This was a lot of fun to film! The kids that work with Common Threads are so cool and genuinely interested in food. I love little foodies!
Common Threads just celebrated their 5 year anniversary. It is a great organization that was started by Art Smith as a way to teach kids about culture through food as well as healthy eating. Each week in class, the kids learn about food from a different country. They work together in teams to create the recipe that they can then bring home and share with their families.
I wanted to take a few of them shopping with me at Whole Foods since going to the market can be such a fun activity. The produce section is filled with various organic and local items and they will let you sample items you have not tried before. Since we are just finishing winter, the citrus fruits were still in abundance. Right when we walked in, the kids walked over to the samples of naval oranges that were sitting out so I thought it would be fun to try all sorts of citrus fruits.
We started out with lemons so we could taste the difference between Mayer lemons and regular ones. I think Pedro’s face when he tasted the lemons was priceless!! That boy needs to be in film! Even though the Mayer lemon was milder and sweeter than the regular lemon, it was still nice and sour.
We tried a bunch of different oranges and similar fruits. The Clementine is always one of my favorites because it is so easy to peel and does not often have seeds. The flavor is sweet with just the right acidity. The blood orange is always a great one because it has great flavor and such a unique coloring. Think Angelique and Violeta a little grossed out by the blood’ like color at first but we all loved the flavor.
For grapefruits we tried ruby red, yellow and also an Ugly Fruit. I grew up eating a ton of ruby red grapefruit since out swim team sold cases of it every year (made more sense than cookies for an athletic team). My parents would buy a couple cases and we were set for breakfast for months. I still love it but I gotta say, the Ugly Fruit was pretty tasty too. Not the prettiest to look at but it is always what is on the inside that counts, right?
We had to visit the cheese section of course since it is my favorite place in the store. Whole Foods always has a wide selection of domestic and European cheeses which is great if you are a cheese-a-holic like me. We stuck with some kid friendly cheeses rather than scaring them off with stinky blues. The California pepper jack was great because it reminded them of pizza. We also sampled a sheep’s milk cheese from France which was cool because I do not think they realized that cheeses come from the milk of other animals than cows. Mmmmmm sheep’s milk cheeses are tangy and delicious.
It had been a while since I hung out in one of the classes. I had hoped to just blend in and see what it was like to be one of the kids (seeing as I am the same height or shorter than most of them I thought this would work great). I ended up being a bit more of a grown up for once and helping the group go through the recipes from Thailand. I was in Southeast Asia last year and fell in love with the food. They just use such great bold flavors that come together to make very balanced dishes. A condiment like fish sauce may seem stinky and unpleasant until you taste it with other foods. It has such a unique flavor profile that can not be matched. I was so happy to see how interested in the food the kids were and how excited they were to be cooking! Little chefs everywhere!
Just last week was the annual fundraiser for Common Threads which is their World Festival. A lot of great local chefs as well as out of town chefs such as Michelle Bernstein, Ming Tsai and Tyler Florence join together for the night to share food and help raise money for the foundation. It is a lot of fun since each chef chooses a different country to create food from. It reminds me of Epcot where you can go around the “world” and taste all of the different foods. I am not sure my dish screamed Peru since I did not go very traditional but it certainly had some of the classic flavors from the area. I made pork belly braised with Aji chilies served with a Brazil nut and cilantro sauce and topped with shrimp ceviche. The Aji chilies are my new favorite way to add a little heat to a dish. They do not burn as jalapeños can some times do and leave just the right amount of heat in the finish. I did have to search pretty hard in the city to find them. I wound up at a small convenience store located next to and operated by an Argentinean steak house. I think they thought I was nuts (happens a lot) when I bought their entire stock of chilies. Especially once I tried them and realized two jars was plenty for the 600 portions….a little potent if you use too many.
The night was a huge success! We raised even more money than last year which in these crazy economic times was a very pleasant surprise. Thank you to all those that came out to support the cause…it will be much appreciated by all of the awesome kids that participate in the program!
Common Threads Pad Thai
8 oz. rice noodles
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into strips
8 peeled and deveined shrimp
½ c water
¼ c fish sauce
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoons limejuice
1 Teaspoons paprika
1/8 Teaspoons cayenne
½ pound bean sprouts, plus some fore garnish
3 green onions cut into ¼ inch lengths, plus some for garnish
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cloves minced garlic
2 eggs
4 Tablespoons crushed roasted peanuts
Place rice noodles in a bowl and cover with warm water. Let soak approximately 45 minutes until soft. Drain and cut into smaller lengths with kitchen sheers.
Cut shrimp in half lengthwise and set aside.
Combine water, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, paprika and cayenne in small bowl and set aside.
Heat wok or sauté pan over high heat. Add in oil. Add in garlic and cook until just begins to brown. Add in chicken and sauté until almost cooked through. Push to one side of the pan and crack eggs into the other and scramble. Add in noodles, fish sauce mixture, and shrimp and sauté for 3 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Add in green onions and bean sprouts and cook for one minute more.
Garnish with additional bean sprouts, green onions and peanuts.
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