FFWD Visitandine and Vegetable Barley Soup with the Taste of Little India

One of my grandmother's oldest friends, Mrs. Lazaar, made an incredible sponge cake.  Even the Kosher for Passover version was light, airy, and delicious.  I am no Mrs. Lazaar.  I seriously struggle with sponge cake.  I think I must not be folding in the eggs correctly.  I need to watch a video or something, or at least learn to be more patient.  They always deflate.  This time was particularly bad.  I didn't want to run the mixer after Charlotte was asleep (she's still an incredibly light sleeper), so I beat the eggs and then left them while I gave her a bath and put her to bed.  Big mistake.  When I came back the eggs had almost separated.  There were some very beaten whites (almost like snow) and then liquid on the bottom.  I also didn't do a great job of separating the eggs (no clue why), so that may have contributed.  So anyway, my cake was dense and didn't rise at all.  It still tasted good though.  I like the clean butter and sugar flavor.  I served it with whipped cream and some peaches that we canned over the summer, and we were both happy.  I'd like to make this one again.  My technique definitely needs practice.

On another note, I'd like to post a correction to my last post.  I, mistakenly, wrote that "With some supervision/instruction on my part, Paul made these tartes along with a kale and wild rice gratin."   For probably the first time ever Paul actually read that post, and wanted me to clarify that he did not need any supervision or instruction.  He wants everyone to know that he made the tarts and the gratin all by himself!  I tried reminding him that I shopped, reviewed the ingredients with him, and rolled out and cut the puff pastry rounds, but I'm trying to learn to pick my battles, so I won't argue....The Vegetable Barley Soup, on the other hand, Paul actually did make all by himself.  We were both pretty skeptical, Indian flavored barley soup in a French cookbook just sounded confused, but we actually loved it.  I thought the flavors worked really nicely.  My one quibble is with the claim that the recipe serves six.  We ate almost the entire thing in one sitting!  This is definitely a recipe I'll make again.