Not that we don't love Blogger.com, of course we do but we need a bit more control and want to offer you a lot more ocntent and information.
So... we created a new blog over at How To Cookbooks.
http://howtocookbooks.com/wordpress
We've also been busy over at Squidoo so check out what else we've got cooking.
start with this Squidoo Lens and then see our others from that page.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
More dots and more recipe connections
I lived in New Orleans for over 18 years. My partner and I left just a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina.
Originally I am from the Midwest so New Orleans food was an exotic adventure to me. In the Midwest we do cook seafood, but for us a crawfish is a crawdad, and we use them for bait when we fish. We'd never put one in our mouths willingly.:crazy:
So all of the amazing seafood recipes took a bit of getting used to for me.
Now let's connect some more dots when it comes to food. Many of New Orleans traditional dishes are served on beds of rice, or rice based. I give you the examples of Shrimp Etouffee, Crawfish Etouffee, Jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice, and gumbo which is served on a bed of rice.
While the climate for growing rice in Louisiana is good, the rice itself was introduced by the earliest Spanish settlers in the region. Most of the dishes I name above are Creole.
Now put on your thinking caps, and tell me what other countries or ethinicities serve their dishes over rice or have rice as a main ingredient.
Go ahead ... think for a minute. Bet you came up with Chinese food, but that's not what I thought of since I was discussing seafood on rice in the paragraph above,
One that immediately comes to mind for me is Paella, which hails from the Valencia Province of Spain. Even the way Paella is cooked is similar to the way Jamabalaya is traditionally cooked. The pans are different, but the concept is similar. Metal pan over a tripod with a fire source under it, cooked down until all the liquid is gone and the ingredients are indentifiable within the seasoned rice.
Pretty cool, huh?
Originally I am from the Midwest so New Orleans food was an exotic adventure to me. In the Midwest we do cook seafood, but for us a crawfish is a crawdad, and we use them for bait when we fish. We'd never put one in our mouths willingly.:crazy:
So all of the amazing seafood recipes took a bit of getting used to for me.
Now let's connect some more dots when it comes to food. Many of New Orleans traditional dishes are served on beds of rice, or rice based. I give you the examples of Shrimp Etouffee, Crawfish Etouffee, Jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice, and gumbo which is served on a bed of rice.
While the climate for growing rice in Louisiana is good, the rice itself was introduced by the earliest Spanish settlers in the region. Most of the dishes I name above are Creole.
Now put on your thinking caps, and tell me what other countries or ethinicities serve their dishes over rice or have rice as a main ingredient.
Go ahead ... think for a minute. Bet you came up with Chinese food, but that's not what I thought of since I was discussing seafood on rice in the paragraph above,
One that immediately comes to mind for me is Paella, which hails from the Valencia Province of Spain. Even the way Paella is cooked is similar to the way Jamabalaya is traditionally cooked. The pans are different, but the concept is similar. Metal pan over a tripod with a fire source under it, cooked down until all the liquid is gone and the ingredients are indentifiable within the seasoned rice.
Pretty cool, huh?
Connecting the dots through food
One of the most interesting things I have discovered while putting this project together is the interconnection of seemingly diverse ethnic groups when it comes to food.
Now if you are a student of history or humanity, you may already know this.
Even though I knew the basic history of many of the world regions I was still struck by how closely connected some of the food is.
Let me give you an example. We have a contributor who is Moroccan. As she and I sat transcribing hundreds of recipes I got a flash back to the list from our contributor from Argentina. The common thread lentils. Both have a recipe for a lentil dish, but so do our cookbook contributors from Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
The lentil connection amongst the hispanic cuisines was not a surprise, but connecting the americas to North Africa was.
While all of them have their own unique ways to cook and present lentils, I can't help but wonder how many of you would have expected to have this one ingredient span the Atlantic Ocean.
If you were surprised, maybe you are interested in how it happened.
Let's take a short walk back in history. Most of you have no doubt at least heard of the Spanish Inquisition, right? Well during the period that Spain was casting off its "undesirables" many Sephardic Jews (Andalusian Jews) took the boat, literally, to North Africa. Along with their world possessions they took the cuisine of Spain just as the conquistidors brought it to Central and south America.
And so you have lentils in these seemingly diverse cuisines.
Later in our journey we'll be giving you more short history lessons and connecting more dots through food. So stay with us, and if you have another surprising food connection that you'd like to share please feel free to comment on our blog. We'd love to hear from you.
Now if you are a student of history or humanity, you may already know this.
Even though I knew the basic history of many of the world regions I was still struck by how closely connected some of the food is.
Let me give you an example. We have a contributor who is Moroccan. As she and I sat transcribing hundreds of recipes I got a flash back to the list from our contributor from Argentina. The common thread lentils. Both have a recipe for a lentil dish, but so do our cookbook contributors from Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
The lentil connection amongst the hispanic cuisines was not a surprise, but connecting the americas to North Africa was.
While all of them have their own unique ways to cook and present lentils, I can't help but wonder how many of you would have expected to have this one ingredient span the Atlantic Ocean.
If you were surprised, maybe you are interested in how it happened.
Let's take a short walk back in history. Most of you have no doubt at least heard of the Spanish Inquisition, right? Well during the period that Spain was casting off its "undesirables" many Sephardic Jews (Andalusian Jews) took the boat, literally, to North Africa. Along with their world possessions they took the cuisine of Spain just as the conquistidors brought it to Central and south America.
And so you have lentils in these seemingly diverse cuisines.
Later in our journey we'll be giving you more short history lessons and connecting more dots through food. So stay with us, and if you have another surprising food connection that you'd like to share please feel free to comment on our blog. We'd love to hear from you.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
How to cook like you are from ..., when you are not
Our vision for this website is to share our authentic recipes from our diverse ethnic backgrounds with people all over the word.
When I write "our diverse ethnic backgrounds" I do mean exactly that. We come from all corners of the world. Authentic means just that, these are not cookbooks and recipes from people who have tried to recreate a flavor or recipe these are people who were born and raised in every corner of the world and carry their traditions to the dining room every day in our own homes.
So what will you find on our site? We have contributors from the following countries and backgrounds, listed in no particular order, as we begin the project:
Argentina
Costa Rica
Morocco
Germany
Lithuania
Mexico
Dominican Republic
Yemen
Israel
New Orleans, Louisiana
Interlaced into those backgrounds we have Ashkenazim and Sephardic Jews, vegetarians, healthy bakers, and scratch bakers. We are the United Nations of cooks.
We have a wine aficionado too, who will be providing a wine guide offering pairings and suggesting little known vintners and guidance on why certain wines work better with certain courses or ingredients.
We have contributors with special knowledge of the healing properties of certain foods, herbs, and spices. Interlaced on the website and in the cookbooks will be information about the healing properties of certain foods, herbs, and spices which will help you to live a healthier life with no more effort than cooking breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
We even have a tea aficionado who will offer a guide to creating a sensational "tea party". Our tea aficionado is also one of herb gurus.
As a group we are like a casserole, many diverse ingredients mixed together to make a single delicious end result.
http://howtocookbooks.com is a joint venture of cooking enthusiasts who, as one of our contributors put it "cook like a painter paints". Now what the heck does that mean, you may be asking. What it means is that we cook from the heart, or in other terms are open handed cooks. We start with a blank canvas and we add color until we are pleased with the outcome. In the case of cooking that means we add ingredients, spices, and herbs without following an official recipe.
That is the most challenging aspect of taking our recipes and making them into cookbooks that someone else can follow, and duplicate the recipe.
Ultimately our goals with this project and our cookbooks are to help people keep their ethnic traditions alive, introduce people to new cultures and cultural traditions, renew "family dinner" and face-to-face dinner conversation, encourage people to eat in a more healthy way, save money, and improve their lives and relationships.
While some may consider those goals lofty and perhaps even quixotic, we are passionate people who have never thrown up our hands in despair in the face of challenge.
Please join us on this cultural journey and take your place at our table.
When I write "our diverse ethnic backgrounds" I do mean exactly that. We come from all corners of the world. Authentic means just that, these are not cookbooks and recipes from people who have tried to recreate a flavor or recipe these are people who were born and raised in every corner of the world and carry their traditions to the dining room every day in our own homes.
So what will you find on our site? We have contributors from the following countries and backgrounds, listed in no particular order, as we begin the project:
Argentina
Costa Rica
Morocco
Germany
Lithuania
Mexico
Dominican Republic
Yemen
Israel
New Orleans, Louisiana
Interlaced into those backgrounds we have Ashkenazim and Sephardic Jews, vegetarians, healthy bakers, and scratch bakers. We are the United Nations of cooks.
We have a wine aficionado too, who will be providing a wine guide offering pairings and suggesting little known vintners and guidance on why certain wines work better with certain courses or ingredients.
We have contributors with special knowledge of the healing properties of certain foods, herbs, and spices. Interlaced on the website and in the cookbooks will be information about the healing properties of certain foods, herbs, and spices which will help you to live a healthier life with no more effort than cooking breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
We even have a tea aficionado who will offer a guide to creating a sensational "tea party". Our tea aficionado is also one of herb gurus.
As a group we are like a casserole, many diverse ingredients mixed together to make a single delicious end result.
http://howtocookbooks.com is a joint venture of cooking enthusiasts who, as one of our contributors put it "cook like a painter paints". Now what the heck does that mean, you may be asking. What it means is that we cook from the heart, or in other terms are open handed cooks. We start with a blank canvas and we add color until we are pleased with the outcome. In the case of cooking that means we add ingredients, spices, and herbs without following an official recipe.
That is the most challenging aspect of taking our recipes and making them into cookbooks that someone else can follow, and duplicate the recipe.
Ultimately our goals with this project and our cookbooks are to help people keep their ethnic traditions alive, introduce people to new cultures and cultural traditions, renew "family dinner" and face-to-face dinner conversation, encourage people to eat in a more healthy way, save money, and improve their lives and relationships.
While some may consider those goals lofty and perhaps even quixotic, we are passionate people who have never thrown up our hands in despair in the face of challenge.
Please join us on this cultural journey and take your place at our table.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
