Cooking

In order to explore different cuisines I have organised a project with Kristina and Agata for CAS. Each of us were assigned to choose a cuisine we wanted to learn how to cook with at least 3 dishes. It is important to consider that this was a group project. Given that, it necessary/vital to take the time and find the important dishes as well as learn more about its culture.

7.01.2018

I have finally proceeded to find my three recipes for the Indian cuisine! During my presentation, I mentioned the most important staples of the cuisine, ingredients as well as eating habits (one of which Oprah got a backlash from the media for criticising the fact that they eat without utensils). The dishes I prepared were in this order:
1. Chicken Curry in a Hurry https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/chicken-curry-hurry
2. Aloo Tikki http://www.allysonkramer.com/2011/01/ally-style-aloo-tikki/
3. Indian Masala Chai Tea http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/indian-masala-chai-190932

Chicken Curry in a Hurry

I must say that this particular dish was quite easy and fast, as it does suggest in the name. With a chicken rotisserie already bought and prepared, we prepared the curry sauce with curry powder, tomatoes, onions, cream and yoghurt, and poured it over the cooked rice (which came out to be a bit overcooked, oops!) and topped it all with pieces of the chicken. It was truly delicious and quite filling.

Preparing the sauce by sautéing the onions first

Mixing the sauce

Aloo Tikki

This recipe required more preparation and effort. Preparing the food itself wasn't a problem. All we had to do was mash the potatoes, mix them in with leek and peas along with plenty of other spices and fold them into small patties. The hard part for me was to deep fry them. This is because I do not have much experience in deep frying food (it's also not very healthy), however, with previous experience from Agata's cooking class, deep frying the crab chips, we barely made it and turned out to be delicious. Although a bit plain so we added some spices later on but delicious.

Mixing the 'batter'

In this video we were forming the patties

Here we were deep frying the patties

Indian Masala Chai Tea

Although this could have been easily done in a mixer, I decided to do it the traditional way with a mortal and pestle. This, I have much experience in as I often make my own chai teas this way but for Kristina and Agata it was a first.

Mixing the crushed spices in pan with milk, water and black tea

20.12.2017

This Christmas break I had the amazing opportunity to visit Thailand. While walking on the streets and observing the people, it is hard to miss the importance of food in their lives. Everywhere you turn, there are tables set up with food or even attached to scooters. The aroma of it fills the air, aiding your stomach with a sense of direction. While walking through a maze of street food, I was surprised to find that I was able to recognise some of the dishes thanks to Agata's cooking class. However, along with my family, we signed up to a real, traditional Thai cooking class. It was named 'emotional cuisine' and the recipes I chose to make were chicken with cashew nuts, rice soup and pad thai (again). In the meantime I learned about the four important condiments: prio - sour, wan - sweet, kem - salty and pet - spicy. In order to create a balance in the food, you mix spicy with sweet and sour with salty.

Cooking rice soup

Here cooking chicken with cashew nuts

24.9.2017

This time Kristina presented us the cuisine of Central Asia like Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Kristina in her presentation explained that almost all of the dishes include meat. This is because the area of Central Asia is arid, therefore limiting the availability to vegetation. The main meat is horse, sheep and beef. She also mentioned that another staple in their cuisine is camel's milk

Dishes included: Meat samsa, Plov and Vinigriette.

Plov:

Cut meat (lamb) into large chunks and marinade them with onions in a sealed bag for a few hours
Leave 2 small cups of rice in water for a few hours
Fry the meat in a large pan at high heat until all sides look cooked
Cut the two onions into small pieces and add to the pan
Lower the heat to medium
Cut two carrots into long pieces and add to the pan
Lower the heat more and close with a lid
Cook for 10 minutes
Wash the rice thoroughly until the water from it turns clear
Add the rice into the pan
Pour hot water into the pan until the rice is just covered with water
Put a whole peeled garlic in the middle
Generously add salt and pepper until the water tastes salty
Cook on medium heat until the water disappears from the top
Lower the heat to small and cook until the water from the bottom of the pan disappears

Time: 1 hour for cutting and cooking

As you can see in the videos, Kristina's mom demonstrated to us how to cut the vegetables (had to be done in a specific way) prior to our cooking.

Vinegret:

Boil a few potatoes (about 5) and two carrots
They will be cooked until are soft when pocked with a knife (the cooking time for carrots and potatoes is different)
Cut a beet root into small cubes and add to a large salad bowl
Cut the potatoes into small cubes and add to the bowl
Cut the carrots into small cubes and add to the bowl
Cut a few pickles (about 7) and add to the bowl
Generously pour vegetable oil into the salad
Add salt and pepper
Refrigerate until served

Time: 50 minutes including cooking and cutting

Meat Samsa:

Cut a bit of a leek into half circles and fry in a pan
Mix the cooked leek with minced meat in a large bowl
Generously add salt and pepper
Use pre-bought puff pastry dough and cut it into large squares/rectangles
Put the meat mixture into the middle of the dough
Close it in half to make a triangle
Pinch the ends with a fork and fingers

Bake at 180oC in an oven at a fan setting for 20-25 minutes

Time: preparation and cooking = 40 minutes

2.6.2017

First off Agata chose to do her cooking based on the Asian cuisine. The dishes included: Pad Thai with shrimp, Shrimp Chips, Mango sticky rice and Mango Lassi.

Here are the recipes for all of the cuisines

Pad Thai

Here is a link to the recipe
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/42968/pad-thai/

Shrimp Chips

The shrimp chips did not require much work. All that we had to do was heat oil in a pot and put in the ready shrimps into the oil to deep fry. After 30 seconds to a minute, we took them out and let them chill.

Mango Sticky Rice