Passion for Spices Celebrates Moms Around the World

Passion for Spices Team wishes you a Happy Mothers Day. Mothers Day is not only a celebration of mothers, but a reminder of the love and care that every mother selflessly gives to their families. The importance of mothers is apparent through their widespread celebration through many cultures.

Ancient Greece

Photo Credits: The Golf Club

Mothers Day dates back all the way to ancient Greek culture, where people would honor the Goddess Rhea, a mother of many deities in Greek Mythology.

India

Photo Credits: Aditi Banerjee

Today, mother’s day is prevalent throughout the world, such as in Indian culture where there is an entire 10 day festival to honor the Goddess of Mothers, Durga.

Ethiopia

Photo Credits: Borgen Project

Across the globe in Ethopia, at the end of the rainy season in fall mothers are honored for three days. Sons and daughters will prepare them a meal while the men in the family sing songs to the mom.

Many of you can remember the affection that your moms gave, and the food memories in the kitchen , where the main ingredient was always love. We offer you a way to create more memories with your Mom, and enjoy our Mother’s Day Special cooking class, where we will guide you through a memorable night of gourmet cooking. We have many options of adult cooking classes, suitable for all types of different diets, and even a Families Cooking Together program to spend time with your family in our special program in the Summer. Hope all of you have a special day, spending quality time with your mom. Please enjoy our Spiked Raspberry Lemonade recipe, courtesy from Passion For Spices.

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Spiked Raspberry Lemonade

Ingredients:

1½ oz citrus flavored vodka

¾ cup ginger ale

½ cup raspberry puree

1¾ cup soda

1 tsp sugar

2 lemons, juiced

¼ tsp ginger juice (from smashing 2 inches of ginger)

Fresh raspberries (for garnish)

Lemon Rind (for garnish)

Procedure:

1. In a pitcher add lemon juice, ginger juice, ginger ale, and raspberry puree. Mix well.

2. In a cocktail shaker, add sugar, vodka, raspberry lemonade mixture, and shake well.

3. Pour this in a highball glass over ice, and pour soda over it gently. Garnish with raspberries and lemon.

A Sweet Easter Treat for You and Your Family

Everyone looks forward to Easter after a long winter. It is always great to be gathering around the table with your loved ones for a spring holiday. The dessert to cap off your family meal should be a celebration of spring as well as this religious holiday. Panna Cotta with Berries is the perfect, light treat, with seasonal fresh fruits, that everyone can enjoy. This can be made ahead of time so that you have one less thing to worry about for your Easter feast.

Panna Cotta with Fresh Berries

Makes 8 Servings

Procedure:

1. On medium heat, take a saucepan and add the half cup of water. Now sprinkle the gelatin and mix until the gelatin dissolves, and let it cool.

2. Take another bowl to mix the cream cheese, heavy cream, and condensed milk. Mix them until they come to a smooth consistency.

3. Now add the vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice into the mixture and stir well.

4. Now add the gelatin mixture into the bowl, and mix well.

5. Pour the mixture into small molds, and put it into the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours to set.

6. Before serving, decorate with berries.

Click here for our previous Passover blog that includes a traditional recipe adapted from the Indian Jewish Culture.

Ingredients:

1 cup cream cheese

1 tin heavy milk

½ tin condensed cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 lemon (zest)

1 lemon (juice)

1 tbsp gelatin

½ cup water

1 cup of fresh seasonal berries

Passion for spices™ Launches corporate Culinary Team Building

This season Passion for Spices ™ has been busy with corporate team building activities. During our culinary team building events we give teams the chance to cook together and build their communications, resource management, and strategic skills. So far, our team building events have been an absolute blast, giving coworkers a fun, productive break from work and a tasty option to bond over a new skill: cooking.

In our team building programs our professional chefs lead the way through an evening of cooking, bonding, and new experiences. Our most recent event, with a local law firm, had a gourmet menu of Salmon Fillets in Potato Crust, Mushroom Farrotto, Pan-Roasted Duck Breast, and a Plum Cobbler Tart (click for recipe). As always, we emphasis the use of high quality ingredients that are seasonal and local. For instance, we had organic salmon fillet delivered straight from the Metropolitan Seafood fish monger, and we used Passion for Spice’s™ very own Kashmiri Garam Masala for the plum cobbler tart.

Our team building program reflects the same values we put into every class, advocating organic, seasonal, and sustainable culinary practices to bring culinary literacy to the workplace and promote a healthy life style.

Passion For Spices Team is Excited For the Annual Around The World Cooking Camp 2019

Foods Of The World
July 8-12

The Foods of the World Program is geared to teach campers all about food and culture. Every year, the Passion For Spices™ Team identifies the countries we are showcasing. The children will be given an opportunity to learn hands on recipes from the Foods of the World and understand the details of food specialties and their cultural practices.

Arts and Sciences
July 15-19

The second week of the Around the World Cooking Camp consists of learning the arts and sciences of cooking. For example, kids learned all about yeast and how to make fresh Herb Focaccia and homemade Pita Bread. They also learned about pickling and preserving different foods.

The kids made a tasty Herb Focaccia which can be seen on the right.

Farm To Table
July 22-26

This third week of our summer cooking camp was all about using farm fresh and seasonal vegetables. The Passion for Spices team focused on teaching campers the importance of knowing where your food comes from, identifying in season fruits and vegetables, and creating fresh and summery foods.

Families Cooking Together
July 12, 19, 26

In our Families Cooking Together Workshop, you cook along with your family members and as a team and then enjoy the prepared meal. The class format is designed as a workshop where you will have hands on cooking experiences and learn class recipes and techniques.

Culinary Teen Competition
August 12-16

In this NEW addition to our summer camp repertoire, we put several teams of teens to the progressive culinary test! Our professional chefs will be working with each team everyday, and each team  will learn new techniques as well as how to plan, prepare, create and present a 3 course meal using mystery ingredients from our seasonal "market basket" along with open access to our "community pantry." Finished dishes  will be judged on presentation, use of seasonal ingredients, technique, flavor development, and teamwork. Based on their performance, teams are awarded points, with each team receiving a daily score. On the final day, daily scores will be added together and whichever team has the most points WINS!

As we showcase here, our young chefs ages vary from five to teen, and is organized in such a way that they learn at their appropriate levels. Our Passion for Spices™ team are well experienced professionals, who will be guiding and training the kids to get the best experience in this culinary journey.

We also make sure we provide a generous portion of the food we prepare so everyone gets to try the food they prepare including the "picky eaters", which we have converted many of them over the years.

This year we have some exciting activities for your kids including cheese-making and a chocolate celebration.

All  of the ingredients used during the weeks of camp are organic, fresh, and non-processed. Each day we have a totally different theme, but all to show kids that their food can be delicious, healthy, and sustainably grown!

Highlights of Art & Science of Cooking

Week 2 of Passion for Spices™’s Art & Science Camp taught the kids and teens something new each day.

Day 1 

Passion for Spices Chief Culinary Educator Chef Sam Kadko exposed the campers to having fun with yeast. The  campers made herb focaccia and homemade pita bread, topped with with locally sourced ingredients.  One of the older campers learned how to fire roast bell peppers. The younger ones divided and rolled out the dough for the pita bread. Chef Sam said “See It’s easy! You just have to make a spider with your hands, and roll it up like this". An exciting  start!

Day 2

 Guest chef, Executive Pastry Chef John Sauchelli, led the Cupcake Wars and the pretzel making. For the first half of the day, the campers twisted their own pretzels and topped them with either cheese or Kashmiri Garam Masala sugar mixture for a sweet or savory twist. The second half was reserved for the Cupcake War. The campers were split into two teams, the “Cupcake Cruisers” and the “Cupcake Bombers”. The Cupcake Bombers utilised the fishing nets, cupcake crumble ‘sand’, and blue sprinkles for a beach theme. They put all the "sand" cupcakes on one side, of their sand and all of the "water" cupcakes on the other side. The Cruisers used a floral theme, grabbing lavender and faux flowers to decorate the around the strawberry buttercream. What a fun day!

Day 3

Today the campers learned the basics of Pickling and Preserving. The young chefs had a blast using fun gadgets that they had never used before. They sliced up radishes to pickle in a red wine vinegar mixture, which resulted in a surprisingly sweet pickled radish with a complex taste. They made sweet and sour pickles from sliced cucumbers. Everyone gobbled them up with ham and cheese sandwiches on sliced baguettes slathered with Irish butter and the freshly made spiced cherry jam. Yum!

Day 4

The fourth day was all about Cheese! We made fresh ricotta, which they used for the Cannoli filing.  The Campers enjoyed   figuring out  how much filling they could fit in each cannoli. They also made roasted tomato salads and parmesan with panellas, a sicilian Chickpea fritter. The day’s cooking lesson was focused on curdling milk and they learned the science of curdling milk and the impact of about acids and the ph scale on the flavor and texture of food. Another great foodie adventure for our campers.

Day 5

Guest Chef Scott Savokinas taught the campers the basics of making home ice cream treats. The Campers made ice cream and parfaits filled with homemade granola and  learned to make an egg custard based French Vanilla ice cream. The Campers used the ice cream to make a no-bake  dessert  with an oreo crust  and a chocolate fudge topping. The granola had a delicious honey taste and went really complimented  the maple syrup used in the parfait. As the week came to a close, everyone went home happily with their stomachs full of ice cream, fresh fruit parfait, granola, and the no bake dessert. What a fun week !