Pesto - Island style!

In my week 6 CSA, I got a big bunch of basil. Mr. Wonderful loves pasta, I thought he would enjoy have some fresh pesto for his dinner during the week. (Yes, he cooks at least for himself)

My order of macadamia nuts also arrived from the Big Island on the same day. These are not the mac-nut that you get in a can. They are fresh and wonderful, right from Dr. Paulo's Kona Coffee and Macadamia Nut Farms. I order in bulk since I use it quite a bit. They store well in the fridge!

With fresh basil and my favorite mac-nuts,  I have to make some Island style Pesto.

 Islands style Mac-nut pesto

A large bunch of basil leaves, washed, remove stems, make about 2 cups (loosely packed)

1 bulb of garlic

1 bulb of shallot

½ cup of roasted unsalted macadamia nuts. (If you are using salted nuts, you will need less salt at the end.)

1/8 cups of Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Quick note about Olive oil, I strongly recommend using a good quality olive oil whenever you are not cooking with it, such as making salad dressing and pesto here.

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Roast the garlic and shallot in the oven or on the grill (5-8 mins on the grill, 30 mins at 350 in the oven). Since I was making dinner, I used the grill today.

Remove the skin from both the shallot and the garlic. Once you separated the garlic into individual clove, use the flat side of the knife and press upward; the clove will be squeezed out easily.

As the shallot, cut a slit in the middle of the bulb, and pull the peel back. Remove the cooked clove. Set aside

In a food processor, grind the mac-nut to a grainy texture. 

 Since I have an 11-cups processor, I have to make at least a cup. I freeze the rest for other recipes.Please make sure you don’t over process or you will get mac-nut butter. Remove the grinded nut.

In the same processor bowl, combine basil leaves with garlic and shallot, process for about a min

Add grinded mac-nut.

Process for about another min till everything is combined

When the processor is running, pour in 1/8 of olive oil from the tube.

Process till you have a paste like texture. Season with salt and pepper.

Store in an airtight container. Store in the fridge and use within a week, or you can freeze it up to a month.

My pesto here does not have cheese in it and I am also using a lot less oil since the mac-nut is oilier than pine nuts. You can add ½ cup of grated Parmesan cheese at the end and increase the olive oil to ¼ cup if you want

This pesto is not very different from the classic version. Here are a few ideas:

Toss your pasta with the pesto.
Marinade chicken breast with a few tablespoons for ½ hour and cook on the grill.

Add 1 tsp to ¼ cup white wine vinegar, whisk in ¼ cup of olive oil to make a pesto dressing.

Here is my dinner tonight:

Grilled corn, brushed with 1 teaspoon of Island pesto. The sweetness of the corn, mix with the pesto. I am in heaven. As we would say on the Island – it’s Onolicious!

Enjoy

Aloha!

Corn, Zucchini and vision of summer

CORN in week 5 of my CSA!!! Living in the mid-west, there is nothing better than summer corn. We look forward to the corn season. This is not “da kine” we get in Hawai’i. The kernels are plump and juicy. They burst in your mouth in each bite. My sister Kawanlani loves roasted corn. I love posting pictures of it to tease her. I am very lucky that I have a roasted corn master at home. I must say Mr. Wonderful made some “killer” roasted corn on the grill

There is also zucchini and chives in the basket. My sister sent me a Italian zucchini and corn salad recipe. I am inspired to come up with my version.

Corn and zucchini salad with key lime honey dressing

2 ears of corn. or you can use 3/4 cup off frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe.

1 med Zucchini, washed cut lengthwise in half.

1 cup of pea pods, clean, remove the stems and the ends. Pull the string off. (You may not find any string, depending on the variety.

2 shallots, brush off the soil, lightly wipe the outer peel

¼ cups of chopped chives

3 key lime

2 tablespoon of honey

6 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Toss pea pod with 2 tablespoon of olive oil, season with salt and pepper

Brush the zucchini with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Prepare the grill to med high heat till hot. 

Place whole shallots on the grill for a few seconds, turn the heat down to med low. Cover and cook for about 5-8 mins. Turn once. Leave on the cooler part of the grill when you prepare the rest of the vegetable.

If you are grilling the corn. I would suggest putting the corn in at the same time with the shallot. Fresh corn does not take long to cook.

Place the pea pod on a piece of tin foil and lightly grilled till turn bright green. Be careful not to over cook, we would like to keep the crunch

Grill the zucchini lightly about a min on each side to have grill marks.

Remove all the vegetable from the grill

Cut the kernels off the cob.

Cut the zucchini into small 1/2” cubes
Remove the outer peel from the shallot. If you put a small slit in the bulb, you can easily push the peel off and remove the roasted shallot. Chopped coarsely

Cut up the pea pods in bite size.

In a large bowl, toss together corn, zucchini, chopped shallots and chives

In a small bowl, squeeze the juice from the 3 key limes, add 2 tablespoon of honey. Slowly whisk in the remaining 4-tablespoon of olive oil then the vinaigrette comes together.

 Season with salt and pepper.

Slowly drizzle the dressing over the vegetable. Toss, cover and chill in the fridge for about ½ hour till cold.
Serve cold. Garnish with a few chives

Serve 4 as a side

Enjoy!!

Aloha!

Laulau inspiration

Laulau is a local favorite in Hawai’i. Here is a pretty good explanation what it is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laulau. Simply put, modern laulau is a piece of salted fish or meat, wrapped with taro leaves, covered with Ti leaves and steam cooked. Back on the Islands, when we make laulau at home, it is usually a special occasion or celebration. Other Polynesian Islands have similar versions of the same dish. My big Samoan “braddah” once tried to convince me to add coconut cream to the meat. He didn’t realize my Kumu was right behind him. I can still remember a very stern voice said: “She is not Samoan and she cooks Hawaiian.”

I love laulau, especilly fish laulau. It was a real treat today that I found fresh taro leaves (also known as lu'au leaves) from Hawaii at an Asian store that I don’t usually shop at. 

I just have to make a few classic pork laulau for my hula sisters and my Kumu. I also thought of my non-meat eating friends. Back in Hawai’i, fish laulau is usually butterfish. I have seen my fish guys carry it every now and then. Butterfish is actually known as Black Cod on the Mainland. Unfortunately they didn’t have any today, however there was some beautiful Opah (Moon fish). I found a nice piece of whole fillet. I decided to cook it whole. Here it is my version a modern Baked Fish Laulau, since this is not really Hawaiian, I added coconut milk for flavor, fat and moisture. It made the fish very buttery and smooth. The coconut flavor compliment the leaves very well. I hope you like it.

Baked Fish laulau with coconut milk

1.5 lb of firm white fish fillet, I am using Opah, cod will work very well in the recipe too. Cleaned, remove the skin. Pat dry.

7-8 large taro leaves, trim the stems and discard, wash and raise thoroughly.

3 Tbsp Hawaiian Alaea red salt

1 12”x12” piece of banana leaf (I am using frozen leave which you will find at the frozen food section in most Asian store.

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees

In a large bowl, rub Hawaiian salt generously on the fish fillet. Let stand for about 10-15 mins.

Lay the banana leaf in a baking pan..

Top with the largest piece of taro leaf first, then layering the smaller ones on top.

Place the fish in the center of the leaves.

 Gather the leaves around the fish, pour in coconut milk.

 Wrap the fish with the leaves. Turn the taro leave seam down to the bottom, if the coconut milk leaks, not to worry about it.

 Wrap the fish package with banana leave (as if you are wrapping a burrito) then roll the package so that the seam is on the bottom of the pan

 Tightly cover the baking pan with foil. 

Baked for 1.5 hrs.

To serve: Place a whole package on a shallow serving platter. Cut the banana leaf open in the center; 

tear back the leaf to revile the vegetable and the fish. 

This is a dish great to serve family style with rice on the side. The fish is so tender; you don’t need a knife to cut it. Make sure you serve the fish with some of the vegetable and top with a couple spoonful of the sauce.
Serve 6.

Enjoy!
Aloha

A pile of potatoes and a giant zucchini

Week 3 of my CSA offers the usually buttery red leaf lettuce, beautiful kale and swiss chard, wonderful shallots and a special variety of red beets that resemble those that grew in Hawai’i. (sigh, I miss my Islands home) Oh… let’s not forget the micro-greens and the raspberries. The challenge this week is the big crop of heirloom red skin potatoes and a giant zucchini!

I had a few ideas as to what to do with these guys. I am going to pay tribute to my Jewish Mama Phyllis. I met Phyllis at my first job in New York. I was a youngster, clueless and tried to figure out the real business in the fashion world. Phyllis took me under her wings. Gave me advise and watched over me. She also taught me everything I knew about Jewish cooking and culture. Hmmm.. I used to believe that each kosher hot dog was individually blessed by a rabbi… (kind of like the arch-bishop or the Pope). I was watching PBS program about Russian Jew, they mentioned the immigrants brought bagels to America. I ran into Phyllis’s office first thing in the morning, and I said: “Did you know Bagel is Jewish and it came with the Russian?” I was so proud!! (Hey, just remember I came from the Islands, we ate sweet bread, bagels were not that popular back then).  I can still hear she says: “What am I going to do with you?” She calls me her Chinese daughter and she is my Jewish Mama. We don’t see each other often these days, but she is in my heart every day.

I love Jewish food, chopped liver and potato latke were my favorite. I thought of making latke with the potatoes, but I need to do something with the zucchini. I still have another 2 smaller week left from last week. Potato Kugel came to my mind… so here is a lighter version. Apart from adding the zucchini, I am going to use the shallot instead of onion in this recipe. It will give the kugel a little more “kick”.

Potato Zucchini Kugel

6 medium potatoes, cleaned and peeled, grated. I added 3 small purple one just for color.  (about 6 cups grated), 

 

3 medium zucchini (or one giant one like mine), about 3 cups grated

4 shallots (or 2 medium onion) finely chopped, about a cup.

½ cup all-purpose flour

6 eggs, beaten

2 Tbsp Olive oil

1 Tbsp sea salt

Pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°. Spray a 9x13” metal baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. For this dish, I prefer a metal pan, I found that the kugel crisps up better.

Grate the potatoes and zucchini in a food processor. 

              

Let stand 3-5 minutes. Squeeze out excess liquid,

Try to reserve as much “starch” as possible (It’s the white residue in the bottom of the bowl.

Add chopped shallots to the potato-zucchini mixture.

Mix in flour, eggs, oil, season with salt and pepper.

Pour mixture into a baking dish, pack lightly

Bake, uncovered, for 1 1/4 hour or until golden brown on top and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let the casserole stand for 10 min, cut into squares and serve.

12 large serving as a side dish.

Enjoy

Aloha!

T’is the season for beets and potatoes

Cooking is a very relaxing and creative activity for me. I love creating recipes and new ideas on the weekends. I pick up my CSA every Friday and I look forward to working with the surprise goodies in the box. I got more potatoes, different variety.  I couldn’t recall the name, these was quite rustic with white flesh. There were more scape and mint. Beets were the big feature this week. Ahhh.. more beets. Mr. Wonderful was drag racing last weekend, so we were off to the track! I didn’t get a chance to do much cooking

My work week started out pretty stressful. I had to miss my Tuesday night hula class and rehearsal.  I needed to take my mind off work. I decided to do a little cooking, something simple. I was not really in the mood for more beet soup. I also still had a bunch of kale left from the CSA share a week ago… hmmm what could we do with that?

Here is a vegetarian weeknight one-pot meal. It’s pretty simple and quick. Beet greens, Swiss chard and balsamic vinegar work well together. The Swiss chard also adds a little green to the dish when it is cooked, a nice contrast to a mainly red color dish. The Vidalia onion adds sweetness and the potatoes help thickens "the sauce" and give the dish a comforting hearty feel. You can add meat, such as some cut up rotisserie chicken if you preferred.

Beet greens, Swiss Chard and Potatoes Stew (Serve 3 as a main course, or 6 sides)

1 bunch of beet greens, we are using the leaves and stems only. Save the beet roots for other used. – Wash and rinse thoroughly for a few times, roughly chopped, about 2.5 cups

1 small bunch of Swiss chard – Wash and rinse thoroughly for a few times, roughly chopped in the same size as the beet greens. About 2.5 cups.

1 large potato (or 2 medium size one), washed, peeled and cut into ½” cubes. About a cup.

1 tablespoon chopped scape (about 2 small scape), this can be substituted with 1 Tbsp of chopped garlic

1 large Vidalia onion, clean and chopped into ½” pieces.

1 Tbsp chopped fresh sage

3 Tbsp ghee or melted butter, use olive oil if you prefer vegan

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Ready-made Asian fried onion for garnish

 Directions:

In a medium size pot. Heat 3 Tbsp of ghee or butter till hot. This is more butter than I would usually used. You need the fat and the flavor in this dish.

Add chopped scape or garlic and sauté for about a min.

 Add onion. Cook till onion is lightly caramelized.

Add potatoes, mix well.  Brown potatoes for a few mins. Lower heat to medium low. cook for about 5-10 mins till potatoes are cooked. If you are using a regular pan, the potatoes will stick a little. Not to be too concern, Season with salt and pepper.

Add chopped beet greens, mix well. Cook for a few mins till the green wilt.

 Add chopped chard, mix well. Let the stew cook for about 5 mins till the stems are tender.  

Potatoes bits will thicken the “sauce” lightly.

 Fold in chopped sage. 

 Drizzle in 3 Tbsp of balsamic vinegar. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Heat thoroughly for about a min.

Plate as main course or side. Top with a Tbsp of fried onion just before serving.

Aloha!