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Sometimes it’s the little things that remind you how far you’ve come. I was speaking to my sister one morning on skype, and I got a pretty accurate measure of my progress. My sister was catching bits of my host family’s morning conversation, and asked, “Are they mad? Why are they yelling?”
My response was: “they’re not yelling, that’s just how they talk”.
“Oh”.
The first week I was here, I was pretty sure I was constantly being yelled at. Now, its only been a month, but this feels normal. I constantly self-flagellate over my lousy Azerbaijani, but that morning I was able to translate a simple dialogue between my host sister, and my sister. Hello, nice to meet you, that sort of thing. Yavas-yavas, or slowly, I’m adjusting.
One of the things that helped me adjust was cooking. I come from a food culture, and I’ve been baking since I was a child. As it happens, my host sister is an amazing cook and baker. She is in charge of most of the meals in my host house, a position that I had in my own home. I’m pretty sure we first bonded one afternoon when she was making pound cake. I was so homesick I was happy just to watch her make the batter. It seemed so peaceful and familiar in a world that seemed so alien to me. Then I had a brainstorm, grabbed my journal to jot down the recipe, and asked permission to take pictures. My host sister regarded all this activity amusement, but she was very proud to have her cakes photographed.
Those cakes were also the catylst for my own cooking in Azerbaijan. For the next week I was served cake for breakfast with cay, or tea. Now while cake for breakfast was a fantasy of mine as a child, the reality was quite different from the fantasy. I was inspired to start making my own breakfast in lieu of eating cake. Once my host sister could see that I could make breakfast, she and I began to talk about cooking. I am now her student and assistant in the kitchen, learning to make bread, dolma, and of course all kinds of cake. Below are two recipes, one for my sister’s chocolate chip-cake, and one for my lemon one, which I hope to make for my host family before I leave. Sometimes it’s the little things that bring us together, and reming us how far we’ve come.
Emi’s Azerbijani Chocolate-Chip Pound Cake
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs at room temperature
1 cup greek yogurt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
sprinkles (optional)
Directions
- Heat oven to 325° F. pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour baking soda, and baking powder.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and granulated sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in vanilla.
- Stop beating. Add oil, yogurt, and the flour mixture. Stir until combined.
- Put a 12 cup bunt pan in the oven. Leave there until heated through, about 5 minutes. Using oven mitt take out the pan and grease liberally with oil, and then sprinkle with flour.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and sprinkles with chocolate chips and sprinkles. and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 65 to 75 minutes. Turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
This sweet, buttery cake is a favorite of mine, with a fruit or berry salad. It’s also a favorite of my cousin Sara, so I named it after her.
Sara’s Summer Lemon Bundt Cake (adapted from Real Simple)
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
½ cup solid coconut oil, or vegan butter (smart balance stick), at room temperature
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest, plus 6 tablespoons lemon juice (roughly one lemon)
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup plain Greek yogurt nonfat, or 2%
Baker’s Joy Cooking Spray
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Directions
- Heat oven to 325° F. Apply Baker’s Joy liberally to a 12-cup Bundt pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butters or coconut oil, granulated sugar, and lemon zest on medium-high until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in 4 tablespoons of the lemon juice and the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time waiting until each is thoroughly incorporated until you add another, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Reduce mixer speed to low. Add half the flour mixture, then the yogurt, and then the remaining flour mixture. Mix just until combined (do not overmix).
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 65 to 75 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and 1 of the remaining tablespoons of lemon juice until smooth, adding the remaining lemon juice as necessary to create a thick, but pourable glaze.