GERIT TIIRIK
Contents INTRODUCTION
03
SPAIN - AMAIA
04
JAPAN - MOTOKO
10
GREECE - VERONIKA
15
ZIMBABWE - SANDHU
20
POLAND - NATALIA
26
VENEZUELA - MAITE
30
MALAYSIA - BRINDHA
34
ESTONIA - TRIIN
38
BOLIVIA - ALDO
42
TURKEY - MELIS
45
FRANCE - COLINE
51
ETHIOPIA - MAHALET
56
AUSTRALIA - BOAZ
60
THANK YOU
64
‘melting pot’ - a society ‘in which a variety of races, cultures, or individuals assimilate into a cohesive whole (melting together).’
‘salad bowl’ – a society ‘in which different cultures are juxtaposed — like salad ingredients — but do not merge into a single homogeneous culture.’
Introduction Melting Pot & Salad Bowl showcases 13 people from different corners of the world. They have all grown up in a foreign country, but now live in London. They are students, chefs, shop owners... Some of them have a big passion for food, others less, yet they all have a memory that relates to the food from their home. This is not a cookbook about national dishes of different countries. It is a book that showcases recipes that those people used to eat back home or what they miss, some of them are traditional to a specific country, others are just particular to a person. All these people have brought their cultures to London, where they still continue to use some of their habits from home, yet they are adapting and taking over from other cultures that live within the city. They all are part of the big melting pot and a salad bowl that London is. Happy cooking!
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Spain Amaia
FOOD CULTURE My mom is the one who mainly cooked at home. She learned her cooking skills from the mother of her first boyfriend, who was a proper Catalan grandmother, so my mom learned all the classics of Catalan food and she still cooks very traditionally. Although I mix a lot myself, the base of my cooking comes from the classic Catalan cooking as well. My mom also loves us being in the kitchen and if it’s a celebration day we often gather in the kitchen, open a wine and help her cook. Cooking in Spain is a social thing. One of the dishes I always want my mom to cook, when I go home, is paella. She also cooks very nice meat dish, fricando, which is kind of a stew of beef. I also really miss fresh fish and seafood, just simple grilled cockles or fried fish. Lunch is the most important mealtime and it has to be the biggest one. In Spain the lunch time can be for 1,5-2 hours, so many people go home and have a lunch at home. We think the lunch time is really important, so we make the effort to eat the home-cooked meal if we can. A good thing that I learned from home, is how to cook thinking ahead. If I am gonna make a stock, I am thinking if this stock is going to give me a tonight’s dinner, for the soup of tomorrow, for the rice stock for the paella and the leftovers for a potato pie or some crockets. You really don’t throw food away.
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Paella Serve: 4 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
STOCK:
MAKE THE STOCK:
1 tomato
1. Cut the tomato and onion into chunky pieces and saute them in a pot with a bit of olive oil. Let it cook for 3-4 min.
1 onion 3 fresh langoustines or big prawn heads
2. Add the heads and smash the heads so all the flavour and liquid comes out of them. Saute and stir occasionally for 3-4 min.
a bit of olive oil a pinch of salt
PAELLA:
3. Add 1 to 1.5 litre of water (not tap water, it will ruin the flavour!), put a lid on and bring to boil. Once it starts boiling leave it for 20-25 min boiling and then take it out the heat. This is light stock but very tasty, if you leave it for too much time, the flavour starts to fade!
400 g short grain rice MAKE THE PAELLA: 1 medium onion 2 tomatoes 2 garlic cloves 8 small or 1 big squid or 1 big sepia
1. Put a bit of olive oil and the finely chopped (or grated) onion on a paella pan or a pan that is 5 cm deep and at least 30 cm diameter. When the onion starts to look transparent add the finely chopped tomato. Leave both together for around 5 min until they become one sauce, what we call “sofrito de tomate y cebolla�. Add the finely chopped garlic, leave it 2 min more.
12 mussels 4 langoustines or big prawns
2. Cut the squid into slices/rings and add it to the sauce, saute with the sauce, leave it for 5 min more so the squid is partially cooked.
a bit of olive oil Continues on the next page a pinch of salt -7-
3. Now add the rice, stir it with all the sauce and squid, leave it for a few minutes so the rice gets the flavour of the sauce and gets a bit cooked, add salt. 4. Strain the previously cooked stock through a colander and add half of the liquid to paella. Cover with lid and leave it on the stove with medium heat for about 20 min. Check when the stock has been consumed by the rice, and if the rice is still not fully cooked add a bit more of stock and leave it 10 min more, until again, stock is almost fully consumed. It does not have to be dry or too liquid (you will find the balance with time). When you feel that the rice is almost ready and when you still have a bit of stock in the paella, add the rest of the seafood, it will cook very quickly. 5. Once the paella is ready, turn of the heat and leave it on the side for 3 min with half lid on, before serving. Enjoy and eat the seafood with your hands!
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MEMORY One of my first memories in general is me sitting on top of the washing machine in the kitchen, my legs hanging there, because I was 4 or 5 years old and my mom cooking in a complete silence, no music, no talk. Just watching her cooking made me feel so good. It might have been that she was cooking dinner or baking a cake for a weekend, but it is just the fact that being there and watching her cooking was so peaceful. This is probably why I have such a love for cooking. This image comes to my mind from time to time and still makes me feel so good.
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Japan Motoko
FOOD CULTURE We have a very big eating out culture in Japan, even with kids. I used to go out a lot with my parents. We do eat a lot of traditional food, but it’s changing, as younger people want to eat a lot of different food. For example my dad eats the traditional miso soup and rice for his breakfast, but I don’t. Although sushi is probably the most famous Japanese dish, we don’t eat it every day. I am from Osaka, where we eat a lot of okonomiyaki, which is kind of a savoury pancake. Okonomiyaki means ”as you like”, so you can put anything on top of the base, which is always cabbage. People started making it after the world war, when there were not many ingredients, so they started to make it from basic ingredients like cabbage and then over the time they started putting more luxury ingredients, like an egg, on top. Since I was little I have always been eating this dish. We made it at home and this was also my packed lunch to take it to school, because you could eat it at any time.
Just like in the UK you see a fish and chips shop everywhere, in Osaka every little town has a Okonomiyaki shop.
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Okonomiyaki Serve: 4 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
2 cups flour
1. Mix together the flour, water, salt, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl. Add the cabbage and mix well. Add the eggs and mix lightly until the eggs are combined with the cabbage.
1 cup water, cold or at room temperature 1 tbsp salt 1 tbsp baking powder 2 tbsp sugar 450 g cabbage, coarsely chopped (about 10 cups) 4 eggs 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil 250 g fresh pork belly (thinly sliced) TOPPINGS:
2. Preheat a nonstick skillet for at least 5 min on medium-low heat. Coat the entire surface of the skillet with 1 tbsp of the sesame oil. Cook the okonomiyaki in batches. Spoon the mixture into the skillet to form a pancake about 15 cm in diameter and about 2,5 cm thick. Don’t push down on the cabbage. Gently lay about one-fourth of the pork belly slices on top of the pancake, trying not to overlap. 3. Cook the pancake for about 3 min. Use a long spatula to carefully flip the pancake. Gently press down on the pancake with the spatula (don’t push too hard!). Cook for about 5 more min, then flip the pancake again. (If the okonomiyaki comes apart when you flip it, use a spatula to tuck any stray ingredients back into the pancake.) Cook for about 2 more min. When it’s ready, the pancake should be lightly browned on both sides, the pork cooked through, and the cabbage inside tender.
Okonomiyaki sauce
Aonori (powdered nori seaweed)
4. Transfer the pancake to a plate, pork side up, and add the toppings. Squeeze about 1 tbsp of okonomiyaki sauce and 1 tbsp of mayonnaise onto the pancake, in long ribbons. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp of aonori and 1 tbsp of dried, shaved bonito over the pancake. Serve immediately.
Dried, shaved bonito
5. Repeat with the remaining oil and batter.
Kewpie mayonnaise or other mayonnaise
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MEMORY What really reminds me home, is the smell of soya sauce. In Japan, we have a lot of summer festivals, always with fireworks and many food stalls everywhere and you can always smell the soya sauce in every corner, so this always reminds me the summer festivals.
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Greece Veronika
FOOD CULTURE My family’s eating habits are really traditional to Greece. Usually my mom cooks and it is mostly Greek food. The most important meal time is dinner, which is really late, around 9 or 10 pm. It is the time when all family comes together, sits around the table and talks about what happened during the day. On weekends we used to have family lunch and Sundays were a barbecue days. In the Greek cuisine, we always have a side dishes with food, for example two salads, cheese, yoghurt. I can’t eat just one plate, I always need a salad or feta or something cold with a warm dish.
MEMORY When I was little, I always wanted to eat Youvetsi, because it is very slippery when you take it out from the oven. I used to ask: “When are we going to have a slippery pasta again?”. We normally ate it every Saturday, when all the family was around the table.
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Every Greek person you would ask, would tell you that ‘my mom makes this the best.’ Everyone’s mom is the best cook ever. Even my mom says that her mom is the best cook, but I don’t agree, I think she is better than my grandma.
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Youvetsi Serve: 6-8 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
1 kg veal shoulder (cut into medium-sized portions)
1. Pour the olive oil in a medium sized non-stick frying pan or a regular pot and put it on medium to high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the veal and the onion and saute for about 4-5 min. Make sure it has a nice colour around it but don’t overcook it.
2 medium red onions (finely chopped) 1 or 2 garlic gloves (chopped) 300 g fresh tomato (grated or canned) 2 tbsp tomato puree
2. Then empty the pan contents into a pyrex or ceramic medium sized baking dish. Make sure to include the oil from the pan. At the same time, add the garlic, the tomato, the tomato paste, the wine, the bay leaves and the water, and the cinnamon stick, and then stir and cover the baking dish with foil. 3. Put it in a preheated oven, at 180°C on the middle rack and bake for 1 hour and 15 min.
1 1/4 cup water 1 glass of red wine
4. Then, remove the foil from the baking dish, add the pasta (or orzo), stir and put it back in the oven, this time without the foil, and bake for 20 more min.
2 or 3 bay leaves 1 cinnamon stick
5. Sprinkle mizithra or some grated feta on top and serve. Kali oreksi (bon appetite in greek)!
1/2 cup of olive oil 250 g pasta (you can also make it with orzo) 100 g grated mizithra or feta if you can’t find mizithra salt and pepper
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Zimbabwe Sandhu
FOOD CULTURE In Zimbabwe food is part of the community and part of the culture, part of the way of life. It is a third world country in a way, which implies more to rural aspects. Rather than going out to a show, generally people gather around for a dinner or lunch. The weather also plays a big part, because it is a sunny climate and that is an excuse to gather around and get festive. The most important meal time in my family was the dinner on Friday, usually around 7-8 pm. On the weekends, especially if we went down to my grandfather’s house, it was a big family lunch. Sometimes it was a big lunch in one family’s house and a big dinner in another house. Saturdays used to be barbecue days. The food in my home was traditional, but it was not as traditional as going back to the ancient customs of the land. There was a migration of different cultures in Zimbabwe and our family particularly embraced a lot of the cuisines. My father’s parents were from India and my mother’s were Italians, so we would eat a lot of Indian and Italian food, but we also ate typical african food, which was a stew meat with sadza. Sometimes we would eat Portuguese, because we had many Portuguese friends, other times English food was quite popular, like egg on toast or fish and chips.
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Zimbabwe was once known as the breadbasket of Africa, because it was so resourceful of food, it attracted many different cultures.
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MEMORY My grandfather, from the Indian side, had become quite wealthy. He had acquired a lot of money for his time, in sixties, which was a big deal for Indians who had just migrated to the country in 1920s-1930s. People migrated because poverty or extreme circumstances, but my aunt actually told me the other day, that the people who migrated in that time from that part of India, they were known as entrepreneurs or adventurers. They wanted to go and create a business, but not in a suits and ties kind of way, because money was a different kind of thing back then. So they migrated for the reason to explore, which they obviously did. They landed on the shores of Mozambique and had to cross it, which is about 1000 km, by foot to get to Zimbabwe. Fast forward, my grandfather had become the mayor of the town that the family populated, so he was bringing in good money. While we lived in the capital, he lived in Gatooma, which is known today as Kadoma. He would come to the capital once a week, mostly for family affairs and he would take everyone to a fancy hotel. We would always go there when I was around 4 to 10 years old, until my grandfather retired from his position to have an easier life. But anyways, we as kids, did not really know it was that fancy. There was this long table, like the one from da Vinci’s Last Supper and everyone was around that table, cousins, aunties, uncles, all the children. And I remember I would always have spaghetti Bolognese, because that was all I could comprehend. I could have had lobster, steak or whatever, but I did not understand these. I can always remember my family members sitting around that table.
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Stew with Sadza Serve: 6 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
STEW:
MAKE THE STEW:
600 g pork or blade beef
1. Cut the beef into serving sized pieces. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a medium sized pot and add the beef to it.
1/4 onion chopped 1 tomato 4 tbsp oil for frying 2 tbsp soup powder 1 ltr water 1/2 tbsp salt
SADZA: 7 cups water 1 1/2 tbsp salt 3 cups white cornmeal (in Africa known as maize meal or mealie meal)
2. Add salt and fry your beef until it has browned up. Add water and partly cover your pot. You may either slow cook your beef or cook it on high heat. When your meat is tender, drain excess water which is now beef stock into a separate jug (do not discard) and set aside. 3. Add 2 tbsp of oil to the meat in the pot. Add onions and fry until they are cooked (2 min). Add tomatoes and stir until they are also just about cooked (2 min). Whilst the tomatoes are cooking, take the set-aside beef stock and mix it with the 2 tbsp soup powder. Pour the mixture into the beef. Cover the pot and simmer for 5 min so that everything is well combined and flavors mix together. If you feel the soup is too thick for your liking you may add some more water. MAKE SADZA:
1. Bring water and salt to a boil in a large pot.When it boils, add the cornmeal all in one go. Stir, while pouring the dry cornmeal in, to avoid grainy texture. 2. Cover and cook undisturbed over very gentle heat for about 30 - 60 min. The final mixture should be thick and smooth.
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Poland Natalia
FOOD CULTURE My family eats mostly traditionally. We usually eat breakfast and then there is something we call a second breakfast which is usually a sandwich that you eat at school or work, but we don’t really eat lunch. Then our dinner is usually around 4 or 5 pm and we always have proper dinners with a soup and a second course. Then between around 7 or 9 pm we eat a supper, which is usually a sandwich. In my family my dad used to cook always, while my mom never did. When I was living back home, we normally ate together if we could, but the Sunday’s dinner was something that you could never miss.
MEMORY I remember the Christmases in our house. We always cook a lot before Christmas, for example if we are expecting 6 guests, we make food for 20. So for couple of nights before Christmas, we usually sit together until late just chatting, listening to music and cooking together. This is a nice memory that always reminds me home. We usually cook dumplings, which is also my favorite dish, we call it pierogi in Polish. It is pastry stuffed with cabbage and mushrooms or with meat or anything else. It can be savoury or made with fruits. We also cook borsch, a lot of fish and meat, salads. And it is always late cooking in my house before Christmas.
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Pierogi Serve: makes 60 pierogis INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, sour cream, eggs, egg yolk and oil. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour until well blended. Cover the bowl with a towel, and let stand for 15 to 20 min.
2 tsp salt 2 tbsp butter, melted 2 cups sour cream 2 eggs 1 egg yolk 2 tbsp vegetable oil 8 baking potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 2 tbsp processed cheese sauce
2. Place potatoes into a pot, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, and mash with shredded cheese and cheese sauce while still hot. Season with onion salt, salt and pepper. Set aside to cool. 3. Separate the pierogi dough into two balls. Roll out one piece at a time on a lightly floured surface until it is thin enough to work with, but not too thin so that it tears. Cut into circles using a cookie cutter, pierogi cutter, or a glass. Brush a little water around the edges of the circles, and spoon some filling into the center. Fold the circles over into half-circles, and press to seal the edges. Place pierogis on a cookie sheet, and freeze. Once frozen, transfer to freezer storage bags or containers. (Frozen pierogis are less likely to burst during cooking.)
onion salt to taste (optional) salt and pepper to taste
4. To cook perogies: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Drop the frozen pierogis in one at a time. They are done when they float to the top. Do not boil too long, or they will be soggy! Remove with a slotted spoon.
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Venezuela Maite
FOOD CULTURE We used to eat the traditional Venezuelan food, like pabellon criollo, fried platain and arepas, but because my dad is Brazilian, we often also ate Brazilian food. What I remember is that we were constantly cooking a lot, because we never knew who was turning up. I really loved that 4-5 hours preparation before the lunch on weekends, although generally the dinner was the most important. Eating was really social, we talked a lot and if we were with our friends, it were constantly making jokes and laughing, it was very loud.
MEMORY When I was a kid, we would go to the beach every weekend and have a massive lunch with everyone, which was nice. In the beach we would usually cook the traditional food and the fish or what we would find in there. At the beach there was a country club and we could mostly do whatever we wanted there, but at the lunchtime we had to be there. I remember that we had to be very careful whenever we were in laid out path, because the iguanas just fall from the trees and you had to be careful because they would slap you with tale and it can be really dangerous. So most of the time we had to rush and then we had to go all the way around to avoid them and we were late for the lunch.
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Arepas Serve: 4 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
1 cup precooked corn flour (Masarepa)
1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the water slowly, kneading together until the liquid is absorbed. Add the rest of the water and mix very well, for approximately 5 min.
1 1/3 cups water 1/4 tsp salt 1 tbsp vegetable oil
FILLING: 1/4 cup finely chopped onion 1/2 cup finely chopped tomatoes 1 cup cooked shredded chicken breast
2. Form the dough into balls about half the size of an orange, and flatten in your hands or on a piece of plastic until it becomes a disc shape approximately 1 cm thick. 3. Heat up a large skillet and cover with oil (about 5 mm deep). Fry the arepas on medium-high heat, flipping only once until golden, approximately 5 min on each side. 4. Place the fried arepas onto paper towels to absorb the excess oil. 5. Split each arepa open with a knife to form a pocket and spoon in your choice of filling while still hot.
1/3 cup grated mozzarella FOR FILLING: 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/8 tsp pepper
1. In a skillet, heat the vegetable oil and add the chopped onion. SautĂŠ the onions briefly until they are translucent, about 1 min, then add the tomatoes, chicken, salt and pepper. Stir to combine well. Add the mayonnaise and mozzarella, stir and remove from heat.
vegetable oil
2. After you have filled the arepas, add avocado.
1 avocado, chopped 1/4 tsp salt
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Malaysia Brindha
MEMORY In Malaysia, we celebrate Onam that is a harvest festival that originates from my home land Kerala, India. My grandpa has a long version of how Onam came to be but to me the most poignant part of this celebration is the food. It is an all vegetarian cuisine cooked in the traditional way. On this occasion all family members gather and it is the only time where my mom and grandma will cook 8 different dishes. This includes a dessert, sometimes two. The smell in the house on that day is simply wonderful. The cooking starts early morning and the smells reach our nose even before we are awake. My grandpa says that there is a reason why each dish is prepared the way it is and why it is served up the way its done. On this day we have our lunch served on a banana leaf and not on a conventional plate. It’s a special day. Food is literally finger licking good.
The Malaysian national pastime is eating.
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Sambal INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
Olive oil
1. Wash the dried anchovies and set aside on a strainer. Heat oil in a pan and add the anchovies. Fry till golden brown. Do this in small batches and keep the heat low so that the anchovies don’t burn. Remove from oil and strain.
A handful of dried anchovies (You may use fried soya bean cubes or eggs for a vegetarian option) A handful of dried chillies, thinly sliced 2 large red onions 1 tomato 1 tbsp of tamarind juice A cup of thinned coconut milk Salt to taste Jaggery (or molasses) to taste
2. Using the leftover oil, fry the sliced onions till golden brown. Remove from oil and strain. 3. Wash and soak the dried chillies for 20 min. This can be done before starting the frying of the anchovies. Remove from the water and place it in the blender. Cut the tomatoes into small cubes and add to the chillies. Blend the mixture till you get a fine paste. 4. Add the paste to the same frying pan and add a cupful of thinned coconut milk and let it cook for 30 min. Make sure the heat is low and that the mixture is constantly stirred. Once the raw taste of the chilly is gone, add the tamarind juice. Let it cook for another 10 min. If the mixture starts to become dry, add water to avoid it from burning. Once the paste starts to thicken at this stage, add a tsp of oil and add the fried onions. Let it cook for 5 min the finally add the fried anchovies. You can now add salt and the molasses to taste. Stir all ingredients well and just as the paste is getting dry, remove from pan and transfer to a serving bowl.
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Estonia Triin
FOOD CULTURE In my family we don’t really eat traditionally, my mom always tries out different new recipes, she is the one usually cooking. However, we have a kind of tradition that every Friday it’s my dad’s job to do barbecue, although in summer we grill almost every day. Every Sunday me and my sister bake pizza, usually we go to sauna every Sunday and after that we chill and eat pizza. We sometimes do eat traditional Estonian food, for example on Christmas we always have some meat, black pudding, potatoes and sauerkraut, but we also have many other things that are not necessarily typical to Christmas, for example my aunt always makes a sandwich cake. Also, when we celebrate the Independence Day, we usually eat traditional sprat sandwiches and milk soup, in my family these two always go together.
MEMORY I remember this one time when I was around 5. We were sitting on the kitchen floor with my sister and eating some homemade caviar directly from a jar. Someone had just brought some fish to my grandfather, so they collected all the caviar and salted it themselves. We were eating so much caviar when we were kids and last summer when I went to see my grandmother, she had bought some caviar just for me, because she remembered that we loved it so much as kids, so we were just sitting with her and eating it directly from a jar.
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Potato Casserole Serve: 4 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
600 g potatoes
1. Peel the potatoes, cut into cubes and boil them in a slightly salty water.
2 tbsp olive oil 1 onion 2 garlic cloves 200 g tomato puree
2. Heat the oil on a pan and add chopped onion and garlic. Add tomato puree and stir. Let it boil for 1 min and add potatoes, paprika and olives. Season with salt and paprika powder.
1/2 tsp paprika powder
3. Grease the oven tray and pour the mixture on it. Make 4 holes in the mixture and add an egg into each hole.
1 paprika
4. Cook it in the oven at 225째C for 5 min.
1 dl olives 4 eggs salt pepper
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Bolivia Aldo
FOOD CULTURE Food in my home was really traditional to Bolivia. Usually my grandmother cooked. The most important mealtime was lunch and once a week, on Sundays, all family gathered together for a lunch.
MEMORY I used to go to the market with my grandmother. I cooked with her and now I am a chef myself. She used to cook really nice pork stew that is called fricasĂŠ, it is very hot and specially good for hangovers.
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Fricasé Serve: 4 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
900 g pork (ribs or porkchop)
1. Cut the pork into 8 large pieces. Rub the aji amarillo into the pork.
1/2 cup aji amarillo yellow sauce 12 small potatoes (originally is used black or white Chuño, you can also leave the potatoes out) 1/4 cup bread crumbs 1 can hominy (Mote blanco)
2. Heat the water or broth in a large pot. When it is hot (but not boiling) add the pork, garlic, salt, cumin and let it simmer for an hour and a half. 3. While the meat is cooking, boil the potatoes and set aside. 4. Once the pork is tender (after about 1 hour and a half), add the oregano and bread crumbs. Let it simmer for 10 min. Add the potatoes and hominy or mote blanco.
5 garlic cloves 5. Serve! 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp dry oregano salt 4 cups of water or broth
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Turkey Melis
FOOD CULTURE In my family my mom usually cooks, because she loves it. She does traditional food, but because she has been to many cooking classes, she often also cooks food from other cultures. On weekdays we used eat dinner together, around 8 pm and on weekends we used to have breakfast together. On Sunday afternoons we normally ate kebab and watched movies. In Turkey people are really friendly and hospitable, you always have to give something to others.
A really popular thing in Turkey is the Turkish coffee. It is really strong and you only drink it espresso amount. Generally people drink it after the breakfast, with the cigaret and when they want to gossip. We always drink it while gossiping, because after we drink it, we close the cup down and wait for 10-15 minutes and then you open it and you can sort of see your fortune, the shape of the coffee describes your future. I think people are getting too serious about it, because lots of people do it every time they drink it. For example, my mother’s friend is really good at telling the fortune, so every time I see her I drink coffee.
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Manti Serve: 4 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
2 cups flour
1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the eggs and water, mixing well with your hands. Add more water, if needed, to form a soft dough. Cover and set aside for at least 30 min.
½ tsp salt 2 eggs ½ tsp water or as needed 2 onions, peeled 250 g ground beef salt and pepper to taste 3 tbsp vegetable oil 1 tbsp red pepper flakes 1 tbsp minced garlic 1 container (250 g) plain yogurt
2. Shred the onions and place them in a colander or sieve set over a bowl; drain the juice and discard. Combine the onion, ground beef, salt, and pepper; mix the meat well with a spoon until mashed. 3. Divide the dough into two portions and lightly flour a work surface. Keep one piece of dough covered while you roll out the second portion into a rectangle, rolling the dough as thin as you can. Cut the rectangle into 2 cm squares with a knife or pastry wheel. Place about 2 tsp of the meat filling in the center of each square. Seal the dumplings by gathering the edges of the dough and pinching them together at the top to form a bundle. Transfer the finished manti to a floured plate, and sprinkle more flour over the manti to prevent sticking. Repeat with the second piece of dough. 4. Heat the oil and red pepper flakes in a small skillet over low heat just until the pepper flakes have started to color the oil; don’t let them burn. Remove from the heat and keep warm. Stir the minced garlic into the yogurt and set aside. 5. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook the manti until the filling is no longer pink, and the dough is tender, 20 to 25 min. Drain well. Divide the manti among four plates. Spoon the yogurt sauce over the manti and drizzle each serving with the hot pepper oil. - 49 -
MEMORY My favorite food from back home is manti and my grandmother does it the best. Because my grandmother is old, she usually comes to our place in every two months, but these are really special times.
When I was a kid, I always wanted my grandma to come to our house, so that she can do manti for me, which sounds a bit selfish.
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France Coline
FOOD CULTURE My mom is a chef, so she does a very good food. She loves getting inspiration from other cultures and she always invents something new. For example, she does really good Chinese nem and salmon lasagne and also a delicious crumble. She had her own restaurant, but she sold it to do a home restaurant. She really wants people to feel at home, when they are at her home, so she will be cooking in her kitchen and there will be no menu, it will be everyday something different. I really miss the bread from back home, some good crusty baguette. When I lived with my family, I always used to have bread with butter before starting my meal.
MEMORY After my parents divorced, we used to go to my father’s house every second weekend and because he did not really know how to cook, he used to cook rabbit, because he thinks that is an easy meat to cook. He used to cook it with prunes and carrots and now he is always very pretentious like “oh, I know how to cook a rabbit”. Now I miss it, because he doesn’t cook it anymore.
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I know it’s a bit of a clichÊ, but I always liked bread and butter.
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Berry Crumble INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
white flour
1. Pre-heat oven at 200째C.
brown sugar
2. Place 170 g of white flour in a large bowl or on the kitchen top. Add 75 g of the brown sugar.
120 g butter blueberries and rasperries (fresh if possible) vanilla extract
3. Dice 120 g of butter and mix it with the flour and sugar. It is better done with the hands as it needs to form little blocks. 4. In a baking tray, place fresh blueberries and raspberries evenly to cover the bottom of the tray. Top up with brown sugar and add vanilla extract to balance with the fruit bitterness. 5. Set the butter and flour mixture on top of the fruits in the baking tray as evenly as possible. 6. Place the tray in the oven and cook for 35 min. Serve hot or cold, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and garnish with mint and fresh berries. Enjoy!
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Ethiopia Mahalet
FOOD CULTURE Ethiopian food is not processed, all ingredients are fresh and you know where they come from. We also grow most of the food ourselves. In my country, we celebrate a lot of festivals and Christmas is really important, then we usually eat doro wat, which is a chicken stew with onion, garlic, ginger and you cook it for long hours and then you add hard boiled egg as well and we eat it with injera. We usually cook together with family, friends or neighbours, everybody comes together. In my country everybody is the same, doesn’t matter where you come from or if you are poor or rich. If we celebrate, we don’t close our doors, even if you are a foreigner. If you would go to Ethiopia on Christmas for example, you wouldn’t stay in a hotel, because people would invite you to their homes, Ethiopian people are really friendly and helpful.
MEMORY I don’t have a one specific memory, but I really miss injera, which is like a pita bread, but with different flour. It’s made of teff, that originally was only growing in Ethiopia. My mother and grandmother were usually cooking it, but when I was 7 I also learned how to do it myself.
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Doro Wat Serve: 4 INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
1 kg chicken thighs, cut into 3 cm pieces, or 3 chicken breasts, cut into 1.5 cm pieces
1. Place the chicken pieces in a bowl and pour lemon juice over. Let sit at room temperature for at least 30 min.
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice 2 tbsp niter kibbeh, if you have it (ethiopian spiced butter), or regular butter
2. Heat the niter kibbeh or butter along with the olive oil in a Dutch oven (or other cooking pot). Add the onions and saute, covered, over low heat for 45 min, stirring occasionally.
2 tbsp olive oil
3. Add the garlic, ginger, and 1 tbsp butter and continue to saute, covered, for another 20 min, stirring occasionally.
3 cups yellow onions (finely minced to a chunky puree in food processor)
4. Add the berbere and the 2 remaining tbsp of butter and saute, covered, over low heat for another 30 min, stirring occasionally.
3 tbsp butter
5. Add the chicken, broth, and wine and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 min, stirring occasionally.
1 tbsp garlic (finely minced) 1 tbsp ginger (finely minced) ¼ cup berbere
6. Adjust the seasonings, adding more berbere according to heat preference. Add the boiled eggs (pierced all over with fork about 0.5 cm deep) and simmer on low heat, covered, for another 15 min.
1½ tsp salt 7. Serve hot with injera bread or rice. ½ cup white wine mixed with 1 tsp honey 1 cup chicken stock 4 hard-boiled eggs
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Australia Boaz
FOOD CULTURE In my family we cook a lot of Indian food and a lot of seafood. What I really miss is just a simple fresh grilled fish with some lemon. We cook a lot at home and we used to eat together with my family most of the time. Because I am jewish, every Friday night, from the day I was born, my whole family comes together and has a dinner.
Australia is so multicultural that I would say our traditional food is fusion. MEMORY My grandma always bakes her famous cake, we call it ‘health cake’ and it basically has nothing in it, no dairy or anything. I am not sure what is in it exactly, but it is very plain and actually doesn’t taste very good. Whenever there is a guest, we don’t really have to ask if they are allergic to something, because it has nothing. She has been baking it since I was born and probably long time before that. She would cook it on birthdays and every few weeks as well. I could send you the recipe, but then you would probably just receive a blank email. Another memory I have, is when our parents bought our first house. We were going to knock it down and there was this massive mulberry tree, so we would go there every day and pick up all the mulberries, that was nice.
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Grilled Fish INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
fresh fish
1. Clean the fish. (You can dry scale it, so it does not get in contact with fresh water, keeping the natural salt water taste.)
lemon olive oil
2. Get the pan really hot and add vegetable oil and sea salt.
sea salt 3. Place the fish skin side down to the pan and place a weight on top (another pan is good), so the fish does not buckle. After 1 min remove weight and turn the heat low. 4. When the skin is crispy and golden and when you feel it is ready, flip it for 30 seconds. 5. Remove it from the heat. Drizzle some olive oil over the fish and serve with a wedge of lemon.
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Thank you! Thank you to everyone who shared their stories and recipes: Sara Bauerova Parr Geng Mahalet Hailu Sandhu Kidia Brindha Kumar Melis Ozel Veronika Papadopoulou Amaia Zelaiaundi Parral Motoko Priestman Triin P채rnpuu Natalia Rusiecka Boaz Hunter Smith Maite Storni Coline Khan Touaux Aldo
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