International Cooking

Hello everyone!

Today, we went to Zespol Szkol im. Boleslawa Prusa to have a cooking session with the students. We were five volunteers so the class was divided into five groups. Each group had a different recipe from different countries.

First group was Tudal's, so he had two dishes from France; galettes and ratatouille. Galettes are a different type of crepes which is stuffed with eggs,cheese and ham. And ratatouille is made of different vegetables like eggplants,zucchinis and etc. They both were really delicious.

Second group was Jennifer's and she made a soup called Sopa de Frijoles from Honduras. There were platains(green bananas), meat, black beans and a different kind of potatoes typical to Honduras in it and it was served with hand made tortillas which was really delicious.

Third was Cesar's group and they made Baleadas which is a traditional food from Honduras. There was smashed beans, cheese, avocados and scrambled eggs in it. He said that they can eat Baleadas for breakfast lunch or dinner, so it is very common😄


Fourth group was mine and we cooked Lahana Sarmasi which is a very popular dish in Turkey. This is basically cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and meat. The cabbage should be boiled and when they get softer, they are stuffed with the rice and meat. Then it is cooked in a pan with water. In Poland, they have a very similar dish called Golabki, so the students could compare these two dishes and see the differences.

Fifth group was Marta's and they baked typical Croatioan cookies called Vanilin Kiflice. They were the fastest group but the cookies was really tasty! 😍  They used a lot of walnuts in the cookie. And the consistency of the cookie was very good.

Finally, after everyone finished cooking, we tasted all the foods we prepared. They were all so delicious. We also learned a lot of things about different cuisines and their eating habits.

-Hande Ozdemir

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/26661/stuffed-cabbage-rolls/

https://cnz.to/recipes/vegetables-grains/buckwheat-galettes-recipe/

https://tasty.co/recipe/ratatouille

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/255917/honduran-baleadas/

https://hispanickitchen.com/recipes/sopa-de-frijoles-hondurena-slow-cooker-honduran-bean-soup/

https://www.chasingthedonkey.com/croatian-cooking-vanilin-kiflice-recipe-vanilla-crescent-cookies/

COOKING SESSION IN JUNE

A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to Specjalny Ośrodek Szkolno-Wychowawczy im. Anny Karłowicz, in Pułtusk to cook some easy and delicious traditional dishes from our countries. So Begüm, Toby and I went.

In this adventure, we had help of this two amazing local volunteers with translating from English to Polish. They help us with anything we needed.

We started this cooking session by eating dessert. The school team surprised us with this meal. We had polish apple cake, vanilla ice cream, blueberries and strawberries. So tasty!

We split the kids in two groups and explained them what we were cooking and the ingredients we were using.

Turkey

Begum told us a little bit about this traditional dish and her story behind it: “This traditional dish is called Kısır. In Turkey, when we have big events like meeting with friends or big lunch time, we make Kısır. 

I'm going to give you the recipe in a simple way. First, we put special turkish bulgur in a large bowl and pour  hot water over it and cover immediately with a larger plate. We let sit for 20 minutes. Meanwhile we fry the onion tomato paste with a little oil. We will mix all the ingredients. Then, we cut the lettuce, cucumber, tomato and parsley. I want to add that with children at this stage they helped so much. We add  these ingredients into the bulgur and finally we mixed them all the ingredients. 

We ate together,  they liked this dish and we talked with them about different topics. We had a lot of fun. I’m happy for this, ın this way they have different experiences.

My mom made Kısır for lunch especially we eat kısır with Turkish tea while chatting. Kısır time is so important for us. I guess when I was 12 years old my mom taught how to make this dish. It’s easy to prepare. I made so long time ago in our flat with my roommates and a lot of people really like it. 

if you don’t like cooking, don’t worry you will love to make Kısır”.

Honduras

We did guacamole and accompanied it with tortilla chips. A very simple and quick dish but quite popular worldwide. It’s inherited from Mexican gastronomy and highly eaten in Latin America. 

It’s cheap, healthy, easy to do and very, very tasty. They are a lot of different variations depending the region and it’s eaten as a snack or with nachos, with meat, salads or in tacos. Avocados taste so good that they make a good

This time, I did my favorite and the one it reminds me home. Just avocados, salt, pepper and lemon juice. First we cut the avocados and removes the seeds. Whe separte the pulp of the skin and put them in a bowl. Then, using a fork we smash the avocados until we form a smooth mix. We add sakt, pepper and the lemon juice. It depends how much you like to season it. Mix, mix and mix to combine all the flavors and that's it. Delicious guacamole!

In the whole session the kids were eager to learn how to cook this exotic dishes. We had a lot of fun in the process. Both teams did a great job!

Every time we share with people is a mutual learning experience.

The session went smoothly, at some point it all become intuituve, and also the gestures are very helpful when trying to communicate something. Food was tasty and everyone were happy and enjoyed the meal.

Thanks to my friends, for the amazing team work, to Sylwia and the school for having us. And we'll be happy to come back and cooking more dishes. 

-Jennifer Soto

Warsaw Food Guide (from volunteer Ayse)

I have just come from my EVS after amazing 1 year with extra 3 kilograms. Because eating was both my
and my coordinator’s favorite activity which I already miss, so I thought it would be good to share my
food adventure in Warsaw as a volunteer.


Zapiecek

This is the most Polish place you can ever find. It has very traditional, grandma-style decoration, there
are even dollies on the table and perfect place for pierogi, placki ziemniaczane and traditional soups.
You will totally love huge portions, sour cream on the top of the pierogi and hot kompot. It has more
than 20 kinds of pierogi both boiled and fried options. My favorite is fried pierogi with cabbage and
forest mushroom. Avarage price for 9-pierogi portion is 23zl, Polish suasages are 26zl and soups are
around 10zl.

Mleczarnia Jerozolimska – Milk bar

If you hate cooking and you need to survive with volunteering money like me, milk bars are definitely life saving. In the mid-60s, during communism era, restaurants were nationalized because they were “capitalist” and milk bars started to serve cheap, dairy based and vegeterian foods to workers.  After communism collapsed, milk bars went bankrupt however in 2010s they came back as fast-food restaurants for Polish traditional food and they are still cheap! A typical lunch option with soup, main course, salad and kompot is around 20zl, a portion of pierogi is around 10zl and my favorite meal potato crepes with spinach is only 11zl. Leniwe and tomato soup are definitely must try.

Asia Tasty

I can easily say my spice tolerance has increased in Poland but not because of Polish food because of authentic Vietnamese food in Poland. Poland and Vietnam relations grew in mid 1900s with student exchange programs while both countries were communists. Now, Poland is home of almost 60.000 Vietnamese people. You can easily find a Vietnamese restaurant even in suburbs in Warsaw but one place is our favorite. It is cheap, fast and delicious. There is also a supermarket inside where you can find asian snacks, instant noodles, different rices and sauces from Asia.

Sapko Kebap

I never understand why people eat kebap in foreign countries because it is more like frozen kebaps sold in supermarkets in Turkey and not good. But this place has really good meat and delicious authentic side dishes with olive oil, tomato and eggplant. Döner wrap is around 15zl, Iskender kebap is 22zl. As a Turkish I approved!

 Hala Gwardii

Hala Gwardii is an amazing experience. It is a street food market where you can find delicious food from all around the world. Best thing is the most of the places are vegan/vegetarian friendly. Also they serve foods with wooden fork and knife in eatable plates in order to decrease plastic waste. There is a craft beer place you can buy regional beers from Poland. My favorite food stall is Tel Aviv and its amazing falafels. There are also thematic weekends with different activities but it is only open from Friday to Sunday. 

Trevas Asian kitchen

the recipes come from the cooking workshop in Prus School on 21.01.2019 and it was run by Trevas our Erasmus+ volunteer.
Fresh spring rolls:

Rice sheets 1 pack, varieties of vegetables (carrot, cucumber, bean sprouts, radish, lettuce,
spinach), vermicelli rice noodles, surimi “crab fingers”, jam , sweet and sour sauce

- To shred all the vegetables (carrot, radish – with a greater, cucumber, lettuce,
spinach – with a knife).
- Tear crab fingers into smaller pieces.

- Cook the rice noodles and coll down.

- Brush rice sheet with water to soften.

- Put veges, crab fingers and rice noodles on it and roll, add a bit of jam to each roll.

- sweet & sour sauce as dipping.

Sesame oil ginger soup:

Mushrooms 1 little pack, ginger 1, sesame oil 1 bottle, carrots, radish, chicken breast,
vermicelli rice noodles (example: beehoon).

- Soak the mushroom with hot water for half an hour.

- Chop veges into brunoise.

- Chop chicken breast  into cubes.

- Fry ginger in sesame oil till golden brown.

- Add water (chicken stock if have) and veges in.

- Simmer till veges are softened, then add chicken cubes.

- Cook noodles in a separate pot.

- Serve in a bowl.

Fried rice:

Soy sauce, scallion 1, eggs 10, rice 10 serves, Taiwanese satay sauce, meat
(optional, normally pork or chicken), lard

- Cook the rice “al dente”

- Finely chop scallion and dice meat.

- Melt lard in a frying pan, fry eggs, then chicken & add rice at the end.

- season with soy sauce & satay, sprinkle - scallion on top as garnish.

Mapo Tofu:

Tofu 1 block, 1 piece of beef with some fat, chilli flakes, scallion, chilli bean paste, garlic, in original:
 fermented soya bean

- Chop tofu into cubes. Poach tofu with some salt (put into hot water with a bit of salt for 3 minutes).

- Fry chilli flakes and mill into powder-like, put on the side.

- Panfry minced beef till golden brown, add chilli bean past (and fermented soya bean), add finelly
chopped garlic.

- Add some water and tofu.

- Thicken the sauce with flour, about 3 times.

- Garnish with scallion.