Food Beyond Food

7/31/2019 Food Beyond Food

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FOOD BEYOND FOODBY

TEAM 13443


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Introduction

Gathering around commonalities is all well and good if you are advertising in the

classifieds for a roommate or a date for next weekend. But it is a fairly uselessexercise if the gathering is to create a team of people who need to bring adiversified tool box of talents to a situation so as to solve a problem. A focus oncommonalities just produces an endless line of Tweedledums andTweedledees.For each to know all the commonalities of the others is to know nothing morethan ones self with different faces.

The point is to find the one commonality through which a team can find its fullestdiversification, where each persons unique perspectives, background and talents,will contribute the best analysis and most effective actions over the broadestspectrum.

Team 13443 chose one commonality, a delight in cooking and an abiding interestin food, through which we could connect the strangers in this team. Additionally,if this team were to be an effective element in the world outside of Stanford U.,we would have to know each other on more than just a superficial or intellectuallevel.

Who are we, who are you, really?

Food is one of the fundamental basics here on earth. It effects every aspect of ourlives. To know a team mate thoroughly requires knowledge of our histories. And

our emotional being is of course an essential aspect of our stories. Within thislittle cookbook we can find this kind of connection between strangers that runs alittle more deeply and effectively than something like, I really like dogs.

Our best regards to all of you,

Marianthi ConstantinuNeha DhyaniSrinivasa MurthySteven NickesonJessica Sheth

Team 13443


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Uncle Thomas's Grilled Peppers

ByMarianthi Constantinu

In the smell of grilling green bell peppers, Great Uncle Tomas comes alive again in mylife and kitchen. Even though he is long gone, that aroma never fails. The peppers were

his speciality. He would take such pleasure in turning them over and over on the hot

charcoals in his brick grill under the largest grape vine in his patio; manoeuvring them bytheir stems, never using any tools. His stubby, leathery hands never needed them.

When Germany invaded Greece in the 1940's, Thomas knew that his fleet of three taxis--his livelihood--would be of great use to the German army once confiscated. So he totally

disassembled every vehicle, dug ditches throughout the neighbourhood and buried the

parts. He counted on digging them out in a year or two. But the parts were all rusted anduseless when he dug them out five years later. He then opened up a bicycle rental shop,went fishing and tended his orchard where he grew his shiny bell peppers from July to

October.

He always picked them fresh, right after the grill coals turned red hot and ready for them

and when the sun lost its fierceness and afternoon ouzo was brought out for family and

neighbours. The smell of the grill was the not-so-subtle invitation for them all. The doorswere open; everyone could just stroll on in. Thomas loved company and his wife

Theodora (my grandmother's sister) was glad to join in even though she hardly ever

smiled. Years later I found out that her grimness was the way of declaring a life-longgrievance at Thomas for a love he had developed for her youngest sister, Barbara, which

even though was never consummated, made Thomas politely distant with Theodora after

the birth of their two sons.

The dozen empty chairs under the grape vine would slowly be filled in the late afternoon.

Water turned the ouzo milky and Is Ighia mas (''To our health) would happen. Tinplates with the peppers that Thomas had charred, peeled and de-seeded passed swiftly

around. The guests bathed them in greenish olive oil and vinegar, sprinkled them withsalt and some dry oregano too. Then everyone praised Thomas with each mouthful.

These are your best yet, Thomas they would say, same as last time they praised them.

Then a black clad neighbour with wide hips passed slices of her home made bread,

hoping to hear the same. Thoma's fishing buddy, Vangheli, always brought his fetacheese, made with milk from the sheep in his yard. It too was praised of course.


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What Feta this is, Vangheli! It melts in the mouth!

Enveloped in the charring peppers aroma, the tasters munched words and fare until the

skies darkened and the ouzo was finished and lingering farewells came along.

This was my summer crowd till my eighth year when I sailed away from Greece andVenezuela became my new home with only my Mum and Dad. Even though Great Uncle

Thomas and his people are long gone they still crowd my kitchen, wherever it is in theworld, each time I grill bell peppers, peel their skin, and marinate them, seedless, in oil,

vinegar, salt and oregano to taste. The presence, comments and gifts of each of these

great, earthy, elders infuse the dish. They and the peppers nourish me all over again and

again with each batch and with each bite.

I hear them say These are your best yet, Marianthi.

THE RECIPE

-As many green bell peppers as you like, clean and fresh.

-Grill them or barbeque them whole, turning according to which side needs 'scorching'

until their skin is charred and separating from their flesh.

-As soon as they are off the fire, let them cool shortly, peel off their skin and take out

their seeds. Collect as much of the juice dripping off them in this process.

-Place the cleaned flesh and juice of all the peppers in a deep dish or bowl.

-Add olive oil (or other kind of oil if you prefer), vinegar and salt to taste. You may alsoadd at this point any other condiments of your preference (pepper, basil, ginger...)

-Serve hot or cold.

They last well in the fridge for days and can a be delightful highlight to any meal or to a

simple slice of crusty bread.


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Fish with Parsley Pesto

ByNeha Dhyani

I had always Lived with parents back in india and had never had the chance or need tocook.But then came a time when i was all by myself and here in America married andwith a lot of other responsibilities, i had to start cooking and cooking well!

Garlic Fish with Pesto was one of my first experiments which was a success. i got

complimented by my family on the delicious meal and it gave me a lot more confidenceto cook.

Since then this receipt has been one of my favorites not only because it was easy to make

, tasted great ,my first but also because till today it saves me from a lot of last minute

dinner invitation troubles :)...This has been my all time favorite receipts because it notonly tastes delicious but it also saves me on all those last minute invitation troubles :)

Fish with Parsley Pesto:

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, chopped1 garlic clove, minced

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 lemon, zested and juiced2 tablespoons whole-wheat or panko bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Place the parsley in a small food processor and pulse 6-8 times. Add the remaining

ingredients and process until a thick sauce forms. (Sauce will keep in a sealed container

for up to one week.)

Fish:Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a cast iron skillet over high heat. Patthe fish dry with paper towels. Lightly spritz the fish on both sides with non-stick

cooking spray. Once the skillet is hot, add the fish to the pan. Cook for 2-3 mintues per

side. Top each portion of fish with 1/4 cup of pesto. Transfer the pan to the oven for 5minutes to warm the sauce. Remember that the pan's handle will get hot in the oven!


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Spicy Indian Okra

By Jessica Sheth

Born and raised in Canada, I lived a dual life growing up. My parents were of Indianorigin and desperately tried to instill the Indian culture and values into my brother and I,

while I tried desperately to balance that with the North American lifestyle full of tomboy

sports, Halloween & pizza.

My mom is an incredible cook and I never realized it growing up - I would grimace at the

dinner table whenever it was an Indian curry or meal and much rather preferred pasta orenchiladas! Now that I've grown older and recently just got married, I fully understand

the true feat my mother would go through on a daily basis to feed us fresh, healthy,

vegetarian food with all types of variety, after coming home from work. As an adult, I

can barely keep up!

My husband and I love Indian food. It is our comfort food and reminds us of home. Thebelow simple dish is one of our go-to's whenever we want a quick Indian fix. Enjoy!

Spicy Indian OkraIngredients:

1/2 lb okra

1 1/2 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon coriander powder1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon mango powder

2 tablespoons finely chopped yellow bell pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper

Method

1. Wash the okra and pat dry. Cut off the both ends of the okra, and slice lengthwisein halves. Set aside.2. Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Test the heat by adding onecumin seed to the oil; if seed crack right away oil is ready.

3. Add the cumin seeds, and when the cumin seeds crack, add the okra.4. Stir for a minute and reduce the heat to medium. Cover the okra for two to three

minutes.

5. Remove the cover and add the coriander powder, red cayenne pepper andturmeric.


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6. Continue to stir-fry until the okra is tender. Add the salt, mango powder and bellpeppers, cook for another minute. Salt is added last.

7. Garnish with fresh coriander & serve with Roti. Enjoy!


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Roasted eggplant:

By Srinivasa Murthy

1) Take a big eggplant and roast it on an open flame. Turn it every so

often to make sure that it's roasted evenly.

2) Let it cool down. Then peel off the skin and mash the eggplant.3) Add a tea spoon of oil to a sauce pan. Add some finely chopped green

chillis to the heated oil. Then add the mashed eggplant. Stir the

eggplant. Add salt for seasoning.4) Serve the above with some white or brown rice.


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Mincemeat Pie

By Steven Nickeson

As a child I never cared for pumpkin pie or for whipped cream and cared even less when

one was piled atop the other. So I tended to avoid desserts during the seasons ofThanksgiving and Christmas in the USA where these two items are almost obligatory

eating. And then one year I tasted mincemeat pie which is an alternative seldom offered. Icannot recall when or where that taste occurred, but things have never been the same

since.

Across the street from my high school was a place called The Trails Drive-In. It had a sit-

down counter and tables inside and an order window, drive up parking slots and car hops

on the outside. A couple of friends and I hung out in the back office because the front endwas always crowded with noisy students and cigarette smoke. The Trails was one of the

few restaurants in my part of the world that regularly served mincemeat pie and I had an

almost daily ration of the wonderful stuff.

Toward the end of my high school tenure, word was out and around that the authoritieswere looking for a very good friend and me because we had elected to skip most of our

morning classes in favor of shooting snooker down in Nicks Pool Hall. We took refuge

in the Trailss back office and comfort in a slice of pie. We contemplated our almost zero

options. Suddenly my friend spotted an older friend of his drinking coffee at the counter.The young man was a bee keeper and had been a legendary high school track star in our

statean ungodly fast runner.. We approached him and asked if he would write us an

excuse. The story was that wed been with him all morning, learning how to care forbees, something we thought the authorities would consider educational too.

It worked. We walked in the schools front door like we owned the building and were

signed in with no more problems than a raised eye-brow from the principle.

Two weeks later this friend and I were walking down a main street on a Sunday afternoon

when a wrecker rolled past towing what was left of the bee keepers early model SUV.

We hurried to someone who might know and learned the young man who had saved usfrom suspension had been killed that morning when his SUV had rolled off the side of a

mountain.

This pie is for that keeper of the bees.

Given the nature of mincemeat intuition is as critical in its composition as a standard listof ingredients; thus the recipe, as found in my cookbook, is a narration of the last time I

made it.


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December, 2011It had been some time since I had made mincemeat so I had to back

off and give it a considerable amount of thought. I finally settled on putting 3 - 3.5 lbs of

lean beef stew meat into about 3 cups of apple cider in a pressure cooker and cookinguntil I had the solid sense that it was about ready to fall apart. Some recipes say that you

can keep the liquid, but to me it was full of that inelegant boiled beef slag, so I drained

the meat and when it was cool crumbled it back into the pot and another cup or three offresh cider. The beef has to fall apart. Some people say you can use round steak for the

beef, but that is just showing off. When beef is falling apart stew meat is just as good

sirloin. Then I put into the pot about 7 - 8 cups of granny smith apples chopped fairlysmall. After that came 1 and 1/3 cup of brown sugar and a glub or three of molasses.

Then there were some candied cherries, and about 3 cups of raisins and a some dried tart

cherries and some dried cranberries, you know, those kind that are sold in two-cup, re-

seal packages. I stirred it all that up with a wooden spoon. (It is essential to use a woodenspoon, using a plastic one will cause you to wet your bed.) Then I added some ground

cloves and an ungodly amount of nutmeg and cinnamon and ground ginger and all spice.

(For the next pie Im thinking of adding about a good inch-and-a-half of fresh ginger

chopped medium course because there is something really satisfying about biting downon a still-firm piece of cooked ginger.) I added the juice of four limes, but it was not quite

enough so I put in some good quality cider vinegar to off-set the sweet taste that came inwith all the dried fruit. Then I put in 1/2 lb of candied fruit, the kind that go into a fruit

cake or Christmas cookies. And then I simmered it all until it was sooo thick, that might

have taken 90 minutes or two hours and then I let it cool off quite awhile and finally I

added about of a bottle of my daughters favorite Port, Warre's Warrior, and let it setfor a week in a cool pantry where I stirred it every day.

The day before the pie was to be served I made some good Julia Childs pie crust dough:About 2 and 1/4 cups flour to 2 and 1/4 cups butter and 2 -3 Tbs of pure lard. I keep the

butter and lard frozen and grate them into the flour like I was grating a carrot into a salad.

The idea is to mix all that together without diminishing the integrity of the lard or thebutter. You can do that with a processor or a mini-prep processor, or one of those kill-all

Kitchen Aide mixers that will do the trick with the egg beating tool. It is supposed to look

like corn meal. I added a couple to squirts of ice-cold water, the less the better and pulledit all into a ball and let it set in the refrigerator for 24+ hours covered with cling film.

Now I have this pie plate that is made of clay in France and I carry it with me from place to place

in its own padded case. It is at least 10 inches across and almost three inches deep. All of that

dough fits into that plate rolled fairly thin, two thirds for the bottom and one third for the top

(with about a cup left over that can be flattened out, brushed with milk and covered with sugar

and cinnamon and baked along side the pie). Put the bottom crust down, fill it up to heaping with

mincemeat, put the top crust on, cut your initials in the top, brush with milk, sprinkle with sugar,

and put it in a well pre-heated oven at about 425 degrees. Then fidget over the whole thing like a

nervous new mother for about an hour until the juices are bubbling over the top and the crust is

golden and then you have a pretty good pie.

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