Let’s Eat Together! June 2018 This booklet was compiled by: Jenny Shea Bow Valley Literacy Program Publication Coordinator [email protected] © Bow Valley Literacy Program, all rights reserved Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 5 FOREWORD 7 THE STORIES Camika Stewart Sharing Meals With Family and Friends 9 Daniel Habteyes Ethiopian Tradi7onal Food (recipe) 10 Delio Herrera Plantain (recipe) 12 Fernanda Mella Ortega Empanadas of Chile 13 Fernanda Nieto Typical Food from Southern Chile 14 Irma Herrera Venezuelan Arepas (recipe) 15 Margaret’s Class My Favourite Food 16 Meena Khadka The Glory of Food 17 Monica Kim Very Special Foods for New Year’s Day 18 Naomi Mori Our Cooking Club 19 Nicole Lizama Meals are BeMer in Good Company 20 Sabrina Calzadillas My Favourite Food: Porotos Granados 21 Satoe Ogawa Avocado Salad (recipe) 22 Sevan Kahkejian Recipes from Aleppo! (recipe) 23 Tamaki Okabe A Pizza Birthday Party for Rina 25 TorU SUzaki The Art of Sushi 26 Vero Capitan Tradi7onal Foods of Catalonia 27 A Celebra8on of Learning 28 Let’s Eat Together! 3 Acknowledgements As the Coordinator of the Bow Valley Literacy Program, I have the privilege and pleasUre of thanking everyone who makes oUr program and therefore this pUblica8on, Let’s Eat Together, possible. I encoUrage yoU to take yoUr 8me reading this page and note the contribU8ons made by a very special part of oUr Bow Valley community. The BVLP works closely with the Bow Valley Learning Council and the Board of Directors who serve it. We are fUnded by Innova8on and Advanced EdUca8on Alberta. Jenny Shea was the brave and talented volunteer who offered to step in and take over the producon of oUr annUal pUblica8on when oUr program grew too large (a happy problem) for me to con8nUe it. When you read Let’s Eat Together, you’ll understand why we are all so grateful that she was willing to fill this gap. Thank you to Jenny’s parents, Brian and Janet Shea for helping edit the beau8ful stories we have. The variety and depth of food wisdom shared in this collec8on make it a feast for the paleae. We can thank oUr graphic designer, Monica Kim, for making if a feast for the eyes. We are also gratefUl for the generosity of oUr printer, The UPS Store Canmore. Thirty-seven volUnteers worked with Us this year: in learning partnerships, learning communi8es and oUtreach. We are proUd to display their names on a separate page in this book. Thank yoU to every volUnteer and teacher (Marilyn DUncan-Webb, Lesley Randal and Jody Roseneck) who encoUraged and supported our writers. We love oUr local libraries and the people who make them work for Us. The Banff, Canmore and MD of Bighorn Libraries are an essen8al part of oUr learning joUrney. (Special thanks to Karen from the Canmore Conversa8on GroUp!) We are part of an amazing network of service providers: Bow Valley College, Sealement Services and Temporary Foreign Worker SUpport Services are bUt a few of the dedicated members of the Bow Valley Inter-agency community. Finally, I woUld like to thank the coUrageoUs, determined and hardworking people who par8cipate in the learning opportUni8es we provide. YoU have accomplished so much this year and yoU showed grace and dignity in doing so. To everyone who contributed a story to Let’s Eat Together, thank you for sharing a part of yoUrself with Us. OUr community is blessed to have yoU. Deb Penninga Program Coordinator Bow Valley Literacy Program Let’s Eat Together! 5 Foreword Food is a gig. It can be a familiar meal shared with old friends or a new experience with people we have just met. Food is a way to connect; to say thank yoU or I love yoU or welcome to my home. It is intertwined with memories and dreams and even thoUgh we are all so different, we can always agree on something when we sit down and eat together. Food is the theme of this year’s pUblica8on. I love to cook, and I love to talk aboUt food, especially recipes I have never tried. I am so excited to have collected some new and delicioUs recipes while gathering stories for this book! I have also met the most amazing people, people with an incredible ability to adapt, grow, and sUcceed. I am honoUred to bring yoU some of their stories and recipes. The 20 stories in this book are aboUt recipes that reminds Us of where we come from and recipes we will keep with us wherever we go. There are stories about trying new tastes and stories about sharing meals with friends and family. I want to thank everyone who took the 8me to share their story for this project. Keep on cooking! J Shea Jenny Shea VolUnteer TUtor and Publicaon Coordinator Let’s Eat Together! 7 Sharing Meals with Family and Friends by Camika Stewart When I invite friends over for dinner, my favoUrite thing to make is Jamaican food - rice and peas, jerk chicken and french-fried chicken with Jamaican style vegetables. All these foods take me Up to 6 hoUrs or more. All my family and friends say I shoUld open my own restaUrant! It is so difficUlt to find Jamaican ingredients in the Bow Valley, so I go to Calgary to shop at a specialty store to get my spices and jerk seasoning. For my family of 4 I woUld make 6 dishes and for dessert… Jamaican rUm cake! I also like to snack on banana chips and Jamaican cheese. If I had my own restaUrant I woUld call it "Seasoning to the Bone" and I woUld cook Jamaican style food of coUrse! Let’s Eat Together! 9 Ethiopian Traditional Food Recipe by Daniel Habteyes Ethiopian bread, Injera, is not only a kind of bread bUt also an ea8ng Utensil. This spongy, soUr flat bread is Used for scooping Up meat and vegetable stews. Injera also lines the tray on which the stews are served, soaking Up the juices as the meal progresses. When the edible table cloth is eaten, the meal is officially over. Injera is made with teff floUr, a grain that floUrishes in the highlands of Ethiopia. While teff is very nutrious, it contains prac8cally no glUten. This makes teff ill-sUited for making raised- bread however, injera s8ll takes advantage of the special property of yeast. A short period of fermenta8on gives it an airy, bubbly texture, and also slightly sour taste. Teff is poised to be the next sUperfood, with 50 percent more protein, five 8mes the fiber, and 25 8mes more calciUm than brown rice. On holidays in Ethiopia, we have injera along with Doro Wat, which means chicken stew, one of the most famoUs of all African special8es. Ethiopian moms UsUally cook every meal for the family and they teach girls from very yoUng ages how to cook all kinds of Ethiopian food as well as tradional food. Teaching our tradi8ons is very important becaUse we have 85 tribes and each tribe has a different kind of food, culture and language. Ethiopia has a different calendar from Canada and most of the world. According to the Ethiopic calendar, the holidays are, for example, the 1st of September which is New Year’s Day and the 29th of December which is Christmas Day. Each year there are 13 months, 12 months of 30 days plUs five days in the 13th the month that is called Phagame. Phagame is the month that we reflect and prepare for New Year and it adds a leap day every foUr years. In fact, right now it’s the year 2010 in Ethiopia compared to 2018 in Canada. RECIPE • What do you need? ¼ cup teff flour ¾ cup of all-purpose flour 1 cup of water A pinch of salt Peanut or vegetable oil Mixing bowl A nonstick pan or cast iron skillet 10 Let’s Eat Together! Ethiopian Traditional Food (continued) • How do you make it? 1. Put the teff flour in a mixing bowl and sift in the all-purpose flour. 2. Slowly add water, stirring to avoid lumps. 3. Put the batter aside a day or more to allow it to ferment. In this time, your injera batter will start to bubble and acquire the slight tanginess for which it’s known. Remember if you find that the batter does not ferment on its own, try adding a teaspoon of yeast. 4. Stir in the salt. 5. Heat a nonstick pan or lightly oiled cast iron skillet until water drops dance on the surface of the pan. Otherwise, your injera might fall apart when you try to remove it. 6. Coat the pan with a thin layer of batter. Injera should be thicker than a crepe, but not as thick as a traditional pancake. It will rise slightly when it’s heated. 7. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface of the bread. Once the surface is dry, remove the bread from the pan and let it sit. • What’s going on? If you have ever cooked pancakes, making injera might seem familiar. In both cases, tiny bubbles form on top as the batter is cooked. Keeping an eye on the bubbles is the best way to see how close injera is to be ready without peeking underneath. These bubbles come from the carbon dioxide activated by the leavening process; the baking powder or baking soda in the case of pancakes and the wild yeast in the case of injera. With no gluten in teff, most of the carbon dioxide from the leavening process rapidly escapes in to the air, leaving the little popped bubbles that contribute to the distinctive textures of these breads.