Right here’s a cake that’s each Moorish and ‘more-ish’. Moorish as a result of its floor walnuts and almonds, orange zest, cinnamon and rose water are evocative of North African delicacies. Extra-ish as a result of, as I found once I served it this week, one serving was not sufficient for the visitors round my desk. This cake can also be uncommon as a result of it comprises no flour. That makes it each gluten-free and superb for serving in the course of the Jewish vacation of Passover.
Gâteau noix-amandes-orange / Walnut-almond-orange cake
Passover and Easter are each developing quickly (April 5 and April 8). I’ve posted varied Easter recipes on this website, and this 12 months I made a decision to publish one for Passover (aka Pesach), the vacation commemorating the exodus of the Jews from historic Egypt. It’s a time when Jews are supposed to eat no flour besides in matzo — unleavened bread. Within the Ashkenazi world, desserts served in the course of the eight days of Passover are usually made with matzo meal and may be, effectively, a bit stodgy. However once I moved to Paris, the place many Jews with North African roots have settled, the world of Sephardic cooking opened as much as me.
Sephardic Passover desserts usually use floor almonds or walnuts as a substitute of matzo meal, and are leavened with overwhelmed egg whites. They’re usually flavored with orange or lemon, redolent of Spain, whereas rose water evokes the delicacies of North Africa and the japanese Mediterranean. I’d made such desserts earlier than, however couldn’t keep in mind the recipe. Searching for inspiration, I turned to Claudia Roden’s great Guide of Jewish Meals, which options many Passover desserts. I mixed three of her recipes to create immediately’s providing.
At a Seder, the normal meal on the primary (and typically additionally the second) of the eight nights of Passover, the dessert is very anticipated after a number of hours of studying, consuming and consuming because it alerts the approaching finish of the festivities, which usually conclude with track. The meal begins with the studying of the Haggadah, which tells the story of Moses main the Jews out of Egypt through the Pink Sea after God seems to him in a burning bush. As soon as he will get the message, the story goes, Moses tells everybody they’ve to go away without delay. The ladies object that their bread hasn’t had time to rise. However they have to go shortly, so they create the unleavened bread alongside for the journey — therefore matzo.
The Seder is hardly a solemn affair. Every participant will drink 4 glasses of wine in the course of the studying of the Haggadah. Earlier than the Seder begins, the door of the house is opened and an additional glass of wine is about on the desk in hopes that the prophet Elijah will seem. Though nobody ever sees Elijah, that tumbler of wine is at all times empty by the point the Seder concludes. Maybe (she stated knowingly) it’s surreptitiously consumed whereas the youngsters are looking for the Hafikomen, one other excessive level of the night.
And what’s the Hafikomen? A Seder desk is at all times set with varied gadgets that symbolize the ordeal of the Jews after they have been slaves in Egypt. Within the heart of the desk are three matzos, usually coated by a serviette. Towards the beginning of the meal, the center matzo is damaged in two, and one of many halves is hidden. As the youngsters sit by the studying of the Haggadah, they by no means lose sight of the truth that by the top of the night they are going to hunt for the Hafikomen, and the one who finds it’s going to get a gift.
Additionally on the desk are parsley or celery, symbolizing the arrival of spring, to be dipped in salt water, representing the tears of the enslaved Jews. Bitter herbs, usually horseradish, additionally signify the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. The bitter herbs are eaten between two small items of matzo with haroset, a combination of fruit and nuts representing the mortar utilized by Jewish slaves to construct the pyramids. Within the Ashkenazi custom, haroset is commonly product of apples, walnuts, cinnamon and a splash of purple wine, and is sort of scrumptious. (I thought of placing that recipe on the positioning immediately, however as a substitute opted for the cake.) Claudia Roden provides 5 Sephardic recipes for haroset — from Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Italy and the Piedmont area of northern Italy. They use dates or raisins or chestnuts moderately than apples, however the idea is similar. The ultimate two symbolic gadgets on the desk are a boiled egg that has been roasted and a roasted lamb bone. These are merely noticed, not eaten.
All that is only a prelude to the festive Seder dinner, which might range extensively. Within the Ashkenazi custom, the meal might start with matzo ball soup — hen broth with fluffy dumplings product of matzo meal. My grandmother, not essentially the world’s biggest prepare dinner, was an actual professional at matzo ball soup, so the primary time I made it I assumed it could be simple. As I proudly introduced the steaming bowls of soup to the desk, a visitor dipped in her spoon, tried a dumpling and exclaimed, ‘These aren’t matzo balls — these are cannonballs!’ Oops. The subsequent 12 months I attempted once more, utilizing Claudia Roden’s recipe. Success.
One other first course that’s usually served in Ashkenazi households is gefilte fish, recognized in French as carpe farci (stuffed carp). After I was a toddler, gefilte fish got here within the type of small, largely tasteless lumps from a jar. Properly, they don’t serve gefilte fish out of a jar in France. To make it, I used to be informed, and this was again within the ’70s, one wanted to go to the fish monger and purchase a reside carp that was to be introduced dwelling and stored alive within the bathtub till one was able to prepare dinner it, at which period one first needed to kill it. I made a decision to move on that. As an alternative, my boyfriend’s mom — who had been born in Poland, fled to Paris within the ’30s and survived the Nazi occupation of France — gave me her recipe. She blended fillets of cod, or any white fish, with eggs, matzo meal, onion, carrots, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar, and shaped little oval loaves that she simmered in fish inventory. Really scrumptious.
The primary dish at a Seder is continuously hen or lamb, dishes which can be additionally usually served on Easter. The 2 holidays are linked, after all, as a result of, in response to the Gospel, when Jesus gathered along with his apostles for what turned often called The Final Supper, the meal was a Seder. The dates of each holidays are decided by the lunar calendar, though they hardly ever coincide, as a result of Easter is at all times celebrated on a Sunday whereas Passover strikes round. Did the idea of the Easter egg evolve from the Passover egg? Maybe…
In any occasion, given all of the wine that’s consumed earlier than and in the course of the Passover meal, to not point out the arguing over the positive factors of the textual content and the telling of humorous tales, the dialog tends to be full of life by the point dessert seems. In case you occur to be celebrating Passover and determine to make the walnut-almond-orange cake, I’ve little doubt will probably be appreciated. Inevitably, shortly after it’s served, the members will break into track.
However this cake may be served any time of the 12 months, at lunchtime, teatime or dinnertime. In case you’d prefer to go along with a Mediterranean theme, you possibly can begin with Moroccan carrot salad and eggplant caviar, serve a hen tagine as the principle course with couscous and a salad, and conclude with the cake. Your visitors simply would possibly begin to sing…
Completely satisfied cooking.
