ECC's Cultural Recipe Book

A collection of vegetarian cultural recipes and art from the Environmentalists of Color Collective

What is ECC?

The Environmentalists of Color Collective at UCLA was brought together as a means of challenging the white-dominated conventions of the contemporary environmental justice movement by co-creating a healing space to amplify and prioritize the narratives, experiences, and needs of Black, Indigenous, and people of color environmentalists.

We hope to expand the discourse past race and connect the intersections of class, gender, ability, nationality, and other backgrounds as it relates to environmental justice and sustainability. Our body works toward providing a platform for other marginalized identities within the environmental justice movement by inviting local environmental advocates for speaking engagements, co-creating toolkits for other environmental groups to utilize, and attending/co-sponsoring other events that emphasize inclusion and equity within the environmental justice movement.

Many of our ECC meetings turn into cooking nights and potlucks - food is good, and it's even more delicious when shared with friends. And sometimes when you ' re far from home, making those traditional foods you grew up with can be very comforting. So we thought, why not make a cultural cookbook?

This book features vegetarian and vegan cultural recipes from ECC members. ECC believes food justice is not just the right to have nourishing food, but also the right for that food to be culturally relevant. We hope this collection can introduce you to some of our favorite foods!

We also threw some art and reflections in there. We're a very creative bunch. Hope you enjoy!

ECC 2022 - 2023

by Anya Desai

Cross-stitch

How to Make Pulao

Recipe by Anya Desai

Ingredients

1/2 cup rice

carrots (depends how much you want)

green beans (depends how much you want)

peas (depends how much you want)

vegetable/canola oil to cover bottom of pot

1 bay leaf

small stick of cinnamon

2-3 cloves (if the pot you are using has a hole for steaming, stick a clove into the lid to prevent steam from escaping)

1 masala dubba spoon of jeera

salt to taste

red chili powder to taste

Directions

Wash and soak 1/2 cup rice.

Cut carrots and green beans and place them with peas into a bowl of water. Add oil to cover the bottom of a pot and then add bay leaf, cinnamon, clove, and jeera.

Once sizzling (before the jeera burns), add rice and saute it in the oil so it doesn't stick. Add the vegetables, salt, and red chili powder (taste the water to check the flavor).

Add 1 cup of water.

Cook on low for 20 minutes or until the rice has soaked up all the water. Serve alone or with dahi/raita.

"A lot is however much your heart tells you to put"

Nian Gao Nian Gao

Br Brown sugar own sugar

rice cakes rice cakes

Ingredients: Ingredients:

Boil water, then stir in g Boil water, then stir in g until dissolved. Let mixture until dissolved. Let mixture cool to room temperature. cool to room temperature. Place rice flour in a large Place rice flour in a large mixing bowl, making a valley mixing bowl, making a valley in the middle. in the middle.

1 lb glutinous rice flour

1 lb glutinous rice flour

1.5 cups brown sugar

1.5 cups brown sugar

2 cups water

2 cups water

Olive oil Olive oil

Sesame seeds (optional) Sesame seeds (optional)

Materials: Materials:

Cake pans Cake pans

Steamer Steamer

Measuring Cups Measuring Cups

Slowly add water to flour, Slowly add water to flour, mixing it in as you go. The mixing it in as you go. The end result should be a thick end result should be a thick yet drippy liquid. yet drippy liquid.

(Optional) sprinkle sesame (Optional) sprinkle sesame seeds. seeds.

Grease a cake pan with oil Grease a cake pan with oil (I use olive oil). (I use olive oil). Pour mixture into pan, filling Pour mixture into pan, filling no more than 3/4ths of it. no more than 3/4ths of it.

Place pan in steamer for 1-2 Place pan in steamer for 1-2 hours. Once the water in the hours. Once the water in the steamer is brought to a boil, steamer is brought to a boil, turn the heat down. If the turn the heat down. If the cake is thick, it is done when cake is thick, it is done when you can stick a chopstick you can stick a chopstick upright in it and it stays. For upright in it and it stays. For hinner cake, if th hinner cake, if th opstick falls slow opstick falls slow done. done.

In my memory, the lunar new year has always had a particular scent attached to it.

The smoky wisps of the burning incense at the altar in my grandparent's dining room; the fresh fragrance of the flowers that have been brought in to decorate; the citrusy aroma of stacked tangerines with their leaves still attached; the papery perfume of the lai see we receive, always with both hands. And perhaps most exciting of all is the sweet, rich scent of nian gao glutinous rice cakes made with rice flour and brown sugar, topped with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and a single red date in its center.

It's always a treat we have around new years. After we ’ ve all eaten our second bowl of rice (because the Chinese love language is telling you to eat more), us kids will gather around the living room. With many aunts and uncles, siblings and cousins, relatives talking to each other in Cantonese from across the house, and the TV blasting, it’s a noisy but familiar atmosphere. My grandpa will bring out a metal platter of fresh slices of nian gao that he’s just fried up.

We’ll pick them up with our fingers, helping each other pull them apart. I always go for the thin, most crispy pieces. We’ll try not to get the oil on our clothes as we savor the sweet taste and chewy texture. And even when the platter isn’t quite finished, my grandparents will come out with more. Abundance is important for the new years and every family meal. Whether it’s meals at home or in a restaurant, we always make sure there’s leftovers for everyone to take home.

My grandparents have always made elaborate, time intensive meals for the new year. It’s a taste you can’t get in any restaurant; it’s a labor of love. The rice cakes, too, are homemade. In college, I have missed their cooking, having experienced many a lunar new year through photos of a full dinner table, hundreds of miles away. My grandparents are getting older, even though to me, they look the same as they always have (but perhaps I can admit that my Popo’s jet black hair is now peppered with gray). They don’t have the energy to cook such large meals anymore. My aunt told me that next time, they will order food instead.

As the years pass, I feel there is a sense of loss. Not for something that has been lost, but something I am in the process of losing—my language, their recipes, knowledge of family heritage and history. I feel like I need to catch up, to learn everything before it’s too late. But at the same time, I don’t know where to start, what to say.

“Tell me your life story.” Can I ask them that?

This year I wanted to try making nian gao myself. I would be spending new years alone at college, but I still wanted to be festive. I looked for recipes online but they all seemed wrong—not incorrect or inauthentic; in a sense, they were all authentic but they weren’t what my grandparents made. I finally did the most simple thing: ask my relatives.

The recipe presented here was obtained by texts and calls from my mom, who had texted and called my grandma, for the proper steps and ingredients. I had frantically written down her sometimes vague directions on the Notes app on my laptop as my mom rattled off what exactly to do.

“Let it steam for 1-2 hours? Is there anything more specific than that?”

“Well, it depends on how big the pan is”

“But how big is big?" and

“When do I know it’s done?”

“Just stick a chopstick in the middle—if it stands up, then its done”

“My pan is too shallow for the chopstick to stand, though. I’ll send you a picture?”

I did end up making this recipe twice, so I can say that it works (Interestingly, my second try was less successful than the first. Make sure that when you cover the steamer with something, that the condensed water on the lid does not drip down onto the cooking cake. It gives the top a weird texture. Tastes the same, though). Perhaps it will take some trial and error for you, but I think it’s all worth it in the end. There’s a shared joke that immigrant parents never give exact measurements in cooking: you just do what feels right. And with that, I share this recipe with you. Good luck!

Chinese Cucumber Salad simple and refreshing!

***Measurements are very approximate. How much of a cucumber do you think you can eat? That's how much you should use.

Makes 2-4 servings

Ingredients:

1 English cucumber

Bunch of Cilantro

1 Clove Garlic (minced)

Salt (a generous pinch)

Sesame oil (1 spoonful)

Sesame seeds (a generous pinch)

Chili oil (2 spoonfuls)

I use lao gan ma

Soy Sauce (1 spoonful)

Recipe by Isabel Dawson

Directions:

SMASH THAT CUCUMBER.

Preferably with the flat end of a cleaver. I've used a rolling pin with varying success. This might be a little messy. Then further cut pieces down.

Sprinkle salt over the smashed bits, then put into the fridge to cool. The salt helps draw out the water, making the cucumbers crunchy. Once cooled, drain excess water from the cucumbers.

Mix together sesame oil, chili oil, soy sauce, and garlic into a bowl. Adjust ingredients as you like. Add mixture to cucumbers and mix in a large bowl.

Garnish with cilantro and sesame seeds.

Gujarati Kadhi

Ingredients

1 cup dahi (plain yogurt)

3 tbsp besan (gram flour)

3-4 green chilis

1/2 tsp crushed ginger curry leaves salt (to taste)

Instructions

1 tbsp ghee

1/2-1 tsp jeera seeds

1 stick cinnamon

1-2 cloves

coriander leaves

In a steel vessel, mix the yogurt and besan until it becomes a thick paste and no lumps remain. Add 2.5 cups of water and mix. Add green chilis, ginger paste, curry leaves, and salt. Bring to boil for 5 minutes while stirring continuously. Reduce flame and simmer for about 15-20 minutes while stirring occasionally. If too thick, add another 1/2 cup of water.

Heat the ghee in a different vessel. Add the jeera, cinnamon, and cloves until they crackle.

Add tempering into the kadhi and let it boil for 2 minutes.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rotis or rice.

The first time I went to a traditional Gujarati restaurant, I was confused. Everything on the thali plate – from the rotis to the kadhi – was identifiable as something my mom makes at home, but was just as an unbearably sweeter version of what I was used to. Here, at this restaurant, I learned that traditional Gujarati food is sweet due to small amounts of sugar that are added to every dish. Kadhi, the way my dadi (dad's mom) makes it, has about 1 tsp of sugar in it. However, my nani (mom's mom) makes kadhi with less than 1/2 tsp of sugar, and my mom omits sugar entirely to give the kadhi a tangier and spicier flavor.

My mom grew up having kadhi with hot rotis and rice every Sunday.

When I was growing up, there was a period of time when our curry patta plant lived in my neighbor's house (if you ask my mom, it was only for a few weeks but I remember making this walk for months), so whenever I wanted to have kadhi – or when we had a lot of dahi we had to use up before it spoiled – I would cross the street to get some curry leaves so my mom could make kadhi.

When I asked my mom for this recipe, she gave it to me without any measurements, saying to use whatever "feels and looks right" (ex. however much water it takes to make the dahi-besan mix the correct thin consistency). Having never made this recipe without my mom standing behind me, I asked how I'd know what the correct consistency was. My mom responded by searching up a random recipe online and reading off the measurements from that recipe because "it's probably the same " (even though the recipe was for traditional Gujarati kadhi).

However you choose to make this recipe (sweet, spicy, or somewhere in between), I hope you enjoy!

WORLD FAMOUS

, y g g y y y, j we did since he was just a little elf. Today, it seems like his wif Jessica, will be joining too.

Todd is a mama ’ s boy through and through; he loves his number lady’s baking the best. One time, Todd really wanted one of his ma fresh chocolate chip cookies, but I had just bought some cookies the bakery across the street. I told him, “Todd, we already hav okies!” So he ran to the pantry and threw all the cookies onto nd and along with it, red velvet cake, hot cocoa and all the o eet treats I just spent $200 on, leaving me no choice but to m him his favorite cookies. What a little prankster!

ho, today, we will be baking my world famous gingerbread. B tart, remember there shouldn’t be too many cooks in the kitch e, I joke. But really, in the Taylor’s family, we like to assign role ry that Jessica might be a waste of space. We have the gath person who finds and preps all the ingredients aka me since I’ ma bear), the mixer (the person who makes the magic happe

Todd written ALL over it because he is just my cute magical b y who makes my life worth living) and the maid (the person w s everything sparkling clean. Normally, I hire a cleaning service but e Jessica insisted on helping out, she’ll be our maid today.) I’ll kick

Step One: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees!

I left this one job to Jessica and she had forgotten. She swore I didn’t tell her, but I know I did. Why Todd decided to marry her is beyond me. I would've thought he would marry me, I mean someone like me. So I’ve decided to remind

Ingredients:

Six cups of all-purpose flour or one doctor-prescribed wine glass to deal with daughter-in-laws

One tablespoon of baking powder. No, Jessica, not the pasty kind that you smother all over your face! For heaven’s sake, you look older than me with that caked-on makeup.

One tablespoon of ground g*nger. I know some of you take offense to that word. I have a redneck cousin, I understand.

One tablespoon of ground nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. Of course, you could reduce these quantities, they tend to be QUITE flavorful

One cup of shortening, what Jessica seems to be doing to my lifespan

One cup of molasses

One cup of packed brown sugar. White sugar is always superior but I guess

This step always reminds me of Jessica’s personality. Sift your flour and baking powder in a bowl. Sprinkle in your g*nger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and if you have it on you, some cocaine. Trust me, it helps everyone get through the holidays. Especially if you have a useless Jess-I mean dog laying around.

Step Four: Combine your wet ingredients.

This step always reminds me of myself when Todd’s around. Beat shortening, molasses, brown sugar, Jessica’s children from her first marriage when they were

Roll out your dough and cookie-cut gingerbread men. Then set them to bake. You’ll know they’re finished when they look hard but feel soft to touch just like Jessica’s hard, masculine features and her inability to take criticism.

COLOR IN YOUR OWN GINGERBREAD MAN!

Map of Los Angeles, an Urban Oil Field

By Samantha Smithies and Angel More

My favorite color is the world I want to live in. It's the vast sky and the open sea, boundless in its reach and hues, the primordial soup from whence we came, the coolness on a hot summer day, The color of everything when the glaciers melt and the skyscrapers are underwater. It’s the twilight in the night when my grandma says goodbye, To her friends that she’ll never see again. At the moment it's the color of her heart. It’s the waves that lap the boat they leave in, The channel that links one world to the next.

But this is just the color of an imagined reality, The color of the sea in an imagined homeland

At noon it's right there on the horizon, And if i strain my eyes perhaps i’ll see, That distant land from a seagull’s view.

But when i cup water in my hands it's the color of nothing, For this is just an imagined blue.

Art and writing by Isabel Dawson

Isabel Dawson

Anya Desai

Angel More