Zainab Khan, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Muslim American Leadership Alliance

Taste from Home is a collection of recipes and stories can be used as a way to connect with others and facilitate conversations about race, culture, and identity over a new recipe. Make a cultural dish and sit down with family and friends and have a discussion of the culture it represents.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, if you are able. If you are unable to donate, you can still participate by sharing a recipe by using hashtags #tastefromhome, #tastefromhomerecipe, & #chicagocultural on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

MALA (Muslim American Leadership Alliance)is an arts and culture organization committed to amplifying and celebrating the voices and perspectives of American Muslims through the art of oral history and digital storytelling. MALA works to build vibrant and dynamic communities and inclusive spaces for cultural exchange and community dialogue. This family recipe is provided by Zainab Khan, MALA’s Co-founder and Executive Director.

Khoresh, (sometimes spelled khoresht) or stew, is a mainstay of Persian cuisine. While khoresh bademjan, or eggplant stew, often includes meat, it’s a recipe well suited to vegetarian adaptations. This vegan version makes a delicious main dish served over plain steamed rice or crusty tahdig (crispy persian rice). For a less traditional take, serve it over quinoa or couscous. If you’re not concerned about keeping things vegan, a dollop of yogurt herb sauce is a tasty topper to this meal.

I love this dish because its ingredients are so universal, and it can take on so many different flavors.  When I was a child growing up outside of Chicago, my father used to make Khoresh Bademjan for us.  Today, I make the same dish for my son and although my recipe is slightly different, it still feels like I’m carrying on a tradition.  In many ways, I love this dish for its practicality: it’s inexpensive to make, it has a very flexible flavor profile, and it’s really nutritious as well.  My two-year-old even loves it!  Khoresh Bademjan will forever be special food for me, both for its personal value and for its cross-cultural value as well.

Recipes from The Swedish American Museum

Taste from Home is a collection of recipes and stories can be used as a way to connect with others and facilitate conversations about race, culture, and identity over a new recipe. Make a cultural dish and sit down with family and friends and have a discussion of the culture it represents.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, if you are able. If you are unable to donate, you can still participate by sharing a recipe by using hashtags #tastefromhome, #tastefromhomerecipe, & #chicagocultural on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

The Swedish American Museum has been active for over 40 years in the heart of Andersonville, a traditionally Swedish area on the north side of Chicago. Andersonville, the “Little Sweden” of Chicago, is one of the most concentrated areas of Swedish heritage in the United States, with Swedish roots dating back to the 19th century. Tourists visit the area continually to sample Swedish food, buy gifts, visit the Museum, and partake in traditional Swedish holidays such as Midsommar and Julmiddag.

Through its arts and educational programs and its permanent collection, the Swedish American Museum interprets the immigrant experience for children and adults and promotes an appreciation of contemporary Swedish-American culture.

Probably the two most common recipes of those are the chocolate balls (Chokladbollar) and the sticky chocolate cake (Kladdkaka). Because they are both super easy to make they are staples in the Swedish household, much like chocolate chip cookies and brownies here in the US.

Chocolate balls or Chokladbollar is probably the first thing that every Swedish child learns to “bake”. Since it requires no baking time and using of hands is required, most children (and parents) love this recipe. In this video, Cyrus and Angelina will teach you how to make these simple, yet delicious treats. Angelina and Cyrus were born in the U.S. to Swedish/Iranian/British parents and all three cultures are celebrated in the home

Swedish Sticky Chocolate Cake or Kladdkaka can be compared to a brownie, but there is one important difference. The kladdkaka does not use a raising agent and is therefore more dense and as you can tell by the name, it is still sticky. People vary the stickiness depending on taste. It is usually served in wedges with a dollop of fresh whipped cream on top.

Jean Mishima, Chicago Japanese-American Historical Society 

Taste from Home is a collection of recipes and stories can be used as a way to connect with others and facilitate conversations about race, culture, and identity over a new recipe. Make a cultural dish and sit down with family and friends and have a discussion of the culture it represents.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, if you are able. If you are unable to donate, you can still participate by sharing a recipe by using hashtags #tastefromhome, #tastefromhomerecipe, & #chicagocultural on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Doris – SURVIVOR   

My mother, Kimiye (Doris) was born in Los Angeles, California on August 13, 1916. 

She was taken back to Japan when she was 4 years old to live with her parental grandparents.  She remembered going up the mountain every day to collect fire wood   She returned to the United States when she 11 years old on July 19, 1927.

In her high school years, she was boarded out to a physician’s family to take care of their twin sons in exchange for her room and board until she was 17. A marriage was arranged at the age of 18 to a man she met only a week before the wedding.

On August 2, 1942 during WWII, she and her family were incarcerated and put into an internment camp in Gila River, Arizona for a little over two years, and their only crime was they were of Japanese descent. 

She came to Chicago in October 1944, found an apartment and returned to Gila River to collect the family.

We lived at 55^th and Blackstone and eventually moved to the north and later west side of Chicago.

She was a survivor.  She endured many hardships:  denied family cohesiveness growing up, forced into an arranged marriage, endured being imprisoned for being a Japanese American, and raised three children as a single parent.

She died in October 1944 of bone cancer.

In 2018 Jean was honored with our outstanding community leader award. Check out her interview below to hear her story!

Dr. Yoon Tae Kim, Korean Cultural Center of Chicago

Taste from Home is a collection of recipes and stories can be used as a way to connect with others and facilitate conversations about race, culture, and identity over a new recipe. Make a cultural dish and sit down with family and friends and have a discussion of the culture it represents.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, if you are able. If you are unable to donate, you can still participate by sharing a recipe by using hashtags #tastefromhome, #tastefromhomerecipe, & #chicagocultural on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

The mission of the Korean Cultural Center of Chicago (KCCoC) is to promote and organize Korean cultural, arts, educational, and social activities. KCCoC aims to establish a venue where all Korean Americans and other groups can participate in programs and events that celebrate Korean culture and heritage. KCCoC strongly encourages cross-cultural understanding that can embrace and empower all people to coexist peacefully.

“Kimchi has been a staple in the diet of Koreans for thousands of years. It is a great method of preserving vegetables throughout the season when the refrigerator was not available and also a great source of vitamins and other necessary dietary elements. Now it has become a well known and loved recipe internationally, because it has a special character of making someone becoming adhered and addicted once they have experienced its taste.

My wife and I, not being good at cooking, tried to make a Kimchi when we first got married in 1974. At that time, not many ingredients were available. But we had cabbage and hot peppers. Just remembering the scene when my mother and sister had made Kimchi years ago, we salted cabbage and put hot peppers and green onions in the bottle and left it there for a day. We did not know how it would turn out. In fact, we did not expect it to be good at all! But to our big surprise, when we tasted it, it truly was delicious. I still remember that triumphant moment.”
– Dr. Yoon Tae Kim

Diane Ohi, Human Resources Director, Chicago History Museum 

Taste from Home is a collection of recipes and stories can be used as a way to connect with others and facilitate conversations about race, culture, and identity over a new recipe. Make a cultural dish and sit down with family and friends and have a discussion of the culture it represents.  Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, if you are able. If you are unable to donate, you can still participate by sharing a recipe by using hashtags #tastefromhome, #tastefromhomerecipe, & #chicagocultural on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Beans and rice – a familiar world-wide staple, yes?  But what about beans and rice …for dessert? Here, I’m telling the story of my Japanese-American family’s love of desserts made from sweetened azuki beans and sweet rice.  Many of you may have heard of mochi, the smooth chewy rice dessert filled with ice cream at restaurants.   In its original form, that same mochi is filled with red azuki beans cooked in sugar.  Another variation takes the sweetened beans thinned into a soup and served hot in the winter, with toasted sweet rice “cakes” cooked in a dry skillet until chewy in the inside, and crispy on the outside.  A summer version, frequently served at festivals, is the same “soup” served over shaved ice – cool, sweet, and refreshing.

My kids and I love mochi in all its forms and due to their early childhood food allergies to milk and nuts, mochi became our go-to dessert.  Having avoided ice cream, cup cakes, cookies, and candy bars for years, I was thrilled to make a nut-free, dairy-free dessert with a connection to my cultural heritage – MOCHI! As a child, I recall going to the Japanese grocer with my mother and grandmother and seeing the trays of freshly made fancy mochi at the cash register.  Often in bright colors, the pink, green and white striped suama was my favorite, seconded by the pink mochi with the gelatin green leaf on the side.  They were all so beautiful and the counter was a perfect height to entice a young girl with a serious sweet tooth. In its most basic form, mochi is pounded sweet rice (a variety of rice) pounded until sticky and chewy and formed into flattened disks. They say the mochi is done when it is pounded so smooth that it feels like a baby’s earlobe!  Made especially to celebrate the New Year, this plain mochi is a must eat food to start the year off right.

My family and I attended many New Year’s mochi-tsuki rice pounding celebrations at the Chicago JASC with the members of Tohkon Judo Academy, members of the JA community, and other welcome neighborhood guests.  My children even tried their hand at mochi “smooshing” using large mallets and hot rice in a giant stone bowl.  The actual pounding is somewhat dangerous and done by teams of four adults, who alternated their pounds like a drum quartet, all pounding their long wooden mallets into the same large stone bowl. Later, “the grandmas” (aka the professionals) allowed my children and me to form the mochi into rice cakes and even fill the plain cakes with a whole strawberry and sweetened red bean paste. These finished trays of mochi were then delivered to senior centers, restaurants, and shared with guests.

My mother and grandmother would serve toasted stove top mochi in a bowl with a little sugar and soy sauce for dipping. The mochi was crunchy and chewy, the sauce salty and sweet.  A truly wonderful and satisfying fall or winter snack.  We now make this at home but in a Belgian waffle maker and call it “Mah-fu-roos” (mochi waffles)! Today, my children no longer have their allergies, but still love to indulge in mochi desserts.  They have discovered my well-worn book of Hawaiian mochi recipes and are trying new dishes, like microwave butter mochi cake, mango mochi, and tri-colored baked coconut mochi for Girls Day. Like many traditions in America, we remember the old and add our new touches.  I am truly grateful for the opportunity to pass along  our mochi-love and pride in our cultural heritage.

Rosa Gallagher, Museum Director, Dank Haus German American Cultural Center

Taste from Home is a collection of recipes and stories can be used as a way to connect with others and facilitate conversations about race, culture, and identity over a new recipe. Make a cultural dish and sit down with family and friends and have a discussion of the culture it represents. 

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today, if you are able. If you are unable to donate, you can still participate by sharing a recipe by using hashtags #tastefromhome, #tastefromhomerecipe, & #chicagocultural on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

I am the Museum Director at the DANK Haus German American Cultural Center, and absolutely love German food! This recipe for apple pancakes is simple, vegetarian, and uses basic ingredients, so lots of people are sure to enjoy it. 

Who taught you this recipe/how did you learn it?

My mom and Oma (grandma) made this for me when I was growing up. I myself have never been a pancake-maker, but I had a craving for it on a cold weekend this past winter. I searched “Apfelpfannkuchen” on YouTube and watched the one that looked best and was by a German person. I didn’t have “vanilla sugar” and it took me a few minutes to convert from grams to ounces, but it turned out fine. In fact, I started making it every few weeks, with a slight adaptation or twist every time. For the first batch, I used thinly sliced apples. The next time, I grated the apples on a cheese grater and just mixed it into the batter. The two methods are equally delicious!

When do you normally eat this dish? Is it for a holiday or celebration?

You can eat Apfelpfannkuchen any time of year. Pancakes are not just a breakfast food in Germany, in fact, I remember eating them in the afternoon as a sort of sweet lunch. They are more chewy and thin than American pancakes. 

What culture/country is this recipe from?

This recipe is German, though they are similar to French crepes. In my experience, the Germans eat them flat rather than folded or rolled.

Why is it important to you?

This recipe makes me think of fun afternoons having pancakes made by my Oma, then playing board games with my siblings and grandparents. I love German desserts that use fresh delicious fruit and amplify the flavors with lots of butter! 

The recipe is in the link. A donation is not required to view the recipe. Any donations made will support the Chicago Cultural Alliance’s mission to promote, support, and connect museums and centers of cultural heritage for a more inclusive and equitable Chicago.