Fish Bake & Orange Cake

Sunday 3rd April 2011. I had about 5hours to myself at home and I got cracking in the kitchen. Thanks to kak Norza for sharing her Tasty Tuna Bake recipe she found in a book.

Tasty Tune bake
from Little Kitchen
1 small red capsicum, seeds and white membrane removed 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
3 pinches of black pepper
1 x 425 g can of tuna
1½ cup cooked white rice
1½ cups grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the capsicum and onion into a food processor and blitz it to a paste. Tip the paste into a small bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Carefully scrape the paste into the frying pan. Add the tomato paste and fry for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then. Add the milk, flour, salt and pepper to the frying pan. Mix well and cook over low heat for a couple of minutes. Add the tuna, breaking up the chunks carefully and mixing it in very well. Spread the cooked rice over the base of the baking dish. Spoon in the tuna mixture and spread it over the rice. Finally, top with the grated cheese. Bake into the oven and cook for 14 minutes, or until the cheese is golden. Remove the baking dish from the oven and divide it into 4 big portions.

They actually ran out of Red Pepper at the Fairprice supermarket near my house so I had to use Green Pepper instead. And then to my horrors, I found that my fresh milk is gone from the fridge! (Not sure if somebody drank it or threw it away cause it may have expired?) So I had to substitute with Soymilk instead! HAHAHAHa Instead of rice, I used COUSCOUS because I have bought one quite some time ago and still haven't used it. Also, instead of Tuna, i steamed the Sutchi fillet I still have in my freezer.

I totally cheated by using sliced cheddar cheese.

Some people say the sliced ones are not 100% real as it contains fillers? *shrug*

Preparation: Preheat your oven to 350° F (180° C). Grease and flour a tube pan. If using fresh oranges, zest and juice them. With an electric mixer or by hand, beat together the eggs and sugar until thick. Gradually beat in the oil. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt, and then the orange juice. Beat until smooth, and then mix in the zest and vanilla. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the cake tests done. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 7 to 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.

I bought this new tool (the name escapes me) just for the occasion.

I didn't bother to buy or find our old juicer. (ditto reason above) So I squeezed by hand.

Totally ancient mixer. Possibly older than me!

The orange zest got stuck.

and the result!

At the 20th min mark, I was getting worried because the top looked too brown to me. With another 20minutes to go, I was afraid I might get burnt. So I turned down the temperature just a tad and popped it out about 10minutes earlier. But it failed the cake test because when I stabbed it with a knife, it came out with batter sticking to it. So i popped it back on for another 10minutes like the recipe indicated and hoped for the best.

To my surprise, my mum actually liked it! She said its not too sweet, just nice. One tip she did tell me was to shake the pan around to level the batter so it won't come out like a mountain!