Tag Archives: Family recipe

Chamorro “Titiyas”

Context: My informant is a 23 year-old woman who is of Chamorro descent. She grew up in San Francisco and moved to L.A. for college. She described a common practice for her family growing up surrounding food, particularly a snack called “titiyas”. Her Chamorro family passed on this recipe throughout the generations. She loves them because they remind her of her grandma. 

Transcription

Informant:

“So I’m really close with my grandma, I’m the favorite and vice versa hahaha. But, growing up we would always make different Chamorro food and one of my favorite snacks to have is called “titiyas” and they’re basically..  like sweeter and a little bit thicker than tortillas. Me and my grandma would have it with cheese or butter usually. Recently, I moved away from home and asked my grandma what the recipe was. She couldn’t give me any measurements or anything and said I just had to watch and taste. I mean that is how she learned and she was the oldest girl of 11 kids so she just learned by watching her mom. Sometimes she still sends me “titiyas” in the mail to eat the next day, I love it.”

Thoughts:

I loved this story from my informant! It reminded me a lot of how my Cuban grandmother makes “arroz con pollo” (chicken with rice), a popular dish for Cuban people. My grandma never has the right measurements and just goes off of how it looks and smells. It is so sweet how her grandma is able to send her “titiyas” still. My grandma also packs me the Cuban dish every time I go to her house.

It is interesting how this recipe had been in her family for so long and it had still not been written down. This shows how important oral tradition has been as well as how important sharing in person human experience is. Now with technology, you can talk to more people than ever before, but you lose the opportunity of experiencing all the senses with that person. Cooking together at home with family, there is nothing else like it.

Apple/Pear Cobbler Recipe

Main Piece:

Ingredients:

CobblerToppingWhipped Cream
– Butter or Crisco for Baking Dish
– 2 1/2 cups peeled, and sliced Granny Smith Apples
– 2 1/2 cups peeled, and sliced Bosc/Asian Pears
– 3/4 cup of Brown Sugar
– 2 tablespoons of All-Purpose Flour
– 1 tablespoon of Vanilla Extract
– 1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon
– 1/2 teaspoon of Allspice
– 1/4 teaspoon of Salt
-4 tablespoons of Unsalted Butter
– 1/2 cup of Self-Rising Flour
– 1/2 cup of Sugar
– 1/4 teaspoon of Salt
– 2 tablespoons of Unsalted Butter (softened)
– 1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
– 1/2 cup of Sugar (Powdered Sugar is best)
– 1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit). Prepare a 9×9 inch baking dish.
  2. Toss the apples, pears, sugar, flour, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and 2 tablespoons of the butter together in a large bowl. Add to the baking dish and dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. 
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the self-rising flour, sugar, salt, and egg. With a spoon, drop the topping onto the apples/pears and top with pats of butter. Bake until the topping is golden and the fruit is tender (about 40 to 45 minutes).
  4. Serve with special whipped cream!

Background: The informant is a 54 woman who loves to cook, as she often serves this apple cobbler at Thanksgiving. She originally came across this recipe from her mother, who used to cook the same dish for the holiday as well. She claims the recipe has been passed down generations, and because of that holds a special place in her heart. She will continue to cook the dish, and plans to pass the recipe down to her daughter when the time comes.  

Context: The informant showed me the recipe in person when I was at her house. 

My Thoughts: Although this recipe is nothing special, the fact that it has been passed along throughout the informant’s family makes it special to them. It is something they, as a family share with one another, and serves as a unique way for her to always remember her mom and grandma. They’ve all experienced cooking the same dish for Thanksgiving and having to deal with the pressure of it meeting their families expectation. In addition, I find it interesting to see if any of them made small changes to the recipe. The informant claims to have not. However, she did share with me that her mom added the whipped cream aspect to the dish. The dish has been served for over 60 years within the informants family, making it quite the staple for their Thanks Giving celebration!

Recipe for Channa Masala

Piece

Channa Masala

450 gms tinned, cooked channa or 2 cups of channa soaked in water overnight. Cook in 4 cups of water and salt to ½ teaspoon Salt For approximately 3 – 3.5 cups cooked channa

1 small onion chopped

¼ teaspoon ginger 

¼ teaspoon garlic 

Grind all the above three ingredients to a paste  —-(1)

¼ teaspoon cumin seed powder

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

¼ teaspoon chilli powder

¼ teaspoon garam masala

¼ teaspoon Aji’s masala powder

1 large tomato diced into small cubes

3 table spoons coriander leaves chopped finely

2 tablespoons oil

Heat a large heavy bottom container; add oil, followed by paste 1.

Saute` till pink or light brown in color. Add tomatoes, 1 tablespoon coriander leaves, turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder. Saute until the mixture starts to look rich brown and the oil starts to separate. 

Add the cooked channa and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until flavors blend. Add coriander leaves and serve hot with rice. 

Background

This is the legendary recipe for Chana Masala  (chickpeas in spices) passed down through generations on my mother’s side. This is my favorite food and my mother’s favorite food and so on. 

Context

This recipe has been passed through the ages. It isn’t exactly something that is unique to my family as all of India has their own takes on Channa Masala. This shows multiplicity and variation in the folklore. Interestingly enough,  there is a “secret ingredient” in this Channa which my mother calls Aji’s masala powder which means “Grandmother’s spice powder”.  All this time, I thought it was my grandmother’s spice powder, but now I realize that it is just  a term for a special secret mixture of spice powder that was passed down from my grandmother. 

Thoughts

    Recipes are interesting pieces of folklore as they are so important to survival. Food permeates through tradition and generations. An interesting thing about food is the multiplicity and variation in each instance. For example, my mother’s cooking varies from day to day and every time she makes the   dish is slightly different from the previous time. 

Cajun Seafood Fettuccine

Piece

Recipe: Seafood Fettuccine

Make normal fettuccine noodles and then in a separate saucepan, you use velveeta cheese, the kind that comes in a mac and cheese mix and you take the shells out and just use the cheese. You mix it with whole milk or any heavy cream and then dice tomatoes, onions, and celery and then cook it in the sauce.

Then take the seafood, can be crab meat (usually) or shrimp or crawfish. Then you add cajun seasoning which is usually paprika mixed with several other spices. Use Nunu’s if you don’t want to make it yourself.

Background

    This is a Cajun recipe for a dish that my girlfriend grew up eating. She is from the south where seafood is really prevalent. This dish’s recipe was passed down from her father’s side. Her father is italian, hence, the fettuccine. 

Context

My girlfriend was cooking a dish that she makes a lot so I asked her if she had a recipe for it. It turns out that her recipe was a traditional recipe that spanned several generations. Although she is creole, not cajun, her father might have lived around other Cajuns and picked up this recipe. 

Thoughts

    The prevalence of seafood in many southern delicacies is probably due to a large amount of protein available from the sea creature lush coasts that the southerners were close to.

Recipe for Passover Kugel

Ingredients:

–  Can of Peaches

– Cinnamon

– Eggs (however you like them)

-Matzoh Bread

 

Steps:

D.F. – “So this is the recipe for passover Kugel.  And uh, this is different from regular kugel, because regular kugel has leavened noodles in it, and that’s a no-no for passover. So:

    • Instead of using noodles, you use matzah. classic.  We also like to use Frosted Flakes, but, uh, not for passover.  Instead of using Frosted Flakes, we just use more sugar.
    • Basically you crush the matzah (or just get crushed matzah which is easier because smaller pieces).
    • You . . . put eggs together with the matzah and mix them together, and add corn starch to make the eggs and matzah rise together a little.
    • Also we use cinnamon, that’s important for kugel.
    • You need a big batch of this, on a huge pan, and you pour your combination of ingredients into the pan across the whole pan
    • You’ll also get canned peaches, set the peaches of every square of kugel that you’re gonna cut out.
    • Put it all in the oven for a long time, and eyeball it.
    • That’s some passover kugel.”

 

This is definitely something I’ve had before.  Although this person’s recipe is happy in it’s relative straight-forward-ness, I must disagree with it’s simplicity.  When my family makes passover kugel, we include all different types of spices from all over the world, just for the sake of having a crazy taste that will knock us all down.  That’s how I prefer my kugel.  Oh, and with way more peaches.