Saturday, July 4, 2009

Poppy Seeds: All the Great Recipes You Can Enjoy

By Krishna Cooke

Poppy seeds are totally different to any common seeds that you either just put away or set aside to have it cultivated. These seeds are popularly known as a main ingredient in various delicious recipes where in most cases, it is used as a filling or toping on cakes, bread, and muffins. It takes the shape of a tiny kidney that can either be used as whole or ground. It actual size is no more than a millimeter in length so minute that 3,300 poppy seeds are needed to compose a gram. Furthermore, a million or two of these seeds are needed to comprise a pound.

Other than its common name as a poppy seed, it is also known as Papaver somniferum which is its scientific name. Poppy seeds are harvested form opium poppy right from its seed pods. This traditional plant has been long known and cultivated by different civilizations across the globe like the Minoan that was established at the bed of the island of Crete and the Sumerians that rose from Mesopotamia, now known as Southern Iraq. In ancient times, poppy seeds were more popular as a common herbal aid to treat certain illnesses and diseases. But in present times, these poppy pods make a fine addition on a lot of delicious recipes. Along the four corners of the globe, poppy seeds have been known as an important addition on various mouth watering dishes.

In most cases, poppy seeds are used as a dressing for various meals and salads on fruits and vegetables. One delicious example is a poppy seed dressing with mixtures of white sugar, mustard powder, cider vinegar, onion, and vegetable oil. This dressing is considerably perfect over fresh fruits or shredded cabbage and halved grapes. Another desirable poppy dressing is with the perfect mixture of a fat-free creamy salad dressing like Fat Free Miracle Whip, milk, white sugar, and distilled white vinegar. Such dressing is a perfect match on any vegetable salad and you can easily make the dressing to have in on hand in the fridge for lots of purposes any time you want.

If you think poppy seed recipes are far from bread, you thought wrong and one way of proving it is through poppy seed cranberry bread that provides a unique and delicious taste for bread. Such recipe is as easy as baking ordinary bread only that it needs some fine addition of chopped and thawed cranberries and two table spoons of poppy seeds. With a creamy icing on top, your poppy seed cranberry bread is perfect on any tables for some breakfast and snacks. But if you are still not contented with a loaf of bread, then perhaps lemon poppy seed muffins will help you get over that hunger. With a lemony flavor, the taste is surprisingly delicious. For you to bake your own set of lemon poppy seed muffins, youll need some all purpose flour, lemon extract, lemon zest, baking powder, milk, vegetable oil, non fat lemon yogurt, egg, baking soda, confectioners sugar, salt, lemon juice, and of course, two table spoons of poppy seeds. After properly following the procedures for the recipe, youll then be enjoying the satisfying goodness of lemon poppy seed muffins after 10-12 minutes of baking time.

Who doesnt want a cake for a dessert? How about a sour cream poppy seed cake to satisfy your hunger for delicious and mouth watering cakes? To successfully come up with suck cake, all you need is a yellow cake mix, eggs, sour cream, orange juice, vegetable oil, and of course, poppy seeds. You then need to bake the cake inside a pre-heated oven under the heat of 175 degrees Celsius. In just 50 minutes, sour cream poppy seed cake is all yours to enjoy.

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