<![CDATA[Plateaupians for Peace - Cooking From Around the World]]>Sun, 10 May 2026 02:58:09 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Khichadi]]>Thu, 07 Jul 2022 19:20:53 GMThttps://www.pforpeace.org/cooking-from-around-the-world/khichadi
​My name is Dina Singh a mom of 2 active kids aged 6 and 11 years. My family is from India, both North and South of the country. The United States has been our second home since 2005, California being the first state and then moving to Washington in 2018.
Travelling has always been our favorite activity, we have lived in Madrid, Spain and Singapore for a couple of years. With all this travel we have had the opportunity to explore different cultures and different food. I believe it’s the food that brings us closer to the culture and people, be it any part of the world.
Ingredients:
  • 3/4 C. rice
  • 3/4 C. yellow moong dal (split mung lentils or beans)
  • 8 C. water, divided
  • 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp. cumin seeds
  • 1 T. ghee (clarified butter), butter can be used as a substitute
  • salt to taste
  • Optional: a tablespoon of ghee or unflavored yogurt as a topping
Recipe:
  1. Wash the split yellow Mung lentils and rice together in several changes of water until the water runs clear. Soak the washed rice and dal(mung lentils) in 3 cups of water for 30 minutes, then drain.
  2. Heat a tablespoon of ghee or butter in a pot or pan. When the ghee is hot, set heat to low and add to it a teaspoon of cumin seeds. Allow the seeds to heat until they begin to crackle, usually just a few seconds, then remove from heat.
  3. Add the washed rice and yellow mung dal. Cook for a minute, then add turmeric, salt, and 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
  4. Set heat to low, cover the pan and let it simmer. Check the pan after 15 minutes to stir and add more water if you want the dish soupier.
  5. Continue to cook for about 25 minutes until the rice and dal have softened and come together. Let the pan stand covered for another five minutes. The consistency is like a thick porridge.
  6. Optional: top with ghee or unflavored yogurt.



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]]><![CDATA[South African Bobotie]]>Fri, 03 Jun 2022 21:23:58 GMThttps://www.pforpeace.org/cooking-from-around-the-world/south-african-bobotie
Hi! I am from South Africa - I was born in Johannesburg where I lived until I was 15, then was fortunate enough to spend many years living in Cape Town as well. We (my husband and two kids ) moved to America in 2017.
What does this meal mean to me?  This is a family favorite that my mom would make very very often especially a lot in the winter which in South Africa is a very short period only about 90 to 100 days.  It was also one of my Dad‘s favorite meals.  What I love most about this dish is that it just gets better and better day after day and is amazing on a sandwich! 
learning to cook was not really an option in my household - family time was always in the kitchen,  - you either got to cook or clean up. I hate cleaning up, and I am very happy I opted to cook as it is to this day something I love to do!
Bobotie is a traditional South African dish that has been passed down from generation to generation, often served as a Sunday Family Lunch.  Every family has its own tweaks to the recipe, for example, my mom would add slivered almonds to the dish. As this is not loved in my home, I leave it out. However, the basics remain the same and the tradition continues.  Although a warm hearty dish best eaten in winter, we serve this dish all year round.  It is loved not only for its amazing flavors, but it is one of those dishes that just gets better day after day.  It even tastes great on a sandwich!  A family staple in our household! My son is not a fan of the egg in the dish so often I will leave this step off, and to be honest it is still just as good!
Ingredients:
•       3 slices of bread, white or whole wheat
•       2 onions, chopped
•       25g butter
•       2 garlic cloves, crushed
•       2 T. curry powder
•       3 – 5 bay leaves
•       30g dried apricots finely chopped
•       2 T. peach or mango chutney (available at            Apna Bazaar)
•       3 T raisins
•       45 ml Turmeric
•       1 red apple, peeled and grated
•       1 lemon squeezed (optional)
•       1kg  packet lean minced beef
For topping:
  • 300 ml full cream milk or 1 tin coconut milk
  • 2 large eggs
  1.  Heat oven to 350F (180C)
  2. Fry the onions in the butter and garlic, stirring regularly for 10 mins until they are soft and starting to color. Add the beef and brown meat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  3. In a separate bowl break up the bread and add approximately 100ml of milk, add curry powder, dried apricots, raisins, chutney, turmeric, grated apple, and mix.  (I squeeze in a little lemon as this dish can quickly become very sweet). Add this all to the meat and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes for flavors to develop.
  4. Tip into an oval ovenproof dish (23 x 33cm and about 5-6cm deep). Press the mixture down well and smooth the top. You can make this and chill 1 day ahead.  This dish really is better the next day! If you decide to make it a day ahead stop here and refrigerate.
  5. For the topping, beat the milk and eggs with seasoning, then pour over the meat.  Poke small holes into the meat for some of the mixture to soak through.  I push the bay leaves into the meat. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the topping is set and starting to turn golden.
Serve this dish with yellow rice and raisins (simply cook rice and add 1 tsp. of turmeric and a handful of raisins to the water) or with white rice. It is delicious with tomato and onion sambals as well.


]]><![CDATA[Lebanese Mdardara]]>Mon, 02 May 2022 20:27:04 GMThttps://www.pforpeace.org/cooking-from-around-the-world/lebanese
مرحبا Hi!!
 
Despite all the differences, food unites us all! 
My name is Mounira Kraitem, I go by Moni. I’m from Beirut, Lebanon. I have been in the United States for 13 years total, 8 in Seattle and the rest between Boston, MA, and Evansville, IN. I have 3 beautiful kids, 2 boys, and one girl. 
When I first moved to the US, I felt homesick and lonely. I missed my family, friends, and definitely my mom’s food. Finding restaurants that offered the same taste as my mom’s cooking was very hard. And here is where I really started to learn how to cook. Now, I enjoy cooking and making dessert but I won’t lie about it, not every day!!
 
Lebanese food is among the healthiest food in the world because of the ingredients we use and the way it is cooked. Health Line puts Lebanese food at #10 among the world's top healthiest cuisines because it is low-fat in general and has many vegetarian options. However, our food is time-consuming. Some meals may take up to 2-3 hours to make, but there are some that are easy, like the one I’m going to share. It is called Mdardara and some call it Mujaddara. Mdardara is one of my favorite meals. I cook it when I’m in a rush and it only takes up to 15 minutes. 

Ingredients: 
1 C. brown lentils 
2 C. jasmine rice
3 C. boiling water for the lentils
2 C. boiling water for the rice
2 onions
1 C. oil to fry 
1-1/2 T. of salt 
optional: yogurt as a topping
 
Recipe: 
  • First, peel the onions and chop them into thin slices. In a pot, heat the oil and fry them until golden. If you want them crunchier, sprinkle the slices with a pinch of flour then fry them (optional). Reserve 3 tablespoons of the oil after frying for future use.
  • In another pot, wash the lentils and add to the 2 cups of boiling water or enough to cover the lentils, and cook them for 5 minutes. Check the lentils with your finger, it shouldn’t be too soft as we are going to cook them again with the rice. Then strain the lentils and put them aside. 
  • In the same pot we used for the lentils, put rice, lentils, salt, and 3 cups of water. Stir them and cover the pot. Let it cook for 10 minutes at low-medium temperature. 
  • After 10 minutes, gently stir the rice with a fork. Take the 3 tablespoons of the reserved oil and pour it on the rice while it is hot. Cover and cook it again for 15 minutes. 
  • Garnish it with the fried onion and we are done. It tastes good with yogurt but it is optional.
 
]]><![CDATA[Tortilla de Patata from Spain]]>Sun, 13 Mar 2022 21:52:02 GMThttps://www.pforpeace.org/cooking-from-around-the-world/tortilla-de-patata-from-spainInterview and recipe provided by Ricardo Jimenez Serrano
Ricardo was born and raised in Spain. This is his story about a favorite dish close to his heart.

​My dad's family is from Madrid, and my mom's family is from a small village in Northern Spain, not far away from where the Spanish language was born. I came to the US in 2007 for what was supposed to be a two-year work assignment- and here I am, almost 15 years later.
​As a kid I spent a long time with my grandparents and my uncle/aunt at the small village, and "tortilla de patata" was a very frequent dinner. With time I started liking it much better as a leftover meal for the next day, rather than just freshly cooked, so I remember asking my grandmom to save my piece for the next day and have something else for dinner instead. That's why you can almost always see "tortilla de patata" as tapas in bars and restaurants because it tastes awesome as a cold appetizer a day or two after it has been cooked.
When I left Spain after college and moved to Germany, pursuing an international professional career outside Spain, I had to learn how to cook simple things that would last for a long time in the fridge. I have never been very good at cooking, but this dish is so easy that any person can do it. And it is difficult to get it wrong. I think the first "tortilla de patata" I cooked was with my mom on the phone giving me the instructions on how to fry the potatoes and how to flip the tortilla without letting it drop.

Recipe

  • 5 medium (or 4 large) potatoes
  • 4 eggs
  • half an onion (optional)
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper​
1. Peel, wash, and cut the potatoes in long fines slices. The finer, the better.
2. Fry the potatoes with abundant olive oil, smashing them as they get softer until you get a mesh of fried potatoes.
3. If using the onion, cut it into small pieces and add it to the pan when the potatoes are half fried.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. While the potatoes and the onion are frying, beat the eggs in a large bowl. 
6. When the potatoes and the onion are all fried, scoop them out of the pan letting as much oil as possible to drip off and mix them in the bowl with the eggs.
7. Let the mix sit for a few minutes to allow the potatoes to absorb some of the egg and the final result will be denser and drier. Otherwise, it might end up runnier than you would like.
8. To cook the tortilla you will need a different non-stick pan with no oil on it. Put the mix in the pan on a medium fire, and after a couple of minutes, you will need to flip the tortilla. THIS IS THE MOST DIFFICULT STEP. You need to put a plate on the pan, covering the whole tortilla, and flip it while doing upwards pressure on the plate against the pan. After that, just slip the flipped tortilla back into the pan so that it cooks on both sides. Two minutes per side should be plenty.
9. To eat the tortilla, you can cut it in pieces like you would do with a cake, or you can cut it in small squares and stick toothpicks in them so that many people can share the same tortilla tapas-like.
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