Sonia Tastes Hawaii

Kona Coffee Liqueur

Making your own coffee liqueur is fun, easy and rewarding.  It is also a great project to do about a month before the Christmas holidays and give as gifts to family and friends.

We like to collect pretty bottles through the year.  You can find many in yard or garage sales.  After a while, you will start noticing pretty bottles everywhere!

Kona Coffee Liqueur

2 cups finely ground Kona coffee beans (strong, full-bodied blend such as French Roast or espresso)
3 cups boiling water
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon glycerin (*)
4 vanilla beans, split   
3 cups vodka

Combine ground coffee and water in a bowl and mix thoroughly.  Strain immediately through cheesecloth into a saucepan.  Add the sugar, both granulated and brown, and heat for 5 minutes on low heat, stirring constantly, just until mixture begins to steam, do not let it come to a boil.  Remove saucepan from heat and let cool. 

Stir in the glycerine and vodka and pour into clean glass jars.  Add vanilla beans making sure to include the seeds, seal and store in a cool dark place for at least 30 days before using.

Decant into individual gift bottles, tie a pretty ribbon on the neck and tie a card with the recipe if you wish.

(*) Vegetable based glycerin (95.5% USP Kosher)  can be used in food applications.  You can find it in most pharmacies. 

YIELD: 1-1/2 pints

SOURCE: "Coffee... the Frisky Berry!," Come Join the Feast column by Sonia Martinez for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald of Hilo, Hawaii, February 2003

Orange Shells Filled with Poi

Taro (Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum), is a member of the Aracea family which includes such well known plants as philodendrons, dieffenbachia (dumb cane), anthuriums, pothos, caladiums and alocasia, to name just a few.

Its one of the oldest crops known to man and has been cultivated for thousands of years.  It can be found in most tropical and subtropical areas of the world.  Taro, or kalo, as it was known to early Hawaiians, achieved primacy in the Hawaiian Islands as the most important crop and was produced in a large number of cultivated varieties.  Variations of taro grow in the Caribbean islands.  Those of us who lived in Cuba knew them as malanga, ñame and guagui.

The most popular form of preparing taro in Hawaii is poi.  On its own, poi is very bland, but complements the tastes of other, richer foods.

The following recipe is one I developed to serve as a side dish I took for a potluck during Thanksgiving about 12 years ago when we were invited to the home of friends.  Several people were quite skeptical but decided to be brave enough to try it.  I was quite pleased when everyone liked it!

Later, this recipe was incorporated into several menus as part of the cooking classes when we owned the B&B and cooking school at Akaka Falls Inn.

The orange bits and tangy blue cheese make a nice contrast to the smooth taste of poi.  If available, I prefer to use an island produced blue goat cheese, but will resort to a good quality imported blue if the local is not available.

Orange Shells Filled with Poi

4 oranges

2 pounds fresh poi

4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

2 Tablespoons dark soy

Juice and pulp from oranges

 

Preheat oven to 300 F

Slice enough of each end of the oranges so they can sit level on the plate, being careful to not cut into the orange itself so the filling will not seep out when baking.  Cut each orange in half.  Using a curved, serrated knife (grapefruit knife), remove all the pulp from the orange halves leaving a hollow shell.  Reserve pulp and juices in a bowl.

Place poi, soy sauce and cheese in a bowl and mix well.  Remove the membrane from between the orange sections, being careful to leave enough pulp in solid pieces and add pulp and some juice to the poi mix.  Don't add all of the juices at one time as you don't want it to turn too soupy.

Fill orange halves with the poi mix, place on baking sheet and slide into oven just long enough to warm all the way through and give some of the cheese a chance to meld into the poi, about 10 minutes or so.

Place on serving tray.  Each filled half can be decorated with edible flowers and a sprig of parsley or watercress.

Yields 8 servings

The day started with a rock and a roll!

Just a note to let all who have been concerned about us know we are ok.

The house really shook hard and I was amazed more stuff didn't break - Pantry doors flew open and cans and boxes were flying.  We had stuff toppling over on all surfaces and rolling around like mad.  Books flying off bookshelves and several things on walls fell, but we were very fortunate that only a couple of things crashed and broke.

Otherwise, we are fine.

When the first quake hit, I was at the computer and was planning on sitting it out like we do with most of our earthquakes, but it kept on going and getting stronger and as soon as I noticed that the printer and scanner on a shelf above the computer desk were dancing and coming down on my head I flew out of the office.

The front door gave me trouble opening it (we keep the key in the lock on the inside just for emergencies) and it jammed....I was afraid that the door itself was jammed, but managed to get out, and Phoebe (our little dog) and I ran to the yard as I was yelling for Anthony to get up and out.....he was still in bed.

Cannot believe so much happened in just less than 20 seconds!!!!  The second earthquake came about 10 minutes later, this time I ran right out without waiting to see if it was harder or longer.........The third one was just one of our little regular earthquakes, so I just sat it out.....LOL

We lost power for about 3 hours but Anthony had our battery radio on for news.  We were told to not use our regular phones or the cell phones until the all clear, but I wanted to let Sandra (sister in Miami) know we were ok so she could let everyone else know.  While on cell w/Sandra, my brother Tony called from NC.

I want to thank everyone who called and e-mailed to check up on us.....some of the messages we didn't get until the phone lines were restored and my computer wouldn't work until just a little while ago.  We did not realize that during the shaking and rattling, connections were loosened.........I thought it was that Road Runner was still down!!!

Our area did ok except for the power and phones and we heard there were some landslides and road blockages with boulders between us and Hilo and also, up in the Laupahoehoe area just north of us the gulch was blocked with boulders.  Near Paauilo, about 20 miles north of us, we heard a bridge had partially collapsed on one lane.

We could have held out for at least two weeks if we had needed to, with no power, phone, or road use as we have our emergency supplies all up to date.

When we finally were able to see KITV news from Honolulu, through a live-feed with CNN and saw the lines of people trying to gas up and buy food,  water, propane and butane gas and charcoal, we felt quite smug that we keep our supplies of all that stuff well stocked at all times......just for such emergencies......

Thanks to everyone for their phone calls, e-mails (115!!!) and the messages through Gather. com.........I can't reply to everyone individually because there were too many, but just want to let everyone know we are alright and very appreciative of your concern.

Also, I am SO PROUD of how our state mobilized immediately and both our island mayor and our Governor requested help right away and in no time the National Guard and the troops based at Pohakuloa Camp (Saddle Road by Mauna Kea) were mobilized and up and running.  All police were called in and retired police manned phones and desks while all active ones were out helping.......... and though there were some lines for emergency supplies, there was NO LOOTING! 

You can see pictures and read about it at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald website

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com

Mahalo nui and much aloha from the bottoms of our hearts!

Sonia, Anthony & Phoebe

PS. I shall resume a regular schedule of postings as soon as possible.  Lost a day while sitting in front of the TV watching CNN all day yesterday.

Garden Journal - The First Month

It is so amazing to see the garden developing day by day, week by week.  It has been just a month and a week since we started working in it and already we have some sucesses and some failures.

We've had quite a bit of rain, so except for the very first week, we haven't had to worry about keeping it watered. 

The biggest failure has been the corn.  Not one little seed sprouted, but we will not give up.  We will just wait for a better time.  Another failure has been some of the sweet Italian basil.  For some reason a couple of the plants just would not respond to any TLC, yet a couple of others are doing beautifully!

The bush beans and snap peas are growing by leaps and bounds.  The bush beans already have blooms.  The tomatoes are also doing well and blooming.

The mesclun and other greens have not done much, but they are still there, just about a couple of inches high.  However, the carrots and beets which were planted almost two weeks later seem to be doing fine and are catching up to the greens in size..

Italian Sweet Basil

The speamint is amazing, it has taken over the clay container and we will be able to start tucking little pieces of it in other areas of the yard or start using it fast or else give some away, because it looks like it wants to take over... We love spearmint and I have started using some in iced tea and even crushing a sprig or two in a glass of ice cold water!

Spearmint

The long green Japanese eggplant and the Millionaire eggplant are doing well.  We found out that this last one is long and purple, but at the moment we have just a little eggplant and some blooms.  The long green has several blooms and one already fairly large eggplant, as you can see in the picture below.  Unfortunately the third eggplant, the round green Japanese, was cut by our yard helper, Colin when he was trying to weedwack between the beds.  We already decided that we would not weedwack  (or is it weedwhack?)  again in that area!

I love a salad made with mesclun, marinated and grilled eggplants with herbed goat cheese and I think that will be what I will be making with this particular eggplant when we harvest it.

Long Green Japanese Eggplant

The Mexican tarragon looks beautiful and full of blooms.  It seems to have loved the change from where we had it before.   The two types of parsley in the same area are also doing well and spreading.

Mexican Tarragon in full bloom

The little red Hawaiian chile peppers keep on producing without any end in sight.  I will be harvesting some more this coming week to make chile pepper sauce and will also just freeze some for later use.

A couple of months ago I made a delicious hot pepper jelly using the little Hawaiian peppers and  liliko'i (passion fruit)  as the base.  Unfortunately I didn't take any photos, but will next time.

Little red hot Hawaiian Chile Peppers

..........and that is how my garden is growing after the first month!

Guava Shells in Syrup - Cascos de Guayaba

The skies have taken a deeper shade of blue with streaks of spidery gossamer clouds lazily drifting way above us like long, thin ribbons of white gauze. This time of year, the intoxicating and permeating aroma of fermenting guavas on the sides of the road follow us on trips up and down the Hamakua coastline.

Yes, definitely, fall is in the air... This is the time of year where I start thinking about making guava shells in syrup. 

Guava shells in syrup is a typical and very simple dessert or merienda (mid-afternoon snack)  in my native Cuba and South Florida, where it is usually found already canned.  Since I could not find it here on grocery shelves I decided to experiment and see if I could make them the way I remembered them.   Success!

Combination of both red and white guavas, peeled and seeded - the bowl on right contains the seeds and peels which will be used for maramalade

Guava Shells in Syrup - Cascos de Guayaba

Gather nice, yellow, unblemished guavas.  Wash and trim ends.   Peel, making
sure to peel thinly, since you want as much of the shell as possible.   Cut in
halves and, with a spoon, scoop out the seedy center.   Reserve these centers
and the peelings for later use.

For the syrup:

For every cup of water, use one cup of sugar.

Bring to boil in a large saucepan or pot.   When it starts to boil, drop a few guava
shells in and let them boil, for about 5 to 10 minutes on each side (depends on thickness of the shells), or until they kind of fold into themselves.

 

Guava shells cooking in the syrup

Scoop out with a slotted spoon, and cook another batch of shells until all
shells are cooked.   To preserve:  place  the shells in clean, hot sterilized
jars, cover with the remaining hot syrup and seal.  Syrup will have turned a
beautiful ruby color.

They can be canned in jars following your favorite method, or stored in the refrigerator for a few days.

Serve as is, or better yet, with a slice of cream cheese or a scoop of fresh chevre (soft, creamy goat cheese)  or creme fraiche on the side.

Guava Marmalade
In the spirit of 'waste not', take the reserved peelings and the scooped-out centers of the guavas you prepared for shells, seeds and all.   Place them in a large saucepan or pot with an equal amount of sugar.   Do not add water.

Cook down at medium-low temperature until the mixture forms its own syrup. 
When it boils down to a nice syrupy consistency, place through a food mill, chinois
or medium mesh colander.   Discard the seeds and whatever chunky debris
remains.   If the marmalade is still too thin, you can cook down some more
until it reaches the consistency desired.

Uses for thin marmalade:
*Use as syrup, over pancakes, waffles, pound cake or ice cream.   
*Blend it with minced garlic and brush over chicken or pork to be grilled
or broiled.  This last is a favorite of ours.

These and several other recipes using guavas can be found in my Tropical Taste cookbook