Sonia Tastes Hawaii

Happy New Year!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Happy New Year!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

 

Christmas Tropical Fruit Cake

 

TROPICAL SPICE FRUIT CAKE

The applesauce and sour cream helps make this cake moister than the usual fruitcake

 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 3/4 cups white sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups applesauce

1 Tablespoon sour cream, well rounded

2 eggs

1/2 cup chopped nuts

1/4 cup chopped dried mango

1/4 cup chopped dried pineapple

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup chopped candied ginger

1/4 cup whole red candied cherries

 

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, white sugar, spices and salt into a large mixing bowl. Mix in the butter, buttermilk, applesauce and sour cream. Beat for 2 minutes with an electric mixer on medium speed. Beat in eggs. Fold in the chopped nuts and assorted dried and candied fruit.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan, 2 standard bread loaf pans or 4 smaller bread pans.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 50 minutes. It will bake faster in the smaller pans so check after 30 minutes.

Sonia's note: Of course you can use any combination of fruits and nuts you wish.  The above is what I used.

If you first mix all the nuts and chopped dried fruit and then place in a plastic baggie and pour in a small amount of flour and sugar to coat them by shaking, the nuts will not all fall to the bottom of the batter and lay there.  Be sure to not add any extra flour to the batter when adding the nuts and fruit or it might make the fruitcake denser than you wish.

 

Icing - optional

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Mix confectioners' sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth. Frost the cooled cake.

 

Christmas Eve Dinner - The dessert

 

Haupia topped with tropical fruits poached in liliko'i syrup - haupia is the Hawaiian version of coconut pudding. The topping was made by poaching seeded Suriman cherries, chopped dried mango, chopped candied ginger, chopped rambutan, sliced Kiwi fruit and sliced star fruit. The syrup was equal portions passion fruit juice, water and sugar. See the caramelized star fruit slice standing up on the edge? Delicious!  The red hairy skinned fruit with the smooth shiny pulp on the plate is a rambutan.

 

Haupia with Tropical Fruits in Syrup

4 cups coconut milk
2-1/2 cups water
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch

Combine the coconut milk and water. Stir until smooth. Add the sugar and cornstarch. Cook over low heat until thickened and shiny. If the haupia is grainy, you need to keep cooking the mixture because the fat in the coconut milk has not yet melted.

Pour into a square Pyrex dish and then cut in small cubes or pour into individual dessert bowls or glasses.

For the fruits in syrup:

Surinam cherries, seeded and left whole

Dried mango, chopped

Candied ginger, chopped

Rambutan, peeled, seeded and chopped

Tangerine segments, seeded and left whole

Kiwi, peeled and sliced

Star fruit, sliced

 

Combine all of the fruit with equal portions of liliko'i juice (passion fruit), water and sugar.  I had 7 passion fruit which rendered 1/2 cup of juice.

 

Cook until the liquid is syrupy and the fruit looks shiny.  Be careful to lift the star fruit slices, the tangerine segments and the Kiwi whole.

 

Place a segment of tangerine, a slice of Kiwi and a star fruit slice on top of the cooled and gelled haupia (I stood the star fruit slice on the edge of the glass sherbet dish) spoon out some of the other fruit and drip it on top.  The leftover fruit in syrup was saved in a glass jar to use with ice cream or fruit cake later on.

 

Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. 

 

Christmas Eve Dinner - The entree

Shellfish Paella made with lobster tails, shrimp and scallops, saffron rice, petit pois, roasted red bell pepper strips and capers. 

 

The secret to my paella is I use beer instead of water or stock to cook my
rice. It gives it a nice tangy taste.

Sometimes I follow the long, elaborate instructions and make everything from scratch. Sometimes I use the already pre-packaged yellow rice mixes, and might use some stock, but I always use the beer in cooking.

 


I don't follow a recipe usually, so here is what I do:

Take a few threads of saffron and crush them in a small glass bowl in the juice of one lemon. The acid in the lemons seems to bring out the color and taste of the saffron. Let is steep for a little bit.

Make a sofrito:
Sauté chopped onions, minced garlic, chopped cherry tomatoes (optional) and bay leaf in olive oil, until onion is translucent. Add a touch of oregano and a pinch of cumin.

Add the rice and sauté for a few minutes, not long enough to brown, but just until it takes on a slight nutty color.

Sautee the lobster tails, scallops and shrimp, separately, just to turn opaque, but not cooked through.  I season them a bit just before cooking with Goya All -purpose seasoning (the one w/no MSG)

Add the saffron-lemon mix to the rice and the beer and/or stock and cook at 350oF in the oven, covered. When it is almost done, add the shellfish.  Taste for seasonings and adjust if needed.  At this point add the petit pois (sweet English peas) and decorate with strips of red pimientos and a scatering of capers, if using. Finish cooking.

The paella should be slightly soupy, but not watery (if that makes sense).

Buen Provecho!

Note from Sonia:
The best paellas I have ever eaten were the ones featured at the Covadonga Restaurant, right on the bay in Cienfuegos, my hometown in Cuba (and I have been to Spain and tasted paellas in the different regions I visited, but none could compare!) Covadonga is the name of a little bitty place up in the area known as Los Picos de Europa (The European Peaks) a very beautiful mountainous region in north-central Spain. The owner of the Covadonga Restaurant in Cienfuegos, Cuba, was originally from this little town (village, actually) and was known, answered to and addressed by all by the name of Covadonga. Not many
people knew her real name. There is not one true paella recipe. Paella
ingredients depend on the regional ingredients available...more seafood in the coastal areas, more chicken, pork or ham in other regions, although most do contain seafood of one type or another.

 

Christmas Eve Dinner - The salad

 

Another very simple dish

The most time consuming part (but not difficult at all) was the dressing which is actually a very versatile sauce.  Thank you, Madame Donna (foodlover) for sharing it!

Sweet Manoa lettuce (similar to Boston bib) sliced roasted beets and poached asparagus drizzled with Creamy Gorgonzola & Walnut Sauce topped with a few poha berries, which is similar to the New England gooseberries

Asparagus & Beets with Creamy Gorgonzola & Walnut Sauce

Sweet Manoa lettuce (similar to Boston bib) sliced roasted beets and poached asparagus drizzled with Creamy Gorgonzola & Walnut Sauce topped with a few poha berries  which is similar to the New Englad gooseberries.

 

Fresh Manoa (or Boston bib) lettuce

Fresh asparagus

Fresh beets

Fresh poha berries

Creamy Gorgonzola & Walnut Sauce (*)

 

Wash and wrap the lettuce leaves in damp kitchen cloth towels and place in crisper for several hours.

 

Steam or poach the asparagus spears.  I poached them in acidulated water (with fresh Meyer lemon juice), drain and place in refrigerator until ready to use.

 

Roast the unpeeled beets.  When cool, peel and slice.  Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

 

Wash the poha berries and store in refrigerator until ready to use.

 

(*) This is not exactly the recipe for the sauce that Donna shared but its very similar and should give you good results.  I didn't add grated pepper to mine, but added a bit of Hawaiian alae salt.  I made this sauce the day before and stored in a jar.  To heat I placed the jar in a narrow and deep saucepan with simmering water.

 

Assemble the salad a few minutes before dinner is serve, cover and keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Christmas Eve Dinner - The appetizer

There were only two of us for Christmas Eve dinner this year and I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

I limited the appetizer to just one and it was one I've done before in the past, but my son requested again this year.  I found this idea on-line a few years ago and cannot remember where it was.  Possibly in Simply Recipes

This is really easy, tastes delicious and the little burst of orange peel is delightful!

Smoked Salmon Crostini

French bread baguette

Spreadable cream cheese

Slices of smoked salmon

Thin strips of orange rinds

 

 

Cut the bread at an angle and about half and inch thick

Toast it to make it 'crusty'

Spread with cream cheese

Place a piece of smoked salmon on top

Top with a curl of the orange rind strip

 

Place on plate or platter and serve.  Best when made just before serving.

 

Christmas Eve Dinner - 2010

 

I had done a lot of the prepping at my leisure on Thursday so Friday was mainly the nitty gritty of cooking and deciding how I would be setting the table.

For some reason it has been a lot less hectic preparing everything this year, but our menu is short and simple to put together

Apps: Crostini with cream cheese, smoked salmon and a thin strip of orange rind - I had prepared these a couple of years ago and Anthony asked that I make them again.

 

Salad: Sweet Manoa lettuce (similar to Boston bib) sliced roasted beets and poached asparagus drizzled with Creamy Gorgonzola & Walnut Sauce topped with a few poha berries  which is similar to the New Englad gooseberries.

 

Entree: Shellfish Paella made with lobster tails, shrimp and scallops, saffron rice, petit pois, roasted red bell pepper strips and capers. 

 

Dessert: Haupia topped with tropical fruits poached in liliko'i syrup - haupia is the Hawaiian version of coconut pudding. The topping was made by poaching seeded Suriman cherries, chopped dried mango, chopped candied ginger, chopped rambutan, sliced Kiwi fruit and sliced star fruit. The syrup was equal portions passion fruit juice, water and sugar. See the caramelized star fruit slice standing up on the edge? Delicious!  The red hairy skinned fruit with the smooth shiny pulp on the plate is a rambutan.

 

Also had slices of the Tropical fruit cake I made Wednesday. Turned out nice and moist. This cake could also be made weeks ahead, sprinkled with rum or brandy and wrapped in butter cloth or muslin as you would a regular fruit cake.

 

Recipes will follow

Mele Kalikimaka everyone!  Mahalo for reading and hope to hear from y'all from time to time.....
Sonia

To everyone I wish.......

 

Mele Kalikimaka!

 

Merry Christmas!

Feliz Navidad!

 

 

On this December Day.....We wish you a....

 

 

Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo!  

Sonia Martinez, Anthony Mathis & a Heartfelt 'Woof Woof' from Phoebe

Snow in Hawai'i

 

 Photo taken from our back lanai

We had a storm front that passed the island yesterday and left our first snow of this year on top of our two tallest peaks; Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea - our island's two dominant volcanos.

I can't see Mauna Loa from where I live but got some great views of Mauna Kea with a mantle of snow this morning.

Photos were taken from our back lanai, the Honomu Post Office and up the road a bit towards Akaka Falls earlier today....good thing I did; just a few minutes after returning home, the clouds covered the mountain and it is now raining again....maybe that means more snow?

 
Photo taken from the Post Office

 

Photo: end of Stable Camp Rd where it joins Akaka Falls Rd

 
Photo: from Akaka Falls Rd

 
Photo: Snow & Sunflowers

 
Photo: Snow & Sunflowers

 
Photo: Sunflower