Perhaps nothing evokes a sense of home as much as the taste and smell of a favorite family meal or dessert.
Early this semester, Tony Aiuvalasit, the Aramark Food Service Director at Westover, posted a sign in the dining room, inviting Westover students to share recipes from home with the School’s kitchen staff through Aramark’s “Taste of Home Recipes” program.
“Do you have a favorite home-cooked dish that you would love to see served at school?” asked the invitation that Tony shared with students. “Why not submit it and get an opportunity to have it featured in the Dining Hall this semester!”
Students were first offered the invitation when boarders moved back into the dorm at the start of the spring semester in January, as Westover was able to expand its on-campus community presence over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic. Tony said Aramark has been able to serve home-recipe offerings at other educational institutions where it provides food services.
So far, two students — Basmala Aref Elsayed ’22 and Barry Rewcastle ’23 — responded to the invitation with two very different recipes.
Mesa'ah
Basmala shared a Mideastern recipe for Mesa’ah — eggplant with tomato sauce, peppers, and garlic — that she has helped make at home with her family in Egypt, and Barry offered her grandmother’s recipe for apple crisp that evokes autumn in New England.
“We don’t make any changes to the recipes,” Tony explained, “as we really want to make them authentic for the students. We just scale the recipes so we can produce larger portions.”
Tony described Basmala’s recipe as “a delicious vegetarian entrée with eggplant and sweet, aromatic spices mixed with savory flavors.” Despite its Mideast origins, Tony added, “we were able to use ingredients we normally carry in the kitchen.”
“I usually help cook all the meals at home,” Basmala explained, working alongside her mother and other members of the family. “We all cook together, so I have memorized the recipes.” In addition to the Mesa’ah recipe, Basmala also shared a YouTube video with the kitchen staff that showed step-by-step how the dish is prepared.
Basmala knew beforehand which evening the dish would be served, so “I finished squash practice that night and went right to the dining hall,” she recalled. “I was so excited. Inside my head, I could hear my Mom, saying, ‘I made you some of your favorite food … are you hungry? I hope you like it.’”
Basmala was delighted with the results from the kitchen staff's efforts — “It was really good” — and she wasn’t the only one. On the sign that described the eggplant dish, Basmala had been credited with supplying the recipe to the Aramark staff. So, after dinner, a number of students came up to her to tell her how much they enjoyed the Mesa’ah.
Basmala, however, did receive one skeptical review from someone who hadn’t even been there: her mother.
After Basmala told her mother that the kitchen staff had prepared the Mesa’ah from the family recipe, “My Mom said, ‘It’s never like mine,’” Basmala recalled with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘Sure, Mom!”
Tony said Basmala and her fellow students weren’t the only ones who enjoyed her favorite food from home.
“I received a lot of great feedback from the community and our staff also loved it,” Tony recalled. “It was a huge success and we are going to keep the recipe on the menu.”
Apple Crisp
As for Barry, she loves her grandmother’s apple crisp.
“My grandmother is the baker in the family and often bakes for family events. She knew I liked the apple crisp in a certain way,” Barry explained, “so she tinkered with the recipe a lot to create it the way I liked it.”
So, when Barry saw Tony’s invitation to students to submit family recipes, she immediately thought of her grandmother’s apple crisp, “and I said, ‘Why not?’ She had made it for me and I wanted other people to experience it as well.”
It was also perfect timing, as Barry’s grandmother hadn’t made the special treat lately. “There was an apple crisp drought,” she said with a laugh, “so I really wanted it. I talked to Tony and to Peter (chef Peter Demiris), explaining how this is a special recipe. They were really happy to do it. I really like the kitchen staff here. They’re so nice.”
Like Basmala’s eggplant recipe, Barry’s apple crisp also proved to be a hit.
“We served it for lunch and everyone loved it,” Tony said. “The biggest difference was that her grandmother uses creamy butter, instead of margarine, and that gives the crisp a very delicious and bold flavor. Barry was so excited that we were able to do this for her.”
Tony will continue to invite students to share their family recipes to give them a chance to have a special taste of home.
Basmala's Family Recipe for Mesa’ ah
Ingredients:
- 2 large eggplants, sliced
- Salt
- Vegetable oil
- 2 green bell peppers
- 1/2 kilo ripe red tomatoes
- 1 large onion
- 3 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon each of cumin, dried thyme, turmeric, and allspice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup vinegar
- Water as needed
Instructions
- Rinse eggplants and layer in a colander, sprinkling each layer generously with salt. Leave covered for an hour until the eggplant is lying in a pool of dark liquid.
- While the eggplant is salting, chop the 2 green bell peppers and red tomatoes into rough squares. Set those aside.
- Rinse the eggplant, squeeze dry, and shallow-fry in batches until golden in a deep-set pan over the stove. Set aside.
- In the same pan, fry chopped onion with minced garlic.
- Throw in the peppers, followed by the tomatoes, and 1 spoon on sugar.
- Add tomato paste, followed by cumin, dried thyme, turmeric, allspice, pepper, and salt to taste.
- Then add 1/2 cup of vinegar, and 1-1/2 cups of water. Stir it to the consistency you want. Add your eggplant back in and simmer together on low heat.
- Serve hot or cold from the fridge with toasted bread.
