Semiserious Chefs

Americans love yogurt. We particularly like it sweet, often with berries or fruit, and even flavored like favorite desserts and pies. We like it in single portions and easy to grab on the go, including, but not limited to, the ever-popular squeezable tubes for children. We also have what is marketed as ‘drinkable yogurt.’ Now […]

You can serve this as a main dish, a side dish, taco or in a pita pocket as a sandwich-on-the-go. It’s very versatile! This is fish and chips, coleslaw addition. Though coleslaw probably dates back to the Dutch, the most common form seen now, using mayo, can be found throughout Great Britain and the US. […]

If there’s one thing I haven’t learned over the years it’s that I need to save my draft often. See, as I was sitting here typing away on the computer, the trees were going crazy from all the wind blowing around. And when it’s windy, guess what goes out sometimes? That’s right, as I was […]

Taro is a starch used by nations all around the world, and in a lot of different ways. Having started with a Trinidad inspired dish involving coconut, it was only fitting to head to Asia, strongly believed to be the traditional home of the taro root, and create an entirely different dish that also uses […]

This dish came about after my week-long exploration of Latin American mashed plantain breakfasts. Finally, after plenty of savory, I created a sweet dish. For my own tastes I like just a dash of cayenne pepper included in the dough, but you can always leave it out. This is an especially fun and easy dish […]

Apparently there is no question about the fact that Tiger Nut Sweets are pretty much as ancient as it comes. I just wish I could find a picture of this Egyptian clay or broke pot on which the possibly 6,000 year old recipe was found. The name has me a little dumbfounded, though. Tiger Nut […]

Samboosa are Arabic fried triangle pastries. They are most often savory, so the title word here, halwah or ‘sweets’ gives us a clue that this is a fried triangular pastry sweet snack. The original recipe I played off called for cashews and walnuts, but I am really not a fan of walnuts. For my rendition […]

I say, “A plantain a day, keeps the Cartel at bay.” …assuming The Little Guy is getting fair trade. Colombians have had a love hate relationship with bananas. They love to eat them and have a huge sense of national pride over dishes such as Cayeye, but there has also been trouble, involving the banana, […]

This recipe hails from the Amazonian edges of Peru where hammocks and fires reign supreme. It would be no surprise then to discover a very clever way to turn very ripe plantains into a warming and energizing beverage. Okay, so it isn’t the same kind of energizing as coffee, but with plenty of carbohydrates it […]

Yes, that is a spoof off barbecue, but no, I did not make it up. It is indeed a real thing, and a really popular thing! Also known as banana-Q, it’s actually quite funny in that these simple sweet treats are not actually barbecued, but rather fried and then served on barbecue skewers. This faux […]