Learn a new dish from around the world every month.
Upcoming Cooking Classes:
March 8, 2013 Indian Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Biryani
April 12, 2013 Haitian tonstones, pork, rice and beans
April 26, 2013 Dominican Dinner Fundraiser for Freeport High School Interact Club, come eat!
May 10, 2013 Somali beef and flatbread, beef and rice
Details: 6-9pm, BYOB, $15-35 as you can (this is a fundraiser for the food pantry), Freeport Community Center, 53 Depot Street, Freeport (3 blocks from LLBean). To reserve a spot email lindsay@lindsaysterling.com
April 12, 2013 Haitian tonstones, pork, rice and beans
April 26, 2013 Dominican Dinner Fundraiser for Freeport High School Interact Club, come eat!
May 10, 2013 Somali beef and flatbread, beef and rice
Details: 6-9pm, BYOB, $15-35 as you can (this is a fundraiser for the food pantry), Freeport Community Center, 53 Depot Street, Freeport (3 blocks from LLBean). To reserve a spot email lindsay@lindsaysterling.com
PAST CLASSES:
Thank you to all who came! By simply cooking together, eating and learning about other cultures, we've raised over six thousand dollars for the Freeport Food Pantry and other charities. Thank you for coming! And come again!
The immigrants who taught me the dishes often come as my guests of honor. For the March 2011 class, John Yanga came with his wife, children, nieces and nephews. The 11-year-old girls were astonished to learn that their dad was cooking for his family by the age of 9. We got them going by teaching them how to slice cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. The class really appreciated learning John's cooking tricks. In particular: how to use okra or potatoes to thicken sauces instead of butter-based roux.
January 11, 2013 - Indian Tandoori Chicken
December 14, 2012 - Costa Rican Arroz Con Pollo (Rice and Chicken)
November 9. 2012 - Dominican Beans, Rice, Meat, and Tostones
Oct. 12, 2012 North African Chicken Chili and with Sourdough Flatbread
Of all the foods I've learned so far, this one is my husband's and my favorite, and I can't wait to cook it together and eat it with you. We adore really spicy food and this is really spicy! (I will make a mild version as well.) We also adore the spongy flatbread called injera. Learn about teff flour, ghee, turmeric and the enchanting berbere spice mixture. This dish comes from Eritrea, a country next to Ethiopia in north eastern Africa, by way of a cooking lesson with Asmeret, the owner of Asmara restaurant in Portland, Maine. The meal is chicken drumsticks cooked in a deep red, spicy sauce that kind of looks like a bowl of chili. But oh the flavor! Pure mystery! Pure magic!
September 14th, 2012: Authentic French Ratatouille
French native Stephanie Looten-Caceres learned to cook this classic country food from her grandmother in Provence where the dish originated. Join Stephanie and I as we gleefully use a whole basket of gorgeous farmer's market bounty (eggplant, summer squash, colorful peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes) and turn them into a cooked vegetable medley to be spooned onto pieces of baguette, or eaten with couscous, rice, and/or meat. Herbes de Provence, black French olives, and Stephanie's Grandmother's method are the je ne sais quois that make this so special. Every cook should know this dish because it's one that meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans can all enjoy together.
Friday July 13, 2012: Puerto Rican Cooking Class
Lindsay Sterling and Veronica Toro-Ruiz teach how to cook authentic Puerto Rican rice and beans (arroz con gandules), fish cakes (bacalaitos fritos) and avocado salad. Personally, I've always wondered what to do with salt cod, a traditional Maine food. It was such a revelation when Veronica showed me what Puerto Ricans do with it! Details: 6-9pm, BYOB, $15-35 as you can (this is a fundraiser for the food pantry), Freeport Community Center, 53 Depot Street, Freeport (3 blocks from LLBean). To reserve a spot email lindsay@lindsaysterling.com
Wednesday June 6: Dinner for Darfur
After a Freeport High School world studies class learned about the genocide in Darfur, they wanted to do something to help. They teamed up with Immigrant Kitchens, and we are hosting a public dinner to raise money for an organization that is helping. Come join us for dinner Wednesday, June 6, at the Freeport Community Center, 5:30-8:30pm, 53 Depot St. Freeport. Menu: authentic south Sudanese lam or beef with collards, rice, green salad, and bread. Guest speakers: El Fadel Arbab, genocide survivor, and high school students. Post Note: what an awesome evening! Great speeches by the students and El Fadel! 90 people came and we raised $1000 for his organization!
May 11, 2012: Mexican Chicken Soup
I can't wait to teach you how to make chicken soup the Mexican way! A mom in Yarmouth who's from Mexico taught me how to make it. To make the broth a gorgeous red, you add blended mild chili peppers. Chunks of chicken and potatoes make this good ol' comfort food. Spice level is mild (my six your old loves it) or spicy (if you're like me and eat the dried chipotles floating on top).
April 13, 2012: A Spicy Food Lover's Dream
(Eritrean Spicy Chicken and Injera)
Dear Friends of Immigrant Kitchens, I'll be teaching how to make a spicy food lover's dream: Eritrean Spicy Chicken and Injera at the Freeport Community Center. I'd love for you to come and have a wonderful dinner! Eritrea, by the way, is a country north of Ethiopia in northern Africa. The meal is chicken drumsticks cooked in a deep red, spicy sauce that kind of looks like a bowl of chili. But oh the flavor! Pure mystery! Pure magic! I can't wait to pass on the secrets to this incredible food.
March 9, 2012: Vietnamese Beef Stew and Fresh Spring Rolls
Dear Friends of Immigrant Kitchens, I'll be teaching how to make Vietnamese Beef Stew and fresh spring rolls at the Freeport Community Center. I'd love for you to come and have a wonderful dinner! I learned how to make these dishes from the Nguyen brothers in Portland. While they were in college here, they missed their mother's soup so much they called her and she told them over the phone how to make it! I can't wait to show you how to whack the lemongrass. Also, I found the concept of putting fresh thai basil and raw shaved onion on top of your stew eye-opening. Why haven't we thought of this sooner?
Feb. 10, 2012: Greek Dinner Pies
Dear Friends of Immigrant Kitchens, Friday night, Feb. 10, I'll be teaching how to make a Greek chicken and rice dinner pie at the Freeport Community Center. I learned how to make it from my husband's co-worker's dad, Bill Dilios. He came here from Albania, but his town used to be part of Greece. Hot and flakey, kotopita makes a delicious dinner or awesome appetizers - it all depends how you cut the pie. I'll also serve a fresh greek salad with authentic feta, lemon, and olive oil. The real mind bender is that working with phyllo (filo) dough is so easy that kids can do it - you just have to see how it's done. If you like chicken pot pie, you'll love this dinner!
January 13, 2012: Vietnamese Beef Stew and Fresh Spring Rolls
Friday night, Jan 13, I'll be teaching how to make Vietnamese Beef Stew and fresh spring rolls at the Freeport Community Center. I'd love for you to come and have a wonderful dinner! I learned how to make these dishes from the Nguyen brothers in Portland. While they were in college here, they missed their mother's soup so much they called her and she told them over the phone how to make it! I can't wait to show you how to whack the lemongrass. Also, I found the concept of putting fresh thai basil and raw shaved onion on top of your stew eye-opening. Why haven't we thought of this sooner? Also, I may dust off the fried wonton recipe I learned a while back for us to eat while the stew is cooking.
December 9, 2011: Iraqi Chicken and Rice
Friday night, Dec. 9, I'll be teaching how to make Iraqi chicken and rice at the Freeport Community Center. I'd love for you to come to the class and have a wonderful dinner! I can't wait to introduce you to toasted dry limes. They are like black whiffle balls and they go into the broth that flavors the chicken, along with garlic, onion and madras curry powder. Delicious! The texture of the chicken is amazing because it's essentially boiled (so tender) then pan fried (crispy,golden exterior). It's heavenly. Then there's the mound of yellow rice cooked with some of the broth we cooked the chicken in, and turmeric, one of those spices that's supposed to save your life. Hope to see you there!
Nov. 11, 2011: Afghani Meat and Potatoes
Dear Friends of Immigrant Kitchens, Friday night, Nov. 11, I'll be teaching how to make Afghani meat and potatoes at the Freeport Community Center. I'd love for you to come to the class and have a wonderful dinner! Kourmet (pronounced like Gourmet with a K) is made of cubes of lamb, chicken or beef, onions, tomatoes, turmeric, and a special mixture of spices called Door-do-ah. I'll make the lamb and chicken so we can taste two versions. The lamb comes from local North Star Farms, a beautiful farm in Westbrook I visited on open farm day. Can't wait to share this dish, the lamb source, and a phenomenal secret spice (black cardamom) with you! Hope to see you there!
October 21st, 2011: Panamanian Arroz Con Pollo
Friday night, October 21st, I'm teaching and cooking Panamanian Arroz Con Pollo at the Freeport Community Center. I'd love for you to come! Gina Barria, a nanny from Panama who I met on the school playground, taught me this dish: her mother's amazing chicken and rice. It's made of mostly familiar ingredients: chicken, rice, onion, green pepper, celery, tomato paste, cilantro and green olives. It's the way Gina puts these humble ingredients together that makes magic: voila! A divine party dish the color of a bright orange sunset. There is one exotic touch - steaming the dish under a giant, fragrant banana leaf. This is, by the way, on that list of things you gotta do at least once in life. As for me, I'm hooked. Now I always have banana leaves on hand. Hope to see you there!
August 12, 2011 Cambodian Chicken Curry and Coconut-Sesame Dessert
Friday, August 12th, I'm teaching and cooking a Cambodian family feast at the Freeport Community Center. I'd love for you to come! Makara Meng, co-owner of Portland's Mittapheap World Market, taught me her family's shrimp spring rolls, red curry chicken with noodles, and coconut-sesame rice balls. To make them we'll be using a combination of local and far flung ingredients: chicken, eggplant, shrimp, cilantro, mint, onions, and shallots, fresh kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal (a cousin of ginger) and - we'll see if I can get one - a gorgeous, deep purple banana flower! Hope to see you there!
July 8, 2011: Ghanaian Peanut Soup
Dear Friends of Immigrant Kitchens, join me Friday, July 8, for a cooking lesson and dinner at the Freeport Community Center. We'll be making Ebenezer's All-Powerful Peanut Soup from Ghana, brought to us by way of Portland jewelry designer, Ebenezer Akakpo. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him blending 5 habanero peppers (I'll use 3 for this crowd), 31 cloves of garlic, four inches of ginger root, an onion and a handful of basil in a blender with water. Whew! Come see how this dish unfolds and if you agree with me: this soup is magically good for you -- you can feel it working from the first bite. Until then, I'll be reading up on the healing powers of ginger.
May 13, 2011 Azerbaijani Homemade Noodles
Join me this Friday, May 13, for a cooking lesson and dinner at the Freeport Community Center. We'll be making lamb meatball soup, ghee-scented rice, and stewed beef with sour golden plums and chestnuts. I cannot believe how easy it is to make the homemade noodles for the soup with Zemfira's family method. You don't need any mixers or fancy attachments! Just a bowl, flour, egg, water, a rolling pin and a knife. It's incredible!!! I can't wait to share. My kids' eyes were bugging out of their heads how cool this method is!
April 8, 2011 Japanese Comfort Food
Join me Friday, April 8th, for a cooking lesson and dinner at the Freeport Community Center. We'll be making miso soup from scratch out of konbu seaweed and bonito flakes. And we'll be making oyakodon, family-style comfort food, out of rice, chicken and egg. While profits this evening go to the Freeport Food Pantry, I'll also be inspiring discussion of how we might reach out and comfort those who need it in Japan. My personal goal is to have researched the effectiveness of relevant aid organizations and made my family's donation by April 8th.
March 11, 2011: South Sudanese Meat and Potatoes
I love it when this happens! I learn a dish from literally half way around the world that reveals a delicious, ingenious way of using the produce I find in my Maine CSA share. Join me for a cooking lesson, cultural exchange, and dinner this Friday, featuring patatas, a dish from Sudan made out potatoes, beef, carrots, oregano, tomatoes, garlic, onions. The family who showed me the dish will likely be joining us!
January 14, 2011 Swedish Salmon and Russian Soup
At the Immigrant Kitchen's cooking class and dinner this Friday, we'll start with how to filet a gorgeous whole salmon. Then we'll cure it like the Swedes do - shockingly easily. I will have an already-cured side of salmon so I can show you how to slice it thinly. And then we'll munch on gravlax appetizers as we forge ahead, making the best soup in the world. A Russian grandmother taught me this soup, and it's magical quality comes from her method. Alla showed me how to turn basic local winter bounty (beef, onion, carrot, potato, cabbage, and beets) into an unbelievably gorgeous orange-magenta colored soup that I swear heals me from all life's wounds every time I have it. I was telling another Russian lady who I happened to meet in the thrift shop about this soup, and she confirmed: "You don't need peels [pills], you need borsht!" Now, if you're saying you don't like beets, you have to come anyway. First, I'll show you a beetless version that another Russian woman taught me. Second, your disliking beets is actually not applicable to this soup. An ice-fishing Mainer guy who didn't like beets tried this soup on New Years and asked for seconds. The beets color the broth and then are taken out before serving. Seriously, come no matter what.
Nov. 12, 2010 Iraqi Dolmas, Red Lentil Soup, and Fattoush salad
Dear Friends of Immigrant Kitchens, Friday evening Nov 12, join us in cooking and eating an authentic Iraqi family meal at the Freeport Community Center. As we make grape leaves stuffed with spiced ground beef and rice, red lentil soup, and fattoush salad, we'll be exploring four new spices - dried lemon, something called laymon doozie (that's my phonetic interpretation of Arabic!), sumac, and Aleppo, in addition to falling in love all over again with the magic powers of turmeric, paprika, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
September 10, 2010 A Congolese Feast
I look forward to cooking and eating a Congolese feast you Friday Sept. 10, at the Freeport Community Center. Leading cooking instruction will be Constance Kabaziga. She's a a 62-year-old mother of 8 who cooked for her family for thirty years in Kinshasa, Congo, before arriving in New York with no English, no professional skills, no money, seven children, and a husband left behind in the Congolese army. She has worked in the laundry department of a large hotel, and at Salvation Army, but has been unemployed for some time. I was inspired to hire her and a bilingual relative for this evening. She cooks for a hundred at her church in Portland, so I figured she could handle our class of 13. Also, in the 50 dishes taught to me by immigrants so far, Constance's beans, rice, and boiled green bananas wins the award for the most delicious, most economical meal. My family loves it, and amazingly it's just 1 dollar per person to cook. Constance will likely be teaching us this dish, plus, goat or beef, and cassava leaves, depending on what we find at the markets that day.
July 9, 2010 Summer Salads
This Friday, join the Immigrant Kitchens clan in cooking and eating three fabulous summer cold salads at the Freeport Community Center. These are GREAT salads to know for picnics, potlucks, or just to make and have in the fridge. Plus, we get to support our local growers (go gardeners and farmers!) because we'll be using almost all local ingredients; potatoes, garden parsley, chives, mint. Miraculously, at the same time as we're devouring the deliciousness grown RIGHT HERE we'll be sucking up cool cooking tricks from Lebanon, Germany and Turkey.
June 11, 2010 Pad Thai
Please join us in learning how to cook authentic pad Thai next Friday evening at the Freeport Community Center. I've learned it twice from two different Thai women, so we'll be trying out both recipes to see which method is best for you. Beginner cooks, don't be shy; this is the perfect place to start to start your cooking journey. And advanced cooks, we'll be working with a form of sugar that's made out of palm tree flower sap. Local organic gurus... this is a great dish to make with local chicken, green onions, red peppers, eggs, and cilantro. Hey, I wonder if maple syrup might substitute well for the palm tree flower sap? It's always fun to cook, share stories, and eat together. Can't wait!
May 7, 2010 Brazilian Chicken and Potato Salad
March 12, 2010 Jamaican Jerk Chicken
We're cooking Jamaican beans and rice and bbq chicken together for dinner this Friday night at the Freeport Community Center. Learn how to deal with the world's hottest habanero peppers, how to cut a mango, and the secrets to Alva Lowe's rub. In Jamaica when you're eating they say, "If you're not sweating, something's wrong with you." Not a bad motto for life if you ask me!
February 12, 2010 Bolivian Silpancho
Friday Feb. 12th learn to cook Bolivian Silpancho. It's standard Friday night fare in Bolivia, and in my opinion the best thing in the world to do with ground beef. The young woman who taught me this dish is from the foothills of the Andes. She met a Mainer one day who was studying abroad. They got married at his home this past spring in Yarmouth. This is her first winter in Maine! The amazing thing about this dish is how miraculous human invention can be. The ingredients are basic: ground beef, rice, potatoes, bell peppers, red onion, tomato, egg-- but wait 'til you see what we do with them! Also, we'll be cooking with grass-fed organic ground beef from Tir na nOg Farm in Pownal, so you can try that out, too! Join us!
Jan. 8, 2010 Indian Prawn Curry
Dec. 11, 2009 NIcaraguan Beans and Rice
Next Friday, lean to cook an amazing Nicaraguan dish, taught to me by Freeport's own Nicaraguan grandmother, Jenny Sanchez. It's pinto beans and rice, sauteed together with peppers and onions so that it has this amazing texture that looks like its name sake: gallo pinto - a spotted rooster. This dish is rich and filling and yet cleansing at the same time (some of you will recognize a certain lime, salt and shaved cabbage trick! ). The ingredients are really affordable. You have to try this dish. Seriously, it's a life-changer.
Nov. 6, 2009, Cambodian Dinner Crepes
Oct 9, 2009 Nicaraguan Chancho Frito
The secret spice in fried pork rib bites
A MUST-KNOW, COMPLETELY REFRESHING cabbage salad
yuca root, crunchy pork skins (chicharrones) and more!
May 15, 2009 Thai Chicken Curry
April 10, 2009 Somalian Beef Appetizers
This Friday April 10th learn how to make Somalian spiced ground beef appetizers in hand-made tortillas. Sound good? It gets even better. The ten-dollar class fee is a donation to the Freeport Food Pantry, where Sterling works to give out healthy to-go meals to those who could really use a free lunch.
March 13, 2009 Venezuelan Arepas Con Pollo
Friday March 13th learn how to make Venezuelan arepas con pollo. It’s cumin-stewed pulled chicken and melted cheese sandwiched inside two corn meal patties. Sound good? Wait, it gets even better. The ten-dollar class fee is donated completely to the Freeport Food Pantry, an organization that provides free, healthy, ready-made meals to those who could really use them.
