Passport & Plate - My Salted Pie

elenamantovan — Fri, 6 Mar 2015 02:34:19 GMT

Ingredients
Ingredients (4 servings)

4 zucchinis (medium size)
4 carrots (medium size)
½ onion
150 gr cheese (italian fontina or mozzarella)
200 gr cubed bacon
ready puff pastry
oil, salt

How to prepare this recipe
STEP 1: cut separately the vegetables, and start cooking chopped carrots in a large pan with 3 glasses of water, oil and salt. After 4-5 minutes add the chopped zucchinis, and after 5 minutes more add the onion.

STEP 2: prepare the puff pastry inside the cake pan, and riddle it with little holes using a fork.

STEP 3: when the vegetables are almost cooked and the water inside the pan is almost over, add the chopped cheese and the bacon, and continue stirring untill the cheese is well melted.

STEP 4: pour the filling in the cake pan with the puff pastry androll up the border.

STEP 5: bake it in the oven at 200 degrees, for about half an hour, until when the border starts scorching.

The story behind this recipe
Finally I found the right moment, saved the money and had two free weeks from work to go to Africa! On 9th September 2013 we 12 all-aged volunteers were on our plane to Kijiwetanga Village, Kenya.
As soon as I arrived, I was a bit disappointed, because I imagined the “volunteering experience” a bit different: we had our room in a separate house, with beautiful rooms, waiters that cleaned up, and a cook who prepared for us some local food but often italian plates, even pizza. It seemed like a hotel and it was not what I was thinkin about.
So I asked if I could sleep at the horphanage with the babies: there were two big rooms, one for boys and one for girls, with double-decker beds.They weren't confortable at all, but it was so funny: the babies all wanted to sleep with me, and every night it was like a party!
I always stayed with them, helping teachers at school, helping mamas to dress them up, helping cooking their meals and eating with them. Their alimentation was good, compared to the families of the village who couldn't bring their babies to the school, but it was something like a plate of rice and some beans, every day. Sometimes some chicken, nothing more. I thought of all the food we volunteers had at the house we stayed, and I had an idea: why can't I cook for theese babies to let them try something different? There's everything (or almost everything ) I need for my salted pie! My recipe is simple and adaptable to the vegetables I have at the moment.
So the last day I asked the cook to prepare some pizza bread, we went to the school and cooked 30 pies with carrots, zucchinis, a bit of mozzarella and some meat. All the babies were so happy! It was like they were eating the most delicious thing in the world! They couldn't stop bringing their finger to the cheek, in the italian way and saying “Buooooono!” (italian for “gooood!”).

Photos: Happy food for happy babies

elenamantovan — Thu, 5 Mar 2015 23:54:00 GMT

Passport & Plate - My salted pie goes to Kenya

Just a glimpse of Kenya

elenamantovan — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 10:06:49 GMT

I always felt a pressure to move and travel, even if in my early years maybe it was not totally conscious. I graduated in 2007 in foreign languages to increase the possibility to understand and learn about other counties and cultures. Some years later I discover photography, started travelling seriously, often alone, and realized that I felt "at home" everywhere, expecially behind a lens. This year I attended a masterclass in Travel Reportage, but I feel I still have a lot to learn and a lot of picture to take to become a good photographer. I'm interested in anthropology, religions, philosophy, relations between humans and nature, and generally in every different point of view. I also love drawing and painting, self-taught, and have a great passion for art and images, both paintings and photographs: I'm looking for the beauty, the astonishing beauty of the reality, that is always there, in front of our eyes, even if sometimes it's hard to see it. Photography helps me getting closer and pushes me to explore, win fears, dare, undestand, accept and love. I think the Travel is every day's life, but if I could choose a place to see it would be latin America. Oh, and Iceland, too!

"Safari" means "Travel"

Passport & Plate - My Salted Pie

Photos: Happy food for happy babies

Just a glimpse of Kenya