Living in a city with thousands of different cultures pouring in from all different directions, it’s quite easy to forget about your own. My favorite way of reminding me of my culture is by drinking a tall, ice-cold glass of Chicha Morada! What is Chicha Morada? It’s a traditional purple corn drink that originated from the Andean regions in Peru! It’s a perfect pick me up, packed with delicious and sweet flavors of fruit, spices, and hints of nuts!

What you’ll need:

• 1 Lb of Purple corn
• Apple (to taste)
• Pineapple (to taste)
• Cinnamon stick (to taste)
• Cloves (to taste)
• Lime (to taste)
• Sugar (to your liking)
• 1 cup of chopped apples
• 5 liters of water

Directions:

In a large pot, pour in your water, purple corn, apple, pineapple, cinnamon and cloves! Allow to boil over high heat, for about 10 minutes then bring to a simmer for 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from heat and strain to remove corn, fruits, and spices into a jar. Stir in your limes, sugar, and chopped apples! Allow to cool in refrigerator. Serve over ice!

While Chicha does bring me back to my roots, it also reminds me of the wonderful memories I had with it! Memories of warm cinnamon apples filling my nose on early Sunday mornings, the sound of cultural music playing in the background, and the sound of my mothers soft voice singing along. I would walk to the kitchen eagerly waiting for my mom to allow me to taste test, in case we were missing more limes or sugar. I remember visiting different Peruvian restaurants and always comparing each glass to its previous with my father. Silly little laughs at our purple-stained lips and Chicha mustaches always brought a smile to my face. So while Chicha might be a traditional beverage originating from Peru, to me it’s so much more. Each sip reminds me of the highlights of my childhood.

Is French toast a breakfast food? Do fish swim? I mean obviously.. Right? Well, the majority of the population seems to think so. But if you’re adventurous enough like me, you can have it for dessert at 11:39 pm or an afternoon snack at 5:15 pm. My stance on French toast is that: it is awesome. But regardless of your perspective of French toast, it is universally seen as a breakfast food. However, I am here to change that with this super sick and customizable French toast recipe that you can have at any time.

Ingredients:

• Standard white bread. If you’re fancy enough, get some brioche.
• An egg or two.
• Milk.
• Salt.
• Powdered cinnamon.
• Sugar. Both granulated and powdered. Not too much though.
• Butter. Preferably non-salted.

If you’re eating solo, begin by cracking one singular egg into a bowl. If you’re not, add 2 or 3. Break open the yolks with a fork and add a generous splash of milk. Begin whisking this egg mixture until it becomes yellow. Now add a pinch of salt. And I mean a literal pinch, with your fingers. Also sprinkle in some cinnamon. While you continue to whisk, start heating up a relatively large pan so that you can toast multiple slices at once. After your pan is hot, add just enough butter to cover the surface of the pan but not enough to raise your cholesterol. After whisking for a solid 7 minutes, you can start dipping that toast in the egg mixture. Make sure you toss and turn the toast to fully coat it with egg. WARNING: This can get a little messy. Transfer the egg-y toast onto the hot pan and let it toast. The secret to getting the perfect toast is… I don’t have a secret. Just check every minute or so. While the toast is.. toasting, take a separate bowl and mix together a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of cinnamon, to create: cinnamon sugar. Anyway, when you achieve the golden-brown color, you may flip the toast. After both sides have been toasted, transfer the toast over to a plate. Keep repeating the cooking instructions for however many slices of bread you use. You may also need to add some more butter to grease up the pan. Once all of the slices are gathered, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar and some powdered sugar on top. This is now the part where you can make the toast, you. Try adding some fresh fruit with honey instead of syrup, or add bacon bits on it, or add ice cream on top, or Nutella. There are so many ways to top the French toast, but if you’re low on ingredients, just use syrup. There should now be some beautiful, warm, loving, caring, French toast waiting for you.

Now, I can’t tell you where French toast comes from, probably from France, but I can tell you my personal relationship with it. From the three times I’ve had breakfast at a diner, I’ve ordered French toast all three times. Three times was enough to get me to make it on my own. See, French toast isn’t crazy difficult to make, nor is it the first food I’ve ever made. I mean, everyone knows how to cook an egg, but making French toast just sounds way cooler. The real significance, however, comes from both the process and the final result, the moment you get to sit down and begin eating your own creation. It is the feeling of accomplishment you get from knowing you made something that is served in actual restaurants and diners, with your own two hands. That euphoria after taking the first bite cannot possibly be felt after making something like scrambled eggs. Despite its simplicity, French toast was the first dish to make me feel like an accomplished cook. Perhaps more significantly, though, it was the first dish to initiate a genuine sense of triumph and a realization that climbing the ladder is just as important as getting to the top, to say the least. The realization that the process is always worthwhile, and even more so when you get to experience the wonderful taste of success.

Recipe:
– however many fresh/frozen strawberries you want (more for greater sweetness)
– any type of milk (typically whole, 2%, oat, or almond milk)
– 1- 1.5tsp of matcha PLEASE USE CEREMONIAL GRADE MATCHA (a color other than bright green is just sad)
– warm water
– ice cubes of any size/shape
– OPTIONAL: honey/sugar if the strawberry doesn’t add enough sweetness

Get a bowl and a bamboo matcha whisk/electric milk frother. Add matcha powder into the bowl and pour about a cup of warm/semi-hot water into the bowl. If you are using a matcha whisk, whisk the matcha up and down, in one direction. Do not go in circular motions. For both the matcha whisk and milk frother, use until there is a layer of bubbles/foam on the matcha. Get a cup of your choice for your drink (preferably a clear glass cup so you can see the layers when the drink is done) Crush your strawberries inside the cup until some strawberry juice comes out. It doesn’t need to be crushed completely. Add however many ice cubes you desire. Then, take the milk of your choice and pour it to about 80% of your cup. Take your matcha and carefully pour it over the milk. If there is leftover matcha foam in the bowl, you can add some water and pour the excess into your glass. You should have 3 layers.

On the surface level, I love anything matcha. I love the earthy taste and I love how versatile the ingredient is. You could make anything with matcha. If you ask me on a deeper level, I picked a strawberry matcha latte because of its layers and perks. Just like the drink, humans have different layers to them too. We might reveal parts of ourselves to others, and we may hide other parts. In the end, those layers or personality traits are what makes us as people. Matcha tastes grassy and maybe even bitter on its own. I see the milk as a bridge between the earthiness of the matcha to the sweetness of the strawberries and/or honey. Also, from an artist standpoint, the color red is the opposite of green on the color wheel. I enjoy the contrast of all the layers but especially when it’s mixed together, it can create this amazing taste. Everyone has their good and bad traits, but we can always put the best version of ourselves forward and find a way to improve ourselves using our strengths. The recipe I provided allows you to choose your own ingredient amount, because not everyone has a set amount of kindness, a set amount of intelligence; some people are hot, some people are cold. Some people like their matcha sweeter, some like it creamier, and some like it more bitter. The satisfaction I feel after knowing I made this incredible drink on my own and mixing all the layers together (from someone who doesn’t handle food much) makes my mornings, afternoons, and nights. Although I don’t feel energy boosts from coffee or caffeine, I feel it from matcha lattes. I like that matcha latte is called matcha latte. Its like a coffee, but it’s far from it, both looks and taste wise. TBH, I don’t even know if it has caffeine but it gives me energy either way.

This simple ingredient can lead to the gate way to many more complex dishes you would want to make. But what really is an egg? Is it just a breakfast food to be enjoyed first thing on a calm morning with some pancakes and bacon that your mom made you? Or can it be much more? It turns out that it can be more complex than what you expected. But hell its the morning who wants to make an Eggs Benedict, poached egg, or a damn soufflé. We are regular people, with a normal life yes we spice it up once in a while but those are rare for even myself to do all the extra steps in the morning. So I’m going to help you make the perfect(hopefully) sunny side up egg. You will only need 4 items, obviously an egg, salt, butter/oil(your preference), and a pan to cook it in. Lets see to start lets put the pan on the stove and turn it on to lets say medium or medium-low for that nice yoke. Now lets put a bit of oil or butter in the pan and let it heat up, crack the egg on the edge of the pan and let the insides land and start to cook. This step is very easy to mess up let it cook for a few minutes before you can put a lid on the pan. Unless you like the yoke to be hard then you are a little weird but who am I to judge. Putting the lid on after is a simple task the, timing is the hardest part of this, leaving it on for too long will make it’s yoke hard but not enough will make you eat some raw egg whites so you will need to use your eyes to make sure it doesn’t overcook. Let’s say you took of the lid at the most perfect time now its time to plate use a spatula to take out the egg or if you are fancy with it pick the pan up and turn it so the egg falls perfectly on the plate. But regardless you need to add a bit of salt or too much doesn’t matter, you will get to see your mistake. Congratulation! You have made a sunny side up egg. Probably, it could’ve been your first time making it or your thousandth time you would have probably messed it up regardless and that’s fine this is a step in a different road for cooking. Which you can make into anything you want it to be with that opportunity given from the slip up.

I once heard that in science, “the simplest answer was usually the correct one”. I find that quote to be a very wise one, that can be applied to all facets of life. I treat cooking the same way. We often see Michelin star chefs cooking using amazing tools, trying to impress everyone watching them. I prefer to keep things simple. For me, fried dumplings have been a comfort food that I enjoy eating for breakfast when I get the chance. This is a recipe where you must be careful, because you don’t want to burn the dumplings, but it also acts as a great test, to show that you can cook. Start by getting a frozen bag of fried dumplings at the supermarket. You could make it from scratch if you’re fancy like the super chefs I mentioned earlier but like I said, I prefer to keep things simple. Once you get that bag, hopefully from a nearby supermarket, you can bring it home, and take out a pan, and some oil as well. Put the pan on a stove and light the fire. Go ahead and throw some oil on there, and do it quickly. Then go ahead and dump some dumplings on there, and try to keep them as upright as possible. After a couple of minutes, get some hot water, and slowly pour it into the pan. and cover the pan. The water is going to defrost the dumplings, and the oil is going to prevent the dumplings from sticking to the pan. Make sure to look after the pan, and don’t let the dumplings burn. After a couple of minutes take off the lid and see where the dumplings are at. Make sure they haven’t burnt, but still have a nice char. Take them out and you can now eat. Fried dumplings, or potstickers, if you like, are dumplings that are usually made and then fried on a large pan. Usually they’ll have pork inside. They are my second favorite type of dumpling, behind soup dumplings, and I loved to eat them all the time as a kid. I remember that there was one specific restaurant my family would go to that was just known for fried dumplings. I would be so excited, and I remember I could eat a massive amount of dumplings, because they were just so good. To me, fried dumplings have always been comfort, and the crunch that comes with frying the dough of the dumpling has always been my favorite part of eating them. They hold a special place in my heart, and I hope you will enjoy them too.

• Firstly, we can start off at the supermarket and get a box of pancakes, I usually get the one in a red box, Pearl Milling, but the one I refer to it as and commonly known is Aunt Jemima. 
• Then, you should buy Aunt Jemima Syrup because I believe it’s the best. 
• Get a big bowl and a measuring cup and measure about 1 ½ cup of pancake mix and a little under ¾ cup of milk and one egg
• Stir it continually until there’s no flour chunks left, and while you stir it I put the vegetable oil in a pan and let it sit for 2 minutes
• Put ¼ of the mixture into one pancake and put it on high heat because I’m impatient
• Flip it over once you see the dots start bubbling in the pancake
• Recommend putting two pancakes in one pan to go by faster, even though there’s more likelihood for mistakes
• Then, get a plate and put syrup all over the pancake!

My personal relationship to pancakes is very tiring (included – because most of the time I make pancakes it’s because my little sister is waking me up from my sleep), but more fun and joyful. Every-time I eat pancakes, I’m never in a bad mood, I always have energy and look forward to what the day brings. I like to try to make it for myself and my family to start the day off right. I feel like once you start the day off productive you’ll more likely have a good day. I struggle with lack of motivation and have a tendency to “bed-rot” a lot, so simple tasks are always helpful to not enable them. Choosing to wake up early to cook shows a lot of determination and maturity, so I believe it’s the first step of me transitioning from a teenager to an adult. I’ve since started doing more hobbies after I cooked pancakes, like exercising and going out with new people. I look forward to seeing the person I become and slowly grow into the adult I always hoped to be as a kid – thanks to pancakes.

We will be using the Posting and Commenting function of blogs@baruch throughout the semester, so you’ll have to familiarize yourself with how to do this:

1. Scroll over “Blog” in the menu bar
2. Scroll down to “Blog #1: due 9/9”
3. Read the instructions (see below this list)
4. Click “+ New” in your top toolbar to add a new post
5. Answer the assignment in the text box
6. On the right side of the screen, find the “Categories” tab. Check the box next to “Blog #1: due 9/9” in order to properly upload it.
7. Click the “Publish” box to complete your post

Blog #1 Prompt:

À la Danny Licht’s excerpt we read in class, from Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again, write a recipe for something you like to cook/make. You can write this in a more traditional form, like a classic cookbook, or do something a little more strange and creative, like Licht does (the tone is more personal essay/poem than instruction manual). The choice is yours! You can include photos, quotes, quips, jokes, whatever! Make it YOU.

No matter how you write it, you are required to include at least one paragraph about, either:

• (1) where the recipe comes from, historically or culturally… What is the *objective* lineage of this dish or these food items? Is there some history around this food? Is there some social or cultural significance?
• (2) your personal relationship to this recipe/food item… What does this dish/these ingredients mean in your *subjective* life? Is there a personal history the food helped you deal with? How did the food nourish you? Is there some personal significance?

If you don’t cook, you can describe how to do something else that requires step-by-step instructions, and you still have to include the above paragraphs, somehow. Does the task have an objective history, or a subjective personal history?

Put your best foot forward… maybe we’ll make these into a class cookbook/guidebook?!?

PS – If you need some further inspiration, check out these recipes by poets.