AuthorMy name is Jasid Hernandez. I am a sophomore in high school. This is my Genius Hour project for Mr. Barker's English class. Archives
November 2022
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Weeks 5-12 (ish)12/30/2022 Week 5Chorreadas from Costa Rica 5/10 Tostones from Panama 8/10 Week 7Mangu from the Dominican Republic. Technically Tres Golpes but Mangu is in there. 3/10 Bistec Encebollada from Puerto Rico. 9/10 Week 8Arepas from Colombia. Would have been 9/10 but I burnt them :( 3/10 Bolon de Verde from Ecudador. 6/10 They were okay but they came out good because I had a ton of help with them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Week 9Gojas from Guyana 4/10 Ceviche from Peru. 4/10 Would have been higher but the raw shrimp threw me off. Week 10Feijoada from Brazil 8/10 Empanadas de Queso from Bolivia. 5/10
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Week 4: Honduras and Nicaragua10/26/2022 Honduras-BaleadasBaleadas have one of the most interesting origin stories I have ever heard. Baleadas are believed to have been created by a street vendor on the Northern coast of Honduras. The street vendor was a very popular woman who liked to make this dish for the people. It was a tortilla with beans and cheese. Later, she was shot and died. The people in Honduras would start saying "Voy a comer adonde la baleada", literally saying "I'm going to eat where the lady was shot". I was not expecting that., but the woman's legacy lives on. Finding the recipe was easy, but making a baleada was a lot harder than I had anticipated. I used masa, which is a corn flour that is used to make tortillas. A baleada is basically a big tortilla. So I thought it would be easy, but I failed to realize that every tortilla I make comes out bad. I just have never been able to make a homemade tortilla :( Once I made the tortilla, the rest was easy. This recipe actually taught me how to make tortillas, so that's a plus. Making a baleada is very easy. Once you make the tortilla, you just add your fillings. It is very similar to a taco, the difference is that a taco is a lot smaller. Baleada's main ingredient is beans, refired beans to be specific. Honduran people usually use red beans, but I used pinto beans. After adding the beans, you add cheese and sour cream and it is done. It was very fast and simple. I enjoyed it. This was the final result Nicaragua-BunuelosBunuelos, although popular in Latin America, were invented in Spain. Bunelos are believed to have been invented by the Moors, Muslim Arabs who ruled Spain. Bunuelos were brought to the Americas during colonization. They became very popular in Nicaragua. There are many versions, some even including meat. The most popular and simple recipe is just fried dough. All that was needed for this recipe was flour, water, sugar, and butter. Considering how simple the ingredients were, I did not have high hopes for this recipe. I had to mix the flour with the butter and water and then fry it. The sugar was later sprinkled on. It was surprisingly very good. Bunelos are very easy to make and good. It is just fried dough with sugar on it, but the sugar makes it sweet. The dough is crunchy and makes it a very good snack. Many families usually make it around the holidays but it can be considered as a quick snack. I would definantly make it again. This was the final result Final ThoughtsThese recipes were very easy to make. My favorite would probably be the Bunelo because it was super simple and also tasted good. Baleadas were good too, but I liked the sweetness of the Bunelos. Although Baleadas have my favorite origin story, it's just so wild; I would have never expected it. The project itself is not necessarily hard, but I have been procrastinating. Actually completing tasks makes me realize why I chose this project in the first place. I find cooking to be fun and calming.
Recipes I used: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/255917/honduran-baleadas/ https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/bunuelos
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Week 3: Belize and El salvador!10/16/2022 Belize-PanadesPanades originated from Western Europe and were likely brought over to Belize during European explorations. However, over the years Belize has transformed it into a truly unique dish. Very simple and very flavorful. It reminded me of a quesadilla or an empanada since they both have very similar shapes. It was very simple to find a recipe that I could follow. The ingredients were not very hard to find since I just happened to have all of them anyway. The actual cooking time took about 30 minutes. The end product was very delicious and would definitely make it again. The first thing I had to do was prepare the Masa, which is like corn flour. It can be used for Tortillas, Gorditas, Quesadillas, etc. Then I had to mash up pinto beans, which were spread on the inside of the masa. I added cheese and then the main ingredient, fish. The fish I used was Salmon and I just baked it. I added everything inside the masa and then folded it into a quesadilla shape. I fried it and it was done. I ate it with lettuce and sour cream. cheese and Salsa de Arbol (a spicy sauce made from Chiles de Arbol). This was the final result 10/10 would eat it again. El Salvador-PupusasPupusas are believed to have been created by an indigenous tribe known as the Pipil tribe. They lived in what is now El Salvador. Pupusas can be traced back to over 2,000 years ago! Pupusas were spread all throughout Latin America and later were introduced into the US and Canada when Salvadorans were fleeing a civil war. This is a very unique dish with a rich history. I found that finding a recipe for this dish was very difficult, I am not really sure why. Each recipe was a bit different from the other but I was eventually able to find one that I could follow. Like the other recipe, this one used Masa as well. There were beans and cheese that were the filling for the Pupusa. This was very good and I am kind of proud that I made it myself. This recipe started when I shaped the masa into a little ball. Then I made a small indention and put the mashed-up beans and cheese inside of it. I gently closed it and started to smooth it out with my hands, until it was the shape of a disc or a tortilla. Then I smeared a little bit of oil on each side and toasted each side until it was slightly browned. I ate it with lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and salsa de Arbol although it is traditionally eaten with Curtido (kind of like fermented coleslaw). This was the final result. I also rate it a 10/10! Final thoughts?I think last week I said that this project was easier than I thought, well I take that back. This week was way more challenging than the last. My main problem was the schedule, I had a very busy week so I put this week off for a long time. This of course led to a delayed post. I think that I want this project to succeed, but I really need to stick to the schedule I set for myself. I knew that this project would be difficult to fit in with my other assignments, but this week showed me that it has to be a priority. Recipes I used:Panades:
https://www.belizehub.com/belizean-panades/ Pupusas: https://tasty.co/recipe/salvadoran-pupusas-as-made-by-curly-and-his-abuelita
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Week 2: Mexico and Guatemala!10/9/2022 Mexico-MoleMole is a traditional Mexican dish. The word "Mole" stems from the Nahuatl word "mōlli", meaning sauce. It is native to Mexico and is believed to have been created in modern-day Puebla. It is a very tasty dish that is very important in modern-day Mexico. It has evolved over the years. but the ingredients are still true to its Indigenous history. Since this was my very first, I was a bit nervous. I wanted it to turn out well, thankfully it did! Although it was good, this dish was very complicated. It took a very long time and consisted of many steps. Before I started cooking, my mom gave me some advice, and I watched a lot of videos and read a lot of recipes. Once I felt ready to start, I gathered all of the ingredients (there were a lot). Once everything was sorted, I began. The process of making this dish was overwhelming, to say the least. Toasting the seeds and chiles was definitely the hardest part. If you burn them, the dish is ruined, so the pressure was on. After toasting everything, I had to roast the tomatoes (the base of the sauce) and onions. Once everything was done, I had to put every single ingredient into a bowl and fill it with water. This is done so all the flavors are mixed together. After 30 minutes, I blended it all and boiled it. I added the chicken, and it was finally done. My family ate it with Mexican rice, and everyone said they enjoyed it, so overall it was a success! This was the final result! Guatemala-Pepian De PolloThis dish originates from the Indigenous culture of Guatemala. This was a Mayan staple that is still very present in Guatemala today! Since I had no connection to Guatemala, I relied a lot on the internet. However, despite thinking I was clueless, I found a lot of similarities between this dish and Mexican Mole. This makes sense since Mexico and Guatemala are so close to each other. Overall, I really enjoyed making this dish. In order to prepare for this dish, I watched a lot of recipes on YouTube and read a lot on the internet. Once one was picked out, I gathered all the ingredients, which I just happened to have at home. It was surprisingly easy and fast to cook this, and it tasted very good. It was very exciting to try this new food, and I think I would make this again. I started by toasting pumpkin and sesame seeds, tortillas, onions, tomatoes, and chiles. Once everything was toasted, I blended it all and added some chicken I had previously boiled. I served it with white rice, and it was good. I really enjoyed making this and eating it. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. This was the final result. Final thoughts?This last week was a lot easier than I originally thought. The hardest part was the pacing. Once I get into a routine, I think it will be easier. I enjoyed trying the Pepian de pollo and learning how to make mole. Both dishes have interesting histories in their countries and are rooted in their indigenous civilizations. I had a lot of fun this week, and I am looking forward to the upcoming week. This was a fun challenge I set for myself, and I am happy that I am already learning more about foods I had previously overlooked. Recipes I Used.
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Week 1: Introduction9/28/2022 What is my project?For my Genius Hour project, I will be cooking one recipe from each country in Latin America. I got the idea for this because I realized that I have not eaten many foods from the majority of Latin America. So, I chose to make them myself! I will do this by choosing the most authentic recipes on the internet and gathering the necessary ingredients ahead of time. Since I have 11 weeks to cook one recipe from the countries in Latin America, I have limited them to the countries found in the map shown here. This leaves me with 22 recipes to make in 11 weeks, so I should be making 2 recipes per week. Why?The idea for this project came to me because I like eating food. Furthermore, I like eating Latin food. I really wanted to incorporate cooking and eating into my project because it's something I enjoy doing. Trying new foods and learning about new countries is very fun and enlightening. But the bigger meaning behind this is culture. I love my Mexican culture, although I have struggled with it for many years. This project is a way for me to learn more about the culture of Latin America and embrace it. This has a bigger meaning to me than just food, it's a way for me to learn more about myself. Food is important to the culture of Latin America because it is a way to show how much you care for one another. Food is an amazing way to learn the culture and customs of a country. How?The plan for this is relatively simple. Monday-Wednesday will be the days I will actually be doing the cooking. Thursdays and Fridays will be used to do any work related to the project, like blog posts. The weekend will be used to pick out recipes and gather the ingredients I will need for the following week. I might have to make more recipes one week than I originally planned to, depending on how the eventual time and project pans out. Some challenges I do expect are the fact that I am not sure if I am making the best, authentic recipe out there. I don't have prior knowledge for the majority of the countries in Latin America, so I guess I just have to hope. Another challenge is finding all the ingredients I need. There are stores that import international ingredients, but if I can't find one, I will have to find the best replacement. The last challenge is about the quality of the food. If something goes wrong with the recipe, that is the final product. I can't keep retrying and if I don't like it, then that will be it. I'm not so worried about this because the project is about me trying to cook the foods of Latin America (although it would be nice if it tasted good). The food
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