Pirogi* are Slavic dumplings that can be filled with basically anything. Common fillings include meat, cabbage, mushrooms, potato, cheese, onion, and fruit such as cherries, blueberries, strawberries, or plums. The name “pirogi” comes from the Proto-Slavic word “pir”, which means festivity. This makes sense, because pirogi are traditionally served on holidays or on special occasions such as weddings, although they have become more of an everyday food in recent years. They can be prepared in many fashions. Some people make their pirogi as half circles, resembling potstickers, while others make them square or rectangular, more like ravioli. The method of cooking also varies. Pirogi can be boiled, fried, or baked, or any combination of those methods.
The origin of pirogi is unclear. Many countries claim that pirogi originated there, including Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Latvia, Romania, and others. Due to the similarities of pirogi to Asian dumplings like potstickers, there is speculation that the recipe was brought to Europe by conquerors from Asia such as the Mongols or Persians. Pirogi have spread to other parts of the world with immigrants, and are therefore common in both the United States and Canada. Trader Joe’s sells a couple varieties of frozen pirogi in their stores, but I strongly suggest homemade ones.
In my family, pirogi are a Christmas tradition. My Slovak grandmother fills her pirogi with potato (my favorite!), kapusta (saurkraut) and plums. She boils them and serves them with melted butter, and side dishes include a huge bowl of kapusta and pagash, a flat bread. Two Christmases ago, my grandma passed on the tradition and taught me to make the potato pirogi. It was a very special moment for the two of us. My grandmother and I have never been extremely close and have definitely had some falling-outs, so it was extremely meaningful to have the tradition passed down to me. I am her only grandchild, so I have to be the one to carry on the tradition in our part of the family. The fact that my grandma trusted me and respected me enough to pass down the incredibly important tradition of pirogi meant a lot to me. In addition, we were able to bond while cooking and could set aside our differences. Cooking is one arena where politics doesn’t really matter.
*I spell the word the way my grandmother does. Other spellings include “perogi”, “perogy”, “piroghi”, and most commonly, “pierogi”, the Polish term for the dumplings. Because pirogi are common to so many different countries, the spelling or pronunciation of the word varies widely. In my family we use “pirogi” as the plural form and “pirog” as the singular, though in many cases Americans add an “s” to form the plural.
18.9.07
14.9.07
Grain-y reflections
Today I made quinoa for dinner. Quinoa is a grain that is very nutritional and high in protein. In fact, it contains so many amino acids that unlike other grains like wheat or rice, it doesn’t need to be paired with a legume to provide all the amino acids humans need. It also contains lots of fiber and minerals like magnesium and iron.
While it is originally from the Andes in South America, I was introduced to quinoa in Paris (France, not Texas.) I was spending the summer with a French family, and the mother of the family was big on “bio” (organic) food. The family ate a lot of beef, which I don’t eat, and I was therefore left with her favorite side dish: quinoa. I ate quinoa for dinner a few times a week. Lucky for me it’s incredibly healthy and packed with everything I needed!
Making the quinoa made me wonder more about the kasha we made in class yesterday. Though I’d heard of quinoa, which many people hadn’t, I’d never heard of kasha. Kasha is basically a Slavic word for porridge, made from any number of ingredients, though in America it usually refers specifically to buckwheat. It has been around for centuries and according to Wikipedia, it is “second in historical significance only to bread.” Since I hadn’t heard of it before, I can’t say whether or not that is true, but it’s very interesting and I’m glad we made it in class! (Also, it was delicious!)
While it is originally from the Andes in South America, I was introduced to quinoa in Paris (France, not Texas.) I was spending the summer with a French family, and the mother of the family was big on “bio” (organic) food. The family ate a lot of beef, which I don’t eat, and I was therefore left with her favorite side dish: quinoa. I ate quinoa for dinner a few times a week. Lucky for me it’s incredibly healthy and packed with everything I needed!
Making the quinoa made me wonder more about the kasha we made in class yesterday. Though I’d heard of quinoa, which many people hadn’t, I’d never heard of kasha. Kasha is basically a Slavic word for porridge, made from any number of ingredients, though in America it usually refers specifically to buckwheat. It has been around for centuries and according to Wikipedia, it is “second in historical significance only to bread.” Since I hadn’t heard of it before, I can’t say whether or not that is true, but it’s very interesting and I’m glad we made it in class! (Also, it was delicious!)
12.9.07
*Birthday cookies
Today is my friend Mia’s birthday, and I decided to make her cookies. She had suggested I make her cookies for her birthday in passing, and jokingly, about a week ago, but I figured there was no better way to spend my afternoon than baking for a friend! Especially for an occasion as special as an 18th birthday.
I made absolutely delicious (if I do say so myself) coconut cookies, which were completely organic! (Very proud of myself on that one.) They were pretty easy to make, though the sugar and butter would have been easier to cream with real utensils from home. Here’s the recipe:
1 1/3 cups flour
½ cup each white and brown sugar
2 sticks of butter
1 ½ cups unsweetened flaked coconut
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 egg
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla and egg. Add flour, salt, and baking soda. When well mixed, add coconut. Cook about 10 minutes in a 350 degree F oven. Enjoy warm and fresh if possible!!!
These cookies were by far my biggest accomplishment in the kitchenette thus far. People kept walking by the open door, primarily surprised anyone was making anything, asking what smelled so good! I was happy to let them sample the cookies, and I was happy to receive loads of compliments. (I really don’t mean to brag, but they’re basically the best cookies ever. If you like coconut.)
The whole experience definitely brought back memories from the first week of class, when we learned about and made bento boxes. The love and time and care put into the bentos by Japanese mothers is what makes them so special, even if they don’t look like Hello Kitty. I felt the same way about my cookies. They weren’t particularly pretty, or all the same size, but I’m pretty sure you could taste the love.
Who knows, maybe that was just the coconut.
I made absolutely delicious (if I do say so myself) coconut cookies, which were completely organic! (Very proud of myself on that one.) They were pretty easy to make, though the sugar and butter would have been easier to cream with real utensils from home. Here’s the recipe:
1 1/3 cups flour
½ cup each white and brown sugar
2 sticks of butter
1 ½ cups unsweetened flaked coconut
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 egg
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in vanilla and egg. Add flour, salt, and baking soda. When well mixed, add coconut. Cook about 10 minutes in a 350 degree F oven. Enjoy warm and fresh if possible!!!
These cookies were by far my biggest accomplishment in the kitchenette thus far. People kept walking by the open door, primarily surprised anyone was making anything, asking what smelled so good! I was happy to let them sample the cookies, and I was happy to receive loads of compliments. (I really don’t mean to brag, but they’re basically the best cookies ever. If you like coconut.)
The whole experience definitely brought back memories from the first week of class, when we learned about and made bento boxes. The love and time and care put into the bentos by Japanese mothers is what makes them so special, even if they don’t look like Hello Kitty. I felt the same way about my cookies. They weren’t particularly pretty, or all the same size, but I’m pretty sure you could taste the love.
Who knows, maybe that was just the coconut.
10.9.07
*Sustainable fishing
Today in class we had a special guest: Yu Huang, a Ph.D. student here at UW who spent a good chunk of time researching aquaculture and shrimp farming in southeast China. The entire enterprise raised the ever-important question of sustainability of our food. As Yu Huang described, the more intensive the farming, the more inputs (such as antibiotics) were necessary. As farmers tried for higher yields, they shifted their farms from a polyculture to a monoculture, similar to crop farmers in the US. Not surprisingly, the same thing happens here when farmers try to cut down on biodiversity: they must bring in outside inputs to bring the land back to where it should be and would have been if they were not trying to force a monoculture. Even animal farmers experience the same phenomenon, and are forced to pump the animals full of antibiotics and other drugs.
Something that has been very central to me through this course is the importance of sustainability and the debate between local and organic foods. Which is more sustainable? Or can sustainability be placed in its own category? Obviously the best choice is food that is grown locally, organically, and sustainably, but when that is not possible where should the stress be placed? Should we buy local conventionally grown food or organic food that has been trucked across the country? And when it comes to fishing, is it more sustainable to eat wild seafood that needed barrels and barrels of oil to procure in the open ocean and even more to ship to us, or locally farmed seafood that has required all sorts of inputs and possibly polluted the environment and local species? And which is healthier!? There are so many questions.
As far as the question of sustainable seafood goes however, there is a great resource that catalogues the most sustainable fish etc for each region of the country. The magnificent Monterey Bay Aquarium keeps a list posted on their website: http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp
Something that has been very central to me through this course is the importance of sustainability and the debate between local and organic foods. Which is more sustainable? Or can sustainability be placed in its own category? Obviously the best choice is food that is grown locally, organically, and sustainably, but when that is not possible where should the stress be placed? Should we buy local conventionally grown food or organic food that has been trucked across the country? And when it comes to fishing, is it more sustainable to eat wild seafood that needed barrels and barrels of oil to procure in the open ocean and even more to ship to us, or locally farmed seafood that has required all sorts of inputs and possibly polluted the environment and local species? And which is healthier!? There are so many questions.
As far as the question of sustainable seafood goes however, there is a great resource that catalogues the most sustainable fish etc for each region of the country. The magnificent Monterey Bay Aquarium keeps a list posted on their website: http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp
9.9.07
Dude, where's my Chinatown?
Today I got Chinese food for the first time since moving to Seattle! Although that doesn’t seem like a big deal, I ate Chinese food at home all the time. The Bay Area has an awful lot of Chinese food, and dinner consisted of Chinese takeout about once a week. Since moving here, I’ve had Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, but I hadn’t had Chinese food until tonight!
I noticed the strangeness of this situation last week, and my best explanation was that the difference between San Francisco and Seattle as far as varieties of Asian food goes would be the different groups that immigrated to the areas. Both Oakland and San Francisco are known for having large Chinatowns, and Chinese food is all over the place. However, I’ve noticed that there’s much more Vietnamese food here than at home. Therefore I’m assuming that there are/were many more Vietnamese immigrants to Seattle than San Francisco.
The entire ordeal reminds me of a few of the readings we've done for class, particularly the Borderless Cuisine article. It's fascinating to see how different cultures integrate parts of other cultures into their own. For me, being from the Bay Area, it's hard to imagine life without Chinese food because it's always been part of what I eat. Maybe it's that way for people from other places with other foods that aren't necessarily part of their culture.
But who knows, the important thing is there’s delicious food for everyone!
I noticed the strangeness of this situation last week, and my best explanation was that the difference between San Francisco and Seattle as far as varieties of Asian food goes would be the different groups that immigrated to the areas. Both Oakland and San Francisco are known for having large Chinatowns, and Chinese food is all over the place. However, I’ve noticed that there’s much more Vietnamese food here than at home. Therefore I’m assuming that there are/were many more Vietnamese immigrants to Seattle than San Francisco.
The entire ordeal reminds me of a few of the readings we've done for class, particularly the Borderless Cuisine article. It's fascinating to see how different cultures integrate parts of other cultures into their own. For me, being from the Bay Area, it's hard to imagine life without Chinese food because it's always been part of what I eat. Maybe it's that way for people from other places with other foods that aren't necessarily part of their culture.
But who knows, the important thing is there’s delicious food for everyone!
6.9.07
Lentil soup and memories
Today we made lentil soup in class, one of my favorite foods! Not only is it warm and delicious, it’s a comfort food for me. It always brings back happy memories of the days when my niñera would make me lentil soup along with Ecuadorian specialties like plantains and papas. My parents worked all day, so Julia made me all of my meals. To this day, I can remember the food she cooked me, and lentil soup is still one of my favorites. The soup we made wasn’t exactly like the soup Julia made me, but it was close enough.
The more I think about it the more it seems that food, like scents, can bring back memories you didn’t even know you had. The way certain scents bring back memories of grandparents or vacations or whatever, eating any of the foods that Julia made me always makes me remember being small, before I started school, spending all of my time playing and coloring and running around in the warm California sun. Those were the good old days.
The more I think about it the more it seems that food, like scents, can bring back memories you didn’t even know you had. The way certain scents bring back memories of grandparents or vacations or whatever, eating any of the foods that Julia made me always makes me remember being small, before I started school, spending all of my time playing and coloring and running around in the warm California sun. Those were the good old days.
4.9.07
Don't you dare supersize me
Today we watched Supersize Me and I am now officially ashamed to have ever eaten at Mc Donald’s. I was absolutely appalled that Morgan Spurlock gained basically a pound a day, seriously harmed his liver and raised all sorts of levels in his blood that were previously in the healthy range! How disgusting that food can do that to you. Even more interesting was the fact that no one, not even the three doctors he enlisted to monitor his health, could imagine how harmful three meals a day at Mc Donald’s could be.
Supersize Me and All Over Creation both bring up the important fact that people should know what they are eating, whether it’s a Mc Donald’s salad with more calories than a Big Mac or pesticides produced by bacterial DNA in a potato. GM foods don’t necessarily need to be banned, lacking evidence either way of the long-term health effects of such foods, as long as all products containing GMOs are properly labeled so that consumers are aware of what they’re consuming and that their food could potentially harm them.
Image courtesy of hollywoodjesus.com
Supersize Me and All Over Creation both bring up the important fact that people should know what they are eating, whether it’s a Mc Donald’s salad with more calories than a Big Mac or pesticides produced by bacterial DNA in a potato. GM foods don’t necessarily need to be banned, lacking evidence either way of the long-term health effects of such foods, as long as all products containing GMOs are properly labeled so that consumers are aware of what they’re consuming and that their food could potentially harm them.
Image courtesy of hollywoodjesus.com
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