Semiserious Chefs

Armenia. It’s own nation; just barely. They are incredibly proud of their heritage and their homeland. They come from the ancient lands of the Mesopotamia and lived through the Ottoman empire. They’ve been ‘owned’ by both Turkey and Russia, over and over, and their cuisine is a mix of flavors that shows these ever waving […]

‘Ground Provisions’ was a rather obscure sounding dish when I first came across it. Interestingly it’s a pretty straight forward idea. They are simply ground-based vegetables, AKA roots, tubers, corms, and rhizomes, that are providing the carbohydrates for the meal. These are most often potatoes, sweet potatoes, African/Asian yams, taro, cassava, squash, or plantains, even […]

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 recipe calls for Asian Yam. This is not to be mistaken for what gets marketed as ‘yam’ in the US. Despite popular belief, both the yellowy sweet flavored potato that is labeled ‘sweet potato’ and the orange fleshed extra sweet flavored potatoes named ‘yam’ are both just that, sweet potatoes. The cousin of the good-ole reg’ya’la […]

As the name implies, this recipe has been inspired by the cuisines of Ghana, Nigeria and other West African countries. It’s important to note the use of true yam for this dish. In the US we often times have two sweet potato varieties that are marketed as sweet potato, the pale colored sweet flavored potato, […]

The plantain. Beloved by so many countries! And not the least of these, Puerto Rico. Mofongo (pronounce moe-phone-go) refers to a garlicy mashed plantain ball containing chicharrones, or fried pork rinds. (Bacon is an acceptable substitute.) What you choose to do with it after that offers creativity. Most often it is served with a sauce […]

I have been very excited to finally have an excuse to buy the beautiful king oyster mushrooms that are currently in season. Raw, these large mushrooms have a pleasant aroma similar to a good sourdough, but when simmered they bring incredible umami flavor to a dish. The other main ingredient, dried bean curd sticks, take […]

May I present a SemiSerious Poem: Pozole red, pozole green Pozole fat, pozole lean Some use the chilies, some use cumin Some prefer pork, now that we don’t use Human. Now don’t get confused that I mean one is better than the other; to say that the pozole rojo is fatty and ‘gross’ while pozole […]

Now, I am by no means a vegetarian, however I am a very happy ‘meat-on-the-side’ eater and love all manner of vegetarian proteins.  One of the most fascinating things about world cuisine is how many people, (a majority of the world population actually) eat little to no meat on a regular basis. This does not […]

It is so amazing what a difference in flavor you get between fresh chilies and dried. Pozole verde is made using fresh chilies while pozole rojo is made with the same types of chilies after they have been dried. It’s interesting how everyone has their own personal likes between the two. For example, I absolutely […]