April 11, 2016
  
Recipes

A Taste of Pakistan–Sharing Culture Through Food

A Taste of Pakistan–Sharing Culture Through Food

Exploring local cuisine can play an important role in understanding and appreciating a new culture. Food can provide both host families and Ayusa students alike a meaningful cultural experience to discover the practices, rituals, and beliefs that surround food and its consumption. There is often deep history and meaning rooted into the gathering, preparation, and serving of food.

Ayusa YES student Ayesha shares her recipe for muttery gosht, which translates to chicken and peas.

They loved it and said that it was probably the best spicy food they have ever had. It was just like a huge achievement for me!

Cooking is one of the very few things that I don't like much!

After coming to the U.S. as an exchange student, I experienced a lot of things and one of them was cooking, cooking my traditional food. I travelled to Florida with my host family. My host mom's family who lives in Florida asked me to cook some Pakistani food for them as they've never tried any Pakistani food.

I couldn't refuse to cook for them so I decided to cook something for them but I had no idea about what I was going to cook and how I was going to cook! I was nervous because I didn't know if they would like it or not! But I still decided to give it a try and I did my best. I put certain thing in a sauce pan and cooked them. Eventually it looked and tasted like Pakistani food. I was so proud of myself and I was extremely happy!

Everyone who ate the food liked it and appreciated me for cooking that delicious food. My host grandma had some friends over that day and I shared the food with them too. They loved it and said that it was probably the best spicy food they have ever had. It was just like a huge achievement for me!

Muttery Gosht

Ingredients

  • 1 pound chicken
  • ½ pound green peas
  • 2 medium sized onions
  • 2 medium sized tomatoes
  • 3 hot peppers
  • ½ teaspoon eah salt, red chili powder, turmeric
  • ½ cup oil

Instructions

  1. Put oil in a sauce pan and add onions to it when the oil gets hot.
  2. Cook the onions until they get light brown and then add tomatoes, hot peppers and spices in it.
  3. Cook it for 5-7 minutes and then add the chicken in the pan.
  4. Cook all these things together until the chicken gets nice and tender.
  5. Add the peas 5 minutes before turning the stove off.

I served it with roti, which is the traditional flat bread and we eat it with curry. Roti is also the staple food of Pakistan. It's made of flour and water. So I made the dough with flour and water and flattened it by using a rolling pin and cooked it on a flat pan. Everyone liked it and they were amazed that how simple and delicious it is!

Sharing cultures and building communities with high school exchange.

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