2. Beat butter, rind and sugar with electric mixer till light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined.
4. Stir in sifted flours, cream and poppy seeds into mixture, in two batches.
5. Spread mixture into pan, bake for about 1 hour at 160 deg C.

Lenay was excited making this cake, she was really worried that the cake will be over-baked and keep a close eye on it while the cake is in the oven. Where was the cook while the cake is in the oven? She was already near the veggie patch, absorb on planting shallots and other vegetables. Lenay had to call the cook many times to take a look on the cake. We were supposed to wait for an hour but Lenay poke it with toothpick about 45 minutes and it came out clear. So when the cook returned to the kitchen one hour later, she was surprised the cake was out from the oven. Leaving it baking one hour should be fine as when we cut the cake there are still some moist spot. The cake was very delicious. We will enjoy making this cake again in the future. Since we only have one baking pan, the extra batch we use the muffin baking pan. I hope Mr. Fisherman will let me buy some baking pan. 

21 comments:

Hazel said...

Yummy! Lovely photos of your market goods too. Wonderful post.

~TastyTravels~ said...

What a fun swap! You got some great items! I *heart* lemon poppyseed cake!!

Cat-from-Sydney said...

*drools* oh....my...I can get high on this cake. Usually we use orange with poppy seeds but lemons seem nice too. purrr....meow!

cikmanggis said...

bestnya jika ada events camni kat msia.pasti Cm akan join sekali.Nanti bila Diana balik Msia boleh lah jadi org yg pertama menganjurkannya ya...

Kek tu nampak moist,Cm pun suka kek yang ada poppy seeds bila makan terasa bijinya ketika kita kunyah...Atiqah masih dihospital dan bayinya agak degil tak mahu keluar lagi hehe.... sepatutnya due semalam...doakan sama ya...

littlekarstar said...

Th swap is such a fun and useful activity. Love what you cooked with your produce, delicious curry and cake! Yum!

JGH said...

Thanks for the recipe - I love that kind of cake! and I also love the idea of getting together with other gardeners to swap. Wish we did that here.

Wendy said...

nice, fresh salmon trout and other fish.

I love lemon poppy seed cake - it must be the sour cream added that makes all the difference. I personally have a hard time baking b/c I end up eating the whole thing. I have very little self control when it comes to baked goods.

Looks like you got some nice goodies from the seed swap/market!

shaz said...

Yum, one of my favourite cakes. Moister the better :) Great swap morning concept, wonder if there's one around where we live.

Mark Willis said...

I'm interested in this produce-swapping thing... How do you decide the "exchange rate"? Is it up to individual people to agree what gets swapped for what? Or is there a recognised convention that says "one Zucchini is worth 12 peas" or something?

almutarjimah said...

Mr. Fisherman, if you read this, please buy Mrs. Fisherman some baking pan please.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Hazel~I hope you have heaps of fun with the SGA project.

Holly~Its the first time we tried it. So we are now in love with it too.

Cat-from-Sydney~Next time we don't have lemon, we have a go with orange. Thank you for always giving me tips how to use my harvest. I am not very good in kitchen.

Cikmanggis~Yang dewasa semua suka, Tapi anak-anak kecil pula tak gemar poppy seeds tu. Saya doakan Atiqah dan bayi senang bersalin. Kalau CM ada tips dan tak busy untuk post makanan berpantang berkongsi bersama. Tapi rasa nenek akan busy menimang cucu pertama:). Masa berpantang dulu banyak benar kena makan lobak putih dan betok muda.

Mrs Bok~ It is very fun and exciting to meet people who share the same passion. Its good activity to make a close community.

JGH~ I think what you do with the children garden is amazing.

Wendy~Sour cream is not a usual thing we have in our kitchen. But I may be addicted to it soon.

Shaz~I found that local library usually is the easiest place to know whether there are any swap events in that community. Thanks for the tips with the silverbeet.

Mark~There are no exchange rate. The concept is actually sharing not swap. Some people only grow fruit trees, some just vegetables or both. People with fruit trees usually have excess fruits so instead of letting all the produce go to waste it will be much fun to share it with the community. This concept bonds the community closer. We usually put all our produces on the table and then just share it together. You don't even have to bring anything if your garden is not producing any at the moment, just bring a smile and spend a lovely time together. I usually have so many excess seedlings and now instead of making them compost, I am so happy that I can give those seedlings a chance to grow in other garden. Seedlings in the nursery is getting so expensive, always happy to help new gardeners to grow more food. The wonderful things is they grow these seedlings, harvest them and actually bring it back to the swap to share.

almutarjimah~Hopefully I get it soon;-).

Daphne Gould said...

Lemon poppy seed is my son's favorite kind. Yum.

ROUGH.ROSA said...

The idea of swapping indeed is great. What I have been participating is more like exchanging gift; anything from seeds to garden pots to plants. May be swapping is great idea too, less costly but greater fun. And having it monthly or even quarterly sounds great too... I'll shall introduce this in my community. Thanks!!!!!!!!

Phoebe said...

I love lemon and poppy seed cake! I can't remember the last time I had some!
I made a carrot cake on the weekend, It was very tasty.

Your veggie swap sounds great!

Veggie Gnome said...

Lovely post, lovely picture, lovely recipe! Must try your cake recipe. :)

You are lucky to have Mr. Fisherman catching fish!

We are happy with our fruit & veg swap, too. It's fortnightly and the range of fruit, vegetables, seedlings, herbs, etc. is mind-boggling! Every neighbourhood should have one. :)

Kelli said...

The poppy seed cake and muffins look great! Kelli

petite nyonya said...

hi MKG, thanks for trying out the recipe & glad you & yr fmly like the taste of the cake. Credit must go to my all-time favorite recipe book - Australia Women's Weekly. I absolutely love cake recipes from Australia. I always think Aussies make the best cakes!! I have so many more recipes I want to try from my fav AWW books & othr Aussie titles.

Oh how I wish I could participate in your community swap. As you know, we don't have such things going on here in M'sia which is quite a shame lah. Hmm...actually I wonder why don't we have such culture here given that M'sians are communal and friendly ppl. Lol!!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Daphne~It has become our favourite cake too.

Rough.Rosa~Swapping is great. We always learn of new plants and from this we have so many new vegetables growing in our garden. Hope your community will have swap group meetings.

Phoebe~Never make a carrot cake before. Hope we have good carrot harvest end winter so we can bake one.

Veggie Gnome~Amazing fortnightly. How fun to meet up and chat with other gardener regularly.

Why I garden~Thanks Kelli.

Petite Nyonya~I think we have similar taste bud. I always like what you cook in your kitchen and your recipe is so easy to follow. Thank you for introducing us to this cake. We rarely go out to eat as it won't be enjoyable with 2 very hyper active boys along. I must find some baking books in garage sales than for my own collection.

tangledbranches said...

I love the idea of a produce swap. I don't think there is anything like that around where I live, or if there is, I don't know about it. What a great idea.

I don't do much baking in the summer, but when I resume in the fall I'll remember your cake recipe.

Malar said...

Such a moist cake! I should try the cake without the poppy seeds may be!
It must be fun to join edible swap!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Tangledbranches~It is interesting to watch what other gardeners are producing in their garden living in the same area.

Malar~You just gave me and idea since it is for 2 batches, I can do one with poppy and one without poppy for the kids.