Ok, so, the slaw had boiled dressing from the 1952 Joy of Cooking. It's Boiled Dressing #3. The instructions call for "juice" without specifying what sort, twice. I used lime juice for the main base, and at the end where it says to thin with more juice, or cream, I used cream. The finished dressing was very much like key lime pie, just not quite set as much. The wateriness of the cabbage cut the intensity of the dressing and it was really good. My mind kept expecting a bitter finish and it never came.
For the soup, I par cooked the beans separately. I sauteed the salted leek and then the celery and added a couple quarts of water and let it simmer for a half hour. I found a partial can of tomatoes in the fridge, about a third, tossed that in, cut off a small cube of the parm and added that, then added the beans and simmered for another 20 minutes. I adjusted the salt, and added the pasta and cooked until done. The finished soup was nice and light, with good green flavor. I admit, I like adding a lot of pasta! I was surprised at how much flavor the cheese rind imparted, it was barely a cubic centimeter.
The Fekkas were pretty easy to make, but, I had to make a couple of recipe adjustments. I used THIS recipe, but never needed the 1/2 cup orange blossom water or milk. As a nod to it, I did put a teaspoon of orange water in with the eggs at the beginning. I soaked the raisins because several other recipes called for it, and I dislike burnt raisin rocks in my baked goods. I just used 10g of anise seeds. -I was measuring and 50-60g just seemed like too much; this dough has sesame seeds and almonds in it and I wanted to taste those too. This was a good move, the end result was a cookie that was lightly fragrant with anise. I made 5 loaves which all fit on one sheet pan, they only rose about 20%. On the second bake, I wound up with two sheet pans jammed with cookies, next time I will slice them thinner and probably get 3 pans worth. Use a light hand and a sharp serrated knife when cutting. The bake time given, 5 minutes per side, was woefully inadequate, I wound up doing 20 minutes per side. The recipe writer is wrong: the bake time is more affected by how thickly you slice than oven temp variances. The fekkas are a dry crunchy cookie, a little like biscotti, but, more crumbly and less tooth-shatteringly hard. If I had to change anything, I would have more aggressively toasted my almonds before chopping.
Pictures credits: china 'Cameo Platinum' by Mikasa, flatware 'Balance' by Gourmet Settings
