The Storied Recipe

Welcome, listeners, to a very special episode that is coming from a vulnerable and treasured place in my heart!

There's nothing typical about this episode - First, I’m releasing this episode as both audio and video. Second, this is a solo episode, and while I have a couple more solo episodes planned for 2022, there won’t be too many. The heart of this podcast is - and will remain - my guests and *their* stories. Third, this episode is not about food! In fact, there’s one little mention of food in here - see if you can find it.

However, I do believe this episode is in keeping with the idea of the podcast because it is *all* about story - my favorite story in the world. I've read and recited this story dozens and dozens of times, and each time, I am surprised by it. Each time, I'm filled with wonder, joy, and awe. And today I wanted to share my favorite story with you. 

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Christmas Desserts Around the World

Welcome Sophie!

We begin the 2023 Christmas Around the World series with Sofie Alarcon, sharing all about Christmas in Ecuador.

This is actually an interview I tried to get last year, after Sophie shared her recipe for Pristiños, the famous Ecuadorian Christmas pastry we’ll discuss today. Sofie recalls very cold December nights high in the Andes mountains making the warmest memories with her large extended family who gathered to sing and pray, sharing blankets and hot citrus drinks to guard against the chill in their unheated homes.

As for Sofie’s recipe, these crispy Ecuadorian fried pastries shaped like a crown, this is the only recipe in the history of The Storied Recipe that I really, truly failed to properly produce!! Fortunately, Sophie’s recipe is very easy - and of course, very delicious. As a citrus lover, Sofie’s Pristinos dough gets a zest lift. The real genius is in her Piloncillo syrup, made from Panela - a dark brown evaporated cane sugar - lots of citrus zest and all the warming Christmas spices, like cinnamon, anise, and cloves. 

Highlights

• Growing up in Quito, 9000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains, and no heat
• Why Sofie loves the change in seasons now
• 8 hours from beach to mountains to Amazon
• Praying the Novena 9 nights in a row, with each night representing a month of Mary’s pregnancy
• The best Christmas snacks Sofie and her family included each night
• The most popular Ecuadorian Christmas drink Canelazo
• The HUGE meal they ate on Noche Buena for Christmas
• Why Sofie loves to make personalized gifts and table settings
• All about Piloncillo/Pinela syrup 
• Making Pristiños all together with her 12 cousins

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Sophie's Storied Recipe

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012 Pristinos in Ecuador with Melissa Sampedro

Melissa and I laughed a lot as she shared many stories of her life in Ecuador, from chewing on sugar cane to making pristinos to going to Nationals as a triathlete! She also educates us on the processing of sugar. I was grateful for some of her best frying tips. We also learn from Melissa how her grandmother raised 9 children on very little money and Melissa's mother taught her how to do with less. Finally, Melissa discusses the experience of living in America as a second culture and the very simple thing we can do to welcome others to our home culture.

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Thanks to Parmigiano Reggiano for sponsoring the Christmas Around the World episode!

• Thanks to Parmigiano Reggiano, THE cheese of the holiday season, for sponsoring this Christmas Around the World series.
• Parmigiano Reggiano is not just another parmesan, it is in a class all its own - beginning with its own Storied Recipe.
• You see, almost 900 years ago in 1254, Benedictine monks, living in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, created this cheese to extend the shelf-life of the large quantity of milk their healthy cattle were producing.

• During the 1300s and 1400s, these monks had a monopoly on this exact parmesan cheese and exported it to different regions of Italy. As the cheese became more popular, it spread to the rest of Europe -
• And now, almost a millennia later, you can be part of this storied tradition at your own holiday gathering - as long as you choose Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• If you choose any other cheese, you won’t be guaranteed a part in this Storied Recipe. Only when choosing Parmigiano Reggiano are you guaranteed a cheese made from just 3 simple ingredients, made and aged in this exclusive region of Italy, using ancient techniques developed by monks, and from cows fed ONLY with natural products - without the use of silage, fermented feeds, or animal flour.

• Find Parmigiano Reggiano cheese at Albertsons, Kroger, Meijer, Food Lion, Wakefern, Publix, & Shop Rite and look for Parmigiano Reggiano
• I’m so proud to be sponsored by Italy’s finest cheese and this season, you can also be proud to feature this exclusive cheese to pair with any of the global desserts my guest’s are sharing, with your holiday spirits, or as an appetizer to your own favorite dish.

Welcome Diana!

This one is a little outside the mold for the Christmas Around the World series.

You see, Diana’s childhood, the culture she was raised in, and the Christmases she enjoyed weren’t really defined by the places she lived, geographically. In fact, her family moved 22 times in 17 years.

Rather, her experiences were mainly defined by the agricultural communities she and her family traveled between. Diana was raised in the Bruderhof, a global collection of self-sustaining farms where all members surrender their personal goods (yep, including Christmas presents) and accept roles for the greater good of the community.

Although Diana ultimately chose to leave the Bruderhof community when she was 19, moving to NYC to work as a chef, she retains warm memories of some aspects of her rather unique childhood. Some of the best of these memories include Christmastime, which were full of German Christmas traditions like decorating simply with apples and candles, singing spiritual songs, and making classic bakes like these traditional British Mincemeat Pies she's shared with us.

From the time Diana was in high school she spent increasingly more hours in the kitchen (which she truly loved, although it was very heard labor) preparing daily suppers for her communities of 400 people. Thrilled to welcome Diana to the Christmas Around the World series today - and thank YOU so much for being here.

Highlights

• Vision of the Bruderhof: People who wanted to live together, share everything, wear flowers, and run through the fields.
• Why no members keep their jobs, titles, or possessions
• Why Diana lived in 5 countries but associates Christmas with Germany
• Bruderhof Christmas traditions: singing, simple gifts, communal nights, childlike, not gluttonous, simplicity
• Happy memories: Fairytale snowy Christmases outdoors in nature in Upstate New York 
• Rations of 1 cup of sugar per person per month
• Making sugar snow candy!!!
• Christmas presents in a community that doesn’t believe in personal possessions
• School from 7am to 5pm, including working on the farm and in the kitchen
• Diana’s exposure to food from seed to table.
• How much Diana loved cooking for 400 people as a teenager
• Diana’s journey out of Bruderhof and how.
• Why there was no Christmas cooking/baking at home
• Which Christmas traditions Diana kept from the Bruderhof, and how her journey out of Bruderhof is reflected in her changing Christmas traditions
• German Lebkukken: Gingerbread cookies as ornaments > food.
• A special night 100 candles on the tree -  Each person lights a candle and says someone you’re praying for.
• Angel chimes and the time Diana’s pigtail caught on fire.
• Mincemeat pies!!! Diana’s memories and lots of ways to make them.

Rutherford Family Christmas Pictures 🙂

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Diana's Storied Recipe

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Welcome M!

Have you ever watched that show Chopped where contestants are given a basket of random ingredients that can’t possibly go together and are asked to make a delicious dish for their hosts?

When I read through the ingredient list for these Indonesian cookies today’s guest shared, I felt like I was on that show! Coconut, gouda cheese, and pandan leaves… I wasn’t even sure what that last thing was!!

It turns out, as you’ll hear M explain, these cookies are a very Indonesian adaptation of the Dutch Spritz cookies, with a little tweaking by M herself. Here’s what she says about these:

My maternal grandfather was the avid cookie maker during Christmas time. I remember watching him making different types of cookies for Christmas since all of his grandchildren came to visit. 

It was normally very humid in the kitchen as it was rainy season in December. There were always too many people in the kitchen in my  paternal grandparents house. Sometimes the helper helped us; one of the senior helpers had been with the family for years so she knew how to do it. 

We relied on our old gas oven. My job was to sit in front of the oven with a tiny stool and wait. I  recalled our gas oven only operated automatically with actual fire from the bottom, so to make any cookies golden brown, we had to manually hold the ignition button for the top fire to turn on for however long you need it. It could  quickly turn to disaster as it got really hot rapidly, so I had to watch carefully. 

Later on when we moved to our own house, the kitchen was more spacious and comfortable, with a window in front of the stove which helped, but my job was still the same. Watching the cookie with my tiny stool while making sure the fire did not devour it before we did.

I’m so glad you’re here with me today to hear from M all about her memories of Christmas in Indonesia.

Highlights

• M’s region of Indonesia, surrounded by mountains, lush and cooler than many other Indonesian islands - icy rain during winters
• Christmas as a double minority: Security risks for Christians celebrating in Indonesia
• The shift of Christmas to a commercialized event
• The party atmosphere praying and singing Christmas Carols on 
• Themed Christmas celebrations
• Emphasis on “naughty” in the “naughty and nice” parts of the Santa legend
• Kue Semprit Keju Piped Cheese Cookies with Coconut and Pandan
• What is pandan? An aromatic, grassy plant in Southeast Asia - “like vanilla, but better” and why does it go well with coconut?
• Why we cook the tapioca starch and how the texture changes

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M's Indonesian Christmas cookies

M's Original Recipe & Episode

Listen to M. Aimee's Episode "A Peanut Never Forgets Its Shell"

Or try her amazing Mie Goreng!!!

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