Miso braised daikon with beef short ribs.

It is daikon season here in Southern California. I have never see daikon this fresh and beautiful. The only issue I have with these guys - they are a bit on the oversizes. I love daikon in soup, however I am soup out. I need to do something other than soup! My dear "sista" Shoko and her mom visited me last month. I wanted to have something ready for dinner, I decided to braise the daikon with miso and some beef short ribs. This is a relatively simple recipe and it freeze very well. I made this a week ahead, freeze it, then reheated it for dinner. Shoko loved the dish!

This is for you Shoko...

Miso braised daikon and beef short ribs 
4 pieces of beef short ribs or country ribs, with or without bone.
1/2 of a large daikon. Green removed, peeled and cut into 1" cubes

4-5 green onion. Cleaned and chopped. Reserve 2 tbsp of the green part for garnish.
1/4 cup of Miso
1/4 cup mirin
1 tbsp shoyu
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
2 cups vegetable stock
Vegetable oil
Sesame oil

Directions
In a small bowl, mix miso and mirin.

Blend miso with mirin together till it is no longer lumpy.

Add shoyu

In a wok or large fryer, heat 3-4 tbsp of vegetable. Add ginger and garlic. Cook for 1-2 mins.

 Brown ribs in the hot oil.

 Add daikon. Brown the vegetable with the ribs

 Add green onion. Let it cook for 2-3 mins.

Fold in the miso mixture. Coat the vegetable and ribs with the mixture.

 Add in the stock.

Bring the stew to full boil, then lower to medium low. Cover and let it cook for about 1.5 -2 hours till the ribs are tender. Check the liquid level, add more stock if needed.

At this point, you can

1 - Plate the dish, drizzle with a little sesame oil and garnish with some green onion. 

2 - Let it cool and put into a storage container and freeze. 

This was our dinner:

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

Vegan Hawaiian Portuguese Bean Soup

I know this may sound a little odd, how can Portuguese bean soup be vegan. Well, with a little creativity and a little trail and error, we can get have the comfort, the taste and and texture of the classic stew without meat.

Portuguese bean - (I love this article about the soup)  is a classic all in one bowl comfort food in Hawai'i.  Just like chili, everyone has their own secret spice and recipe. If you are not familiar with this thick soup, I would describe it as a hybrid of  Minestrone and chili. Just like everything else in Hawai'i, there is a little of different cultures in the soup.  It is usually a meat base soup, made with ham hock and Portuguese sausage. It is difficult to get Portuguese sausage on the mainland. I used to call it "contra-ban" and brought back the "goods" frozen from the Islands every year. We are very lucky that United Noodles carries it now. These is no vegetarian version of Portuguese sausage yet, I have to come up with a substitution. Once in awhile I would make a batch of Portuguese spice. I am using the spice mix I made in the soup here, however Chinese 5-spice is a great substitute. Actually some of the spices in Portuguese sausage is very similar to Chinese 5-spice.

As with the meat, I found a great soy chorizo at Trader Joe's, with the added spice, it tasted pretty close to the classic soup! I usually do not put cabbage in mine. As I mentioned every family/person has their version, experiment and make it your own!

Vegetarian Hawaiian Portuguese Bean Soup
1 package soy chorizo (casing removed as per direction)

1 med onion- chopped
2 carrots - cleaned, peeled and chopped
2 stalk celery - cleaned and chopped
1 15 oz can red kidney beans - drained
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans - drained
1 15 oz can diced tomato
4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1-2 tbsp chili powder (to taste)
1 tbsp tomato paste
2-3 bay leaves.
1 cup elbow macaroni
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup (about 1/3 of a bunch) cilantro - chopped
Direction
In a med size fry pan, heat a couple tbsp olive oil. Brown the soy chorizo

Add 5 spice powder, mix well

Add onion, carrot and celery, saute for 3-4 mins till the vegetable begin to soften. Transfer the vegetable mix to a 6 qt dutch oven or pot.

Add Kidney beans

Garbanzo beans

diced tomato

Then stock

Chili powder to your taste ( I like it spicier, as it is vegetarian)

1 Tbsp tomato paste.

Add macaroni

Finally bay leaves, bring the soup to a full boil, lower the heat to simmer, and let it cook for about 30-45 mins. Check and stir to make sure the noodle is not sticking to the bottom.

When the soup is ready, add chopped cilantro. It's ready to serve!

Serve 6-8.
Enjoy
Aloha