All posts by radiant

Homemade Bread (with kefir based sourdough)

Home Cooking, , , , , ,

Name: Rossella Di Palma
Class Year: FF 1999
Country of Residence: Italy

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

Since the lockdown started, Italians began baking bread at home. This quickly made impossible to find brewer’s yeast and high quality flour. I do not normally eat bread, but since my mother does, I wanted to try to make bread at home, with a bread machine first and baking it in the oven later.  Given the fact I could not find any yeasts at the supermarket, I decided to try using the kefir I grow daily.

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Crab Soufflé

Haute Cuisine, , , ,

Name: Virginia Ross
Class Year: 1966
Country of Residence: UK

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

In the summer of 1965 Ruth Lawson arranged an internship for me with Britain in Europe, a political pressure group in London.  My lodgings were owned by fascinating Russian émigrés – a delightful downstairs neighbour had been a friend of Anna Pavlova, the Russian prima ballerina.

As an 80th birthday supper surprise for my neighbour, I bought a crab from a Saturday outdoor market and, not knowing what to do with it, searched for a cookbook.  Luckily in a local bookshop I stumbled upon Summer Cooking, by Elizabeth David, “Britain’s first lady of food”, as I discovered. 

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Labskaus (German salted meat & potatoes)

Regional/Traditional, , ,

Name: Lynn Meins
Class Year: 1970
Country of Residence: Germany

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

This is a traditional North Germany dish.  It was supposedly created by a ship’s cook in the 19th century using what he happened to have on hand.  It is very popular and tastes better than it looks!

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Pīrāgi (Bacon Buns)

Regional/Traditional, , , , ,

Name: Katrina Strikis
Class Year: 2010
Country of Residence: USA

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

Pīrāgi are small bacon and onion pies which originate from the Baltic state of Latvia. They are baked in large batches and served year round, but especially at every large gathering and festival. I’m from the USA but my family on both sides emigrated from Latvia, so I grew up baking these in the kitchen alongside my grandmothers at every holiday. Each household has their own variation of the recipe so it’s able to be tweaked (one of my grandmothers included SPAM in her recipe), but however you make them, your kitchen is guaranteed to smell amazing!

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Carbonnade à la flamande

Regional/Traditional, , ,

Name: Jessica Spengler
Class Year: 1995
Country of Residence: UK

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

Belgium has beautiful scenery, amazing medieval architecture and fabulous food. Belgian waffles, chocolates and fries are the obvious examples, but my favorite Belgian recipe features one of Belgium’s other great gifts to the culinary world: beer.

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Pilau (Turkish rice with spices)

Regional/Traditional, , ,

Name: Jessica Spengler
Class Year: 1995
Country of Residence: UK

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

One-pot spiced rice dishes can be found everywhere, from Indian pulau to Turkish pilav to Spanish paella and countless others. But many people don’t know that the south-eastern United States has its own traditional spiced rice dish, often spelled pilau but pronounced “purlow” or “purloo”.

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Yiayia Effie’s Moussaka (Baked Eggplant)

Regional/Traditional, , ,

Name: Sarah Poniros
Class Year: 2013
Country of Residence: USA

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

This recipe is very near and dear to my heart.  My family is Greek-American, and we loved my yiayia’s cooking.  However, when I was 12, she began to lose her memory.  We found that most of the recipes she had written down were all incorrect—she didn’t want anyone to be able to replicate them! But even though she could not remember much, she could tell us exactly what she changed on her recipes.  She taught me all her tips and tricks and told me the proper recipe, which I make all the time now.  Everyone loves her recipe and people ask me to make it for almost every occasion!

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White Chocolate (Raspberry) Custard

Home Cooking, , , , ,

Name: Debra Marmor
Class Year: 1980
Country of Residence: United Kingdom

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

We have a friend who was widowed a few years ago. Since then, my husband and I have more or less adopted him, making sure to have him for dinner on a regular basis (and currently Skyping with him twice a week, as he hates being alone). The challenge is that he ‘doesn’t eat dessert’ (my husband has a sweet tooth and I love making them) – unless it is white chocolate or raspberry. He also loves crab.

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Grits Cakes with Country Ham and Bourbon Mayonnaise

Home Cooking, , , , ,

Name: Debra Marmor
Class Year: 1980
Country of Residence: United Kingdom

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

As a little girl, I seemed to really enjoy doing fiddly things – unknotting my mother’s necklaces, decorating devilled eggs, frosting and decorating cakes, etc. So she nicknamed me her ‘kaltMamsel’ (she who prepares cold dishes) and it was my job to make/ decorate this stuff when she entertained.

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Tante Dvorah’s Chocolate and Coconut Cake

Home Cooking, , , , ,

Name: Debra Marmor
Class Year: 1980
Country of Residence: United Kingdom

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

We used to visit our relatives in Israel every couple of years when I was little. In honor of our visit, my aunt would make this marvellous chocolate cake – my sister and I would fight my uncle for the last crumb.

We were so enamored of this cake that my mother eventually wrote my uncle (?!) for the recipe. Apparently, my mother and sister had difficulty deciphering what came back, so my sister kept experimenting and eventually came up with a version that seemed to fit her memory.

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