The Art of Cooking Looking Beyond the Plate A Project by Art Route Collective
Introduction From January to July 2017, ArtsEkta ran a series of creative workshops at The Morton Centre in Belfast and at ArtsEkta’s Murray Street art room for refugee women. The aim of the workshops was to connect and integrate refugees from across the world with each other and with Northern Ireland through sharing recipes and illustrating and embroidering imagery of food.
Every culture has its favourite recipes - there are those for everyday consumption and others created painstakingly as the centrepiece of a feast. There are recipes that have common names in countries on separate continents - eg. chapatti is known in both India and Somalia as a staple food and others region specific.
We hope you enjoy and try making this eclectic collection of recipes - you’ll find dishes from Syria, Sudan and even Spain! These are dishes made not by chefs, but by everyday folk, it’s authentic home-cooking from their hometowns. The money raised from this project will go back into the refugee community to help them integrate and participate in local society, and as one of the ladies said, Northern Ireland is their “home away from home.”
About ArtsEkta ArtsEkta (Ekta means bonding/uniting in the Indian language) is a multi-award winning arts and cultural organisation that works to develop intercultural relationships at the heart of the community and is home to the Belfast Mela. We are dedicated to strengthening and deepening relationships between different cultures and communities through a series of exciting and inspiring cultural based programmes.
I would like to thank all the participants, project staff and facilitators who worked together to produce this vibrant and diverse recipe booklet. The Art Route Collective has members from different cultures and backgrounds but once again this booklet illustrates that food unites us and similar recipes are enjoyed and shared across the world.
Nisha Tandon OBE, Executive Director, ArtsEkta About Our Partners The Public Health Agency (PHA) was established in 2009 under a major reform of health structures in Northern Ireland. The PHA was set up to provide a renewed and enhanced focus on public health and wellbeing by bringing together a wide range of public health functions under one organisation. The PHA is also required to create better inter-sectoral working, including enhanced partnership arrangements with local government, to tackle the underlying causes of poor health and reduce health inequalities.
This project is funded by the PHA. Recipes Syrian, Iranian & Spanish Rice Pudding
This dish was one that the Syrian grandmother of our group Insaf kept telling us about and it’s also something that cool hip mum Nasreen from Iran wants to make if she’s able to set up her own company in the future. It was also a recipe one of our facilitators Paula made in Spain, but with her own twist. A simple but delicious winter dessert to warm the soul.
INGREDIENTS
1 litre milk 250g sugar 1/2 - 1 cup of cooked rice (depending on preferred consistency of pudding) 1 Vanilla Pod Rose Water Starch
METHOD
1. Boil rice in water until cooked (ration 1:2 of rice : water) 2. Add cooked rice to milk on a medium heat 3. Add starch and sugar (to taste) 4. Add Vanilla & Rose Water
* For a Spanish twist on this Syrian recipe, simply add Lemon & Cinnamon instead of Vanilla and Rosewater Kabsa
This dish is a traditional one, often regarded as the national dish of Saudi Arabia.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter 1.5 kg chicken cut into 8-10 pieces 1 large onion (finely chopped) 6 garlic cloves (minced) 1/4 cup tomatoes (pureed) 400g canned, chopped tomatoes 3 medium carrots (grated) 2 whole cloves 1 pinch of grated nutmeg 1 pinch of ground cumin 1 pinch of ground coriander 1/4 cup Almonds (optional) 1/4 cup Raisins (optional) Salt Freshly ground black pepper
METHOD
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan and add chicken, onion and garlic until onions are tender. Add tomato puree and simmer. 2. Add carrots, tomatoes and all of the spices including pepper and salt. Add enough water to cover all the ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes. 3. Add rice into the pot and simmer until rice is fully cooked. Extra water may be required at this stage, so keep an eye on the pot - roughly 35-40 minutes! 4. You can serve the dish garnished with almonds and raisins (optional). Kissra
The main Sudanese dish is a special type of bread called Kissra which is made of durra or corn. Kissra is usually the accompaniment for stew and has become the main dish in Sudan, particularly in Central Sudan.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups rye flour (dura) 1 cup wheat flour I cup of rice water
Prep - Mix the flours and water into thick paste and cover. Leave overnight.
METHOD
1. Add a small amount of oil to the frying pan and put a small blob of mixture. Spread the mixture using a spatula, working in a circular way. Fry until the edges of the kissra start to lift up. Layer in a stack. 2. Serve with a stew. Sudanese stews are normally made with dried meat, dried onions, spices and peanut butter.
Yoghurt Cucumber Salad
This is a classic Middle Eastern and Asian accompaniment to any dish, particularly the hot ones - to cool the palate!
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cucumber 1/4 cup lemon juice 2/3 cup yoghurt 1/4 cup water 1 garlic clove 1 whole serrano pepper 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper olive oil
METHOD
1. Cut cucumbers into cubes. 2. In a bowl, mix the lemon juice, yoghurt, water, garlic and seasoning to make your salad dressing. 3. Add your cubed cucumbers to your dressing. 4. Garnish with a splash of olive oil. Syrian-Mexican Chicken Stew
This is a fusion recipe from one of our Syrian ladies that also loves Mexican food.
INGREDIENTS
2 carrots (chopped) 1 onion 2 tomatoes 1 red pepper 1 yellow pepper 1 green pepper sliced chicken thighs (boned and skinned) salt and pepper smoked paprika 1 cup of rice
METHOD
1. Fry the onion until brown and add the sliced chicken. 2. When the chicken is cooked, add seasoning (salt and pepper) to taste. 3. Add the spices, peppers, carrots, tomatoes and a cup of water. Continue to simmer. 4. When the stew is cooked, add the rice and continue to simmer on a low heat. 5. Serve when the rice is fully cooked. Syrian White Bean Stew
This is a warm and filling stew that is eaten regularly in Syria as it is easy to prepare and can feed the whole family.
INGREDIENTS
1 tin of white beans 500g chopped or diced goat/lamb 2 onions sliced in quarters coriander seeds tomato paste salt
METHOD
1. Put all ingredients into a pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes. Open lid, stir and cook for a further 15 minutes. You can also use a lidded saucepan if you don’t have a pressure cooker. Maqlooba
The name of this dish means “upside down rice.” It is a dish popular in Syria but also many other countries in the Levant. It is similar to the South Asian “biryani.”
INGREDIENTS
1 large aubergine cut into pieces 250g lamb or chicken mince 4 – 5 tomatoes 1 cup of rice 500ml of lamb or chicken stock Salt Pepper
METHOD
1. Fry aubergine and keep to one side 2. Fry mince and keep to one side 3. Slice tomatoes and layer aubergines and mince on top 4. Add rice, water, chicken stock, salt and pepper 5. Cook until rice is soft 6. Flip over dish once rice is ready Chicken and Chickpea Curry
This is a popular dish in India and Pakistan submitted by one of our volunteers. The chickpeas make the dish a meal in itself – so filling!
INGREDIENTS
1/2 kg chicken 1 tbsp garlic paste 1 tbsp red chilli powder 1 tsp turmeric powder 2 tbsp coriander powder 1 tbsp garam masala 4 tbsp vegetable oil 4-6 whole black peppercorns 2-3 cloves 1 cinnamon stick 1 tin chopped tomatoes 1 tin chickpeas Salt to taste 2-3 Green chillies Coriander leaves to garnish
METHOD
1. Fry onions in oil 2. Fry chicken in oil, then add the garlic paste and fry. Add whole peppercorns, a couple of cloves and a small stick of cinnamon. 3. Make a paste with chilli powder, turmeric, ground coriander powder and garam masala in water. Add this to the chicken and continue to fry until the oil begins to separate. 4. Add the tin of tomatoes and let it cook. Fry until the oil is separated again. 5. Add the tin of chickpeas and some water and leave to cook on a slow heat until the chickpeas are a bit softer. 6. Garnish with green chillies and coriander. Tortilla Española
This is a popular dish in Spain enjoyed at any time of the day really!
INGREDIENTS
4 potatoes 4 eggs sunflower oil 1 onion 2 garlic cloves spices salt
METHOD
1. Cover a frying pan with sunflower oil and heat up. 2. Peel and chop the potatoes into fine pieces and drop into the pan when the oil is hot. 3. Cut the onion into fine pieces and drop into the pan with the spices and potatoes. Drop in the garlic cloves. 4. Remove from the heat and add salt and spices. 5. Beat the eggs in a bowl. 6. When the potatoes and onion are well cooked, add the eggs to the mix. 7. Ensure the egg mix is covering the full pan in a layer. 8. Let the mixture cook and when it starts to become more solid, flip over the tortilla. 9. Once the tortilla is cooked on both sides, your dish is ready to eat.
If you would like to join the Art Route Collective please contact ArtsEkta on [email protected]
Glendinning House Tel: +44 (0)28 9023 1381 6 Murray Street [email protected] Belfast, BT1 6DN www.artsekta.org.uk
ArtsEkta is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (NIC102412) and has one wholly owned trading subsidiary Ekta Events C.I.C.
This project is funded by the PHA Supported by Bryson Intercultural On behalf of the Vulnerable Syrian Refugee Consortium and the Department for Communities