ALMOND MACAROONS

My sister gave me this swiss "Biscuits and Cookies" coobooks by Nicola Diggins:

Ingredients:

rice paper
100g/6oz caster sugar
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 egg whites, lightly beaten
1/4 tsp; almond essence
halved blanched almonds to decorate

Line two baking trays with rice paper. Mix together the round almonds, sugar and cornflour. Add the egg whites and almond essence and stir well to give a thick paste.
Spoon the mixture into a nylon piping bag fitted with a plain 1-cm/1/2 in nozzle. Pipe 16 rounds of the mixture at interval on the prepared baking trays and place half a blanched almond in the centre of each.
Bake in a moderately hot oven (190°C, 375F, gas 5° for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly brawned. Allow the macaroons to cool on the ra for a few minutes, then tear the excess rice paper away and transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool comletely. Makes 16 amond macaroons.

LEMON POUND CAKE (TESTED)

I have tried this one for the tea party at school of my younger son. It was a fund raising for their educational tour. The idea is that, the parents have to offer cakes for an afternoon tea time and the students (Grade 1) will play as the waiter or waitresses. So grandparents and parents are invited to join the fund raising.

My contribution is this tasty Lemon Pond Cake

For the ingredients:

1/2 cup (4oz.) margarine or butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup finely chopped or ground almonds
grated rind of 1 lemon

SYRUP
1/4 cup sgar
juice and rind of 1 lemon

Procedure:

1. Cream together the margarine and sugar, add the eggs one by one and beat well. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture slowly alternating with the milk. Stir in the nuts and the grated rind. Put into a greased, 6 cups, square or circular cake tin.
2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour or until a knife pushed in the center comes out clean.
3. Remove from oven and while still ho push holes in the top of cake and pour on a syrup of the sugar, lemon juice and rind cooked together until thick. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Frost with Lemon Frosting.

LEMON FROSTING

1 cup confetioners' sugar, sited

1-2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1. Gradually mix the lemon juice with the sugar, until a thick slightly runny frostin is formed.
2. Put in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
3. Beat wel and use to frost the cake. It looks attractive if you let it run down the sides.

Extracted from the cookbooks that a Filipina friend in Chili offered me. "COCINANDO EN CHILI" a collection of recipes authored by Betty Matthews . The recipes are collection of different cooks from different countries including chilians. The benefits of the sale of this books are donated to the charitable works of the American Association of Chile.

The book was in English and a Spanish translation on the right pages.

BOXTY (an Irish recipe)

From (" A Little Irish Cookbook" by John Murphy) that i got from the airport in Cork while waiting for our flight back to France:

I did'nt try this yet but according to him "Boxty" is a traditional potato dish, celebrated in the rhyme:

Boxty on the griddle, boxty in the pan,
If you can't make boxty, you'll never get your man.

For the recipe:

8oz/250g/1 cup raw potato
8 oz/250g/1cup mashed potato
8 oz./250g/2cups plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
large knob of butter, melted
about 1/4 pt/125ml./1/2 cup milk

For the procedure:

Grate the raw potaoes into a bowl. Turn out onto a clothe and wring, catching the liquid. This will separate into a clear fluid with starch at the bottom. Pour of the fluid and scrape out the starch and mix with the grated and mashed potatoes. Sieve the dry ingredients and mix in along with the melted butter. Add a little milk if necessary to make a pliable dough. Knead lightly on a floured surface. Divide into flour and form large, flat cakes. Mark each into quarter but do not cut right through, and bake on a griddle or in a heavt pan.

If like, more milk and an egg can be added to make a batter which can be fried in bacon fat like drop scones.