Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Stitches and recipes

Liel got her stitches out today! It would have been more exciting had we not had to wait over an hour past our appointment time to see the doctor, but it's nice to see her looking more like herself (of course part of that is the tiny bandage right over the scar. But still.). Liel got bored once the lollipop the receptionist gave her was gone (aside from the sticky traces she left on the chair), and we made 3 trips to the bathroom, only one of which was productive (the second, if you're interested). The surgeon told me to keep the scar out of direct sunlight for a month, which will be a bit tricky since we don't put sunscreen on the kids unless they're going to be outside for a good while and Liel refuses to wear a hat.

On to the recipes! Robin asked for the pilau recipe and she and Rachel both wanted the spice cake.

The pilau is simple- Crumble some thin pasta (vermicelli etc) into a pan with hot oil. Saute it until it is golden, then add rice and chicken broth and salt and cook until it's tender. While it's cooking saute an onion until it's lovely and caramelized and then top the rice/pasta with the onion, nuts and raisins. Oh, I sometimes add cinnamon and nutmeg to the rice, too.

The Cochin Spice Cake recipe comes from Joan Nathan's Foods of Israel Today.
1/2 c melted butter
2/3 c sugar
3 eggs
2/3 c semolina flour
2/3 roughly chopped almonds
2/3 c roughly chopped cashews
2/3 c golden raisins
cinnamon
nutmeg
cardamom
clove

Beat the eggs until they are nice and foamy. Add the sugar and butter and spices and continue to beat til it's fluffy. Add the flour (should be fairly stiff). Fold in nuts and raisins and bake in a loaf pan for about an hour at 350.

My notes: I added baking powder since I use egg replacer and it doesn't get foamy or fluffy. Glad I did, as this is not a light fluffy cake even with the baking powder. I think I'll add a bit of salt next time, too. I didn't give exact amounts for spices bc I don't have the recipe in front of me and because I added more than called for- just went with my nose. Cake comes out dense, very nutty and fruity. Quite tasty.

2 comments:

BirdEtt said...

Thank you!! I'll make both items next week. Very excited:)

Unknown said...

The cake recipe reads quite well. I'm tasting it now. Lots of nuts, and I like that.
You know, when I was working at San Roque, a couple of kids did an experiment with me to see at which point "too much" baking powder is really too much baking powder. To my surprise, we never reached that point - even when we added WAY too much baking powder. I now baking powder with abandon.