Ethnic recipes anyone?

The wonderful discussion about Judaism here on the Recipes forum has inspired me!

Would anyone like to join me in telling about your ethnic heritage and sharing a recipe or two?

I'm Italian.  All four of my grandparents are from the same town in Abruzzi - Chieti.  So my family recipes are specific to one region of the country.  I'd be happy to share them if anyone else would like to join in.

My background is Dutch (my grandparents were all Dutch, my parents born in Canada). Here are some examples of things we used to eat growing up:

"Stomput" (Carrots and Potatoes) - carrots, onions, potatoes, all boiled together with 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper. Remove bay leaves and mash all up. Sometimes we had sausage with it, sometimes pork chops.

"Borecole" (Kale) - kale and potatoes boiled together and then mashed up. Sausage was cooked with it and cut up when mashing the other stuff, until my mom became a vegetarian and then the sausage was added afterwards. I could only stomach it with butter, salt, and pepper.

Don't know the name: boiled, mashed potatoes, sometimes a little milk added, then mix in chopped lettuce and serve a hard or soft boiled egg over top. Not my favourite.

I do not make these on my own very often; I tend to prefer Indian or Italian food :) But I thought I'd share just for variety :)

I am Italian/Sicilian and German/Swedish.

I, too, have many recipes to share Clairelaine!

I also love to cook many other's ethic dishes and have lots of Asian, Arabic, and other recipes from friends.

I was surprised to find almost the exact recipe my family uses on about.com! 
To make Macheroni alla chittara, you need a kitchen tool called a chittara (guitar). 
It's a frame with wires tightly strung to cut pasta that has a square cross section. 
The edges of the pasta are slightly rough
to hold onto the sauce.  You need a large rolling surface, a long rolling pin, and strong arms and back.

http://italianfood.about.com/od/meatsauces/r/ blr0550.htm

Here is a picture of a chittara http://fantes.com/images/chitarra.jpg

Here's our recipe:  The sauce cooks all day and the pasta is made at the last minute.

The pasta dough - 7 cups flour & 6 whole eggs

Pile the flour in the center of the board and make a well in the center.  Break the eggs into the center of the well.  Beat the eggs with a fork, being careful not to let the egg run out of the well.  gradually incorporating the flour to make a firm dough.  Only use as much of the flour to make the dough the right consistancy.  Depending on the dryness of the flour, you might not need it all.

Knead for 10 minutes, then form into a ball and clean the board with a scraper.  Place a bowl over the dough and let rest for 1 hour. 

Divide the dough into 3 pieces and roll out into a rough rectangle, one at a time, keeping the unused dough under the bowl.  Try for 1/8" thickness.  Lay the sheet of pasta over the wires of the chittara and press down with the rolling pin to cut the pasta.  The strands will drop onto a tray in the chittara.  Pull out the tray and lay the pasta on a floured cloth while you roll and cut the rest.

This pasta is not dried.  Bring a LARGE pot of water to a rolling boil.  Add 2 teaspoons of salt.  Drop the pasta into the water and cook for about 3 minutes.  Taste a strand for doneness.  Drain in a colander and put into a bowl with the sauce.

The sauce

2 pounds of pork, on the bone, such as country style spare ribs or pork shoulder cut in pieces.  Season the meat and brown in olive oil until golden on all sides.  Add 4 cloves of garlic, cut in half, and cook until they begin to turn golden, being careful not to scorch.  Add 2 quarts of crushed tomatoes and 4 ounces of tomato paste to the pot, with 2 cups of broth or red wine.  Add a bay leaf and several sprigs of parsley.  Cover and simmer slowly for 3 hours.  Remove the meat, garlic cloves and bay leaf.  Let sit for 15 minutes off the heat, then skim off as much fat as possible.  You may now add meatballs to the sauce and simmer to keep hot while you make the pasta.

Put a cup of sauce into a large, warm bowl.  Add the pasta and more sauce and toss gently to distribute.  Serve with the meats on the side with extra sauce in a sauce boat, and plenty of grated peccorino cheese (like parmesan but made from sheep's milk)

And here's the town my family came from

http://www.assotaxi.it/images/città/abruzzo/chieti.jpg

http://www.gratismania.tv/img/cartoline/abruz zo/chieti.jpg

Scenes from Abruzzo - most of the province is a national park

http://www.giorgiozanetti.ca/centro_italia/ab ruzzo/abruzzo_album.html

Scrippelle 'mbusse  (a very simple and rustic soup)

1 egg per person
2 level tablespoons of flour per egg
1 cup water (approx) per egg

Beat the eggs, flour and half the water together to make a batter.  The proper consistancy will spread out in the pan like a crepe.  Add water until you are satisfied with the thickness of the batter.

Heat a skilled and oil it lightly using olive oil on a piece of cloth or paper towel.  Even if you are using a non stick pan, oil it.  Pour the batter into the hot pan to form an 8" crepe.  Cook until just beginning to brown on the bottom, then flip and cook the other side.  Repeat, oiling the pan after each one.   The scrippelle should be soft.  Remove from the pan, sprinkle with grated peccorino cheese and roll up.  Keep warm.

Place 2 scrippelle in a soup plate and pour hot broth over them.  The broth can be any kind of clear broth.

i Caciatelli

eggs
grated pecorino cheese
pancetta (uncured, salted bacon)
green or red sweet peppers
onion
chopped tomatoes
extra virgin olive oil
parsley
 crushed red pepper flakes
salt.

In a in a large saute pan, heat a small amount of olive oil and add the pancetta, sliced onion, red pepper and sauté for a few minutes. Add the green peppers cut into strips and continue to sauté over low heat. Add the chopped tomatoes. In a bowl, beat the cheese, eggs and finely chopped parsley.

When the pancetta and vegetables are simmering, drizzle in the egg mixture delicately. This forms "caciat elli" - little puffy balls of egg & cheese. Continue cooking until the sauce has thickened.

Eaten as a soup ladled over toasted or dry bread.

I'm German and Welsh and always found most of our food heavy and revolting.

I do, however, miss the Welsh cookies that we used to eat at the dreaded family reunions.  They're kind of like little pancakes with currants in them.  Any other Welsh people got a recipe?  Hrm...time for an internet search.

Pointless fact of the day: Wales has the city with the longest name (# of letters) of any in the world.  God bless those consonant-stacking Welshmen...

My parents immigrated to the USA a few years before I was born from northern Portugal and I've always been very proud and close to my ethnicity.  I'd love to share some recipes with people if they are interested, but even more so I'd love to hear about other cultural dishes!  I love trying new dishes and learning about other cultures as well. 

I'm at work at the moment but I'll check in here again and add some recipes if anyone is interested.  I look forward to trying all the yummy new dishes!

I'm Filipino and ended up in Los Angeles by way of Chicago.  Both of my parents grew up in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines.  While I didn't learn the language (they speak a dialect called Ilocano, but they also speak Tagalog), I did manage to wrangle a lot of the recipes from my mother.  Here's a chicken stew made with ginger, from a recipe I adapted from my mother:

Tinolang Manok (serves about 4)

1 T vegetable oil
3 cloves crushed garlic
1 small onion, chopped
1/8 of a green bell pepper, chopped
2 T ginger, chopped
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I like to cut these into large pieces, but you can leave them whole if you prefer)
3 C water
1 C chicken broth
1 chayote, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks *
1 1/2 C baby spinach
fish sauce, to taste (if you can't find this, substitute with salt but it won't taste quite the same)
cooked rice (I usually use jasmine rice)

Heat oil and saute garlic, onion, bell pepper, and ginger.  Add chicken to the pan and brown.  Add water and chicken broth.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until chicken is tender, about 30 minutes.  Add chayote and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add spinach leaves and simmer until just cooked, about 2 minutes.  Season with fish sauce and serve over rice.

* I like to wear gloves when I'm peeling and cutting the chayote, otherwise I'm left with a whitish sap on my hands that is difficult to remove.  Sometimes I'll substitute the chayote with green papaya or a zucchini if I can't find it in the store.

Thanks Christine!  I love recipes that are like family heirlooms, passed down through the generations.  Sometimes they change, usually for the better.  For instance, both my grandmothers cooked with lard.  Of course it was lard they rendered themselves with no chemicals in it, and it was very fresh.  My parent's generation gradually switched to olive oil, and my generation uses nothing but.

Most of my family is German, and my hubby's family is from Norway. I love German food but most of it is way up there in calories. I save eating those dishes for when I visit family, and I just don't count calories :p.

An old German recipe

LUMPEN UND FLEEH
(Rags and Fleas - the cumin jumps like fleas in the fat and the cabbage is ragged)

2 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons bacon fat 
1 head white cabbage, coarsely shredded
1 onion, sliced
1 pound boneless pork, fat trimmed
salt, pepper to taste
12 ounces dark beer.

Heat the bacon fat in a dutch oven and put in the cumin seeds.  Heat until they jump.  Season the meat with salt and pepper and brown with the cumin until golden on all sides.  Add the onions and saute until soft.  Add the cabbage and beer.  Bring up to a boil. Cover and place in a 325 oven for 2 hours.

Authentic Hungarian Goulash

2 pounds stew beef cut in 1" pieces 
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt 
3 cups chopped yellow onions
2 TBS lard or shortening (or use vegetable oil) 
4 TBS genuine Hungarian paprika (sweet or hot)
2 bay leaves
4 cups water
4 large peeled and diced potatoes 1/4 tsp
1/4 tsp black pepper

Season beef with salt & pepper and dredge in the flour.  Shake off excess flour. In a dutch oven, brown on all sides in the oil & renive from the pot.  Saute the onions then add the beef and paprika. Cover and place in a 325 f oven for 1 hr. Add water and potatoes. Cover and bake one more hour until the potatoes are done and the meat is very tender. Serve with dumplings or noodles.

my family heritage is Irish my fathers parents came right over from Ireland and my mothers father was from Ireland although they were from different parts of the Island . In my mothers family there were 7 kids and everyone of them married a different nationality so i grew up eating food from all over the world [really makes it hard to diet..lol] so i thought i could shar some of my favorites with you all

my fav potatoes are as follows

fresh rosemary twigs about 3 .baby potatoes [depends on how many people you are having my uncle is from greece and he always says make a lb a person] fresh ground black pepper and sea salt olive oil and you bake in the oven on 400 for about an hour or till cooked remove the rose mary chop it up and serve as a garnish.

i have a wonderful recipe for chana if anyone is interested and also for a really easy tomatoe and noodle dish that my mother told me was goulash when i was growing up but i suspect that it wasn't... I seem to have collected quite a few recipes that i have yet to try but if you are looking for some thing special please contact me i will post some new ones as  i go though

I'd be interested in all those recipes.

I once had someone tell me that the flour in my goulash recipe is not the way it's done.  He says no flour and no tomatoes, and he uses a half a cup of paprika to 4 pounds of beef.  I like the thickness the flour gives the juices, so to heck with him.

I would be interested in the Chana recipe. Isn't that soup?

Has anyone heard of Shirataki noodles? They are only like 40 calories a bag.

I've tried them but didn't like the slippery, too chewy texture.  And they do smell funny until you rinse them.  Others like them very much.  Here's a past discussion about them.

http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/1475 .html

I'll post a few recipes, but I'll warn not all are diet friendly. I do some of these recipes whenever I have my family or my hubbys family over.

These are really fun!!

Soft Pretzels - makes 6 large or 12 small pretzels

Ingredients:
3 ½ C of flour
4 Tbl. brown sugar
2 t salt (sea salt preferably)
1 Tblsp. yeast, dissolved in the water
1 C water (120°) fairly warm but not hot.

Tbl.. baking soda mixed with 1 Cup boiling water
in a small bowl.

1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl. Directions:

Mix water, yeast, brown sugar and salt in a food processor, or a large mixing bowl. Add flour and mix until dough is smooth. Add more flour if sticky. (If possible let the dough sit overnight in a plastic container in the fridge.)

Now divide the dough into 4, 6 or 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope, very thin, a little bigger than a pencil if your making 4 you can roll it about cigar size and 36 inches long .

Shape into an upside down U shape on your table. Bring the ends together and twist them.

Flatten the ends with your fingers and bring to the top of the pretzel and press in the dough to secure, making it look like a pretzel. Place on a greased cookie sheet.

Now let the pretzels raise for 30 minutes or till about double in size. Brush with the water-soda solution.

For a chewier crust put 2 Tbl. baking soda mixed with 4 Cups boiling water drop the pretzel in there for about the count of 10 and then lift out with a strainer or pancake turner.

Brush the pretzels with the egg and the water that was whipped up in a small bowl. ( a cereal bowl is perfect)
This gives the pretzel a nice shinny glaze.

Sprinkle with toppings like: coarse salt, garlic and parmesan cheese, Cinnamon sugar, or sesame seeds.

Bake in a hot oven 400 to 450 degrees (225 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes or until well browned.

German Potato Dumplings

6 medium baking potatos (about 2 lbs)

1 cup flour


3 tablespoons fine dry breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt(or to taste)

1 tablespoon fresh parsely or 1 teaspoon dried parsely

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
black pepper

2 eggs, slightly beaten

10 onion flavored croutons

all-purpose flour, for rolling

6 cups boiling water

2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs

1. Cook unpeeled potatoes in a small amount of boiling, salted water (about 30 minutes), or until tender, but not mushy; peel potatoes while still warm (but not hot).
2. Coarsely mash with a potato masher or use a potato ricer.
3. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup flour with 3 tablespoons bread crumbs, baking powder, 1 teaspooon salt, parsely, nutmeg and pepper; add to the potatoes, toss/mix until well blended. Stir in the eggs.
4. Using floured hands, shape the potato mixture into 10 balls; insert a crouton into the center of each ball.
5. Lightly dust the balls with flour (so they won't stick).
6. In a Dutch oven, combine 6 cups boiling water and 1 tsp salt.
7. With a spoon carefully drop dumplings into water.
8. Cover, and simmer dumplings for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the dumpling, comes out clean (DO NOT LIFT COVER!).
9. Remove dumplings with a large slotted spoon to a platter.
10. In a saucepan, heat and stir butter until browned; stir in the 1/2 cup bread crumbs, sprinkle over dumplings.