Cooking Ethnic Cuisines

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Cooking Ethnic Cuisines Cooking is one of my favorite pastimes; it allows my taste buds to relish my creation. Sometimes my moods may be expressed through cooking. When I am troubled or sick, I may make a pot of Jamaican ital stew. I have family and friends from different cultures: Indian, Palestinian, Puerto Rican, Greek, Moroccan, and many more. Because my friends and family are from other countries, it enables me to broaden my palate. I take joy and appreciate cooking different ethnic cuisines. Puerto Rican cuisine for me, is the equivalent of what soul food is to the American South. The food taste elaborate, yet the meals generally contain five to seven herbs and spices; garlic, onion, small sweet peppers, culantro, and others. When I cook Puerto Rican food, I recruit the help of my children. I may have them peel yucca or potatoes, or I may have them pound the garlic in the pilon. A pilon is a wood like cup; it has a separate wooden stick to hold and to smash garlic and other foods together. The food usually is not made by just one person or family; cooking the food is generally a social event, no matter how big or small the meal. One family may prepare the sides: mofongo (fried pork skin, garlic, and plantains), pasteles (grated then boil hard squash, grated then boiled green plantains, and grated then boiled yucca, filled with meat and olives, individually wrapped in banana leaves and paper, then boiled in squares), arroz con gandules (yellow rice and pigeon peas). Another family may bring a whole pig marinated in garlic, cumin, and salt for roasting in the ground. Some may bring custard called flan, or they may bring an alcoholic beverage named coquito. The spices are alive, and they are willing to give their lives to

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