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.

Independence day at Serock with mentally diverse people!

On the 8th of November our team of volunteers was kindly invited to Serock to collaborate in the activities the center had prepared for its users in commemoration of the 100 years of Polish independence. After a short presentation about the function of the institution and a comforting lunch the activities started. To run the workshops the participants and we were divided into three groups, so that they would have 45 minutes of each activity. Travis showed how to make origami, Ann-Katrin went outside to play some sport games, and Marine and I chose to help with the cooking part.
We were going to make some snacks, sandwiches and brochettes, for the party afterwards. The table was filled with different kinds of vegetables, cheese and cold meat, as well as butter and bread. The participants were all into it. They created really interesting combinations of flavors and the result was very colorful and tasty. Our main task was to help cut the vegetables and to hand them the food that were further on the other side of the table, but we also enjoyed a lot making our own sandwiches and brochettes. Listening to the participants asking us about some particular product was actually a great way to learn the Polish words for this kind of food!
Once the workshops were over it was time for the bonfire. All the group gathered around it to warm us up a bit. We could also bake some sausages and potatoes, and all of the time there were two men singing and playing the guitar, so the atmosphere could not have been more friendly!
But the day was not even close to finish yet. When it was too cold to stay outside we went indoors again to a room in which they had prepared a discotheche, it even had the classic silver shinny ball! The main music played was the already so familiar to us “discopolo,” and everyone was so happy dancing to its rhythm. The night was just getting better because there were also tables with the sandwiches and brochettes we had prepared at the workshop, as well as drinks, fruit, cakes and other sweets.
After a while of free time there, the workers made a quiz about Poland for the participants –in which we could not participate due to language barriers, but later we took part in the games. First we decided to teach them the English song “head, shoulders, knees and toes,” and it was very funny since every time we went faster and faster. Then they wanted to dance the “Macarena” song, for which I was very excited since I did not know it was also popular beyond the Spanish borders, but everyone knew the steps! We also played the chairs game and some other ones about dancing in pairs with balloons. We did have a good time and lots of laughs.
The night had come to an end, so everyone went back to their rooms. However, we still were up for a while talking to our neighbors, two nice workers of the center who spoke English, and they told us more about their experience there, and it was great to get to know them a bit. Finally, we left the next morning after breakfast. We were exhausted but very happy to have participated in the event, and I really hope we get to go there in more occasions!

Japanese workcamp

Between 9th and 19th of September we had the chance to host in Pułtusk three motivated Japanese students who came here to share their culture with Polish students. Meet Ryotaro, Genki and Haruka!

Haruka

Ryo

Genki

Our three Japanese participants and their Polish group leader Daniel stayed in Hostel Polon and another Polish participant Zuzia who joined the project at last moment stayed at her home in Pułtusk and participated during the day.

The main part of the project were visits to schools and presenting Japanese culture to the students. We visited school nr. 1 on Wednesday and Thursdays with presentation, workshops and quizes for 4 groups.

Then on Friday we made a lot of origami with the younger kids, cleaned a pavement and planted trees in the schools garden.

In the afternoon we played Japanese games in the culture center and after celebrated in Kamienica :)

On Monday we presented Japan in Prus and on Tuesday we cooked there with the students.

During their free time, we prepared a bbq and a campfire, the volunteers tried to make their own pierogi, went canoeing, drank wodka, picked mushrooms, played football and more.. ;)

Thank you so much dear friends!!!

Cooking in Prus

Prus school invited us to cook together with the students.

The first meeting happened in May and we prepared our national dishes. The students were divided into four groups and followed the instructions of one of us volunteers.

Gizem and her team cooked Turkish yoghurt soup and Karniyarik, which is an eggplant stuffed with minced beef.

Gizem and Emil posing with their creation 😻

Me - Christina and my team made Czech garlic soup and Yemista - vegetables stuffed with rice (favourite dish from my Greek grandma 💓) 

Yummy!

Liza's team prepared the most amazing cake ever - chocolate with cream and cherries 🍒

Schwartzwalder kirshtorte

And finally Sergio's girls helped him with empanadas and guacamole! Unfortunately, I cannot find a picture... But it was so tasty!!! 💚

Then this Wednesday we cooked Polish lunch.

On the menu, there was: rosół, schabowy and potatos, mizeria, young kapusta and sernik.

And of course KOPEREK in every dish (except the desert..)

Sergio performing the most important task of all - cutting koperek!

Thank you so much, the food was amazing, hope to see you again soon!