Semiserious Chefs

This mashed plantain dish hails from Peru. Amazonian Peru. This is a relatively important note, as different parts of Peru produce different staple foods. For instance, in the mountainous Andes regions (Sierra) you are more likely to see crop based dishes with potatoes or quinoa, and slow roasted meats, commonly guinea pig. Along the coastline, […]

Kelewele (pronounced kay-lay-way-lay) is a West African street food that is particularly popular in Ghana. Commonly sold as cubed bits, people also like to slice them more like fries or potato wedges, and sometimes as medallions. These spicy seasoned and fried treats are great for parties, hors d’oeuvres, side dishes, and even tossed on salad. […]

This recipe takes its roots from Ghana. The southern states in particular lean heavily on cassava and plantain as major staples, but the common culture throughout the country is to serve a meal centered around the starch of choice with a soup or stew, most often tomato based, and added protein, very often fish. Like […]

Htipiti, Kopanisti, Tirokafteri I know those words are each a mouthful. χτυπητή: htee-pee-tee or ktee-pee-tee (also written as ktipiti or ctipiti) Κοπανιστή: cop-en-es-tee τυροκαυτερή: teer-oh-kaaf-tehr-ee. Not so bad, eh? Each being Greek, the last of these translates as ‘Spicy Cheese’ from tiri for cheese and kafteri for spicy, while kopanisti is used to describe something […]

As compared the boldness of the roasted red peppers in my Htipiti recipe or the tang of the lemon and pepperoncinis in the Kopanisti, I was expecting my last and final rendition, this very basic Tirokafteri below, to feel very bland. BOY WAS I WRONG! Sometimes the most simple of combinations really come together for […]

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and it started in a way I most enjoy, with a walk to the market. Okay, so our ‘market’ is just the local Fred Meyer, but it’s very close and there is a wonderful block of wild woods along the way. This particular Saturday I was blessed with the […]