A world of tempting recipes
Maria Carcamo has put her favourite Chilean recipe in a new cookbook celebrating food from around the world.
Ethnic Flavours to New Zealand has 133 recipes and has been put together by Migrant Connections Taranaki.
On page 114 of the book, which is being given away, is Carcamo’s Cornflour Chilean Alfajores.
She said they are like shortbread cookies with a caramel filling and coconut.
Carcamo, from Chile, is passionate about hiking and the outdoors, but not cooking.
‘‘It’s the only recipe I do well. Friends have tried it and no-one complains,’’ she said.
New Plymouth MP Glen Bennett, who spoke at Friday’s book launch, held at the Western Institute of Technology, listed an impressive number of countries represented in the cookbook at an even more impressive speed.
There was even a recipe for pavlova, which is a New Zealand dish, Bennett pointed out.
His Edmonds cookbook was well-used, so this could replace it, he joked.
The recipes have come from immigrants from all over the world who were either living or had lived in Taranaki.
Police ethnic support officer Constable Sreejith Sreekumar came up from Whanganui for the occasion. ‘‘I’m not a foodie, but I love food,’’ he said.
Migrant Connections Taranaki co-ordinator Geetha Kutty said Ethnic Communities New Zealand allocated funding for the book in 2019.
The pandemic had encouraged many people to cook at home, Kutty added.
However, at all ethnic events, New Zealanders always wanted butter chicken, so they had banned it, she joked.
‘‘We decided no butter chicken because the other stalls didn’t make any money.’’
The cookbooks are being made available at Migrant Connections Taranaki, 10 Devon St East, New Plymouth.