Culinary maestros, international foodies, and globe-trotting chefs unite!

HovitosKing

Well-known member
I've recently (over the past year) begun cultivating my somewhat limited skills in cooking, and while I still have a long way to go I find the culinary arts both interesting and incredibly rewarding. I'm especially keen on cooking international recipes handed down through generations of families, not the standard stuff you find all over the web and in most international cookbooks.

Are there others on this board who would be interested in posting some tried-and-true family recipes from around the globe? My ancestry is German and I have a few of my grandmother's old-world recipes I'll post here when I get more time. I've been busily expanding my own personal repertoire of international cuisine and would love to start a discussion along this line if there's any interest about. This thread can be used to present, discuss, and celebrate all of those prized recipes that were supposed to remain a "family secret" but we're just dying to blab about! :whip:

P.S., While this topic isn't about physically traveling the globe, it is about culinary traditions from around the globe. Hence the thread's existence in this category.
 

NoCamels

New member
Well, here's two recipes I learned in Spain. Both are really easy and neither are things you'd find in a cookbook, though my host family made them pretty often.

Torta Vegetal ("Vegetable Cake") They called this "summer food" and it's a nice thing to make when it's hot out. No cooking involved. It's pretty filling and doesn't keep well, though, so don't make too much at once. (it's okay overnight, but the bread gets soggy if you keep it much longer.) An 8x8 pan should feed 4 hungry people, maybe 5. The ingredients can be easily altered to your tastes.

Cake Pan- 8x8 or 9x13
Loaf of sandwich bread, crusts removed
Lettuce
Green/Bell Pepper
Tomato
Green Olives- chopped/sliced
Onion
shredded or grated cheese
Hard boiled eggs, chopped (2 or 3)
tuna and/or fake crab, or shredded chicken
Miracle Whip or Mayonaise

Layer 1: Put a layer of bread on the bottom of the pan, then a thin layer of mayonaise. Then, put some sliced/chopped lettuce, tomato, and peppers, but don't make the layer too thick or it won't fit in the pan.
Layer 2: Bread, mayonaise, then your meat, olives and onion.
Layer 3: Bread, mayonaise, shredded cheese, and egg. More olives if you want. Serve soon after making for best results. (cut it up in squares like it was lasagna or cake)


The second thing we had for lunch often. I don't know if it had a real name, but it seemed like the sort of thing someone just made up with what was in the fridge. It's strange, and doesn't really seem like "ethnic Spanish food" but it's pretty good. I guess you'd call it Rice and Eggs.

White rice
"Tomate Frito" (closest substitute is canned tomato sauce, the kind that comes in the small cans, not spaghetti sauce)
Fried egg (sunny side up or over easy)

Put a serving of rice on a plate with some warm tomato sauce on top. Then put the egg on top of that. That's it.



If you'd like the recipe for rommegrot (a Norwegian pudding, usually a Christmas treat) I can post it, I just have to look it up.
 
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HovitosKing

Well-known member
NoCamels said:
If you'd like the recipe for rommegrot (a Norwegian pudding, usually a Christmas treat) I can post it, I just have to look it up.

Absolutely, thanks! These are awesome I'm writing them down right now lol
 

NoCamels

New member
Rommegrot is a Norwegian pudding. One of the traditions is to put a bowl out in the barn for the nisse on Christmas Eve. Nisser are mischevious gnomes (red pointy hat type) and are said to watch over the farm. Leaving them rommegrot is supposed to keep them from playing tricks on the farmer. There's no need to save this stuff for Christmas, though. It's very good and very rich. Here's two recipes:

Rommegrot
1 pint thick whipping cream
1/2 cup flour
1 cup boiled milk
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Boil cream about 20 minutes, then add the flour. Continue stirring until butter begins to seperate out, then drain it off and save. (Yes, rommegrot makes its own melted butter.) Add the boiled, hot milk gradually, stirring until smooth. Add salt and sugar and cook for about 10 minutes. Usually served hot, with melted butter and cinnamon or brown sugar on top. (Rommegrot can be served cold, too.)


Westby Syttende Mai Rommegrot (Westby, WI has a huge Norwegian Independence Day -17 May- celebration. They always have a Rommegrot booth, and make it in bulk)

1 quart cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour
1 quart milk (2% or whole)

Over moderate heat use a heavy kettle to heat cream 15-20 minutes. Use a whip to add flour and salt. Continue cooking and beating until butter forms. Drain butter into a dish and continue beating as cream separates. Heat milk in a glass pitcher in microwave for 5-7 minutes. Add about 1 cup of milk to cream at a time and whip until smooth each time. Then beat 3-4 minutes at moderate- never high- heat. Pour into a dish/storage and pour melted butter over top. Don't make more than 1 batch at a time. Rommegrot freezes just fine.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
A Lil' South Western Enchilada (Featured on Food TV)

Ingredients
For the steak:
2 pounds tri-tip steak, cut into large chunks
1 cup water
1/4 cup anejo tequila
1 clove garlic, minced
1 serrano chile, diced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the enchiladas:
5 (7-ounce) cans tomatillo sauce
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
1 pound pepper Jack cheese, grated
3 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans
1 (7-ounce) can diced chiles
2 dozen flour tortillas
Equipment: 2 (9 by 13-inch) baking pans
Directions
One day ahead, make the steak: In a slow cooker, combine the steak, water, tequila, garlic, and 1 serrano chile. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and cook, on low, until very tender, about 12 hours or overnight. Shred the steak.

Make the enchiladas:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the tomatillo and tomato sauces in a saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until hot. Stir in 1/4 cup of the cheese.

Heat the black beans in another saucepan.

Combine little of the sauce, a bit of the black beans, a smidgen of the cheese, small morsels of the steak, and hints of the diced canned chiles in each tortilla and roll, keeping the ends untucked. Arrange the rolls in the pans and pour the remaining sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and remaining chiles.

Cover the pans with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
 
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