EDIBLE READS - Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage Recipes & Family Stories From the Tables of Immigrant Women
“A mother is full when her children have eaten.”
Anna Francese Gass doesn’t remember which woman shared this observation, but the sentiment rings true with anyone who cooks for their loved ones.
Anna spent four years traveling across the United States cooking with 37 women who had immigrated to America from 30 countries in pursuit of a better life for themselves and for their families. “I started with the mothers of my first-generation friends, and it evolved from there,” she explains. Those cooking sessions began as a blog and morphed into her Heirloom Kitchen cookbook.
“I’m the daughter of an Italian immigrant. I grew up in a home where my mom made the same dishes she learned from her own mother. Those are my mother’s hands on the book’s cover photo. She’s cutting tagliatelle just as she saw her mom do in Italy. That photo tells my own heritage story.”
Although a culinary-school trained chef and professional recipe tester, Anna realized she had never taken the time to learn how to make her mom’s dishes. So, she began a family project. “I started cooking with my mom, using my skills to formalize recipes based on her instinctual approach. I learned that a handful translates into a cup, a pinch into a half-teaspoon. Mom prepared the dishes she knew by
heart, and I stood at her elbow taking copious notes. How long did that boil? How much flour did you add? How small did you cut those onions? I’m precise and methodical by nature, but my mom relaxed and embraced the project. She was deeply touched that I cared enough about the meals and process she took for granted.”
Anna says she has always been drawn to people from first-generation families, children who grew up in homes where English was not the primary language. To expand this heirloom recipe project, she reached out to her first-gen friends and asked if she could cook with their mothers. “Much like my mom, only a few had recipes written out. I explained that I would transcribe recipes based on what their moms cooked and gift them back to the family in exchange for the cooking lesson. I was so honored that these women opened their homes and their hearts to me, a complete stranger in most cases.”
As they cooked, each woman shared her immigration story, which Anna crafted into poignant vignettes. “The common threads drew me in. The women had moved to the United States for education, career opportunities, and even safety in some cases. And while readers love the recipes, these immigration stories also resonate. This is more than ‘just’ a cookbook. It’s an oral history anthology, a love letter to our immigrant parents who had the courage to leave behind everything and everyone they knew, to come to the Land of Opportunity. And while they embraced the American Dream, keeping their unique culture alive through food, language, and story remained paramount.”
Flip through the pages and enjoy a global culinary tour. Susanne’s Appelkoken (apple donuts) from Germany. Irene’s Sambousek, a Lebanese cheese hand pie. Shekaiba’s Bolani, Afghani fried potato and scallion turnovers. Jennipher’s Ashanti Fish Stew from Ghana. Rocio’s Pastel de Alcachofas, Peruvian artichoke tart. Monika’s Piernik Storopolski, chocolate-enrobed spice cake, a Polish holiday treat.
And of course, Tagliatelle with Brodo di Mamma e Polpette, offered by Anna’s mother, Gina, and her grandmother, Grazia. A pasta and meatballs in tomato sauce dish that Anna has preserved in words, even though her own children have learned to make it at their grandmother’s elbow.
MORGANA—Minas Gerais, Brazil
BRIGADEIROS (CHOCOLATE BONBONS)
From Heirloom Kitchen
Morgana Oliveira grew up in Brazil where she remembers her grandmother preparing traditional meals for the family. Although Morgana immigrated to the United States for college and eventually started a family, she still returns to Brazil each year and maintains cultural traditions so her daughter stays connected to her heritage, including these delicious chocolate bonbons, called brigadeiros, a traditional sweet made for birthday celebrations in Brazil. Morgana explains that there is a strict rule: No sampling from the table of tempting desserts until the birthday song is sung and the cake is cut—no exceptions! Even harder than waiting? Trying to decide which flavor of bonbon is more delicious: the brigadeiro (chocolate) or the beijinho (coconut; variation below).
Makes about 24 (1-inch) bonbons
INGREDIENTS
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup crème de leite or heavy cream
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, or more to taste
1 cup chocolate sprinkles
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
Heat the condensed milk, crème de liete, and cocoa powder in a medium pan over medium heat and cook until the mixture thickens enough that the spoon leaves a streak along the pan, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes until completely cool. Pour the sprinkles into a bowl or baking dish. Place 24 mini cupcake liners on a serving plate. Rub a little butter on your hands, then scoop up about a teaspoon of the chocolate mixture and roll it into a 1-inch ball. Roll it in the chocolate sprinkles and place it in a cupcake liner. Repeat for the remaining 23 bonbons. Chill for 30 minutes before serving. Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to one week.
Variation: Morgana’s Beijinho (Coconut Bonbons) Replace the cocoa powder with 1 cup unsweetened, finely shredded coconut flakes (add more to taste). Follow the steps above, cooking for only 5 minutes in step 1; chill for 15 minutes, to make approximately 30 beijinho.
SAFOI—Rabat, Morocco
CHICKEN TAGINE
From Heritage Kitchen
Safoi Babana-Hampton, a professor of Modern French Studies, moved from Morocco to the United States as a Fulbright scholar. To keep Moroccan traditions alive, she fills her home with artifacts that carry historical significance or spiritual value. She believes that “food provides both insight and history of one’s culture.” Her kitchen in Michigan has many beautiful tagines, a cooking vessel used in Moroccan recipes. Made of earthenware with a domed top that returns all condensation to the food, a tagine is perfect for slow-cooked foods such as stews and bone-in chicken dishes. Meat falls off the bone and all the flavors marry together. If you invest in one, you may never use your slow cooker again.
Tagine is also the name of a type of dish commonly served in Morocco. “When I place my tagine on the stove and fire it up, I feel as if I’ve been transported to Morocco.”
Serves 6
INGREDIENTS
For the marinade
½ teaspoon saffron threads
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup canola oil
For the stew
1 small whole chicken
7 large carrots, peeled
1 small yellow onion, minced (about ½ cup) ½ cup olives (Mediterranean or kalamata) ½ preserved lemon, sliced thin
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
Combine the saffron, ginger, salt, pepper, olive oil, and canola oil in a large bowl. Set aside. Clean and thoroughly wash the chicken, then cut it into 8 pieces.Add the chicken to the bowl with the marinade, massaging the marinade into the chicken. Cut the carrots in half and remove their yellow cores. Open the tagine and lay the onion on the bottom. Arrange the carrots over the onion. Lay the chicken with all of the marinade over the vegetables. Add 1 cup water and cover. Cook on very low heat for 1 hour.
