Hey, Guys!
This week in 2TeachCulture, we're gonna bring to you some traditional dishes from different countries. With this knowledge, you can design many lessons for your students. For instance, if you are working in a class with adults, you can propose a cooking class of one of these dishes, or you can propose a dinner, in which each student bring a dish. For a simpler activity, you may want to do two columns, one with the country and other with the dish, and ask your students to match them. When selecting this dishes, we tried to chose easy recepies so you or your students can recreate them, if ever wanted to.
#1 Lamington | New Zealand
Some people will argue with you that Lamington is originated from Australia, but as well as the Anzac Biscuits or Pavlova, we may say that this dish belongs two both cultures. This is a simple cake with chocolate and coconut that you can find in any bakery in New Zealand (and Australia). To bake a Lamington you will need:
Cake -
- 125g of butter
- 150g of sugar
- 1 tea spoon of vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 250g flour
- 4 tea spoons of yeast
- 1 tea spoon of salt
(or you can buy a cake mix of vanilla)
Frosting -
- 450g of icing sugar
- 5 tablespoons of cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon of melted butter
- 120ml of milk
- 200g of grated coconut
First step to baking your lamingtons, you must preheat the oven at 180°C and grease your retangular tin. If you are gonna make your cake instead of buying a cake mix, follow this instructions: stir the flour, the yeast and the salt and put it aside. Use a beater to mix the butter, sugar and vanilla, add one egg at a time, beating after you add each one of them. Add the mixture to your dry ingredients and the milk, beat in low speed. Bake it for 30-40 minutes at 180°C and when done, wait 5 minutes before taking it out from the tin, then let it cool completly.
Moving to the frosting: in a big bowl, mix the sugar and the cocoa powder. In a pan, heat the milk with the butter and wait for the butter to melt. Add the milk to the sugar and cocoa and stir them together until it looks homogeneous.
After the cake is cooled, you will cut it in about 24 pieces. Set aside a recipient with the grated coconut. With a fork, dive the pieces of cake in the frosting and then roll it on the coconut. Repeat it with all your pieces and then you are ready to serve. Enjoy your treat!
#2 Anzac Biscuits | Australia
These biscuits are similar to cookies and are a tribute to the members of the armed forces who fought at the World War I. It used to be made by the wives of the soldiers, who sent the biscuits to them because of their nutritional value and because they were not perishable. To bake these delicous cookies, you'll need:
- 100g of oat flakes
- 140g of flour
- 200g of sugar
- 70g of grated coconut
- 125g of butter
- 2 tablespoons of syrup (melaço)
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoon of sodium bicarbonate
Stir the dry ingredients, that is the oat, flour, sugar and coconut, let the bicarbonate aside for now. In a small pot pour the syrup and the butter and mix them until they are melted, add the bicarbonate. For the next step, you should mix the dry ingredients with your syrup mix, use a spoon to mix them together. In a tin lined with non-stick paper you will put your biscuit mix, with 5cm space between them. Cook them for 20 minutes at 180°C until they have a golden look.
#3 Yorkshire Puddings "Yorkie" | United Kingdom
Yorkshire Pudding is a dish that originally came from Yorkshire, as its name suggests; However, different from what the name might suggest, the yorkies, as called by natives, are not a sweet dish, instead, they are usually served with meats and a lot of sauce. It is very easy to bake a Yorkshire Pudding, you will only need:
- 75g of flour
- 75ml of milk
- 55ml of water
- One egg
- Two spoons of vegetal oil
- Salt and pepper, as you like.
To bake it, you must start preheating your oven at 200°C. As your oven is on, you should focus on the making of the pudding. In a bowl, you will add the flour, salt and pepper, after that you should open a hole in the middle in which you will add the egg and then mix it all together. As you use a beater to mix your ingredients, you should carefully add the water and milk, till you achieve an homogeneous liquid mix. You will use the oil in your muffin tin and heat it for ten whole minutes before pouring your mix into the form. On the oven, you must let the puddings baking for 25 to 30 minutes until it is crunchy and has a golden look. And then, there you are, you are ready to serve. Bon appétit!
#4 Butter Tarts | Canada
Butter tarts are famous deserts on Canadian territory. They can be homemade or you can find them in any supermarket or bakery. Althought its filling is mainly made with butter, eggs and suggar, the baker may add nuts, pecan, blueberries, chocolate chips, apples or pumpkin.
To make a butter tart, you will need:
- 1 pie pastry dough or 12 pre-made tart shells (you can buy it in any supermarket);
For the filling:
- 1/4 cup of melted and cooled butter
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 cup of corn syrup
- 1 egg
- A pinch of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
As you know, you may add something else to your filling as fruits, nuts or chocalate. If you desire to add chocolate, use 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips; if you desire to add apples, cut little slices; for pecan or walnuts, add 1/3 cup of chopped pecans/walnuts.
To start baking your butter tarts, you must preheat the oven 200°C and grease your muffin tin. Then, you will take your pastry dough and cut out circles, if you have a round cookie cutter, better for you. You will gently form into the muffin tin, you may use a floured shot glass to form the rounds into the tin. Now, we are going to move on to the filling. Melt the butter and let it cool while you beat the egg with vanilla, brown suggar, salt and corn syrup, after that you mix it all together. Now you can add the pecans, the chocolate, the apples or just let it plain. You should pour the filling into the shells and bake for 15 minutes at 200°C, after 15 minutes reduce the heat to 175°C and bake for approximately 10 minutes, until the tarts start to turn brown. Let it cool and enjoy!
#5 Boxty | Ireland
Boxty is basically a pancake, but made with potatos. On Ireland they have a great love for potatos, but who can blame them, right? It is not unusual to find dishes made only with potatos in its differents formats. Boxty is so popular on the country that even has its own sayings and rhymes. To make your Boxty, you will need:
- 1 and 1/2 cups of grated raw potatos
- 1 cup of flour
- 1 cup of mashed potatoes
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of skim milk
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
First, you should toss the grated potatoes with flour in one large bowl, then stir in mashed potates until it is all combined. In other bowl you should mix the egg and the milk, after that you will join them with the potatos and add the salt and pepper. For the second step you will heat the olive oil and drop the potato mixture (not all at once, form patties about 2 inches in diameter). You should fry both sides until you achieve a golden brown look. Serve your boxtys warm and enjoy.
See you next week!
xoxo
