Our cooking club needs food themes for this year. Any ideas?
Last year we tried Mexican recipes, Chinese recipes, Creole recipes, Slow Cooker recipes, and Tailgating recipes.
The ethnic themes are always fun, try greek, italian (there is more to italian cooking than pasta and red sauce), appetizers, wine and cheese tasting, favorite comfort food, favorite foods as a kid. A cookie or dessert party. Another idea is "What would I take to a picnic, a tropical theme, a pig or lamb roast. Your favorite wedding food theme. A night at the movies serving your favorite stars food. Good luck and sounds like fun.
Destination Haitian Cuisine
Haitian food is similar to the rest of the Latin-Caribbean (the French and the Spanish-speaking countries of the Antilles) however it differs in several ways from its regional counterparts. Its primary influence derive from French, and African cuisine, with notable derivatives from native Taíno and Spanish culinary technique. Though similar to other cooking styles in the region, it carries a uniqueness native only to the country and an appeal to many visitors to the island. Haitians use vegetables and meats extensively and peppers and similar herbs are often used for strengthening flavor. Dishes tend to be seasoned liberally and consequently Haitian cuisine tends to be moderately spicy, not mild and not too hot. In the country, however, many businesses of foreign origin have been established introducing several foreign cuisines into the mainstream culture. Years of adaptation have led to these cuisines (ie: Levantine from Arab migration to Haiti) to merge into Haitian cuisine.
Rice and beans in several differing ways are eaten throughout the country regardless of location, becoming a sort of national dish. They form the staple diet, which consists of a lot of starch and is high in carbohydrates. In the more rural areas, however, at great distances from the major cities, other foods are eaten to a larger degree such as mais moulu (mayi moulen), a dish comparable to cornmeal that can be eaten with sauce pois (sos pwa) [a bean sauce made from one of many types of beans such as kidney, pinto, or garbanzo beans, or pigeon peas]. Mais moulu can be eaten with fish (often red snapper), or alone, depending on personal preference. Tomato, oregano, cabbage, avocado, and red and green peppers are several of the many types of vegetables and fruits that are used in Haitian dishes. Banane Pésée (Bannan Pézé), flattened plantain slices that are fried in oil (known as tostones in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico), are eaten frequently in Haiti as both a snack food and as part of a meal. They are frequently eaten with tassot and/or griot, deep-fried goat and pork respectively.
Duration : 0:4:40
pernil
pernilCajun Cooking, Fiddle Set Played By Robbie Sherratt
Cajun Cooking inspired by peakfiddler’s youtube video (thanks Chris – your’s is best), plus Shove That Pig’s Foot a Little Further in the Fire and Red Haired Boy, played at the Rigger on 15 July 2009. Hope you like them. Special thanks to Dave Dove (seen on stage at the end) for inviting me to play.
Duration : 0:3:37
Yankee fast foodHaitian Kitchen
Making mayi moulin ak pwa (corn mush and beans) in the typical Haitian country kitchen. Filmed in Pignon, Haiti.
Duration : 0:4:33
Cajun Cochon de Lait from Chef Frank Brigtsen
In the bayou country of Louisiana Acadian’s or Cajuns mark the holidays with preparation of Cochon de Lait…Roast Suckling Pig. Although traditionally cooked outdoors, Chef Frank Brightsen executes this imposing dish in the kitchen of his restaurant.
Duration : 0:5:24
I want to win him over with food?
My boyfriend is from Albania. He once said that nobody can cook like his mother and I want to show him that I can cook, but, I am creole and I only cook creole dishes, american dishes and soul food. Where can I find an authentic Albanian recipe?
Chicken With Walnuts (Pule me arra)
500 gr. Chicken
3-4 tablespoons butter
? cup of tea peeled walnuts
5-6 cloves garlic, crushed
pepper
sail
1-2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons vinegar
5-6 cups water
? Simmer chicken in water seasoned with salt to taste until tender, about 1 hour. Remove chicken from cooking water, reserving 1-cup stock. Cool chicken slightly, then cut into 4 portions.
? Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet. Add chicken pieces and saute until lightly browned. Remove chicken pieces and keep warm.
? Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Add flour.
? Cook and stir until lightly browned. Add reserved stock, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Simmer over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes. Spoon sauce over chicken pieces.
Baked Lamb with Yogurt (Tave kosi)
1,5 kg lamb leg or shoulder
Salt,
pepper
? cup butter
2 tablespoons rice
1 kg yogurt
5 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon flour
? Cut meat into 4 serving pieces. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dot with ? cup butter and bake at 350 degrees, basting now and then with pan juices, about 40 minutes, or until well browned.
? Stir rice into pan juices. Remove baking pan from oven and set aside while preparing yogurt sauce.
? Combine yogurt with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in eggs until smooth. Set aside.
? Melt remaining ? cup butters and adds flour. Saute until smooth. Add yogurt mixture and stir until smooth.
? Pour yogurt sauce in baking pan, stirring it with meat pieces, and bake at 375 degrees 45 minutes. Serve hot.
Fried Meatballs (Qofte te Ferguara)
Serve these hot with French fries or mashed potatoes.
? kg ground meat (lamb, beef or chicken)
1 slice stale bread, broken up
2 tablespoons chopped feta cheese
1 union, finely grated
Salt, pepper
Crushed dried mint leaves
? cup flour
1 cup oil
? Combine meat, bread, feta cheese, onion, salt, pepper and mint to taste. Form into ?-inch thick patties, cylinders or balls. Roll in flour and fry in oil heated to 350 to 365 degrees.
Lamb without vegetable from Permeti
500 gr. Lamb
3-4 tablespoons butter
1-2 large unions (sliced)
? tablespoon flour
1 teacup milk
parsley
2 eggs
1 grain lemon-juice
sail
pepper
? Mix lamb with butter and onions together. Cook and stir until lightly browned.
? Roll in flour, stir some times, then add milk and a little water.
? Simmer over low heat until heated through.
? Remove from heat. Let cool and roll in eggs and lemon-juice.
? Stirring eggs and lemon-juice in chinaware, with a little cold water and rolling in gravy of meat.
? Mix this stock with lamb and roll in butter and cutting parsley and in the end sail pepper.
? Serve it its sauce.
Vine leaves stuffed with lemon and eggs
150 gr. pig salmagundi
150 gr. veal salmagundi
50 gr. Polished rice
3 unions, finely grated
fennel, finely grated
a little grease, finely grated
vine leaves
2 lemons
4 soupspoons butter
3 soupspoons
flour 4 yolk of eggs
garniture
salt
pepper
? Mix together in a bowl rice salmagundi, unions, fennel, salt, pepper, 50 gr. Cool water.
? Scald vine leaves. This mixture roll up in vine loaves.
? Put those inside a pot and insert 1 ? lemon-juice and water till pour all the components. Bring to boil. Set aside.
? Melt butter and add flour. Add a little juice. Bring to boil.
? Mix the eggs and remaining flour. Simmer for few minutes.
? Serve with sauce and tomatoes garniture.
Baked lamb with water-melon
500 gr. Lamb
? teacup oil
10-15 small unions
500 gr. Potatoes
10 carrots
2-3 pieces cerely
1-2 biting pepper
parsley, finely grated
salt
pepper
1 laurel leafage
? Cut meat into 4-5 serving portions. Roast meat in oil heated, until lightly browned.
? Fry unions in oil as usually, add sauce, 2 glasses with hot water, salt and pepper.
? Simmer meat over low heat not until in the end.
? All the other vegetables and fry in a large skillet and then put those in a baked.
? Pour the meat and the remaining gravy of meat, biting pepper, finely grated, and laurel.
? Simmer those over a low heat and then bake those.
? Serve hot with vegetables and the juice.
Turkey-cock with corn bread
1 small turkey-cock
4-5 fresh unions
100 gr. Butter
salt
pepper
1 corn bread
1 lemon
Prepare turkey-cock.
Rub turkey-cock with salt, pepper, butter and lemon.
Roast it and dot with its juice.
Fry a small of butter with fresh unions, finely grated, then add juice, a little water and simmer. Crush corn bread.
Roll in the juice.
Boil it several times.
Put pap on a plate and cut turkey-cock into pieces. Serve hot.
Lamb entrails roasted in a spit
Entrails of lamb
1 pair intensive lamb
marjoram
salt
pepper
oil or ? coffee-cup butter
1 lemon
? Clean lamb entrails very well.
? Put intensive lamb in a bowl, and mix with salt, pepper and marjoram.
? Then pour a little oil.
? Cut intensive lamb, lungs, livers, glands, grease into small square forms.
? Put in a bowl and mix with salt and pepper just like intensive lambs.
? Spit in a rod the entrails, then heart, and repeat this ordering, till in the end. With one of the intensive lambs cover completely all those.
? Tie the intensive lamb in a such manner that it can’t liberate during the bake. Dot during the bake with a mixture of oil-butter-lemon-juice.
Fricassee (Tasqebap)
500 gr. A leg of lamb
3 tablespoons oil
tomatoes
2-3 unions (sliced)
1 glass wine
1 foliage laurel
sail
pepper
? Cut meat into small pieces. Simmer unions over low heat until heated through. Add meat and stir until lightly browned.
? Roll in wine, then add sauce, sail, pepper, laurel, a little water and simmer over low heat.
Cookies in Syrup (Sheqerpare)
2 cups sugar
? cup butter, softened
2 eggs
2 cups flour
? teaspoon baking soda
? cup water
? teaspoon vanilla extract
2 to 3 whole cloves
? Mix 1-cup sugar and butter in bowl. Add yolks and stir until smooth. Add flour and baking soda and still until soft dough forms.
? Roll out dough. Cut into 2-inch rounds. Place on baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees until pale gold, 20 minutes.
? Meanwhile, make syrup. Bring remaining 1-cup sugar and water to boil in saucepan and cook until syrup spins a long thread, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat and season with vanilla and cloves to taste.
? Remove cookies from oven when golden and cool. Pour hot syrup over cookies. Serve at room temperature.
Halvah with butter
600 gr. Flour
450 gr. Butter
150 gr. Almonds
1 kg sugar
cinnamon
lemon
? Make syrup. Mix 1 ? water, lemon-juice, sugar. Bring to boil. Set aside.
? Melt butter and put it over low heat.
? Fry almonds, add flour, then add syrup. It’s ready.
Take a Food Tour of the Usa for a Vacation With a Difference
In the modern age, travel is such a large part of people’s everyday lives. In fact, given today’s fast-paced lifestyle, it’s hard to imagine that not so long ago, the idea of going on vacation was a rare luxury rather than a growing necessity. And, as the travel industry across the world has boomed, so too have the number of different types of vacations people in America are taking.
These days, holidays often revolve around a theme: skiing holidays in Lake Tahoe or Colorado are common, as are shopping holidays to some of America’s most famous malls. But, if you really want a travel experience with a difference, why not take a food tour of the United States – you’ll find a range of culinary delights available to tickle your taste-buds!
Take a trip to the Deep South on a food travel excursion and you’ll find a wealth of fine foods to sample and enjoy on your vacation. The culinary landscape of America’s southern states has always formed a large part of the lifestyle of its inhabitants; and if you’re embarking on a food tour of America, make sure you don’t miss out on its special and unique offerings!
Taste legendary American desserts, like Pecan Pie and Mississippi-Mud Pie, as well as authentic Kentucky fried chicken. Whether you’re in New Orleans, Atlanta or Austin, you’ll be able to sample some of the finest Cajun and Creole cuisine in the US, as well as partake in the long Soul Food tradition! From chitterlings (pig’s tripe) to Gumbo soup and Jambalay, food tourists in the Deep South are sure to enjoy an enriching vacation!
Anyone interested in embarking on food tours through the USA should also explore the culinary realms of New England on their excursions. From Massachusetts to Vermont, New England’s speciality foods are known for being simple yet high quality cuisine. For instance, New Haven boasts its reputation as the creator of the hamburger – and with a history that dates back to 1895, New Haven burgers are a must-have for any American food fan.
If you’re visiting Maine, make sure to sample Maine lobster – the state’s most famous export worth over $70 million a year. Legend has it that the lobster industry in the region was once so prosperous that lobster was even fed to chickens! And people visiting New England today will be able to taste this special lobster in one of the many roadside lobster shacks that adorn Maine’s coastline.
If you’re looking for more exciting destinations to visit on your trip around America’s greatest food spots, visit San Francisco during the San Francisco Crab Season, which boasts some of the worlds best crab markets and crab festivals annually from mid-November to June. Inspired by a range of immigrant communities, be sure to taste the region’s famous Dungeness crab, which is available in a variety of forms and flavours: from Italian dishes to Chinese and Vietnamese crab recipes, food lovers will adore the range of speciality crab dishes available in San Francisco during crab season!
While you’re in California, why not also sample some of the state’s local produce? Local farmers markets in California are well known for a range of foods, including artichoke, avocados, goat’s cheese and a range of other green produce. And why not indulge in some of California’s well-known Napa Valley wine while you’re on your food tour? You’ll experience the best wine and food the golden state has to offer – a pleasurable experience that is sure to round off your food tour of the USA nicely.
When embarking on a food tour of the US, you’re sure to find a range of food and hotel packages to suit your palate – regardless of the destination you visit. So, why not prepare your taste-buds for an experience to savour?
Andrew Regan
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/take-a-food-tour-of-the-usa-for-a-vacation-with-a-difference-121186.html