In an era of fierce debate about world food shortages, escalating prices, and food trade polices in an era of climate change, the origins of food and how people use it to prepare their daily fare has a particular relevance.
A cookbook published by the Lutheran World Federation not only contains more than 100 recipes from 22 countries, but also offers an insight into how people from around the world grow and prepare food, seeking to provide sustenance to their families.
“In most cultures, the purpose and meaning of food goes beyond the mere exercise of satisfying one’s hunger pangs, restoring strength or nourishing the body,” the LWF’s general secretary, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, writes in an introduction to the cookbook, “Food for Life:
Recipes and Stories on the Right to Food”, launched in early July. “Food also symbolises the spiritual qualities of fellowship and friendship, which connect the host and guest.”
The recipes are grouped around four chapters: dishes that fellow the rhythm of agricultural seasons; dishes for Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist religious celebrations; dishes the follow the life cycle of births and birthdays, weddings and funerals; and dishes that families can eat and drink together as breakfast, main meals or snacks.
Staff of the Lutheran World Federation’s Department for World Service collected the recipes from the peoples and communities they serve. “These people are sharing their food with us,” said the department’s director, Eberhard Hitzler, at the launch of the cookbook in Geneva. “We get a small glimpse of their reality.”
From Nicaragua there is a recipe for cheese soup with Rosquillas, a dish traditionally prepared during Holy Week, because Central American tradition says that red meat or chicken should not be eaten at this time. From India there is a recipe for a lentil-based dish, Khichdi, served at many Hindu religious festivals, and also distributed as a relief food in crisis situations as it is easy to cook and serve. From neighbouring Nepal, readers learn how to prepare a dish made from sesame rice cones called Yamari, which marks the anniversary of a child’s birth.
The book also includes articles and photographs that illustrate how people around the world plant, grow and harvest food, as well as their traditional farming skills, and how they have learned new techniques to adapt to challenges such as climate change.
Geneva-based Argentine cook Gabriela Vilardo tested the recipes, adapting them where necessary to make them easy to follow for cooks from other countries. She also searched high and low for out-of-the-ordinary ingredients, even contacting embassies in the quest to get it right. And for those who might find it difficult to track down “exotic” ingredients, there are suggestions for substitutes.
The cookbook is edited by Karin Achtelstetter, the director of the LWF’s Office for Communication Services and Miriam Reidy Prost, a former staff worker with the World Council of Churches communications section.
“Food for Life: Recipes and Stories on the Right to Food”, published by the Lutheran World Federation, Geneva, ISBN 978-3-905676-62-4. On the web: www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/OCS/OCS-Cookbook.html
[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]