Hawaiian Portuguese sausage and Minnesotan wild rice Soup

For 25 years, end of Oct meant it was time to get ready for a long winter. Soups and stews were very comforting especially after a day of racking leaves. It is so different from sunny Southern California. I still do not feel California is home yet. I guess 25 years is a long time.

I was accepted into a new hula halau a month ago. We are having a fun raiser, we are actually selling Portuguese sausage. I tasted the sausage, it was very good and it is very reasonably priced at $2 each!!!
Having in the business for all these years, creating a personal experience has been my business motto. I want to give my "customers" a few recipes with their purchase!!! I am inspired to do something different with the sausage.  I brought some wild rice back from Minneapolis last week and I also have some porcini mushroom I picked up in Italy last month.  I have all the ingredients to make a perfect soup... Itʻs October and it is Fall after all.

Here is a few things:
1 - You will notice I cut the vegetable in big pieces. Since I am not pre-boiling the wild rice. I want to keep this simple, but I donʻt want all the vegetable to disappear in the soup. The bigger pieces help to hold up the shape in cooking.
2 - I didnʻt peel the potatoes. I am using fingerling, red skin and purple potato here. The skin helps to keep the potato pieces intact.
3 - There is a casing on the Portuguese sausage, it is edible. Itʻs just my preference not to have the pieces of the casing flowing in the soup, I took the casing off.
4 - The porcini mushroom here is to enrich the flavor of the soup, you can certainly skip the ingredient. However I love adding porcini to wild rice. I love that earthy richness for a fall soup.
5 - Remember I made Portuguese bean soup? Cilantro is added at the end. Cilantro is a great compliment to the sausage. If you donʻt like cilantro, replace it with parley
6 - please make sure you keep an eye to the liquid level, it is a longer cooking time - able 2 hours. You may need to add some water..

For vegetarian and vegan, here is a few changes.
1 -  you can easily make this soup vegan, by replacing the sausage with a soy sausage.
2 - use 1 can of pre-cooked wild rice instead of the grain. The soy sausage will not work in long cooking time.

If you canʻt get the sausage, kielbasa can be a quick substitute for this.

Hawaiian Portuguese sausage and Minnesotan wild rice soup

1 Hawaiian Portuguese sausage (chicken or pork). Casing removing, quarter the sausage and cut in 1/2" pieces.

1/2 cup wild rice, rinsed.
1/4 cup or 1 package 0.5 oz. dried porcini mushroom. Rinse and soaked in 1 cup of water till softened. roughly chopped the mushroom. Reserve the liquid from the mushroom.

5-6 red skin potatoes. Cleaned, remove eyes and cut into 1" pieces
2 medium size or 4-5 smaller carrots. Peeled and cut into 1" piece

1 onion. Peeled and cleaned. Cut into 1" chunks
1 leek. Remove leaves. Slice in half, Rinse all int layers under running water, make sure all the dirty and sand is removed. Cut into 1" pieces
Olive oil
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups water.
Salt and pepper
1 bunch of cilantro or parsley. roughly chopped.
Directions:
Heat up a couple tablespoon of olive oil in a dutch oven or large pot,
Saute onion and leek till soften

Add sausage piece

let it  cooked over low heat till the leek starts to disintegrate about 5-8 mins. This will also render some of the fat in the sausage.

 Add wild rice, mix well

Add in all the vegetable

Then the chopped porcini

Mix well, then add the reserved liquid from the porcini into the vegetable and sausage

Increase heat to medium high, add stock and water.

Make sure you have enough water and the liquid will cover the vegetable and meat

Bring to a full boil, reduce heat to low. Cover and let the soup cook for about 2 hours. Stir the soup and check the water from time to time. As some of the vegetable breaks down, the soup will get thick. Add more water if it it too thick
Once the wild rice "flowered", basically burst open, it is ready

Check seasoning. You will most likely need to add salt and pepper. 

Reason why we didnʻt add salt earlier, the sausage can be salty. I tall depends on the brand, we do not want to over salt.

Just before serving, add chopped cilantro or parsley. Reserve a small amount to garnish at the table.

Serve 4-6. 

Enjoy

Aloha. 

Chicken with Preserved lemon, olives and artichoke stew

I made "wet lemon peel" - preserved lemon a few weeks ago. I am amazed how fast and simple it is when the weather is warm and sunny. The preservation process just went so much faster. A batch of lemon used to take me 6-8 weeks in Minneapolis during the cold season verse just 4-5 weeks here. The best part is: I got fresh lemon at the farmers market. It is the end of Eureka lemon season, I had to take advantage of those beautiful lemon!

A few people asked me what I do with the lemon... I donʻt make Prune Mui all the time! Itʻs a special treat I make it once a year. Preserved lemon is great to have on hand. It works great with sore throat. 1/4 of the lemon smashed up with hot water, sip it while itʻs hot. Itʻs very soothing. I also add strips of lemon in steamed fish or some of the shoyu base sauces.

The other reason: I love Moroccan cooking. Here is a recipe very similar to the classic tagine. Here is the trick with this recipe - you donʻt need any salt. The salt from the olives and the lemon is enough. I also used the packaged steam artichokes from Trader Joeʻs, itʻs less salty. If you are using the can or jar, please make sure you rinse it and drain well before use.

You will notice I use chicken thigh here. I prefer chicken breast usually, but the meat gets very dry in a stew. The thigh meat on the bone gives the stew more flavor, and the meat stay moist. It is a bit more work to remove the skin and fat, but it is well worth the extra step. You can also purchase skinless and boneless thigh if you prefer.

I also leave the carrot and potatoes in bigger piece, I would love to still "see" them in the stew. If they can cut too small, they will completely disintegrate in to the sauce. The potatoes in this dish also helps to thickened the sauce.

Chicken with Preserved lemon, olives and artichoke stew
3-4 chicken thighs about 2 lb.. Skinned and fat removed.
1 onion, peel and cut into 1/2" pieces
2 cloves garlic. Peeled, end removed and roughly chopped.
4-5 green-top carrots, cleaned and peeled. Cut into 1" pieces. I am using red carrot, the regular carrot will be fine too.
4-5 potatoes, cleaned and peeled. Cut into 1" pieces. I happened to have a few purple potatoes that I need to use up
1 package or 1 can of artichoke heart. Drained and quartered.

1 tsp Herb de Providence
1/2 black olives. Rinse in cold water, drain. half the larges pieces.
1/2 perserved lemon.
2-3 tbsp olive oil
3 cups low sodium stock - chicken or vegetable
1/2 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream if you prefer a heartier dish. I am using yogurt cheese I made, it is slightly thicker than Greek yogurt.
1/4-1/3 cup finely chopped Italian Parsley
1 lemon, cut in half and reserve 3-4 slices for garnish. Leave the rest in half.
Pepper to season
Directions:
Rinsed the preserved lemon under cold water to move some of the salt.

Cut the lemon in 1/2. Chopped 1/2 the lemon and reserve the other half for later used. Keep the unused 1/2 in covered container in the fridge.

 In a medium pot, heat a 2-3 tbsp olive hot till hot over medium heat. Add the onion

 Once the onion caramelized, add the garlic and sauté till lightly browned.

 Add in carrot and potatoes to brown. About 4-5 mins. Remove the vegetable.

Brown the chicken in the same pan. The chicken may stick at the beginning. Lower the heat to render the fat in the meat.

 While browning the meat on both side, add 1tsp of Herbs de Providence. Once the meat is well browned. Remove the meat from the pan.

 Add 2 cups of stock in the pan, bring to a boil

 Deglaze the pan over low heat. The stock will thicken slight with the flavorful "brown bits" from the chicken and the vegetable.

Once the stock comes to a boil, add chicken and vegetable back in. Keep at low heat.

 Add in preserved lemon

 Olives

 Artichoke and season with freshly granted  pepper

Combine well and add reminding cup of stock

 Bring to a boil, lower heat to low. Cover

Let it simmer over low heat for 30 mins till the chicken is very tender.

 Add chopped parsley, mix well.

 Add yogurt, then bring the stew to boil.

 Finally squeeze juice of the 2 halves of fresh lemon in the stew. Check for seasoning. Ready to serve.

To serve: the chicken piece can be served whole  with the vegetable
Or
Remove the chicken from the stew. Debone the chicken and return the meat to the stew.
Garnish with parley and lemon twist.

Serve 2-3

Enjoy
Aloha

Simple Stove Top Ratatouille

My move to CA is complete. My beloved house in Minneapolis is sold. It's bittersweet. I am grateful for the opportunity, however I also miss the home that I had for over 10 years. I know I will miss the familiarity of Minneapolis, my grocers, CSA, my summer farmer friends at the market, Then there were the guys at Coastal Seafoods. Through the years, they made me feel at "home" by bringing in all the "exotic" (to Minnesotan standard) seafoods from the Pacific. Can't forget everyone at United Noodles. They made my cooking class simple, whenever someone asked me about where he/she could pick up the ingredients, I handed them a United Noodles card!!

My day-job is crazy busy, I am learning a new business. To make it even crazier, the physical move took about 30 days longer than I planned. This is the first week I finally feel this is my home. I discovers a farmers market in Palos Verdes, CA. It is a smaller market. It's not crowded and great selection of vegetable and everything I need. I now have a new fish guy - Dry Dock Fish. Great quality seafoods and variety. I love the weekly email letting me know what's available. Thanks Stephan!

My very dear friend  Gigi in Hong Kong asked me for a ratatouille recipe. Gigi is not much of a cook, but she is the best mom I know. It was requested by her son Adrian (my beloved "nephew") who just graduated from college.

Classically Ratatouille is baked, highlighting eggplant, tomatoes and summer squash, such as yellow squash or zucchini. In Asia, most of the eggplants are the Chinese/Japanese "slimmer" variety and most of the home in Hong Kong do not have an oven. Further it's simply too hot to turn on the oven with this hot summer weather. This is modified stovetop version. It's quite simple. Ratatouille is a tomato base dish, the sauce is usually red, however I am using yellow heirloom tomato, the sauce here is a bit more orange. I also added a carrot to the recipe. The sweetness of the carrot helps balance the acidity of the tomato. If you are vegan, skip the cheese at the end...

Great to be back cooking with you... Mai ka'i no...

Stove top Ratatouille

1 medium zucchini - cleaned and cut into 1" pieces
1 red pepper - cleaned, cored, cut into 1" pieces
1 medium size carrot- cleaned, peeled an cut into 1" piece
1 large tomato (I am using an heirloom yellow variety here) - cleaned and cut into 1" piece.
1 small onion - peeled, cleaned and sliced.
1 large clove garlic - peeled, cleaned and sliced
1 cup sliced mushroom
1/2 basil leaves - packed - cleaned. Divide into 1 portion. Roughly chopped 1 portion and finally chopped the reminding half.
1/4 cup Italian flat leaf parsley - cleaned and finally chopped.

1/2 tsp herb de provence
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
Option: - grated parmesan cheese
Directions:
Over medium high heat, heat 2-3 tbsp of olive oil. I am not using a non-stick pan, I am putting in a little more olive oil that I would usually do. Add onion and garlic, sauté till translucent and soften

 Sprinkle in herb de provence, cooked till the onion start to caramelize

 Add red pepper and carrot, let it cooke for 3-4 mins

 Stir in Zucchini, and let it brown lightly, about 4-5 mins.

 Add tomato and mushroom, mix well.

 Then vegetable stock, season with salt and pepper. Let it cook for 3-4 mins and the mushroom is softened.

 Add rough chopped basils. Mix well. Reduce heat to med. Cover and let it cook for about 5 min till the vegetable are tender, but not overcooked.

 Add the rest of the basil and parsley, turn the heat up slightly to reduce and thicken the sauce. You will  have quite a bit of liquid from the tomato, mushroom and zucchini.

You can transfer the stew to a casserole, garnish with a few basil leaves with optional sprinkle of grated or shredded parmesan cheese.  Or you can serve it individually. I love to serve with rice or risotto.

Serve 2-3 as a main course.

Enjoy
Aloha

Hawaiian Portuguese Bean soup - Mainland edition

Here is the almost real Portuguese bean soup. Why almost? It's missing the Portuguese sausage. Actually I deliberately do this, even I can pick up the sausage from United Noodles. This was the way I made it when the ingredient was not readily available in the Upper Midwest. Chorizo has been a great substitution. By adding 1 tsp of 5 spice, you get that Island flavor we so miss. I am using a cured chorizo here, it's a little smokier. You can find fresh  chorizo in the store and they are very similar to Portuguese sausage in texture. If you can get Portuguese sausage, just skip the 5 spice powder!

Another base ingredient here is ham hock, great flavor. However I am not a fan when it gets too smokey. I found a great meaty ham shank at Whole foods, it's not too smokey and without sodium nitrite. There is something magical with beans and ham hock. With such a great "marriage", I can't use canned beans in here. I know it takes a little time to cook with dried beans, this is well worth it. The beans are not going to be mushy and the meat on the ham shank is cooked thoroughly and tender. Worth every minute and energy!

Hawaiian Portuguese Bean Soup, Mainland style
1 package Chorizo - cured or fresh, or 1 Portuguese sausage if available. Sliced into 1" pieces.

1 tsp 5-spice powder - (not necessary is you are using Portuguese sausage)
1 ham shank or hock
3 cup mix dried dark red kidney beans and garbanzo beans (about 50/50)
1 large onion - chopped ( about 1/2" pieces)
2 carrots - cleaned, peeled and chopped (about 1/2" pieces)
2 stalk celery, cleaned and chopped (about 1/2" pieces)
2-3 tbsp chili powder (to taste)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can 20 oz diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
1 bunch of cilantro - excess stem removed and chopped.
3 bay leaves
1 cup macaroni
1/2 head cabbage, cleaned, core removed and cut into 1" pieces
Directions:
Fill a medium size pot  with water to about 1/2 full. Bring to boil. Add washed beans. Stir and let it sit for about an hour.

Place chorizo pieces in a dry fry pan, render the sausage over medium heat till the sausage starts to brown. Remove the meat from the pan. Leave 1 tbsp of the grease in the pan and remove the rest

Saute the carrot, celery and onion with the sausage fat.

Add 1 tsp 5 spice powder and toast the spice lightly with the vegetable till the vegetable soften.

Transfer the vegetable to a large dutch oven, add the bean and the liquid, fried sausage pieces and the ham shank.

Add chicken stock

Add tomatoes

Add tomato paste

Then chili powder

Add bay leaves, Bring the soup to a full boil, then lower heat to simmer. Cover and let it cook for about 2-3 hours till the beans are tender

Once the beans are tender, Remove the ham shank from the soup. Separate the meat and the shank bone. Cut up the piece into bite size piece.

Add cabbage and 1/2 the chopped cilantro to the soup

Return the ham meat to the soup

Add more stock or water as needed. Need to make sure there is enough liquid for the noodle to cook.

Add 1 cup of macaroni. Bring to a boil. Cover lower heat to simmer and let it cook for additional 30 mins. Please remember to stir the soup every now and then to make sure the noodle is not sticking to the bottom

When the noodle is tender, add remaining cilantro before serving. Safe a pinch-ful for garnish.

Serve 10-12 minimum. The soup freezes very well. Separate into smaller container. When reheating, you may need to add water, check seasoning.


Enjoy
Aloha