Recipes from Our Countries

April 2018

Our Writing Workshop class cookbook started as an assignment.  Everyone’s ideas went into the cookbook.  We students are from many different places in the world; different countries, different islands, different backgrounds.

We wrote recipes from our countries.  Some are everyday dishes; some are holiday dishes.  Some comfort us when we are sick and help us get well.  These are family recipes we grew up with and have cooked many times.  These are dishes that people love to eat.

 

Omar’s Caribbean Chicken Soup

Omar’s Grandmother

My grandmother, Miss Esme, always had a lot of kids around, and she made this recipe a lot. She made many different types of soup. She took care of me when I was little.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

2 pounds yellow yams

2 potatoes

2 scallions

½ pumpkin

2 bell peppers

2 cups corn

1 pound green beans or dried beans (must be cooked ahead)

3-4 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon ground chili pepper

1 handful chopped cilantro

2 packs of dried noodles

Directions:

  1. Put a pot of water on the stove, and bring it to a boil.
  2. Put in the chicken and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
  3. Add the vegetables and seasonings. Cook for another half-hour.
  4. You know the soup is done when the vegetables are soft.
  5. Serve with your choice of starch (dumplings are great).

 

Albert’s Tortillas

The Goldtooth Family

I learned from my mom. She said, “You will learn how to make it.” So I did. I did it by myself when I was at the camp where the sheep were grazing. I started making tortillas when I was 15. I made the tortilla dough, and also had the outside fire ready, with the hot metal plate on top.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour (Bluebird flour works the best because it doesn’t tear. I get it at Food City.

pinch of salt

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 cup lard

1 cup hot water

Directions:

  1. Put flour, salt, baking powder and lard in a medium-sized bowl.
  2. Mix together, then add water gradually while mixing.
  3. Knead by hand until all ingredients are well mixed into a stiff dough.
  4. Shape dough into small balls; use rolling pin to flatten into round shapes.
  5. Cook on heated grill until brown and bubbling on both sides.
  6. Take tortillas off grill and put on a clean cloth.

 

Ugali with Stew 

Lilian’s Family in Kenya

I learned this from my mother cooking it all the time. I got used to doing it. My mother cooked a lot of Ugali.

Ingredients for Ugali:

5 cups water

2 teaspoons salt

3 cups cornmeal

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Ingredients for Stew:

3 tablespoons curry powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

6 cups collard greens

2 cups spinach

1 large onion chopped or diced

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Directions for Ugali:

  1. Put water in pot with salt and bring to a boil.
  2. Stir the cornmeal into the pot.
  3. Reduce heat to medium-low.
  4. Stir constantly until it becomes a ball.

Directions for Stew:

  1. Brown onions in a large pot with a little oil.
  2. Add black pepper, curry, and salt.
  3. Add collard greens and spinach.
  4. Cook for 1 hour.

Serving:

Turn the pot with the Ugali upside down onto a plate. Cut the ball of Ugali into individual serving slices. Then put stew on top of the Ugali slices.

 

Mom’s Chicken Soup

Francisca’s Family

Ingredients:

4 cups water

2 tablespoons salt

1 whole chicken

¼ of an onion

3 ears of corn, each cut into three pieces

1 pound of squash (Mexican if available), chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 head of cabbage, cut into thirds

5 carrots, chopped

1 fistful of cilantro

2 cloves of garlic

Directions:

  1. Bring water to a boil with whole chicken and all ingredients.
  2. Once boiling, then turn down so it will simmer.
  3. Let simmer for about an hour.
  4. Remove chicken from pot and let cool.
  5. Take out the chicken bones and the skin. Then, put chicken back into the pot.
  6. When ready to serve, cut ears of corn into thirds and ladle soup into bowls.

 

Diana’s Beef Soup

Diana Siqueiros

I learned this soup by watching and helping my mother when I was a kid. She would give me instructions as we were making this recipe. We would make this recipe about once a week. We served this with salad and garlic bread and cottage cheese. It’s become a tradition that we continue to make once a week. Sometimes, we can substitute chicken for the chuck roast.

Ingredients:

3 – 4 pounds chuck roast beef, cut into large chunks

2 tablespoons salt

2 cups of chopped onions

2 cups of zucchini squash, sliced

2 cups carrots, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 celery stalk, chopped

2 cups corn (preferably fresh)

2 cups bell pepper (any color), chopped

2 cups chopped spinach

2 tablespoons black pepper

Water

Directions:

Place the chuck roast in a large pot. Cover the roast with water. Add all ingredients. Place the covered pot in a 450-degree oven. Once the mixture is bubbling, lower to 375 degrees and cook for about one and a half hours. Add water as needed to keep the ingredients covered. The soup is done when the meat falls apart and the vegetables are soft. The soup should produce a good aroma.

 

Chef’s Salad

Jerry Johnson

I make this salad whenever I want something sweet. You can put almost anything in this salad.

Ingredients: Sugar, Lettuce, Peaches, Tomatoes, Pears, Ham, Plums, Salad Dressing – Any kind.

Directions:

  1. Dice the fruit.
  2. Shred the lettuce.
  3. Cut the tomatoes.
  4. Chop ham into little squares.
  5. Mix them all in a big bowl. Sprinkle sugar over everything. Pour on the salad dressing.
  6. Eat

 

Mukimo and Minced Meat Stew

Lilian Nutwota

My mother liked cooking mukimo and minced meat stew. I liked learning it from her all the time.

Ingredients for Mukimo:

Pumpkin leaves. If they’re not available, use one bunch of Spinach leaves.

6 potatoes, peeled, and cut into big chunks to be boiled.

Beans, any kind.

6 cans. maize (corn) 4 or 5 ears.

Ingredients for Stew:

Minced meat (ground beef)  2 pounds

3 to 4 large tomatoes, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

vegetable oil

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon

1 teaspoon powdered cardamom

Instructions for Mukimo:

Boil potatoes. Add beans, maize, pumpkin or spinach leaves to the potatoes. Then mash them together.

Instructions for Stew:

Brown minced (ground) meat in a cooking pot on a medium hot stove. Remove meat and place in a bowl. Add oil in the pan to cook onion, tomatoes, red bell pepper and cilantro.  Cook until the vegetables are soft. Add browned meat to the pan and add spices. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add water as needed.

To serve, place Mukimo in a bowl, and then cover with the stew.

 

 

Ed’s Chicken Nuggets

Eduardo’s mom

Ingredients:

2 pounds chicken breast

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons corn starch

4 cups vegetable oil

Directions:

  1. Cut off chicken fat and cut chicken into bite sized pieces
  2. Put chicken in paper bag with salt and pepper and garlic powder.
  3. Add flour and corn starch.
  4. Mix the ingredients together.
  5. Heat vegetable oil in a pot on the stove at medium heat.
  6. Add chicken and cook until it is golden brown.

 

Underground Turkey 

Albert Goldtooth.

I like to make my turkey in an outside pit underground. The pit, made up with cement, is about 3 feet deep. On Thanksgiving, I can cook 3 turkeys at the same time. I cook with a truckload of mesquite wood. When the turkey is ready, it falls off the bone.

Ingredients:

1, 12-16 pound turkey

½  cup celery

½  cup onion

1 cup bread crumbs

1 stick melted butter

Directions:

  1. Clean up turkey.
  2. Melt butter.
  3. Chop celery and onion.
  4. Put celery, onion, breadcrumbs and butter in a large bowl. Mix well.
  5. Stuff ingredients inside the turkey.
  6. Cover the bottom of the pit with water.
  7. Wrap turkey with foil. Put the turkey on a rack in the pit. Add lots of dirt so the heat doesn’t come out and the turkey steam cooks.
  8. Place mesquite wood on top of dirt and light. Keep feeding the fire with wood.
  9. Cook for 8 hours.

 

Mess of Beans

Suzanne Poirier’s Mother 

My father always planted lots of green beans every summer. My mother always called an armful of them a “mess of beans,” and she would boil them with potatoes and ham hocks. It was a simple dinner, but one of our favorites. We only ate it in the summer when I was growing up — as an adult, I sometimes treat myself to this meal in the winter, as long as they have fresh green beans in the grocery store.

Serves 4

Ingredients: 

2 pounds fresh green beans, snapped into approximately 2-inch lengths

4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

2 large smoked ham (pork) hocks (they usually come two in a package)

1 large onion, peeled and cut in half.

Salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. Trim the rind from around the ham hocks and place them in a large kettle. Add the onion halves and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer for 30-45 minutes. 2. Remove the ham hocks and onion from the water. Put in the potatoes, return water to a boil, and then turn back down to low. Cook for about 15-20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  2. While the potatoes are cooking, discard the onion and cut the meat from the ham hocks. It will be in funny, ball-like shapes within the hock. Cut into small pieces. Try to use only the meat, not the fat or gristle. You probably will get only a cup of meat.
  3. When the potatoes break apart as they’re pierced with a fork, add the beans and return the meat to the kettle. Cook at a low boil until the beans are the texture you desire. Check salt and pepper again.

Serving:

You can dish these into a bowl and go for it. My favorite way to eat this dish, however, is to mash up the potatoes before I ladle the beans and ham over it, with just a little bit of the broth. It’s very good with a nice chunk of bread.

 

Paul’s Special Spice for Cooked or Jerk Chicken

Paul Green

I learned to cook when I was 14 years old.  I watched my mom but mostly I cooked in the bush with my friends.  I also worked in three restaurants.  I made some mean burgers, and I made Chinese food, too.  Now I love to cook.

Ingredients:

3-pound chicken, whole or cut in pieces (you can make this with pork or beef, too)

1/2 cup vinegar OR juice of 2 lemons mixed with 2 cups water

1 large or two small onions, either red or white, chopped

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon thyme

2 teaspoons black pepper

1 teaspoon Accent Seasoning

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Salt: start with a little and add more as needed

4-6 pimentos, from a can or jar

Directions:

  1. Get out your meat and wash it with the mixture of vinegar or lemons and water.
  2. Combine all the seasonings in a blender with a little water so that it will make a paste.
  3. Put spices in a bowl with the chicken.
  4. Rub the spices into the chicken with your hands. If you are keeping the chicken whole, put some of the spices under the chicken’s skin and inside the chicken.
  5. Marinate from one hour to overnight — longer is better!
  6. Cover the chicken and cook slowly on a grill or in an oven at 350 degrees.
  7. Remove cover about 30 minutes before it is done, so it will brown.
  8. Chicken is done when you stick it with a fork and the juice is clear, about 2 1/2 hours.