Food in Italy-Biscotti

Biscotti , also known as cantuccini (English: coffee bread), are twice-baked cookies (or biscuits) originating in the Italian city of Prato. The biscuits are oblong-shaped almond biscuits, made dry and crunchy through cutting the loaf of dough while still hot and fresh from baking in the oven.

“Biscotti” is the plural form of biscotto. The word originates from the medieval latin  word biscoctus, meaning “twice-cooked/baked.” It defined oven baked goods that were baked twice, so they were very dry and could be stored for long periods of time. Pliny and Elder boasted that such goods would be edible for centuries. Such nonperishable food was particularly useful during journeys and wars, and twice baked breads were a staple food of the Roman legions

The first documented recipe for biscotti is a centuries-old manuscript, now preserved in Prato, found by the eighteenth-century scholar Amadio Baldanzi. In this document, the biscuits are called of Genoa.

Although commonly used to indicate the biscuits of Prato, biscotti di Prato, in modern Italy and Argentina they are also known widely by the name “cantuccini”. These names actually suggest other similar regional products of Italy. The term cantuccini is most commonly used today in Tuscany, but originally refers to variations or imitations which deviate from the traditional recipe in a few key points such as the use of yeasts, acids (to make them less dry) and flavourings. Rusks are larger, longer biscuits, rustic bread dough enriched with olive oil and anise seeds.

The confusion on the name may have been born from the fact that on the old sign (still present) of “Biscottificio Antonio Mattei,” the leading manufacturer of biscuits of Prato, is written just below the name of the shop: “Manufacturers of cantuccini,” which at the time were one of the major products of the biscuits.

Food in Hungary-Goulash

Goulash ( gulyás) is a soup or stewof meat, noodles and vegetables, seasoned with paprika and other spices.

It is one of the national dishes of Hungary and a symbol of the country. Garlic, tomato, caraway seed, bell pepper, and wine may be used as optional . One may alternatively prepare these dishes as soups rather than stews. Excepting paprikás, the Hungarian stews do not rely on a flour or roux for thickening.

 

Goulash can be prepared from beef, veal,pork, or lamb. Typical cuts include the shank, shin, or shoulder; as a result, goulash derives its thickness from tough, well-exercised muscles rich in collagen, which is converted to gelatin during the cooking process. Meat is cut into chunks, seasoned with salt, and then browned with sliced onion in a pot with oil or lard. Paprika is added, along with water or stock, and the goulash is left to simmer.

After cooking a while, garlic, whole or ground caraway seed, or soup vegetables like carrot, parsnip, peppers (green or bell pepper), celery and a small tomato may be added. Other herbs and spices could also be added, especially chilli pepper, bay leaf, and thyme. Diced potatoes may be added, since they provide starch as they cook, which makes the goulash thicker and smoother. A small amount of white wine or wine vinegar may also be added near the end of cooking to round the taste. Goulash may be served with small egg noodles called csipetke. The name Csipetke comes from pinching small, fingernail-sized bits out of the dough (csip =pinch) before adding them to the boiling soup

 

Food in Turkey-Çiğ köfte

Çiğ Köfte is a raw meat dish in Turkish  cuisines. It is traditionally made with either beef or lamb, and usually served as an appetizer (meze). In Turkish çiğ  means “raw” and köfte means “meat patty”).

According to lore, çiğ köfte was invented in Urfa at the time of Abraham or prophet Ibrahim . When Nimrod collected all firewood in Urfa in order to build a monumental execution pyre the wife of a 

 

hunter had to prepare venison raw in the absence of firewood. She mixed the meat with bulgur, herbs and spices and crushed the mixture with stone implements until it was palatable.

In the beef variant, ground beef is used. Tendons and fat are removed before grinding the beef. Relatively expensive high-quality beef has to be used so that the meat can be safely served raw.

Since lamb is considered a “clean meat”,  it is often used for chee kufta instead of beef.  Turksish use chee kufta as a meze (Middle-Eastern appetizer), served almost freezing. The raw meat is not kept overnight and is reserved for special occasions. The lamb used must be deboned, degristled , and trimmed before it is prepared. The lamb is supposed to be butchered, bought, and prepared the very same day to ensure freshness.

With either meat, finely ground bulgur (durum and other wheat) is required. Other ingredients are mild onions, scallions parsley, and usually green pepper. Variants of the dish may use tomato sauce, Tabasco sauce, and mint leaves. When served, it may be gathered into balls, or in one piece. 

Crackers  are sometimes used to consume it.

Although traditional recipe requires minced -raw- meat, the version in Turkey consumed as fast-food (through small franchise shops in every neighborhood of Turkey) must be meatless by law due to hygienic necessities. Therefore, çiğ köfte is, unless home-made,  vegans in Turkey since a decade,  replace meat by ground walnut.

Food in Greece – Moussaka

Moussaka is an eggplant and/or potato-based dish popular in  Balkan and Mediterranean cuisines , with many local and regional variations.

The same name and recipe is found throughout the lands that were formerly part of the Ottoman empire. In Greece,  the dish is layered and typically enjoyed hot. In Turkey, it is sauteed and served in the style of a casserole, and is consumed warm or at room temperature. In Arabic countries, a variant of the same recipe is eaten cold.The English name for moussaka comes from modern Greek mousakás (μουσακάς).

The Greek version includes layers of meat and eggplant topped with a Bechamel (white) sauce, and baked.

The modern Greek version was probably formulated by chef Tselementes in the 1920s. It has three layers that are separately cooked before being combined together for the final baking: a bottom layer of sliced eggplants sautéed in olive oil; a middle layer of ground lamb lightly cooked with chopped or puréed tomatoes, onion,garlic , and spices (cinnamon, allspice, and black pepper),  and a top layer of Bechamel sauce or sav oury custard The composed dish is then layered into a pan and baked until the top layer is browned. Moussaka is usually served warm, not piping hot; if cut hot out of the oven, moussaka squares tend to slide apart and consequently the dish needs some resting time to firm up before serving. Reheating, however, does not present the same problem.

 

There are variations on this basic recipe, sometimes with no top sauce, sometimes with other vegetables. In Greece such variants may include, in addition to the eggplant slices, sautéed zuccini (courgette) slices, part-fried potato slices, or sautéed mushrooms. There is even a fast-day or “vegan” version in the Greek cookbook by Tselementes, which includes neither meat nor dairy products, just vegetables (ground eggplant is used instead of ground meat), tomato sauce, and bread crumbs.

Food in German-Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen (or Pfefferkuchen) is a traditional German baked Christmas treat, somewhat resembling gingerbread. The etymology of the term Lebkuchen is uncertain. Derivations from the Latin libum (flat bread) and from the Germanic word Laib (loaf) have been proposed. Another likely possibility is that comes from the old term Leb-Honig, the rather solid crystallized honey taken from the hive, that cannot be used for much beside baking.Honigkuchenpferd is an older traditional German Lebkuchen figure.

Decorated Lebkuchen hearts – a more recent tradition; often sold at Christmas fairs.

 

 

Lebkuchen was invented by monks in Franconia, Germany in the 13th century. Lebkuchen bakers were recorded as early as 1296 in Ulm, and 1395 in Nurnbergh (Nuremberg). The latter is the most famous exporter today of the product known as Nürnberger Lebkuchen (Nürnberg Lebkuchen). Traditionally, the cookies are usually quite large and may be 11.5 cm (4.5 in) in diameter if round, and larger if rectangular.

Sometimes Lebkuchen is packaged in richly decorated tins, chests, and boxes which have become nostalgic collector items. Lebkuchen range in taste from spicy to sweet and come in a variety of shapes with round being the most common. The ingredients usually include honey, spices such as aniseed, corrainderm cloves, ginger, cardamom, and allspice, nuts including almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts, or candied fruit.

Since 1808, a variety of Nürnberg Lebkuchen made without flour has been called Elisenlebkuchen. It is uncertain whether the name Elise refers to the daughter of a gingerbread baker or the wife of a margrave. Her name is associated with some of the Lebkuchen produced by members of the guild.

Lebkuchen is usually soft, but a harder type of Lebkuchen is used to produce Lebkuchen Hearts, usually inscribed with icing, which are available at many German fairs, and the witch houses made popular because of the fairy tales about Hansel and Gretel.

Food in France – Baguette (France Bread)

A baguette is “a long thin loaf of French bread that is commonly made from basic lean dough (the dough, though not the shape, is defined by French law). It is distinguishable by its length and crisp crust.A standard baguette has a diameter of about 5 or 6 centimetres (2 or 2⅓ in) and a usual length of about 65 centimetres (26 in), although a baguette can be up to a metre (39 in) long.

The word “baguette” was not used to refer to a type of bread until apparently 1920, but what is now known as a baguette may have existed well before that. The word simply means “wand” or “baton”, as in baguette magique (magic wand), baguettes chinoises (chopsticks), or baguette de direction (conductor’s baton).

Though the baguette today is often considered one of the symbols of French culture viewed from abroad, the association of France with long loaves predates any mention of it. Long, if wide, loaves had been made since the time of Louis XIV, long thin ones since the mid-eighteenth century and by the nineteenth century some were far longer than the baguette

The “baguette de tradition française” is made from wheat flour, water, yeast, and common salt. It does not contain additives, but it may contain broad bread flour (max 2%), soya flour (max 0.5%), wheat malt flour (max 0.3%). Standard baguettes however may contain a certain number of additives.

While a regular baguette is made with a direct addition of baker’s yeast, it is not unusual for artisan-style loaves to be made with a pre-fermented or “poolish”. or other bread pre-ferments to increase flavor complexity and other characteristics, as well as the addition of whole wheat flour  or other grains such as rye. French bread is required by law to avoid preservatives, and as a result bread goes stale in under 24 hours, thus baking baguettes is a daily occurrence.

Baguettes are closely connected to France, though they are made around the world. In France, not all long loaves are baguettes.

Food in Japan – Sushi

Sushi is a Japanesed food consisting of cooked vinegared ricecombined with other ingredients , usually raw fish or other seafood. Ingredients and forms of sushi presentation vary widely, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is vinegared rice. . Raw meat (usually but not necessarily seafood) sliced and served by itself is sashimi. Many non-Japanese use the terms sashimi and sushi interchangeably, but they are not synonymous. Sushi refers to any dish made with vinegared rice.

The original type of sushi, known today as nare zushi was first made in Southeast Asia possibly along what is now known as the Mekong river. The term sushi comes from an

archaic grammatical form no longer used in other contexts; literally, sushi means “sour-tasting”, a reflection of its historic fermented roots. The oldest form of sushi in Japan, narezushi, still very closely resembles this process, wherein fish is fermented via being wrapped in soured fermenting rice

Sushi-meshi 鮨飯 or Su-meshi 酢飯 is a preparation of white, short-grained, japanese rice mixed with a dressing consisting of rice vinegar sugar salt and occasionally kombu and sake.. The rice also called shari 舎利 or gohan ご飯. It has to be cooled to room temperature before being used for a filling in a sushi or else it will get too sticky while being  seasoned. Traditionally, the mixing is done with a hangiri, which is a round,flat bottom wooden tub or barrel, and a wooden paddle

The black seaweed wrappers used in makimono are called Nori . Nori is a type of algae, traditionally cultivated in the harbors of Japan. Originally, algae was scraped from dock pilings, rolled out into thin, edible sheets, and dried in the sun, in a process similar to making rice paper. Today, the commercial product is farmed, processed, toasted, packaged, and sold in shee.

Nori by itself is an edible snack and is available with salt or flavored with teriyaki sauce.The flavored variety, however, tends to be of lesser quality and is not suitable for sushi

For culinary, sanitary, and aesthetic reasons, the minimum quality and freshness of fish to be eaten raw must be superior to that of fish which is to be cooked.This is called as Neta Sushi chefs are trained to recognize important attributes, including smell, color, firmness, and freedom from parasites that may go undetected in commercial inspection. Commonly used fish are tuna (maguro, shiro-maguro), japanese amberjack, yellowtail (hamachi), snapper (kurodai), mackerel (saba), and salmon (sake). The most valued sushi ingredient is toro, the fatty cut

Otherwise, other ingredients such as egg, tofu, shrimp, cucumber, ell, and many more is often use during special occasion or request

Food in Indonesia – Gado gado

Gado-gado also known as Lotek (Sundanese and Javanese) is an Indonesian salad of boiled vegetables served with a peanut sauce dressing. Gado-gado is different from lotek atah or karedok which uses raw vegetables. Another similar dish is the Javanese pecel.

Gado-gado is very popular among Indonesian. It is widely available from hawkers carts, stalls (warung) and restaurants and hotels in Indonesa; it is also served in Indonesian-style restaurants worldwide. Though it is customarily called a salad, the sauce is a larger component of gado-gado than is usual in Western-style salads; the vegetables should be well coated with it.

Formerly, gado-gado sauce was generally made to order, sometimes in front of the customers to suit their personal preference for the amount of chilli pepper included. However, particularly in the West, gado-gado sauce is often prepared ahead of time and in bulk, Gado-gado sauce is also available in dried form, which simply needs to be rehydrated by adding hot water.

The common primary ingredients of the peanut sauce are as follows:

• ground fried peanuts
• coconut sugar
• chillies (according to preference and desired degree of spiciness)
• terasi (dried prawn paste)
• salt
• tamarind liquor
• lime juice
• water to dilute

The traditional method of making gado-gado is to use the cobek and ulekan or flat rounded stone. The dry ingredients are ground first, then the tamarind liquor is add to achieve the desired consistency.

A traditional Indonesian way of making gado-gado.

The composition of the vegetable salad varies greatly, but usually comprises a mixture of some of the following:

• shredded, chopped, or sliced green vegetables such as cabbage, kangkung, spinach, bean sprouts, boiled young jack fruit, chayote, string bean, and corn.
• uncooked – sliced cucumber
• sliced – fried tofu and tempe
• sliced – boiled potatoes
• peeled and sliced boiled eggs

Outside Indonesia, it is usual to improvise with whatever vegetables are available.The blanched vegetables and other ingredients such as tofu, tempeh, or egg are mixed well with the peanut sauce.In Indonesia gado-gado is commonly served mixed with chopped lontong or ketupat (glutinous rice cake),. It is nearly always served with krupuk (crackers), e.g. or emping, Indonesian style fried crackers, which are made from melinjo.