Recipe for Pavlova (Schaum Torte) March 31, 2009

This is my father’s recipe, inherited from his mother, written down for me in 1995 by Peter Haines, the man privileged to have received it in writing from my father. I grew up watching dad make this without the recipe and always assumed that none existed. My fondest memories of this pav are licking the beaters – a memory that I re-enact every time I make it. As far as I’m concerned, no-one has an excuse to complain about pesach cooking - the treat that is pavlova is as kosher for pesach as macaroons … and far more delicious. 

 

pavlova

• 4 egg whites
• 8 oz castor sugar
• 2 level teaspoons cornflour
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• pinch of salt

1. Beat egg whites until very stiff (your arms that is: make sure the whites are stiff also).
2. Mix sugar, cornflour and salt.
3.  Add above to egg whites one spoonful at a time, beating vigorously after each addition.
4. Add vinegar and vanilla and beat again.
5. Spoon onto baking tray.
6. Cook in oven preheated to 300 F and turned down to 140 F, for 45 minutes.

simmer down notes:

• Anyone who tells you that pavlova requires whipped cream and fruit before earning the title “Pavlova” is lying.
• HOWEVER … the classic rendition of pavlova topped with whipped cream and strawberries is a winner.
• To use up the leftover egg yolks, I recommend making a mock-carbonara sauce for pasta. That post is to follow … although it’s not really in the spirit of the upcoming pesach festival.
• An alternative and probably very unpopular use for leftover egg yokes – add them to an omelette! Who wants an egg white omelette when lovely, rich egg yolks are to be had??

things fall apart March 5, 2009

Can I please buy a brush that lasts me more than two years before falling apart? The spikes drop out, the colour or veneer wears out, the non-slip rubber bits atrophy and drop off, the pointless decoration becomes ugly … I know we live in a disposable society, but this is getting annoying!

While you’re sending me suggestions as to where to find a Mason Pearson hairbrush in Israel, can you also find me a sturdy milk frother?

Recently the Bialetti milk frother that I bought in Italy two years ago fell apart – the handle cracked. Technically, it is still possible to heat and froth milk using this device, but pouring is pretty hazardous. After a while of taking the burn risk, we decided to buy a new frother – also Bialetti. This one has a non-stick layer inside for easy cleaning, and is more compact that the last one. But two days ago, I realised that there is also a crack in the handle of THIS frother. What to do?? My Bialetti coffee maker has lasted about four years so far with no signs of giving up the ghost. Now I just need a frother that’s as realiable as that … or go back to drinking black coffee, I guess.

little things in great quantities February 25, 2009

At a recent (and my first in Israel) visit to a homeopath, a question was posed to me that made me realise that there’s an unfortunate theme in my life right now. The question was “what do you dream about?”. I knew the question was coming, because I’ve been to a homeopath before. So I’d been thinking about it already for a couple of days, and I’ve been thinking about it since … and I really couldn’t say.

What is clear is the type of dream, if not the subject-matter. I consistently dream about small problems that I can’t solve. The fact is, when I’m lying in bed trying to fall asleep at night – whether at bedtime, or in the middle of the night after waking up – I’m plagued by the same thoughts. Some of the problems that I dream about turn out not to be real, but as I’m in the twilight between sleeping and waking, I find myself still struggling with the dream-problems as if they are real problems.

As I tried to explain this to the homeopath, I realised that actually, this is my life right now: minor problems, without end, with elusive or non-existent solutions.  Some of these are baby-related problems that disappear with time, others are problems – many also baby-related – that simply reoccur day after day, or minute after minute. But all of the problems share the quality of being - for me, in my current state, location, job, place in the world – unsolvable. I wonder if three drops, twice a day, for the next three weeks will fix any of this …

recipe: cake November 18, 2008

Lemon-iced Poppy Seed Cake

cake

• 250g butter
• 250g castor sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 250g self-raising flour
• grated zest and juice of one lemon
• 100g poppy seeds

icing

• 250g icing sugar
• grated zest and juice of two small lemons

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, a little at a time, stirring in between each addition, until mixture is smooth and all the eggs have been incorporated. Sitr in the flour, and then beat in the lemon juice, zest, and poppy seeds.

Spoon mixture into a buttered and lined 8-cup capacity loaf pan or cake tin and bake for about 1 hour, or until golden and springy to the touch.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 20 minutes in the pan. Turn onto a wire rack and leave until completely cold.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, add lemon zest and enough juice to give icing the texture of thick pouring cream. Spread icing over the cold loaf using a palette knife and leave until set.

simmer down notes:

• I took the cake out of the oven at about 45 minutes and it was a bit over-done. That could be the fault of my oven, I think it isn’t calibrated correctly, I have to get a gadget to measure the temperature in there.
• The juice of two lemons in the icing was a bit too much – one would have done the trick, but maybe I had a juicy lemon (and I have an excellent lemon squeezer).
• Other highly recommended lemon poppy seed cakes:

recipe: semolina cake November 10, 2008

Semolina Cake 

Originally uploaded by sonnnia

Heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius 

Cake:

• 2 cups semolina flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup oil (corn, canola, or vegetable)
• 1 cup yoghurt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• ½ cup rose water (or half a cup of water with drops of rose essence added)
• ¼ cup blanched almonds (and halved if you can be bothered)

Syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• juice and zest of half a lemon
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom 

Combine semolina and oil. Add remaining ingredients except almonds. Grease baking dish, pour mixture in and smooth with a spatula. Arrange almonds in rows. 

Bake for about 1 hour.

Prepare syrup towards end of cooking time. Cook for 10 minutes on low heat. Remove cake from oven and cut into squares. Pour syrup on top of cut cake while both are still hot.

dreaming of sleep November 10, 2008

Château Vary
Originally uploaded by faygate

Where our baby once woke up cooing and murmuring, he now moves quickly from fidgeting and shuffling to major crying. The breakdown started in the Loire Valley when he was six months old, and we haven’t really recovered yet.

From a strictly objective observation, it appears that the week or so that he spent trying to get some sleep in a black netting rectangular hole of baby hell (that is otherwise known as a traveller portable crib) did some serious damage to his previously positively dreamy routine of up to 12 straight hours of nightly sleep. That, along with parental nerves stretched paper-thin, twilight until 10pm, and being surrounded by strangers left him a bit of a wreck.

Now 11 months old, the lovely baby who was a lovely sleeper by six months now cries in the middle of the night more often goes down for naps with greater difficulty, and frequently wakes between 4 and 5am, although husbandly intervention in the mornings has given us the occasional 5:30-6 waking.

other new things May 13, 2008

Recently, both our baby and I have been doing new things – he’s been doing more than me. My new things are few so I’ll tell them first – I cooked wheat berries (why berries? I’m confused by that – isn’t it just … wheat?). I’m sure there was something else new but can’t remember what.

The baby has been rocking on his hands and knees, and jumping forward, and scooting all over the place. He has also, for the last month, been sleeping, in a way that enables me finally to realise why people refer to a certain kind of sleep as sleeping like a baby. At nights he sleeps between 10 and 12 hours – so ladies, don’t let anyone tell you that the boob won’t give him enough sustenance to last the night: since four months, he’s been sleeping all night.

He has also been grabbing both feet and putting them into his mouth, which he seems to find pretty satisfying.

positive reinforcement May 13, 2008

The baby and I went to the shuk today, to pick up a few necessities and a few non-necessities. One of the first stops we made was to buy me some juice. The guy was selling half a litre of carrot and orange juice for 7 shekels, so I asked what that amount looked like. He pointed out a cup and said “there, 500ml, but you would know all about mls!”; I said that I wasn’t really in the bottle business, at which he said “much better, he’s getting the original thing” … and went on to lecture me about his daughter-in-law’s lack of breastfeeding and told me not to ask about the illnesses and allergies that were surely the result of her bottlefeeding, and that people don’t feed because they don’t know … and so on and so forth. And it was very nice.

Our last stop was to buy some delicious chocolatey-cheesy snacks that are called ‘fingers’, but that doesn’t begin to describe them. As I was waiting in line, I noticed that the woman in front of me was wearing a Bravado bra – which from advertisements I knew was a breastfeeding bra. She saw my naturessway sling and asked where I got it, but I only had the bad news that my sister sent it to me. I commented on her bra, we wished each other luck, and each went our separate ways.

Somewhere in between the juice and the chocolatey-cheesy treat, on our way to the olive stand, a random fruit-seller asked “doesn’t he take a dummy?”. I told him that he does, but if it falls out, there’s always the thumb stand-by. Because that’s a new-ish thing, in the last week – he’s properly sucking his thumb instead of his middle fingers. He started by chomping on it, but now he’s discovered its true use. And for now, it really doesn’t bother me. And although I didn’t get any positive reinforcement in particular at the olive stand, the last time I was there he was very impressed with the sling and said that it must be just like being back in the belly.

three new things March 13, 2008

Our lovely boy did all of the following on Tuesday 11 March, at the ripe age of three months: 

1. Grabbed his foot
2. Turned from his back to his front
3. Started blowing raspberries

a very basic salad March 6, 2008

Cut the following into fine strips (I use a mandolin, if you’re capable of making julienne strips without such an aid, good for you):

• carrot
• cucumber
• red capsicum
• fennel bulb

Mix together the following in quantities that seem sensible:

• canola oil
• sesame oil
• apple vinegar
• rice wine vinegar
• brown sugar
• soy sauce
• ginger (powdered or grated fresh)
• chilli powder

Cook some three-minute noodles, toast some sesame seeds, put everything in a bowl, EAT.