Diferent Juneteenth Fare

 Today is Juneteenth and that means strawberry sodas to drinks an red velvet cake to enjoy.Yet there are other recipes that give a different spin to this important holiday, Like the red food that sympolizes the blood of the enslaved these foods also symbolize the memories of the homeland and adaptation of a hard life in a new world.

regular contributor Korsha Wilson wrote about these in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section.These recipes show the varied histories of Blacks that travel through the Caribbean and the American South.Chef Lana Lagomarsini along with chefs Deborah Jean and Nana Araba Wilmot have created dishes beyond the usual barbecue fare of hamburgers and hot dogs.Chef Lagomarsini is cooking oxtails braised with tamarind and guava paste, ingredients a nod to her time in the Caribbean and tomato chow chow , a recipe she picked up in the American South.others also vary their Junteenth menus. Tonya Abari adds her husband's Nigerian heritage to their menu.There is the classic and delicious jollof rice along with hibiscus tea to drink. last year sh and her ten year old and three year old daughters made ice cream sandwiches using red velvet cake. warren Lucket, the founder and managing partner of Houston;s Black Restaurant week creates a meal of vegan ,Caribbean and west African dishes while still serving the classics for watermelon, beef brisket, sausages and crawfish.

The recipes are easy to recreate. it takes about seven pounds of oxtails to create the oxtail dish.It does take several washes in cold water before prepping them.They should be seared first in a Dutch oven, working in batches.Onion ginger and garlic is added then seasoning. whole black peppercorns are used along with the guava tamarind and dry white wine.The oxtails are then removed from this and the sauce is created.Molasses is added to the remaining braising liquid.Brown, sugar, molasses, Worcester sauce and vinegar are added.This is simmered until it's thickened for twenty-five to thirty minutes. and poured onto the oxtails. The chowchow is three medium sized green tomatoes mixed with chopped red and green bell peppers, onions and cabbage.These are salted or brined and then left to chill in the fridge for two hours.afterwards drain  and then place ina dutch oven. Add the vinegar, turmeric,sugar , mustard and celery seeds and cumin. This is boiled and then simmer for ten minutes. The chow chow is cooled and then placed in freshly washed and dried canning jars .Lids are quickly placed on the jars and then let to cool at room temperature.It can last for up to two months in the fridge.

JUnettenrth is about family and the family recipes that define them. These can be from the Caribbean ,west Africa and the American South. All together they give dishes that reflect heritage and heartache.

Kunan Gyada A Sweet Ramadan Treat

Ramadan is a study in contrasts. There's fasting and then there's eating. A way to ease from hunger is a warm cup or bowl of kunun gyada a Nigerian type of porridge.It's a nice first course for the feasts to come.

Yewande Komolafe, a food writer contributed this recipe to yesterday's New York Times Food section. She previously gave the section 10 Essential Nigerian Recipes. Make this one her eleventh. Kunan gyada is a warm porridge drizzled with tamarind for iftar , the daily breaking of the Ramadan fast.It's a welcome offering to guests visiting for the holiday and a precursor to the evening meal. It is West African from the Hausa tribe from northwestern Nigeria,Cameroon and southern Niger. The dish , though transcends nations and national identities. It's an easy dish with exotic spices like selim which has a nutmeg like flavor. Ms. Komolafe recommends buying  this any African market or online. Nutmeg is also used as is the fiery cayenne along with cloves. Tamarind is used and you can buy it as whole pods or pulp to create your own pulp or concentrate.There is also cinnamon plus a cinnamon stick added  and ground ginger for more heat . Keep in mind that it can also be made for breakfast and served with fresh fruit, homemade preserves or even dark buckwheat honey.  Granulated sugar and lemon juice are also added for sweetness and a pop of tartness.

Making kunan gyada is simple so novice chefs can easily try it. You will have to soak the peanuts and rice needed beforehand. Fine grinding the rice produces a silkier effect while keeping some grains coarse give the porridge a thickness and body. Both have to be soaked for at least one hour and up to four hours at room temperature. After the peanuts are drained and then transferred to a blender  The liquid is then strained through a fine mesh sieve. The solids are then returned to the blender with two cups of water  and then strained again. Add the liquid to the milk and discard the solid part.The cooked rice is then drained and added to the blender. All the spices are added to the peanut milk as it it cooks over a medium flame. Whisk until the mixture becomes thick and then add the rice . Stir frequently until it has a porridge like consistency.

You should warm the bowls or leave them out at room temperature before pouring in the kunan gyada. Top with a spoonful of tamarind paste and sweeten with granulated sugar or honey. Ms. Komolafe also suggests adding dates too.If you want to make it a drink add a cup of water to the rice and then mix it with kefir or drinkable yogurt.

Kunan gyada is perfect for starting Ramadan's sundown feasting. It is also a nice and different way of breaking the morning fast too. Try it to experience the warm blend of spices and the creamy porridge.

A Harvest Of Cookbooks Part One

 One of the best aspects of fall is that it produces harvests. There are apples and pears along with pumpkins. Yet the best bounty of all is the plethora of cookbooks   that comes with the season. There are some great ones , perfect for fall cooking and baking.

The New York Times Food section gave a very good analysis of what's coming off the presses these days. A wide range of Food contributors such as regulars Julia Moskin, Melissa Clarke  and Kim Severson along with Vaughn Vreeland, Margeaux Laskey, Alexa Weibel and even Pete Wells reviewed and recommended these  must buy cookbooks. There's books for everyone. Ina Garten fans will love her Modern Comfort Food (Clarkson Potter) has her classic recipes as tuna melts, risotto and corn muffins. Ms. Severson who reviewed the book clains it's a a bit Hamptons and not diverse. Yet' it comfort dishes from everyone 's favorite TV cook, and that's what we need right now. Another famed chef, and also a New York Times Food contributor is  Yotten Ottolenghi , has cowritten Ottolenghi Flavor (Tenspeed Press). He and his writing partner, Ixta Belfrage has such interesting dishes as coconut and turmeric omelet and sticky rice. Science also makes an appearance. Nik Sharma's The Flavor Equation (Chronicle) has interesting theories about how the interplay of  emotion, aromas, textures , visuals and even sounds affect the way we eat. There's also striking photography too.

International cooking is also seen here. Xi'an Famous Foods : The Cuisine of Western China from New York's Favorite Noodle Shop ( Brams)  is by Jessica K Chou which features the New York City's restaurants chain's most iconic dishes like biang biang noodles.Meera Sodha switches it up from her native Indian cooking to  including Chinese in her latest  cookbook East: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes From Bangalore to Beijing (Flatiron Books) has everything from baos or breads stuffed with peanut butter and mushroom fillings to tamarind slathered eggplant to a tomato, pistachio and saffron tart. Indonesian cooking is represented in Coconut and Sambal: Recipes From My Indonesian Kitchen (Bloomsbury) by Lara Lee who's Australian, Chinese and Indonesian. There is beef rendang and a bright green pandang cake in her book. African and African-American cuisine is also represented in In Bibi's Kitchen :The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from Eight African Countries That Touch The Indian Ocean ( Ten speed Press) by Hawa Hassan and The Rise : Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food (Voracious) by the always great Marcus Samuelsson have such interesting vegetarian recipes from the first while Chef Samuelsson has a mix of essays and recipes from black chefs and writers. Then there are the baking themed ones. They'll be covered tomorrow.

 These cookbooks features the best of fall cooking  They'd be a great addition to any kitchen., Buy them and expand your kitchen's library

The Taste of Tamerind

Tamerind is a comforting and exotic  flavor all at once.It's tangy  and sweet, perfect for all sorts of dishes. It's great as an addition for summer dishes and drinks.

Nik Sharma, creator of the award winning  A Brown Table that highlights Indian cuisine  wrote an interesting piece about this fruit(?) in yesterday's New York Times' Food section. Tamarind is actually a hard wood, not unlike teak and it produces pods. Those pods contain a sticky sweet and sour pulp that's made into a syrup. The Italians mix it with either mineral or even tap water for a refreshing cola like drink. It's also used in Worcester sauce for that unique flavor yet it's the Africans and Indians that have made the most use of it. It grows well in hot climates, originating in Africa and migrating over to India. Tamarind is great for any pantry since it lasts for months. Use it now or use it for baking and cooking in the fall and winter. You can make the extract at home by  boiling the pulp, then steeping  and softening it for a few minutes.  Buy the packaging that says "SOUR" which is the best for cooking and baking. You can get the sweet  as Mr. Sharma does but that's just for eating out of the package.There is also the liquid concentrate. This also can be heated up to reduce its' volume but it will lose its' fruity flavor.

There are several different recipes. Try the roasted new potatoes with garlic and tamarind. It's a sweet and savory side that has new yellow potatoes flavored with the pulp along with date syrup (although you can also use honey or maple syrup). This is a syrup poured over the potatoes after they've been oven roasted with olive oil and salt.  Cumin and serrano chiles are added for fire and bite so it's not too tangy. Seafood can also benefit from tamarind. Mr. Sharma gives us shrimp, cilantro and tamarind soup.The last is only a tablespoon so it doesn't over power the briny seafood taste. There's also a yellow onion and tomato paste added along with green chile and black pepper along with cilantro.A sweeter dish is an almond, black pepper and fig cake  drizzled with a tamarind paste glaze. The cake combines these diverse flavors with the figs being dusted with the black pepper. The batter is made from almond flour which has a delicacy that works with the other intense flavors. The glaze is unusual because it combines olive oil the tamarind paste and confectioners sugar. Usually water is added to make a glaze but the olive oil gives it more heft. Water can be added to thin it out of it is too thick.

Tamarind is a wonderful flavor , perfect in a refreshing drink or interesting dish. Try it in a savory side or soup. Use it  to give more flavor to a homemade almond, black pepper and fig cake. It's a great add in for any savory or sweet recipe.

The Delicious Variety of Filipino Food

Filipino food is on the rise here in the States.It's no wonder.It's a cuisine full of rich flavors and tastes, from a milky sweetness to a mouth puckering sour.No wonder the cuisine is popular.It' 's full of exciting flavors melded together to create a  memorable taste.

Ligaya Mishan,  who normally writes the New York Times Food section's restaurant reviews, wrote this interesting article about the cuisine. Thanks to the influx of immigrants from this archipelago of seven thousand islands, Filipino foods are fast becoming part of the American culinary landscape.The cuisine is different from its' south Asian neighbors.Where their dishes are fiery , sparked with chilis, Filipino recipes are varying degrees of sour.Vinegar is a main ingredient  in many, used for centuries as a type of preservative. Since the islands are tropical, meats spoil easily, Vinegar is a way to keep them .One of their most ancient of dishes, kinilaw, possibly the precursor to seviche, is fish soaked in suka, extracted from sugar cane or sap from coconut trees or nipa palms. Another Filipino staple, daing na bangus which is milkfish, a tuna like fish, deboned. splayed and then soaked in vinegar.overnight. It's then crisped in a pan for a crunchy outside however the inside can be eaten with a spoon,thanks to the vinegar soaking.Even their version of spring rolls, or lumpia are dipped in a garlic laced dip called savsavan.

Adobe is the second flavor that define Filipino cuisine.Its' method of making and ingredients predate the Spanish name for it. At its' base it's meat being braised in vinegar and garlic for a long time. Other ingredients are added and that's when the  recipe varies.some put in a dash of soy sauce while others stir in achuete oil - made from annatto ,a peppery kind of nut. Some adobo recipes have coconut milk, sugar and even squid ink added. Every family has their own unique recipe.Funny enough it's not the national dish, despite its' popularity. That would be sinigang, a soup, according to Doreen Fernandez, born in the capital city of Manila and a food historian.. The first taste is usually so incredibly sour that it induces a shudder. The souring agent can vary according to where you are in the Philippines. Most use tamarind, a sweet -tart fruit that's usually made into a syrup to be mixed with water.It could also be guava alibangbang leaves - a type of orchid, the fruit of the sorrel tree kamia along with batuan similar to the mangosteen or unripe pineapple. Filipinos balance it out with kare-kare,  taken from Indian cooks who came with the Royal Navy.,a nutty-sweet stew of oxtail,bok choy, string beans and eggplant simmered in ground peanuts and achuete oil according to Nicole Ponseca who runs the Filipino restaurants, Malika and Jeepney in New York.

Filipino food is an interesting mix reflective of the many islands that make up the country. It can be eye opening and adventurous but definitely chock full of flavor. It's like no other South Asian cuisine.