Cremora Tart from South Africa

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  When I and four other girls from our South Africa CC arrived in Bethulie at our host family's house, we had just come from a month in the mountains of Lesotho. While we absolutely adored our time in Lesotho, we got pretty tired of the constant diet of papa and spinach. In Bethulie, however, we were greeted by our hosts, Peter and Annette, with open arms and and open coffeeshop! They treated us to a smorgasbord of tarts, muffins and coffee. Once we got past the shock of all of this incredible food in front of us, we ate until we were full and thankful. We sat and sipped our coffee in their charming cafe, Ou Vellies, while we chatted and learned about each other. While the tasty food was a special and welcome surprise, the real treat was the company and conversation we shared. Over tarts and coffee, we shared moments and laughs that I will never forget. ~ Heidi Bauman

  
  

  Cremora Tart:
  Crust: packed biscuits/cookies layered on the bottom & sides of a pie pan
  Filling:
  385 g sweetened condensed milk
  1 c (250 mL) Cremora coffee creamer powder
  1 c lemon juice
  Beat condensed milk & Cremora, then add lemon juice & beat fast. Fill pie. Sprinkle with crumbs of biscuits. Chill overnight.
  

  

  Annette, our host mother, working in her kitchen.

  

  Our host father, Peter, showing us his very own "Ou Vellies"

  (This was a pretty lemony dessert, I bet you use less lemon juice if you wanted and then use water to make the full cup)

  
  

  

  Ou Vellies coffee shoppe

  

  Ou Vellies, in Afrikaans means "old boots".

  
  

  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

Breakfast in Palestine

Everyday Michelle and I would wake up to get ready to go to learn Arabic, but before we could go to the Alternative Tourism Group building we were served a delicious breakfast (we were once late to arrive to ATG because we were enjoying our breakfast way to much and having a good conversation) by our host mother Miriam and would often eat breakfast with our host father-Karim . This breakfast is way easy to make and really delicious.

What you need to have to make a great Palestian breakfast:

Za'atar in a separate  cup --it is a Middle Eastern spice mixture, which I heard you can find at the Middle Eastern store here close to EMU-or better yet befriend somebody from Palestine and order some through them and eat it with the them!

Olive Oil put a separate cup 

Pita bread to dip it into the olive oil and then into the Za'atar

2 boiled hot eggs per person (or more if you like)

Cut up fresh vegetables like green and red peppers-any kind of vegetable really

Humus

AND some hot tea with lots of sugar to go with it AND MOST IMPORTANTLY-eat in fellowship with people.

Rebekah with her host mother Miriam 

Submitted by: Rebekah Maldonado-Nofziger 

Waraq Dawali Stuffed Grape Leaves from Palestine

This was a dish my Palestinian host family made during my time in the Middle East. Because it takes awhile to wrap the rice mixture in the individual grape leaves, I remember my host mom mentioning that she usually only makes it on special occasions. Her deciding to make it while I was there, most certainly made me feel special!

Karla Martin and Kat Pence wearing traditional clothes in Nazareth, Israel  

Ingredients: 

1 pound lamb breast

vineleaves

lemon juice to taste

small can tomato sauce

basic recipe raw meat and rice stuffing 

Directions:

To stuff the leaves: If leaves are preserved in salt and water, rinse and drain. If fresh, wash thoroughly and cover with hot water until limp. Drain and set aside. 

Put one teaspoon stuffing in the center of each leaf, on the rough side. Fold stem side horizontally over stuffing, then fold the two vertical sides over the first fold. Roll tightly until it reaches the leaf point, forming a cylinder approximately 7 centimeters long by 1 centimeter thick. 

Place rolls side by side and in layers over lamb breast bones or neck bones. Add tomato sauce. Cover with water and sprinkle with salt. 

Bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat for 50 minutes or until done. Add lemon juice and cook for 10 more minutes. To serve, turn the pan upside down on a platter while hot. 

Submitted by Karla Martin 

Anzac Biscuits from New Zealand

ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. 

They were developed during World War 1 and don't include any eggs or milk so that if sent long distances in the mail, they wouldn't go bad! 

Ingredients:

1 cup quick cooking oats

3/4 cup flaked coconut

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 tablespoon golden syrup

2 tablespoons boiling water.

Kelby Miller in New Zealand 

Seeing sheep in New Zealand 

Directions:

Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut together 

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the syrup and butter together.  

Mix the soda and the boiling water and add to the melted butter and syrup

Add butter mixture to the dry ingredients. Drop by teaspoons on greased cookie sheets 

(or baking paper).

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 18 to 20 minutes 

Submitted by Kelby Miller 

South African Ginger Beer

One of my most favorite things in South Africa was their ginger beer! "Stoney" is the popular brand of ginger beer sold in about every grocery store, road stand, and convenience store in South Africa.  It tastes nothing like "Ginger Ale" that is sold in most grocery stores here in the states. It actually has a bite! 

Mme Esther, Me (Madelyn) and Laci in Soweto

Some of the best ginger beer that I had in South Africa was my host mother's very own brew! Mme (mother) Esther, made this specialty for my 20th birthday celebration, which I celebrated in Soweto. The directions are quite simple and the fermentation process is effortless! I hope you enjoy this as much as we all did! Be careful as you sip it...remember it has a bite!

This recipe doesn't actually use real ginger, which might come as a surprise since it is so delicious! I had fun converting the gram measurements into teaspoon/Tablespoon amounts, hopefully it still works out!

Ginger Beer
4 1/2 cups (1 Liter) water

4 tbs. ground ginger

2 cups sugar

4 liters water

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. tartaric acid

1-2 cans of pineapple chunks

My 20th Birthday
Celebration in Soweto

Make a syrup by boiling together 1 liter water, ground ginger, cream of tartar and tartaric acid for 30 minutes. Let cool on the stove.

Add sugar and leave it for 30 minutes

Now add chunks of pineapple 

Place in a large container (5 gal. bucket works well) and add 4 liters water.

Leave overnight or for a whole day.

Pour into plastic bottles, close securely and store in refrigerator.

Serve over ice and enjoy! 

Makes 5 liters

Bulgarian Moussaka

This is a classic dish in Bulgaria. We went to various places, cities and villages, both Muslim and Christian, and this was always a popular dish. There was the home-made kind, made by a caring Baba (grandmother), and also the easy-to-get, on-the-go, fast food kind. This dish was definitely a highlight of our trip, and something that will always remind us of the special memories we had.

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef

1lb tomatoes

3 lb potatoes

1 diced onion

2 eggs

pinch of baking soda

1 large (32 oz) plain yogurt

1 tbs flour

dash of salt and pepper

Preheat oven 375 degrees

brown the ground beef and onion in a frying pan

In a 9x13" casserole dish, mix together the diced potatoes, chopped tomatoes, and meat

Bake in oven for approx 45 minutes

Meanwhile, mix together half of the yogurt, the eggs, the baking soda, and flour in a separate dish.

Pour evenly over casserole after potatoes begin to soften (about 45 min.) and continue to bake until top browns and potatoes are soft (another 15-25 minutes)

Salt and pepper to taste

Serve with remaining yogurt either on the side or as a topping for dish

Submitted by: Holly Solomon 

"Harira" Traditional Moroccan Soup

My host mom, Behia, cooking in the tiny kitchen.

     A favorite memory (or memories) from Morocco: Sitting in my host family's small apartment living room around 10 p.m, snuggled in a blanket watching some Arabic soap opera or an American chick flick in English with Arabic subtitles, eating hot harira soup. "Harira" is traditional Moroccan soup with spices and ingredients typical of North Africa. This soup was so delicious, especially when made by my wonderful host mother, and it always cured my homesickness. I felt so loved and cared for in those moments; utterly content...a true sign of hospitality. They could not speak or understand English, and I could only speak a few words of Moroccan Arabic (we were taking Arabic classes for those 6 weeks, but still my Arabic was faltering), but I tried to convey to her with the few words I knew how much I loved and appreciated her (and the rest of the family's) incredible hospitality that was particularly shown through food. 

      Here is the recipe for harira. My EMU roommate, Ana, and I asked our host mother for the recipe for harira at the end of our stay in Fez--while we managed to figure out what most of the ingredients were, because of the language barrier we could not get the measurements. So this is sort of my version:

Harira: Moroccan Soup

A variation of harira (it just has a different type of noodle, Vermicelli).

- 1 Tbs. olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped (2 cups)
- 1 can diced tomatoes (15 oz. can), drained, liquid reserved
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- 1 small onion, diced and sauteed
- 1 clove of garlic, minced, maybe two if you prefer garlicy-ness 
-1/2 t. ground ginger
- 1 cinnamon stick

-1/2 t. saffron (use Goya brand in grocery store)

- 2 cups of low-sodium vegetable broth

-3 cups water

-pinch of salt and pepper

- 1 can (15 oz.) or two cups of chickpeas
-1/2 cup vermicelli
-a cup or two of cous cous (can use Moroccan cous cous or Israeli cous cous if you prefer--Israeli is larger)

Tadouria:
-2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
-¼ cup chopped cilantro
-2 Tbs. lemon juice
-1 Tbs. tomato paste

-Lemon wedges, for garnish

1. Heat oil in large pot over medium heat. Add onion, parsley, cilantro, garlic, saffron, ginger, and cinnamon; sauté 5 minutes, or until onion is soft. Stir in tomatoes, and sauté 5 minutes more.
2. Stir in broth, chickpeas, reserved tomato liquid, and 3 cups water. Season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To make Tadouira: Whisk flour with 1 cup water in bowl. Whisk in cilantro, lemon juice, and tomato paste. Stir Tadouira and vermicelli into Harira, and cook 3 minutes, or until noodles are soft. Serve with lemon wedges.

This is on our last night (from left--Ana -my EMU roommate, my host mom Behia behind her, me, our neighbor Amel and her daughter Miriam.)

Recipe submitted by Alli Eanes

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The Best Black Beans Ever! from Guatemala

How to make the best black beans ever:

           

Street in Santiago Atitlan.

  When I lived with my host family in Guatemala, we always had black beans in the kitchen.  Whether it was a pan of beans on the stove, an old yogurt container of them in the fridge, or a huge pot of soup, we always had my host grandmother’s beans, and they were always delicious.  I finally worked up the courage and the Spanish to ask my abuela if she could share her recipe with me, and she did!  We separated the bad beans from the good ones and she showed me how the bad beans float and how she just throws the whole carrot in the pot.  I have modified her directions after making black beans several times at home, but in keeping with the Latin American tradition of not measuring things, most every part of this recipe is to taste.

From dried beans:

Soak about two cups of dried black beans overnight

Pour out the water and transfer to crockpot dish

Add water to cover the beans

Add at least two cloves of garlic- more if you like garlic

Add onion to taste (I usually use a whole one or more)

Optional cilantro (you can add a few sprigs of the fresh stuff or up to a quarter of a bundle.)

Optional carrot (I can’t tell the difference so I leave it out)

Salt! Add to taste.

Turn the crockpot on low for most of the day and check the beans from time to time to make sure they don’t get too mushy to be appetizing.

From canned black beans:

Add onion, garlic, cilantro, and carrot to taste.  Salt is usually already added.

Simmer for a while (1 hr) - the longer, the better.

I had these beans almost every day for two months! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. J 

A Guatemalan neighborhood

Recipe submitted by ~Suzanne Opel~

Masala Chai from India

A friend and I share Chai together!

"Every time is tea time." This is one of the five basic rules about Indian culture. And you experience it everywhere. Chai wallah's roam the streets and train cars and even among the boats of Ma Ganga in Varanasi with their steaming tea pots and carrier filled with little cups, which they will fill for you for about five rupees. And with a filled steaming cup, you remain in company together so when you finish the chai you can return the cup. It's a perfect system of reusing materials and honoring the sacredness of food and partaking of it in the company of others.

Some of my first memories of India involve gathering around chai and savoring it's smooth taste. I remember drinking chai after my first rickshaw ride, a bit in disbelief at the whole experience. And in Kolkata, I remember waking up in the early morning to a knock on our door and hearing a monotonous voice saying Chai, and we'd open our room door to receive two small dixie cups (one for each of us) of chai, which we'd sip in bed, cuddled under the blankets. Bed chai. Families and villages would welcome us with with chai and biscuits (and sometimes little bananas too). In India the taste of chai became the taste of hospitality.

Masala Chai is especially a favorite among Indians-it is spiced Assam that is claimed to have many health benefits. While in South India, I took a cooking class and experimented with making masala chai. See, the thing about Indian culture is there is no such thing as a strict recipe. You add a little bit of this and a generous heap of that. It's about the scents of the spices you like and the flavors you are looking for. So, that being said, I learned how to make chai from watching other Indians and adding some twists of my own, according to the flavors of spices I like. This recipe is a guide and you should feel free to be creative with it too. As our cooking teacher Gautham told us "The kitchen is your laboratory and you are the one making wonderful creations and discoveries. It is your place to experiment."

So here is a guideline for YOU to be creative with...

Masala Chai

In a sauce pan heat to boiling...
1 c milk
1 c water
1 1/2 t assam tea (loose leaf-or any type of black tea)
2 t brown sugar (more if you like it sweeter)

Once boiling turn to low heat and simmer for 3-5 min and add

-approx 0.5-1 inch fresh ginger (peel outer layer off)
-1 t cinnamon
-1/4 t cardamom
-a few grinds of black pepper (maybe like 0.25-0.5 teaspoons)
-a few whole cloves (or ground cloves)
-a few fennel seeds

Strain out tea leaves and ginger root before serving. Goes well with good company and conversation. Biscuits add a nice touch too (but are not necessary. fun fact: due to the British influence in India, any kind of British biscuit will give you a rather authentic experience as we commonly had a shortbread type biscuit with our chai). 

Thanks, Tessa Gerberich for this authentic Chai recipe!