Cultural foods

PrairieMom wrote: Please share some foods that are linked to your "culture"

I would like to expose my family to some different foods, and learn about what people in different countries eat.

PrairieMom replied: I'll go first.

My Great great grandparents came to the midwest from Norway during the time when they had the home stead act.

We make these cookies every Christmas. They are soooooo yummy.

http://housewares.about.com/od/gadgetstool...osettetools.htm

PrairieMom replied: More from Norway:

Lefse. Its kind of like a potato based tortillia. We eat them with butter and cinnimon and sugar sprinkled on. Super yummy.


http://visualrecipes.com/recipe-details/recipe_id/113/Lefse/

PrairieMom replied: Last Norwegian one


Lutefisk.

Its Cod that is dried and soaked in Lye. My Grandma serves it for Christmas. I wouldn't recommend this one. bleh!

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/LutefiskHistory.htm

lisar replied: Well my family is Indian, and Italian.

So as I grew up we ate ALOT of Italian food. I have alot of passed down recipes but they are all at home. As for the Indian food, my great grandmother was 100% Indian and she used to make things all the time but I cant remember exactly what they were now. She died when I was 8. So when I was younger we ate alot of it. But ever since she died we havent had alot. Although I have one of her homemade recipe books that she made, its just so hard to read. I will look when I get home and see what I can find to post for you.

PrairieMom replied:
Like Native American Indian? That would be interesting. There are TONS of Sioux Indian here, I wonder what I could find on line...

luvmykids replied: I'm half Polish, half English.

My recipes are all packed up but I found a few similar ones

Creamy potato cakes

Easter soup

There is another one I can't find a recipe for, it has fermented cabbage (I know how bad that sounds but it's very good, like sauerkraut) but it's definitely worth trying at least once so I'll keep looking.

They also did lots of pierogies.

The cookie I remember most is called a kipfling, I think some people call them wedding cookies, they're kind of almondy, crescent shaped and then dipped in powdered sugar. To die for. I have to find that recipe too.

lisar replied:
I just had to call my aunt to ask her I wasn't sure exactly what kind.

She was Cherokee Indian. Which is why we get a dark complexion to our skin and we have the high cheek bones. We get it all from her. And the rumor is that is why even when we are older we still look younger. My Grand-father is 68 and doesnt look a day over 50. And that's her son. Its cool. I have 1 picture of her but it is a painting. I will see later at home if I can take a picture of it and post it.

jcc64 replied: I'm Italian, and besides all of the standard, familiar favorites, I LOVE home-made pasta y fagioli soup, which is somewhat like minestrone but so much better. If you're interested, I'll let you know how I make it--every family does it differently and there are a ton of recipes on the web.
Dh was born in Korea, came here when he was 8. His parents live in a Korean community right outside of NYC, and eat nothing but Korean food. I would imagine that a lot of Korean ingredients would be kind of hard to find where you are, Tara, but here's a really really easy recipe for "bulgogi" which is basically very thinly sliced rib-eye with a simple marinade and some onions. You can eat it over rice or with a side dish, but the traditional way to eat it is sort of burrito-style- you put some slices of the beef along with a scoop of cooked rice and hot chile sauce if you want inside a big piece of green leaf lettuce, and roll it up like a cigar or a burrito and eat with your hands. Here's an easy recipe:
http://www.slashfood.com/2007/01/21/make-y...ulgogi-at-home/
We've fed this to a lot of non-Korean friends, and EVERYONE loves it.

My3LilMonkeys replied: My family is redneck, so my cultural foods are deer and squirrel.

Really I am a mishmash - Italian, German, English, Dutch and some others. My great-grandmother was Dutch and she always made Jan (pronounced yawn) Hagel cookies when we visited her. My mom still makes them for Christmas some years.

Jan Hagels
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg white
1 teaspoon water
8 ounces sliced almonds

Pre-heat oven to 325 F. Beat together butter, sugar and egg yolk with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in flour and cinnamon. Separate dough into 2 portions and spread thinly over 2 baking sheets. Beat egg white and water in a small bowl until frothy. Spread over dough. Sprinkle the almonds on top. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and slice into diamond shapes while hot.

The other item that is very traditional to my family is hickory nut cake, but you really have to have a hickory tree to get the nuts to make it because I've never seen hickory nuts available for sale.

PrairieMom replied:
okay, then I have a recipe for you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RlK0Xd4c2c

My3LilMonkeys replied:
That lady was a little....odd

PrairieMom replied:
yeah. and that squirrel on the plate was a bit much for me. I kept waiting for the punch line, and when it turned out to be real I was like

PrairieMom replied: This is kind of fun! I am going to have to try some of these after the holidays.

Nina J replied: Shopska salata. It is easy, there is a lot of things if you google it.

Meat with potato's, I am making this for dinner. It's good.

1 yellow onion, 1 carrot, 1 stick selery, 1 Italian pepper, 1 tsp. paprika, 1 tsp. salt, 5 potatos,1 can (6-8 oz.) tomato sause, 2 tbsp. parsley, 2 cups hot water, 1/4 cup vegetable oil (optionally)
steps:
1. Cut the meat into 2" pieces. Put in the sausepan with the salt, cover and cook on the top of the range at medium heat, stiring ocasionally. At this point you can add the oil.
2. Meanwhile, peel onion and carrot and chop them finely. Add to meat and stir. Slice selery and green pepper, add and stir. In 5 min. add paprika, stir, add water.
3. Cover and cook 1/2 hour. Meanwile peel potatos and cut them into cubes. Add to meat, cook 15 min.
4. Add tomato sause, cook 5 min. Add parsley. Swich off the oven, let stay on it for 10 min. Serve. Makes 4-6 servings.

Hungarian goulash

My family is from Europe. Lots of places so I remember eating lots of different things, but I liked the Bulgarian stuff mostly. My father was the first of my family not born in the Netherlands, but before that we came from all over the place. I don't know a lot of it though, which is sad. I would like to know where I came from.