Category: Passion Blog

For some reason, this week (out of nowhere) I had a strong urge to make some risotto. I couldn’t remember whether or not I had eaten it before, and it sounded too good to pass up. Given that risotto is a classic and traditional Northern Italian dish, I realized I could get two birds with one stone.

For those who don’t know (because I didn’t really before this), risotto is a rice dish, but it’s a lot softer than normal rice. The risotto actually pretty much absorbs the broth that you pour over it and makes them expand so that they’re sort of in a way “infused” with the broth. This is usually the part that makes the risotto recipe a little more difficult than other recipes, but it’s not impossible and I’ll talk about that later.

Knowing nothing about risotto or Italian dishes myself, I really had to do a deep internet search for a good recipe. I’ll like the recipe I decided to use at the bottom of this page in case you want to try it out. While I was doing my risotto research, I came to realize that making risotto is no easy task for one person alone.

I ended up recruiting my mom for the last part of the recipe because it’s pretty hard to individually ladle the broth into the rice and stir at the same time. This was definitely the most time-consuming step because if you rush it too much then it’ll come out too watery. Other than that step though, I thought this recipe was easy to follow. I already had all of the ingredients at my house so that was definitely a plus. I’ll admit it was pretty time-consuming but honestly, it was pretty worth it in the end.

Something about risotto, especially during the cold week in Jersey we had last week, is just so comforting. Personally, this recipe is probably a new favorite of mine. Even though I know I won’t be making it for dinner every week because of how long it took, it’s a good recipe to have.

Like I say every week, if any of you decide to try this recipe out then let me know! I’d love to hear how you end up liking it or change it in any way. Also, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for a culture or food they want me to look at next week or in the future, feel free to let me know too!

Here’s the recipe that I used: Easy Traditional Risotto

This week was certainly one of the coldest weeks of the year so far, and with cold weather comes some really great foods. One of my favorites is a nice batch of pierogi, which is an Eastern European dish. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, pierogi are basically little dough dumplings filled with anything from meat to cheese and usually potato.

The recipe I decided to go with is a potato and onion recipe which is definitely my favorite kind. Making the dough for this recipe is definitely the most complicated part. I have a lot of friends who have their own dough recipes so it’s really interesting to see the different variations different families have. For simplicity’s sake, I ended up just following the recipe from the website I found.

I was genuinely surprised by how easy this recipe was, compared to what I expected. It only took about an hour to make altogether, and I had plenty to keep in the fridge for the rest of the week. Fair warning, this recipe makes A LOT of pierogi so be prepared to keep the extra ones in your fridge or freezer.

If you’re looking for a warm and filling recipe that will give you enough to snack on for the rest of the week, I would definitely consider checking this recipe out.

As always, if anyone has any recommendations for a recipe or idea that they think I should look into, feel free to let me know.  I’d love to hear what you’d be interested in reading about. I’m going to attach the link to the recipe I used this week down below so that anyone who wants to try it out can. Also, if you try a different variation of this recipe that would be super interesting to hear about too. Let me know if you do!

Pierogi Recipe

We’re moving back from the imaginary fictional foods of Harry Potter, to a traditional Colombian dish. This week, I’ll be talking about my experiences making Baneja Paisa. Fun fact, I learned that this is actually the national dish of Colombia which is pretty cool because I didn’t even know that some countries had government recognized national dishes. From what I’ve gathered by looking through a variety of websites and articles, this is definitely a dish that is deeply loved by many people. Every recipe I came across seemed to have some sort of heartfelt story or just a detailed appreciation for this dish. That being said, after reading all of that, I was pretty excited to try it out myself. At first, I really struggled with trying to find a recipe, because every one I looked at seemed to have their own variation on the dish.

From what I’ve gathered, Baneja Paisa is a platter dish with a lot of different components that come together to make up one dish. The recipe that I ended up using seemed pretty authentic so I’ll attach the link to it down below. If anyone has any experience with this dish, please let me know if you think this recipe looks accurate. Some of the items that make up this dish are white rice, pinto beans, powdered beef, fried pork belly (which I didn’t find so I didn’t get to include unfortunately), chorizos, eggs, baked plantains, hogao (which I learned is a tomato onion sort of sauce), and avocado. That being said, it’s definitely a lot of food. It’s hard for me to gauge how long it took to make because there were a bunch of different components, but it’s definitely something that takes a while. It fills you up a lot though so it’s worth it. I really thought that this dish was really really good and can definitely see why people love it so much. Again, this is another great dish for the warm weather because it will warm you right up.

Although my attempts at making this dish will never truly capture the Colombian authenticity and culture within this dish, I still think that this was a lot of fun to make and was so delicious either way. As always, if anyone has any recommendations for an upcoming recipe or culture they might want me to look into please let me know. I’m going to attach the link to the recipe I used this week right here in case anyone decides to try this out at home. Let me know if you do!

Baneja Paisa Recipe

For some reason, I’ve recently decided to reread and rewatch the Harry Potter series. For that reason, when I saw someone request a post about pumpkin pasties from the book series I was pretty excited to try them. For those of you who haven’t read the books or seen the movies, pumpkin pasties aren’t described in much detail. All we know is that they’re supposedly super delicious.

I looked through a lot of recipes online. Because this is a fictitious dish form a fictitious story, there are many variations on the pumpkin pasties recipe. I eventually came across one that I considered to look the most accurate (I’ll attach a link at the bottom). From what I’ve gathered, most people agree that pumpkin pasties are a sweet variation of the typical pasties served in England, which makes sense given the setting of the Harry Potter series. The difference is though, that instead of meats these pasties are filled with a spiced pumpkin filling.

They were sort of like mini bite-sized pies with the crust on the outside. I was surprised by how different the pumpkin filling tasted because the spices really were game changers. I never realized that pumpkin spice (like what they put in those pumpkin spice latees at Starbucks) is actually pretty intense. The whole recipe took about an hour to make, but it can be a lot less if you decided to use premade pie crust which definitely woudl’ve been easier so I would recommend doing that instead of making it youself. Other than the canned pumpkin puree, all of the ingredients are probably already in your kitchen which is pretty convenient. I was really temped to eat them right when they came out of the oven, but they were really hot. It was worth it in the end though because taking a bite out of one of those pumpkin pasties felt like a combination of all the best parts of the fall weather with all of the best parts of Harry Potter.

Overall, I think these pumpkin pasties are so good especially for the upcoming fall weather. I’m definitely going to have to remake these every time I watch the movies or sit down with a book. I’ve attached a link to the recipe I used right here so if anyone decides to try it out let me know! Again, if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations for recipes that anyone wants me to look into in the following weeks let me know too. Next week I’m going to be making and writing about Bandeja Paisa so look out for that!

Pumpkin Pasties Recipe

For my first content post on this blog, I’ve decided to start with a particular food that I’ve grown up eating. This week I made a gratin, which is a French staple, especially in this ever so slightly cooling weather. I’m going to be honest and say that I didn’t really find enough time to go out and do enough research on the other dishes I was recommended, and I want to do them justice so I’ve decided to hold off on writing about them for the week. I really do plan to make a version of every food I write about so that I have something personal to contribute to each recipe. I promise, though, that I will make them.
Anyways, back to the gratin. So a gratin is a very broad category of food and I will be looking particularly at the “gratin dauphinoise” which is basically a type of gratin from the specific region in France. This dish is baked layers of sliced potatoes, cream, and various spices in a casserole dish which I promise tastes better than it sounds, especially during the cold winter months. According to various recipes I looked at, my mom’s input, and accounting for a couple of mistakes I made along the way, making this recipe shouldn’t take more than 25 minutes followed by about a little less than half an hour in the oven. Then, you get a nice baked dish with a perfectly crisp top layer that is definitely the best part.
I think this is a good recipe to start off with considering it’s actually pretty simple and hard to mess up once you figure out how to cut the potatoes which I definitely struggled with myself at first. If you ever plan on trying this recipe out, I’d recommend waiting for a nice cold night because this is definitely not a light dish. Every time I think about a gratin dauphinoise I can only imagine coming home from a long day snowboarding and having this as a meal to warm us up. I wouldn’t consider it ideal for the 75° weather I made it in earlier this week.
I’ve also attached a link to a step by step detailed recipe in case anyone is interested in making this at home. If you do I’d love to hear about it. As always, if anyone has any recommendations for a future post feel free to let me know!

Recipe: https://www.thespruceeats.com/gratin-dauphinois-recipe-1375736

After a week of going back and forth, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever end up being able to pick my passion blog topic. Yet, here we are and I can say that I have finally picked one that I am completely happy with and look forward to writing about for the rest of the semester. Without further ado, I can now say that my passion blog will revolve around a central theme of cultural dining.
I plan on probably looking at one particular food from a certain culture to start off, and then broadening out to explain more about the cultural background surrounding it. I also thought that maybe as a way to keep this blog upbeat I could even look at some dishes that would not be traditionally considered “cultural”. For example, why not look into a particular food from one of the Harry Potter movies. I could then go on to look into its origin, hows its made, and stuff like that. Let me know if you think that would be a fun thing to incorporate into the blog every once in a while.
Another thing that I still have to figure out is how else I’m going to chose what cultures or dishes in particular to blog about. For now, I think I’ll stick close to what I know, and then hopefully eventually I get some requests or recommendations that lead me somewhere else. I don’t just want to blog on foods that I already know about because I too hope to learn something while writing for this blog. That being said, if anyone has any ideas or wants me to look into a particular meal just let me know in the comments or something because I’d be happy to do that anytime.
I imagine this blog ending up being a condensed version of a lot of research I end up having to do on each of these cultural dishes and traditions. I hope to take that broad and dense information that is scattered all over the internet and bring it here where I can reformat it into a much more consumer friendly format that doesn’t give anyone a headache trying to read. I think most of this blog will sort of find its own pattern as I move through it and will create its own sort of format for a “typical” post. So basically, all I need now is a suggestion for a dish or culture (fictional or real) for my first informational post so if anyone has any, drop a comment.

Topic 1 – Presidential Election/Historical Context
As we all know, this upcoming year is a pretty big election year. As someone interested in politics, I will definitely have a lot of possible content to talk about on my passion blog in terms of current events involving the election and historical context relating to some things brought up during the election. I also really love political history, including old elections, government methods, and how specific laws have come to be. I think this might be a fun and also an informative lens to use on our current political climate, especially as things escalate going into November. I am also considering maybe a more specific part of the election to focus on, considering that it might be a little overwhelming to try to cover such a broad amount of information in short passion blog posts. Instead, if I find a specific area of the election or history that I am particularly interested in, it will allow me to delve deeper into the content.

Topic 2 – Recipes/Cultural Food
As a second possible topic, another thing that I’m always happy about it having some really good food. I think that this might be a fun topic to explore because it would be both informative in a way that people might be able to actually go out and make some of the food I talk about or learn something about a particular culture. My friends and I come from a very diverse ethnic background, so we have an extensive range of cultures, and with that comes some really great recipes. I think this passion blog topic would be a fun way to learn myself about a wide range of cultures and then use that information to share with my passion blog audience. This blog doesn’t even have to focus solely on the actual food. Instead, it can also look at the cultural differences in perceiving food and its social purpose differently across cultures. Maybe each post would be formatted as sort of a cultural background explanation with a little recipe at the end to tie it together. I also really think that this would be a fun blog topic to receive comments from because people will be able to share their own experiences or ideas too. This is probably the topic I’m leaning towards the most for my passion blog out of the two so far, but we’ll see.