- May 8, 2002
- 2,053
- 181
- 61
- Faith
- Judaism
- Marital Status
- Married
Hi all!
This Shabbat (the Sabbath, i.e. from dusk Friday until nightfall Saturday) is our holyday of Tu B'Shevat.
(The link for the above is: http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday8.htm )
Agriculture & the cultivation of the Land of Israel are very basic concepts in Judaism. Our Sages say that if you are planting a tree & you hear that the Messiah has come, you should first finish planting the tree and then go greet the Messiah.
I always bake date-cake-in-a-can for Tu B'Shevat. Here's the recipe (which I received from a very good Christian friend of mine):
Take a 500 gram package of pitted dates (you should be able to get this in any large healthfood store, any kosher grocery/supermarket that has imported stuff from Israel, or any Middle Eastern/Arab grocery/supermarket) & put the contents (cut up into small pieces) into a pyrex bowl. Add 2.25 cups of boiling water & 3 teaspoons of baking soda. Mix well & set aside to cool. Cream 9 tablespoons of butter/margarine, 3 eggs and no more than 1/2-2/3 cups of light brown sugar. Add the cooled date mush to the creamed mixture & then add: 3 cups of wholewheat flour (if you can get wholewheat pastry flour or a lighter grind of wholewheat flour, use them), 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, 1.5 teaspoons of real vanilla essence (Please! Don't insult either Tu B'Shevat or me by using artificially flavored vanilla essence!) and 1-1.5 cups of chopped walnuts. Mix well. Now the fun part: Take about 6 regular sized cans (the kind that have peas, peas-and-carrots, green beans, asparagus spears, mushrooms, etc.; do NOT use cans that had anything pickled in them or cans where the label is embossed right onto the metal of the can; you'll need cans with a paper label that you'll have peeled off; do NOT use very large cans or the dough will not set) & stand each one upright. Fill each can about 2/3 of the way with dough & bake them standing upright in the oven, at whatever temperature you normally bake stuff. When the cans are done, the cake will have risen a bit out of the open can & the exposed part of the cake will be fairly dark. The cake will have separated a bit from the sides of the cans. Take the cans out (using either an oven mitt to grasp them with or pliers) & set them aside to cool. When the cans have cooled to room temperature, take a can opener & open the bottom of the cans. Push the cut can bottom through the can, thus forcing the cake out the open end. Slice & serve neat little disks of cake! Bon appetit!
Be well!
ssv
This Shabbat (the Sabbath, i.e. from dusk Friday until nightfall Saturday) is our holyday of Tu B'Shevat.
(The link for the above is: http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday8.htm )
Agriculture & the cultivation of the Land of Israel are very basic concepts in Judaism. Our Sages say that if you are planting a tree & you hear that the Messiah has come, you should first finish planting the tree and then go greet the Messiah.
I always bake date-cake-in-a-can for Tu B'Shevat. Here's the recipe (which I received from a very good Christian friend of mine):
Take a 500 gram package of pitted dates (you should be able to get this in any large healthfood store, any kosher grocery/supermarket that has imported stuff from Israel, or any Middle Eastern/Arab grocery/supermarket) & put the contents (cut up into small pieces) into a pyrex bowl. Add 2.25 cups of boiling water & 3 teaspoons of baking soda. Mix well & set aside to cool. Cream 9 tablespoons of butter/margarine, 3 eggs and no more than 1/2-2/3 cups of light brown sugar. Add the cooled date mush to the creamed mixture & then add: 3 cups of wholewheat flour (if you can get wholewheat pastry flour or a lighter grind of wholewheat flour, use them), 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, 1.5 teaspoons of real vanilla essence (Please! Don't insult either Tu B'Shevat or me by using artificially flavored vanilla essence!) and 1-1.5 cups of chopped walnuts. Mix well. Now the fun part: Take about 6 regular sized cans (the kind that have peas, peas-and-carrots, green beans, asparagus spears, mushrooms, etc.; do NOT use cans that had anything pickled in them or cans where the label is embossed right onto the metal of the can; you'll need cans with a paper label that you'll have peeled off; do NOT use very large cans or the dough will not set) & stand each one upright. Fill each can about 2/3 of the way with dough & bake them standing upright in the oven, at whatever temperature you normally bake stuff. When the cans are done, the cake will have risen a bit out of the open can & the exposed part of the cake will be fairly dark. The cake will have separated a bit from the sides of the cans. Take the cans out (using either an oven mitt to grasp them with or pliers) & set them aside to cool. When the cans have cooled to room temperature, take a can opener & open the bottom of the cans. Push the cut can bottom through the can, thus forcing the cake out the open end. Slice & serve neat little disks of cake! Bon appetit!
Be well!
ssv
