Their refuge includes a kitchen

Vermont student gathers recipes from those resettled there

September 28, 2011|By Lisa Zwirn, Globe Correspondent

WINOOSKI, Vt. - Suhad Murad juggles three pots on the stovetop and two in the oven. The Iraqi native is assembling a meal from home, an array that includes lentil soup, biryani with baked chicken, and an eggplant, tomato, and ground beef casserole. She moves deftly, pan-frying chopped vermicelli in a skillet, then tossing it with toasted almonds and raisins; mixing spices and water in a pan, then adding basmati rice; chopping cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers for a salad. Breaking her concentration every few minutes is 4-year-old Abdullah, who leaps into the kitchen like Spider-Man, his favorite superhero.

Murad’s biryani is one of 40 dishes compiled for “A Mosaic of Flavors: New Americans Adding Spice to Life in Vermont.’’ The cookbook is sponsored by the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program and written and photographed by Caroline Casey, a University of Vermont senior who is an intern at the organization. The recipes are all from refugees who have been resettled in the Burlington area, some as recently as five months ago, others for almost 20 years.

“No matter where you’re from, food is something that brings people together,’’ says Casey, who spent the summer watching about 20 cooks prepare dishes from their native countries. The cookbook features samosas from Somalia, fried sweet bread rolls from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, potato balls, rice flour cookies and rice pudding from Bhutan, curries and coconut mango sticky rice from Myanmar, and semolina cake from Iraq.

Casey, 21, was drawn to the project because she knows how important food is as an expression of culture. An anthropology and African studies major, she lived in Ghana for five months last spring. “It was a huge culture shock to live in a foreign country,’’ she says. “I missed the foods from home.’’ The experience inspired her to help refugees here make the transition. The cookbook is in the process of being completed; VRRP is currently looking for financing to print books.