Sonia Tastes Hawaii

The Akaka Falls Inn Cooking School...

 

For some reason, I've had the Akaka Falls Inn on my mind quite a bit lately...specially the cooking school part of it...maybe because I've been trying to get the recipes we tested, shared and taught in the many cooking classes we offered and put them together into a possible cookbook with bits of stories and anecdotes about the Inn and the classes.

Image - The Akaka Falls Inn, B&B and Cooking School façade - watercolor by Wanda Boyer, circa 1998.

All one summer, our cooking school hosted a series of keiki (children's) cooking classes, designed as a trip around the world. Food from a different country was chosen for each class. Countries covered were, if I remember correctly, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Greece, China, India and Japan.

The menu for each class consisted of a salad, entree, dessert and an appropriate beverage. We gave the students the name of the country we were going to cover a week ahead and they were to learn all they could about that country during the week - since our classes were all during the summer, they were out of school and their research did not interrupt their regular schooling homework.

The backyard at the Inn was quite large and housed over 30 varieties of fruit trees and plants (bananas, papayas, pineapples, mango, macadamia, mountain apples, vee apples, coconuts, figs, plus several different citrus), as well as an herb and small veggie garden (lettuces, mesclun mixes, spinach, cherry tomatos, basil, assorted peppers, rosemary, dill, chives, garden onions, etc) and quite a few tropical and exotic flowering trees and plant.

The kitchen and dining room used for the keiki cooking classes were the smaller and more intimate B&B kitchen and dining areas, with a homier feeling than the larger kitchen used for our regular cooking classes.

During the class, we would discuss the recipes, prep the ingredients, cook the food and while the food was cooking, the kids took turns going into the backyard in separate groups (some foraged and others cooked) to pick the garden stuff for the salad and to pick flowers and greenery for the table centerpieces.

Photo: Stacy and Melanie

The girls expressed an interest in making the table arrangements and learning complex napkin foldings from the many books on the subject in our Inn library.

When the food was served and we sat at table, after the young gentlemen pulled the chairs for the ladies, we would discusss all they had learned during the week about the country we were featuring.  It made for very interesting table conversations.

Besides the recipes, cooking and the learning of the different countries, the keiki also were 'gently' instructed on table and dinner time  etiquette.

Photo: Daniel & Asa admiring and serving the Spanish Paella they had just helped cook.  Salad in the foreground.

For one of my favorite Spanish Paella recipes click HERE

For my favorite Flan recipe click HERE

For the Spanish Paella class, we started with a mixed salad, the paella and ended with flan.  The beverage was a mock (virgin) sangria.

Virgin Sangria

 

1 quart pomegranate juice

2 cups orange juice

1 cup white grape juice

1/2 sugar

1 orange sliced thinly - rind on

2 lemons liced thinly - rind on

2 limes sliced thinly - rind on

2 kiwis, peeled and sliced thinly

Any other fruit you wish to add

Just before serving add a liter of Sprite for fizz.

 

In a large glass or ceramic pitcher, mix juices and sugar until sugar dissolves. Wash orange, lemons, limes and slice into thin slices.

Remove kiwi skin and cut into thick slices.

Place all fruit into juice and let flavors meld in refrigerator.

My friend Georgia Banyon used to help me with these Saturday morning classes.  I think we enjoyed them as much as the keiki seemed to.

 

On the morning of July 23, 2000 a fire destroyed the Akaka Falls Inn.  The photos above were collected from family, friends, previous Inn guests and neighbors after the fire destroyed all of ours.  The quality is not as good as I would want because they had been saved to floppy discs, but we are very happy to have these and many more that were sent to us from everywhere afterwards.

 

 

Ho'oulu Lahui – Revitalizing Breadfruit Festival

Ho'oulu Lahui - Revitalizing Breadfruit Festival

On Saturday, March 3^rd, 2012 –Kua O Ka La Charter School  in Pu'ala'a/Kapoho area of the Island of Hawai’i, will host a Spring Breadfruit Festival. 

A lot of activities are being planned from a cooking contest, several workshops and 'ulu (breadfruit) poi pounding demonstrations; also how to make 'ulu pounding boards and many other activities all related to celebrating this versatile and life sustaining fruit.

Cooking Contest Categories:

Appetizer
Main Dish/Entrée
Dessert

Each dish will be judged for:

Best use of breadfruit
Taste
Appearance/Presentation
Originality
Healthy ingredients

Prizes:

First, Second and Third prizes in each category
One entry will be selected for ‘Best of Show’
One entry will be selected for ‘Healthiest Choice’

For general information on the rules for participating and for downloading the entry forms, (info is to be added within the next few days) please visit:

kuaokala.org

hawaiihomegrown.net

www.Breadfruit.org 

Deadline for Entries:

When you download the Entry Form and the Recipe Forms, complete and submit no later than Feb. 26 - please contact me to find out where to send them cubanwahine@hawaii.rr.com

Location of Festival:

Take Route 130 to Pahoa. Turn left at traffic light to Route 132. Bear left at fork just after Lava Tree State Park. Turn right at the four corners to Route 137. Next to Ahalanui Hot Pond Park in Pu'ala'a/Kapoho. Contest location and entry drop off on Makai side of road. Look for Contest Entry Drop-Off location. You must also drop off your completed Contest Entry Form and a Recipe Form per each dish entered.

 

The Bounty of Breadfruit

 
Breadfruit tree

Did you know that breadfruit was the innocent underlying cause for sailors of a British ship in the Pacific to rebel against their captain way back in 1789?

Do you remember the movie about Captain Bligh and the Mutiny on the Bounty?  Well...it wasn't just an exciting movie.  It really happened.   I won't go into the story here, since it is easy to check the facts, but almost 20 years earlier to the mutiny, Captain Bligh was in Tahiti where he and his crew discovered the wonders of breadfruit.  The mutiny occurred on a subsequent trip (1789) when he was commissioned by the British King to propagate and plant hundreds of breadfruit trees to then take to Jamaica.  We know how that venture ended...  Eventually, many years later, he was able to complete the mission and breadfruit was then planted in the Caribbean.

 
Medium ripe breadfruit

Today there is a movement to introduce the breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) to the world at large and convert it into the food of the future.  Except for Pacific Islanders, a few islands in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, breadfruit, or 'ulu, as its known in Hawai'i, is largely unknown or ignored, and yet, it is one of the most versatile fruit available today. 

 
Steamed and quartered breadfruit

There are many varieties of breadfruit trees.  Some produce completely round fruit; some are ovoid.  Some have seeds and some don't.  Some varieties are better for certain recipes than others.

 
Peeling steamed breadfruit

Breadfruit trees are very prolific, being able to produce as many as 200 fruit a season and in some places, like Hawai'i can produce two crops a year.  Very rich in gluten-free starches, it can be used as a vegetable or a fruit in appetizers, soups, salads, entrées and desserts.  It can be boiled, steamed, mashed, baked, roasted or fried.

 
Diced breadfruit

Any way you can think of using a potato and then some!  The breadfruit seems to absorb the flavors of other stronger tasting foods cooked with it better than a potato.

 
Pounding breadfruit for breadfruit poi or other dishes requiring mashed 'ulu

 

The Breadfruit Festival--Ho‘oulu ka ‘Ulu (Revitalizing the Breadfruit)--to be held on Saturday, September 24, 2011, 9 am - 3 pm, at the Amy B.H Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook (South Kona on the Island of Hawai'i)--celebrates the rich culture of ‘ulu in Hawai‘i and the Pacific. Activities include a cooking contest, chef demonstrations, cultural activities, tree sales (pre-order for a great price), art shows, workshops, and a breadfruit inspired locally sourced luncheon

Cooking Contest entry forms and Breadfruit Festival information can be found www.breadfruit.info.  Questions about the Cooking Contest can be directed to Sonia R. Martinez cubanwahine@hawaii.rr.com.

 

 

Yes, we have no bananas......!

......but we actually do!

We were given a Cuban Red banana plant when we lived at the Inn and planted it in the backyard.  That plant grew and gave us fruit and had a couple of little keiki (baby) plants coming on each side.  When we moved from the Inn (the Inn burned down 11 years ago yesterday), we dug up the keiki and brought them to the property where we live now. 

 

The Cuban Reds take a while to grow.  After several years, the two plants had grown quite a bit, but a big downpour washed them down the gulch behind our house...we thought we had lost them, but a few months later a little keiki was spotted growing where the others had been planted.  This plant took ages to grow and produce, but we got a small bunch and a new keiki came up from that one and never did much until this year.

 

There are two varieties of Cuban Reds, a dwarf and a tall.  Ours is tall.  According to a website about the different varieties of bananas that grow in Hawaii:

Cuban Red, Tall:  A very ornamental, maroon-colored banana (plant and fruit).  All the Cuban bananas have a special taste.  They're a thick banana, yet they have a delicate, light feeling to them.  This variety is on the tall side (15-20 ft.) and takes up to three years to make a bunch of bananas on a shoot, making them one of the least productive bananas.  Nonetheless, they're worth having around for the beauty and taste.

 

Finally after several years, I spotted the plant throwing out a bloom....it has taken several months for the rack of bananas to grow and develop into nice rounded fruit, so today was cutting day.

 

A banana plant produces only one rack of fruit and dies after harvest, so with tall trees, the best way to harvest is to chop it down.

 

Anthony cut it down with a machete and the tall California grass, which is the bane of my garden's existance, actually acted as a cushion for the rack to fall on.

 
We will be enjoying this in many different ways.... I confess to having never eaten one raw, as I grew up in Cuba where they are usually treated as cooking bananas or plantains, but several friends have told me they love them raw, so we will try them this time...I also love to bake or fry them, so will be doing some of both!

 

The rack is now hanging from the rafters of our back lanai...the window behind it is the one in our office.

 

Can't wait!

 

What the.....?

Today's blog post is a quite a bit different from my usual, but I am so angry that I have been chewing nails since I saw this article this morning

Does Michelle Obama know about this?

Then in Facebook I found other people sharing other articles about the same topic...

Michigan woman could face jail time for growing a garden

Oak Park woman faces 93 days in jail for planting vegetable garden

What the.....?    Unbelieveable!

Anyone who has been following my writings for a few years has had to have read at least ONE of my articles on home edible gardens; home farming; about our country's history with Victory Gardens and self sustainability....(if you haven't, let me know and I will be more than happy to point you in the right direction... ;-)

Then I found that a page was started in Facebook with almost 9,000 people already "liking" it!

Oak Park Hates Veggies

Then I came upon a Care2 petition to stop this nonsense

Stop the Prosecution of the Bass Family for Growing Veggies

Then I did a little bit of research and found the City Of Oak Park Government and sent an e-mail to the mayor, the mayor pro tem, the city manager, the council members AND a CC: to the city planner who started it all.

I sent this e-mail to ALL the addresses below.  If you want to use it just use your own words for more impact.

City of Oak Park, Michigan

Is this how you want to be known?
Please stop this nonsense!

Lawns are a waste of space, fertilizer, chemicals, water, time mowing and do not contribute to minimizing our carbon footprint.

I've written many articles about home edible gardens. Even our federal government encouraged home edible gardens whether they were located in the front yard, the back yard, the side yards or an empty city lot!

I would think that instead of turning this issue into a negative for your city you should be encouraging more people to follow suit and grow their own edible gardens....regardless of what part of the yard they use.

Shame on Mr. Rulkowski and shame on all of you if you support him in this ridiculous stance! 
 
I sent it to ALL the names below and signed with my name:

City of Oak Park, Michigan

Mayor Gerald E. Naftaly gnaftaly@att.net

Mayor Pro Tem Michael M. Seligson mmseligson@comcast.net

Council Angela Diggs adjack@comcast.net

Council Paul Levine paul4oakpark@yahoo.com

Council Emile Duplessis duplessis2@aol.com

City Manager Rick Fox rfox@ci.oak-park.mi.us

Director/City Planner Kevin Rulkowski krulkowski@ci.oak-park.mi.us

I also found that Julie Bass has a blog and signed up to receive updates

Julie Bass' Oak Park Hates Veggies Blog

Look at pictures of her front yard vegetable garden HERE and tell me if you would be against seeing one like it in your neighborhood!

 

The Buzz on BISS

BISS stands for Big Island Self Sufficiency.  It is a Yahoo group started in November of '08 by my friend Kele.  Kele stands for Jerry/Gerald in Hawaiian.

The Home Page of the group says it best: This group is for the purpose of learning and teaching self sufficiency gardening/farming for people on the "Big Island" of Hawai'i.

Our purpose is to join together and help each other develop some
level of essential food production in our own yards and farms as we
are soon to be faced with large food shortages globally accompanied
by skyrocketing prices for that which remains available. We are very
vulnerable to these changes..even more so than the rest of the 49 states
of the US.

 

 
Although aimed at residents of the Big Island of Hawai'i, we do have several members in some of the other Hawaiian islands, the mainland and even Mexico. 

Our members come from all walks of life...we have professionals and retired professionals, farmers, professors, nursery owners, music teachers.....some are members of the younger generations (our future) and some are older......some are bluegrass aficionados as well as aficionados of opera; our group is like the Hawaiian islands....a wonderful melting pot! 

Many of the members are very knowledgeable about growing anything and about so many other subjects that are interesting or necessary to know if you plan to live your life as sustainably as possible.

 

Many members grow at least some food, others grow most of what they eat...yet others own nurseries and give advice on planting and harvesting... others are into medicinal plants....Recipes are shared.  Advise on fertilizers and organics is given and discussed...

 

Not a day goes by that something new doesn't come up for discussion, whether its about State or Federal government as it relates to agriculture; recalls on produce on the mainland....interesting websites members find and like to share with the rest.

 

Kele started the group on November 26th of '08 and I believe I was the 7th member to join it after meeting Kele and visiting his quarter acre urban 'farmette' where he grows a hundred or more banana trees of different varieties, sugar cane, papaya, pineapples, the tiny red hot Hawaiian chile peppers and also a collection of herbs and other edible plants.  Except for a very few ornamentals, everything else growing in the 'farmette' is edible.

A few months after I joined, Kele requested I share moderator duties with him and recently made me an owner....no, no raise in pay with each new position... I still get the same as when I was just one of the members.... ;-)

 

BISS got stuck for a little while at the half year mark and then all of a sudden it exploded.  We started getting together as a group at his 'farmette' and little by little the membership grew, mostly by word of mouth.  Our BISS 'gatherings' are on the Sunday closest to the Solstices or the Equinoxes.... no, we don't hold pagan rituals, unless you consider pot-lucks a pagan ritual ;-); sometimes the date has to be moved to a different Sunday if it falls on Father's Day in June or too close to Christmas in December.

At our gatherings besides a dish to share for the potluck, members bring seeds, seedlings, cuttings, plants and fruit or produce to share. 

 

Since we are a group that cares about the future, members bring their own dishes, flatware, napkins and glasses or cups from home....We always request that if disposable paper products are brought they be at least compostable.

Some of the same members come to all the gatherings, some driving a couple of hours just for the afternoon; some come to a few and there is always someone new.  The members who have been attending from the start have become like family and new 'family' is added at each.

Besides meeting at Kele's place, we have had gatherings at a nearby beach park, a park near downtown Hilo and at the home of another member. 

Members bring their kids or a friend or two to introduce them to the group. 

 

The last gathering was this past Sunday at Kele's and we had about 67 members (not all at one time) attend this one.  The biggest gathering to date.  We had a lot of fun as some members brought their musical instruments and entertained us with music for about an hour.

If  you live in Hawai'i and are interested in joining us to learn more about self sufficiency in the islands or in the tropics, check out Big Island Self Sufficiency

 

 

A girl's only just because tea party

I've always loved tea parties... from the days when I used to play with my little tea set as a child... and I love getting together with friends over good food and relaxed conversations while drinking tea....I still collect tea pots and adore tasting different teas.

 

Somehow in conversation one day, my friend Brenda said she had never been to a tea party, so I talked it over with my friend-and-just-about-daughter Cathy and we decided to host a tea party for a few women friends on the lanai of Cat's wonderful 'Pond House' down in Kapoho, and invitations were sent for yesterday afternoon.

 

 
Cat's lanai, setting for our tea party - photo by Gail Armand

So it wouldn't be too much on just one person, we did what comes naturally to anyone who has lived in Hawaii for any length of time...we hosted a pot-luck tea party!  Guests were asked to bring either a savory or a sweet dish and no one was disappointed.

Some of us commented afterwards how it always works out and the food brought is always a good balance between sweets and savories and there never are duplications!

 

I follow a blog called 'Home is Where the Boat is' by a very talented woman called Mary in North Carolina.  Her posts are very creative, her photos are gorgeous and regardless of what the topic is, I get inspired to also create after reading her posts.  In a post a couple of weeks ago, Mary posted this "Fairy Cake" and I was determined I was going to make something similar.

What makes living in Hawaii so wonderful can also cause havoc with cake frostings.... our lovely humidity which contributes to dewy complexions can make a lovely cake look like a little pu'u (small hills formed by volcanic eruptions through vents on the flanks of a volcano) with white lava and decorations flowing down the sides...

 
My "Fairy Cake" was not as pretty as Mary's but it was delicious.

Start with a sponge cake and cut it into three layers.  Mary used a lemon curd and whipped cream, berries, flowers, butterflies and chocolate mushrooms.

Mine was layered with fresh mango I had poached in a bit of simple syrup made with Maui raw sugar and a vanilla bean.  Refrigerated overnight, the mango firmed up enough and was lovely spread in between the layers.  I then sprinkled some blueberries and placed slices of strawberries on top of each layer and added cream cheese vanilla frosting.  I was hoping the frosting would hold up better than just whipped cream....No such luck!

 
Fresh whole strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and poha berries were scattered all over as well as some freshly picked blackberries that my friend Gail brought me from around the Volcano Golf course.  Doing a canvasing around the neighborhood for flowers to use on the tables, Cat found 2 Surinam cherries, which were also added to the cake as well as an assortment of edible flowers....including some blooms from my own strawberry plants, which are ready to gift us with a second harvest this year....!

 
Flowers in the pitcher on the food table were my hostess gift to Cat - from the Hilo Farmers Market

The assorted hibiscus on the table were some that Cat and Janet picked canvassing the neighborhood

Lovely company on a beautiful lanai with delicious food and tea while a soft rain is falling around us....a cooling breeze is blowing...and no mosquitoes....It can't get any better than that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hau'oli La Ho'omakika'i

 
Wishing a very Happy & Safe Thanksgiving to all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hau'oli La Ho'omakika'i!

Feliz Dia de Accion de Gracias!

Sonia

 

Tropical Still Life

I visited the Volcano Farmers Market really early on Sunday morning and came away with all sorts of great stuff...among them these mangoes and the cutest tiny little bananas ever...

I got the mangoes from Marla and Pete Hunter - Eke Nui Nursery in Na'alehu - with names like Mapuleha, Golden Glow, Manzanillo and Gouveia and many more, their booth was deliciously looking.... We ate the MaPulehas last night before I took the photo...they were gorgeous and very fragrant and sweet.

The tiny fat 'naners I got from Debbie Ward of the La'iku Organic Farm in Kurtistown are called 'silk bananas' and Debbie said the green ones can be fried as you would plantains... I'm letting some ripen to eat as fruit and tonight I will cook some of the green ones as veggies...

The round yellow fruit in front center is a passionfruit picked from our yard

Cacao - From Tree to Chocolate

Chocolate making is spreading on the Big Island!

There are several farmers on Hawai’i Island planting varieties of Theobroma cacao trees that produce cacao seeds or pods from which cocoa and chocolate is made. The best known varieties are Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario which is a hybrid mix of both Criollo and Forastero.

 

The quality of the chocolate depends on the variety of the tree, and Criollo is considered the best chocolate producing trees.

I recently participated in a fun one-day chocolate making workshop that took us from harvesting the cacao pods to making the chocolate and all the steps in between.

 

We arrived at the site early on a beautiful, sunny but breezy morning and were given a short orientation talk by Tom Sharkey, the owner of the little farmstead and a coffee and cacao grower.

Our group got paired up in teams of twos, one picking the pods and the other carrying a burlap sack to put them in. As we walked through the cacao grove, Tom explained and demonstrated what to look for and how to pick. He explained how the trees need to be trimmed by cutting all but the main trunk as the little trees grew to make it easier to harvest.

 

 

The pods are harvested approximately every two weeks and the ‘ripe’ stage can be red, yellow, orange or mixed, depending on the variety of cacao tree. We harvested approximately 300 pods that morning.  

As sacks were filled and dumped into a wheelbarrow they were taken to the shed where the processing started.

 

We were taught how to open the pods by giving them one or two sharp blows with a mallet and how to shuck the pods by removing the placentas with the seeds. Each pod can contain anywhere from 30 to 40 seeds.

After all the pods were opened and shucked, the seeds were placed in a large plastic container with drainage in the bottom to collect the juices. We were given ice-cold juice from a previous harvest to taste and found it delicious. The empty pods are recycled as composting material and nothing is wasted.

 

 

After the juices are drained, the beans are placed in a different container to ferment for 5 to 7 days, turning them each day, making sure that the beans are heating up.

After fermenting comes the drying stage; the beans are turned onto a mesh bottom drying rack in a single layer, in a well ventilated area and stirred daily. This process can take up to 6 days, depending on heat and air circulation, but dryness can be tested by opening a bean.

 

 

 

The dried beans need to be ground or cracked using a machine called Crackenstein or for small batches just simply a rolling pin. Tom has a machine he rigged up to separate the dried husks from the nibs, but a regular hand-held hair dryer can be used when processing small batches.

 

When roasting small batches of nibs, set a toaster oven at 425oF and roast for 9 minutes, then down to 325oF for another 9 minutes and finally bring the temperature down to 259oF for 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To grind the nibs a large Champion juicer can be used or a peanut butter machine to turn the nibs into paste. The paste is then placed in a Santha wet grinding-mixing machine for conching, for 2 to 4 days, adding sugar and vanilla slowly after paste is liquefied (about 12 hours). At this point you may also add cocoa butter and lecithin (emulsifier), but we didn’t add anything but sugar and vanilla to our batch.

Sugar can be adjusted according to your taste. Our dark chocolate was made using 75% cacao to 25% sugar.

 

 

 

 

To temper, the chocolate should be brought up to 115 to 120 degrees, then removed from heat and cooled to approximately 82 F. Bring the temperature back to 88-90 degrees and maintain while pouring into molds by working quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squirt bottles work well for pouring the liquid chocolate into the molds. To minimize air bubbles, first tap the squirt bottle and after pouring, tap the molds to remove as many bubbles as possible. Chill for about 15 to 20 minutes to set and pop loose from mold.

Each participant left on a chocolate high with a few packages of the chocolate and a potted one foot Criollo variety of cacao tree.

For more information on Tom Sharkey’s chocolate making workshops contact him at tshark@hawaii.rr.com Tom also runs Sharky's Cafe on the first block of Waianuenue Avenue in downtown Hilo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary:

Cacao: the name of the tree and the pod, not to be confused with cocoa a product derived from processing the cacao beans

Nibs: the clean, roasted and slightly crushed cacao bean. The taste is slightly bittersweet and richer than the chocolate made from them.

Conching: the process by which the chocolate is processed to avoid grittiness by keeping the chocolate in a hot liquid state until completely smooth.

Tempering: the final process which gives the chocolate a satiny and glossy finish by removing all crystallization from the liquid.

Recommended reading:

The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Chocolate with Recipes by Maricel Presilla

Naked Chocolate: The Astonishing Truth about the World’s Greatest Food by David Wolfe