Swisskaese

If you want to have few very English offerings, here is a great website: The Great British Kitchen This site has loads of scone, biscuit and cake recipes. I love eccles cakes. Victoria Sandwich Cake is also very nice. Bath Buns are also an afternoon tea offering.

That looks really yummy. I wonder how that would taste using kashkeval cheese?

I bought some really nice homemade peach/blackberry jam that smells like feet. It tastes good. I think dried peaches smell like feet.

A cream tea is an Afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream. She must of meant Devonshire cream, but Heavenshire would be a cute brandname.

I found a recipe with egg whites: Halvah

Scott it is very difficult to replicate the fluffy halvah. There is a food program here called Garlic, Pepper and Olive Oil that is hosted by a famous chef here called Chaim Cohen. He visits various local food related places and also prepares various dishes on the show. On one of the episodes his staff visited a factory that makes halvah and it is reputed to be the best in Israel. They explained that it is impossible to replicate the fluffy type of halvah at home. If you are able to do it, then more power to you. I don't know what your definition of fluffy is. We have block-form halvah; all kinds of flavours and some coated with chocolate. We also have the type that is cotton-candy like. Not as cottony as cotton candy, but it is fluffy and it is not in a solid block. I will have to take some pictures.

I am sad that no one wants to give my Million Dollar Pound Cake a try. It is really good.

Not much has changed since I was at Chelsea Market two years ago. My cousin works in the marketing department at Chelsea Market, so he gave Tapenade and me the grand tour. I love that Italian shop. They really have a nice selection. We were shocked when we saw the prices of produce at the green grocer, but we are a bit spoiled here. There is also a restaurant supply house there that has some very cool things. We bought a truffle shaver there.

I also put cherries in my apple strudel. I don't really have a recipe for the spinach strudel. But, if I had to hazard a guess.... 1 cup chopped cooked spinach, moisture squeezed out 1 egg 1 cup ricotta 2 cloves of finely minced garlic 1/4 cup grated parmesan or kashkeval cheese 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts generous amount of grated nutmeg (approx. 1/2 tbsp.) salt and pepper Mix all together.

Walnut Strudel (Diós rétes) Strudel dough or phyllo dough 400 g ground walnuts 100 g grated apples 50 g raisins (soak in rum or tokay) 200 g sugar 50 ml milk grated lemon rind of one lemon Cook the ground walnuts in the sugar and the milk and bring to boil, but stir so the milk and walnuts do not burn. Let it cool, then mix with the grated apples, the drained raisins and the grated lemon. Roll up, put into greased tin, and bake at 200C for 20 minutes.

I season it with salt, pepper and a generous amount of nutmeg, but I may try an experiment next time with ras al hanout. I saute the spinach with finely minced garlic.

I think this should be moved to the pastry section. I make: Apple strudel Cherry strudel Spinach and ricotta strudel I also use phyllo, but I would like to tackle the task of making strudel dough. I married to the son of a Hungarian, so I think I must try this once. To maintain the family honor.

Now that I am back in the country, I found another couple of cookbooks on my shelf: The Complete Passover Cookbook by Frances R. AvRutick This cookbook reminds me of the Settlement Cookbook, but it is The Passover Gourmet by Nira Rousso She has some interesting recipes, such as: Italian Walnut-Honey Griddle Cakes Broccoli-Olive-Basil Soup Potato-Yogurt Cakes Cream Cheese Apricot Cake Babanatza - Wine Pudding

Hi Scott, I am not familiar with the Joyva brand. I haven't seen any other halvah recipes that look different from what you found, the earlier one that I found and Anzu's. Try Anzu's and lets see how it turns out. The only halvah I know that people make at home here is carrot halvah. We can buy some very nice halvah here, so I guess people don't bother making their own. I'll try and take some pictures of the different types when I get a chance.

I wish I had one of those for David's 50th birthday. That is very cool. The birthday cake you made looks delicious. I love marscapone and lemon curd together. I bet it was heavenly.

I hope you do... This paragraph would be a great way to start off a thread. I just looked and saw that there are no baklava threads yet... It would be fascinating to hear more about the different types and peoples baking experiences with baklava as well. I've always loved walnut baklava, but the first pistachio version I had ~ 10 yrs ago was a complete revelation. Nearby I have a good place to buy them; I may have to get some tomorrow! ← Actually, there is a baklava thread except that it is lumped into a thread called Middle Eastern Pastries

The cake I speak of did not have cherrys or a cherry filling. It had a chocolate frosting but the cake layers were malted tasting. They had a crunch to them kind of like a malt ball. ← I have never heard of a Black Forest Cherry Cake without cherries.

Did you have their profiteroles? Everyone goes on about Inci in Beyoglu but it is just nasty to me, flavorless. Beyaz has it right, they use really good ingredients.\ Do you know which shop it is in the spice market? I can't think of a baklava place there. The local famous one is Güllüoglu, and it's good but there is also one down on the Tünel end of Istiklal Caddesi that is very good. My neighborhood has lots of little shops run by people from Antep (the capitol of baklava), selling ekmek, baklava and different kinds of kadayif. I don't do it a lot, but my favorite kadayif is a flat one, only about 3/4 of an inch thick, studded with whole pistachios, and just enough syrup to make it moist. Could do a post on those shops too...! ← I think I had a cake or tart with strawberries and Tapenade (my other half) had something with chocolate. I don't remember which end of the spice market the baklava store is located. I just remember that I liked them because they were not swimming in syrup. I prefer less syrup.

Hi Rochelle, I just got back from a business trip. Great blog. Do you have any access to quince paste? I don't know if your group would be adventurous, but a nice tapas with manchego cheese is quince paste. Here is a recipe. It is very easy to make and tastes great.

Sazji, I went to that pastry shop two years ago and was very impressed. My favorite baklava is from a shop in the spice market.

For this recipe, you should try Manzanillo olives. They are large green olives.

Welcome to eGullet! I am a big fan of your cookbooks. I have your Jewish Holiday Kitchen cookbook. It is my holiday bible.

This is the recipe I use: Black Forest Cherry Cake It is the closest recipe to the one my uncle served at his German restaurant.

I was going to suggest that you make Catalan Spinach which is sauteed spinach with raisins, toasted pine nuts and lemon juice. It is very easy.

Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen by Joyce Goldstein Sephardic Israeli Cuisine: A Mediterranean Mosaic by Sheilah Kaufman Kosher Cooking by our own Marlena Spieler Saffron Shores: Jewish Cooking of the Southern Mediterranean by Joyce Goldstein If you can read Hebrew, then I would recommend finding Josef (Tommy) Lapid's Hungarian cookbook. It is very good. Otherwise, this one might be fun to get: A Taste of the Past: The Daily Life and Cooking of a Nineteenth-Century Hungarian Jewish Homemaker by Andras Koerner