Pesach – and Food....

Favourite recipes from Valerie P

I love the Pesach traditions and when sitting around the Seder night table, I think of all the Seders I spent as a child with my parents and grandparents, and I think of previous generations I never knew celebrating in different lands.   I also think of Jews around the world celebrating the liberation from slavery and the arrival of the Israelites in the Land of Israel.  I feel a connection to all of them. And that connection also very much to do with food.

The recipes I would like to share are, first and foremost, a traditional chicken soup.  When it is cooking on the stove, the aroma also brings back memories.  Coconut pyramids were my Mother’s favourite and we often made them together.  I was also the official plava maker in the family and I made plavas for all my aunts.  It was not a favourite with one of my uncles who called it ‘ersatz blotting paper’, but everyone else enjoyed them!

A Happy Pesach to everyone!

Traditional Chicken Soup

•  Half a large boiling fowl (cut into 2 quarters) (koshered and scalded -I remove skin

• l large Spanish onion or 2 medium-sized onion

• 4/5 carrot

• 2 leeks

• Several stalks of white celery including leaves

• 1 parsnip

• Black pepper and 3 dessert spoons of Osem chicken consommé

• I do not use salt but you may add salt if you wish

Peel and wash vegetables and cut up, except for onion which should remain whole.

Place cleaned half fowl into deep saucepan and fill with cold water.  Bring to the boil without covering.  When bubbling, skim off all the scum which rises to the surface.  When water is clean, add cut up vegetables, add seasoning and soup cubes.  Bring to the boil again.  When the soup comes to the boil, turn the heat down so that it simmers and allow to cook gently in normal saucepan with tilted lid for about 2.5 to 3 hours.  After 2.5 hours, take out chicken to test for softness.  When it is soft the soup is ready.  Remove chicken and onion immediately.  If not served immediately, when cool, sieve and refrigerate.

If using a pressure cooker, seal lid and when the valve starts to gyrate, reduce heat and allow 55 minutes cooking time.

Coconut Pyramids

• 4 egg yolks

• 200 g desiccated coconut

• 100 g fine sugar

• Juice and rind of half a lemon

Beat the yolks and sugar until creamy.  Stir in the lemon juice, rind and coconut.  Mix well. 

Form into little pyramids and place on greaseproof paper on a baking tray. 

Bake at 190°C for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.  Makes about 24.

Plava

For a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin                               For a 7 inch (18 cm) cake tin

·       5 large eggs                                                   3 large eggs

·       250 g fine sugar                                             150 g fine sugar

·       75 g cake meal                                               50 g cake meal

·       75 g potato flour                                            50 g potato flour

·       1 tablespoon lemon juice                              2 teaspoons lemon juice

Separate the yolks from the whites.  Divide sugar into two equal quantities.  Put one amount of sugar into a bowl with the yolks and beat until thick and white. Beat in the lemon juice.  In another bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff, glossy peaks, then beat in the remaining sugar until a firm meringue is formed.  Fold it into the first mixture.  Finally fold in the sieved cake meal and potato flour.  Blend well together.  Spoon into the cake tin which has been greased and sprinkled with sugar.  Level the surface. 

Sprinkle a thin layer of fine sugar on the top.

To bake: 9 in (23 cm) tin: 180°C for 1 hour 10 minutes.

                7 in (18 cm) tin: 180°C for 45 minutes.  

Enjoy!