Sonia Tastes Hawaii

Salad days

From an old article I wrote for the Hamakua Times newspaper 

 

TROPICAL TASTE

By Sonia R. Martinez

More Salad Days!

Salads don’t have to be just lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes with a store bought dressing. You can make a salad using almost anything fresh and raw or a few cooked veggies or roots by adding a few inspired ingredients.

Some fruits and legumes (peas, beans, and garbanzos) can also be added to salads if no meat is desired.

If a more robust salad is wanted, roasted chicken pieces, shrimp, grilled ‘ahi, or any other protein can be added, including sliced hard-boiled, coddled or poached eggs.

For a piquant taste, try adding a few pieces of watercress to a plain salad and notice how it will perk up the taste! Bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and heart of palm are also wonderful additions to any salad.

The papaya and chicken combination is one I enjoy very much.  I think the flavors complement each other quite well and this recipe also fits in with the large Asian influence in Hawaii. 

The following ingredients make a large quantity.  Of course, you may cut it in half.  It might yield 8 to 10 portions served as a luncheon entree.

Chicken & Ramen Slaw Salad in Papaya Boats

1 large and firm head of cabbage, cut as fine as slaw

2 bunches green onions, chopped with some green included

3 cups diced chicken, no bigger than 1/2 inch

3 packages of chicken flavored Ramen noodles, crushed

2 handfuls sliced almonds

1 package Cranraisins or dried cranberries

Combine all ingredients and add the dressing.  Mix well for tastes to blend.  It tastes better if left in refrigerator, covered for at least an hour or two for all the flavors to meld. 

Serve in papaya halves which have been peeled and seeded.  Sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds on top.

If not using cranraisins, you can use golden raisins instead.

Sesame Dressing

1 cup vegetable salad oil

16 Tablespoons rice vinegar

4 Tablespoons sesame oil

4 Tablespoons sugar

4 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 flavor packets of the chicken flavored Ramen noodle seasoning

 

Mix all ingredients whisking briskly until sugar and the seasonings from the Ramen packets are thoroughly dissolved.

The above is doubled the amount I usually make. The dressing should be stored in clean glass bottle.

Chicken, Papaya & Strawberry Salad with Surinam Cherry Vinaigrette

This beautiful and taste salad is made with fresh greens from our garden: lettuces, mizuna, mitsuba, sweet basil and Dawn Dewa 'spinach', roasted chicken breast cut in small pieces, Caribbean papaya, cut in small chunks and sliced fresh strawberries.  I drizzled a bit of the Surinam Cherry Vinaigrette and sprinkled with a bit of chopped and toasted macadamia nuts.   

Surinam Cherry Vinaigrette

The vinegar from these cherries is a beautiful ruby red in color.  Yields approximately 2 cups. 

3 cups Surinam cherries, washed and hulled – not pitted
3/4 cup white distilled vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

Cook in a non-reactive saucepan until cherries are soft and mushy, about 20 minutes or so, stirring once in a while with a wooden or plastic utensil.

When done pass them through a fine sieve, pushing as much of the pulp as you can through it.

After passing through the sieve let it cool a bit, bottle it and refrigerate. 

Our 'Yard Salad' with Fresh Bamboo Shoots

We call it our 'yard salad' since everything in it, except for the chevre (goat cheese), came from our yard.  This salad varies, depending on what is available to pick in the garden at the time.

The salad pictured consists of whole Malabar spinach leaves, whole Okinawan spinach leaves and a chiffonade of Dawn Dewa spinach leaves.  Chiffonade of Italian or sweet basil, leaves of lemon basil; ruffled and plain purple basil; snippets of flat or Italian parsley leaves; the little top knot of pineapple sage; snipped chives; whole mizuna leaves, and another salad leaf I can't identify.  I add some seeded and sliced purple peppers and some seeded rounds of banana pepper.   

To add color, I sprinkle the petals from both one yellow and one orange marigold.  I added the cooked, julienne bamboo shoots and about a tablespoon size piece of chevre.

For dressing, I use a vinaigrette I make with white vinegar, garlic cloves and ginger slices.  It is so easy to make I never let this one run out! Keep the garlic cloves and slices of ginger in the bottle and add more vinegar as needed. The vinegar will acquire the taste for months, so one batch of the garlic and ginger will last a while.

Heart of Palm and Garden Salad

1 piece about 2 inches fresh heart of palm

a couple of handfuls of spinach (*)

a handful of pineapple sage leaves

a scattering of pineapple sage blooms

Liliko'i (passion fruit) vinaigrette

 

(*) I used a combination of Malabar and Moluccan (Dawn Dewa or Sambung Nyawa) spinach from our garden.  The pineapple sage leaves and blooms also came from our garden.  The passion fruit vinaigrette was also made from fruit collected from our yard.

Pick and wash the greens early in the morning.  Pat dry with paper towels and refrigerate stored in separate Ziploc bags until ready to put the salad together.

Slice the heart of palm stem in thin slices.  Store the heart of palm slices, covered in refrigerator until ready to assemble the salad.

Scatter the Malabar spinach around the platter.  Take bunches of the Moluccan (Dawn Dewa) spinach and cut into a thin chiffonade (*).  Scatter some over the Malabar spinach and save some to scatter over the sliced heart of palm.

Scatter some of the pineapple sage leaves over the two other spinach.

Place the sliced heart of palm on top of the greens and then scatter a bit more of the chiffonade of Moluccan (Dawn Dewa) spinach and a few more pineapple sage leaves on top.  Scatter the red blooms of the pineapple sage over all. 

Drizzle with the liliko'i (passion fruit) vinaigrette.

(*) A chiffonade of greens is actually any fresh greens that have been cut in thin ribbons.  To make a chiffonade, take a handful of green leaves: basil, lettuce, cabbage, spinach, etc. and loosely wad up under your hand over a cutting board.  With a very sharp knife (I like to use a Santuko knife) and with rocking motions, cut across the wad of greens to make thin slices to form the ribbons.

Liliko'i Vinaigrette

We have a couple of wild vines growing on the property and during season, I collect a few everyday.  I cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and pulp and save in a plastic container in the refrigerator until I have a full container.

Strain through a stainless steel mesh sieve, pushing with a wooden spoon to get as much of the juice and pulp as possible and collect it in a glass or ceramic bowl.

In a sauce pan bring the juice and sugar to boil.  Amount of sugar depends on your own taste and acidity of the fruit.  When it boils, turn it down and reduce it to intensify the flavor.  Add small amount of white vinegar, again to taste.  Let it cook at a slow boil for a few minutes, turn the heat off and cool.  Store in glass cruet or sealed glass carafe in the refrigerator.  It will last several weeks.

Eating your fruit and drinking it too...

 

 

During these really hot days of summer (I wonder why they're called 'dog days of summer'?) we like nothing better than tall, ice cold glasses of refreshing and thirst quenching 'agua fresca'.

 

Agua = water

Fresca = fresh

(spelled fresco when used with a 'masculine noun' like queso fresco:

queso = cheese

fresco = fresh

Spanish is funny like that... )

 

You can make 'agua fresca' from any fruit by just combining with water and a bit of sugar, honey, or sugar cane juice, if needed to sweeten it up a bit... I like using a simple syrup most of the time.  Lemon, oranges, or lime, watermelon, passion fruit, guavas, mangoes...even peaches, nectarines...etc...when combined with water and a sweetener is an agua fresca.

 

One of our favorites is the Pineapple Agua Fresca.  The pineapple in this case, serves triple purpose for the price of one.

We buy a pineapple at the farmers market or use one of our own when they become harvestable; peel and cut it up to eat, but I save the top for planting, and the peelings for making the agua fresca.., Win-Win-Win!

 

 

 

Pineapple Aqua Fresca

This is one of our favorites. It is the easiest and most delicious summer cooler, ever. The twist is that you get to eat the pineapple and make “juice” too!

 

1 medium sized ripe pineapple

8 C water (1/2 gallon)

1/4 C sugar

Mint sprig

 

Cut off the top and bottom of the pineapple and reserve. Peel the rest of the pineapple, leaving a bit of pulp attached, and reserve. Cut the pineapple in chunks or in long slices from top to bottom, cutting off the core and reserve.

 

Use the fresh fruit any way you would like. Place the peel, bottom, and core in a non-reactive pot, add the sugar and water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 10 minutes.

 

Cool and strain into a pitcher, squeezing as much liquid as possible from the peel pieces and the core. Chill in refrigerator for at least an hour.

 

Serve over ice and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Yield: 4 tall glasses

 

Note: Plant the top of the pineapple in the garden and compost the rest of the peel.

 

The Brunch Bunch

Breakfast meals and brunches are usually some of the hardest to put together when hosting a group, be it family or guests; especially for the inexperienced cook, since most or all the dishes on the menu need to be ready at the same time. 

My solution is to make several lists!

First decide how many people you feel comfortable inviting at one time.  Make a list. 

Can you sit everyone at table or should you serve buffet style?  Do you have tablecloths, napkins, enough matching dishes, flatware and glassware or will you be using disposable serving ware? (*) Make a list of the items you will need for the type menu planned. 

Make your guest lists and send the invitations at lease 3 to 4 weeks ahead.  Remember your guests might have very busy lives and need to plan ahead of time.  Be sure to specify a day at least a week ahead of the brunch for the RSVP deadline.  It will make it easier on you to know that far ahead how many to expect.

Plan the menu around a few simple ideas or be as elaborate as you feel capable; just make sure you are comfortable with the plan.  After deciding on menu, make three lists; one for the menu broken down into recipes for each dish; one for the grocery staples that can be bought ahead and one for the fresh items you need only a day or two before.

To make the process easier, take each recipe apart, item by item and place the items on the appropriate list, ie: " Staples or Last Minute.

Make lists on what can or should be done when and post them on a planning board either in the kitchen or your ˜office space", along with a good calendar with large squares so that you can put on each date what can be done that day. 

By looking at the menu list and the grocery lists you can decide what staples can be bought even a week or two before the brunch.  Buy them and store with notes of 'do not touch' if you have family members who make use of your pantry stock.

A few days before the brunch, look at your menu again and take each recipe apart, step by step, and see what can be done (prep or cooked) a day or even two ahead. 

Peel and chop veggies and store them in individual plastic baggies until needed. Things like bacon can be fried a day or two ahead, wrapped and stored in fridge.  Hard-boiled eggs can be done and even peeled a day or two ahead.  Poached eggs can be done a day ahead and stored in bowls of water in the fridge, then taken out and placed in warm water an hour or two before they are needed. 

The day before the brunch start setting your table(s); pull out and wash all the dishes, flatware, glasses and serving ware you will need.  Start placing them where you need them. 

Buy or make your table arrangements.  Be creative.  Don't fall back on the usual, but look for items around the house that will fit the theme and use them to liven up your table.

By doing as much as possible during the weeks, days and hours before your guests are scheduled to arrive; you will have accomplished most of the work and will be less harried and also less apt to make last minute mistakes...and if you make mistakes, they happen even to the most seasoned cooks, so go with the flow and don't worry about it.  Probably only you will know that you made them. 

 

My last advice is this; don't sweat the small stuff.  Enjoy your party!

 

Lists needed:

Guest list

Menu list

Grocery list

Serving ware list

Beverage list

 

(*) If you opt for disposable, there are companies that sell compostable serving ware, from dishes to napkins to flatware. Some of them in pretty designs! 

In today's lifestyles so full of clutter and trash, try to be a bit green and do your part.  If you don't compost, find a friend or neighbor that does and would be happy to take the compostable serving ware from you. 

The dog days of summer

The nights and early mornings are a bit cooler but the heat holds on during the middle of the day and persists up until early evening...Although I can almost 'smell and see' autumn coming, summer, at least in the middle of the day, will continue to hang on for a bit..

Yes, believe it or not, we do have changes in season in Hawai'i...they're subtle, but they're there and you learn to recognize them after living here a couple of years.

We love to make our own 'aguas frescas' - literally it means fresh waters, but it's the name given in Mexico to 'refreshing' water infused with fruit or vegetable juices.  My favorite is pineapple agua fresca.  

Here is an article I recently wrote for the July/August 2016 issue of Ke Ola Magazine about "Aguas Frescas" and it has the instructions on how to make my favorite pineapple drink...also several others, including watermelon.

The Pause that Refreshes

 

The following recipe, which I will be trying soon (love the idea of infusing it with basil!) came in today's copy of the Diggers Rest, the newsletter from New Zealand, about no dig gardening to which I have subscribed for many years.  If interested, you can sign up HERE

Pressed Watermelon with Basil Water

This recipe comes from a most useful book:
Cool Waters: 50 Refreshing, Healthy, Homemade Thirst Quenchers ...Dribbleicious!

 

Ingredients

• 4 cups watermelon chunks (about 1/4 large melon)
• 6 to 8 basil leaves, chopped
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar).

Method

• Combine the watermelon chunks and basil in a colander placed over a large bowl. Using a metal ladle or spoon, mash and press the watermelon and basil to extract as much juice as possible (the remaining pulp should be fairly dry).

• Season the juice with the sea salt and vinegar and strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large pitcher. Top up with water as desired, stir and serve.

Preparation: 15 minutes
Serves: 1 large jugful.

 

Here's to refreshing hot summer afternoon aguas frescas!

 

 

 

How does my garden grow...today?

Cloudy, soft on and off rain...the garden is just slurping and loving the moisture.

Everything is thriving, including the weeds...I am almost giving up on them.  I need to bring in loads of mulch but am worried about 'importing' little red fire ants...so far we don't show signs of having any, but they're in the area.  Might just have to shred newspapers and use ingenuity to mulch...not enough leaves from our own trees to shred and use at this time.

At the East Hawaii Master Gardeners plant sale a few weeks ago, we bought some green bean starter plants and were given a new-to-me variety of tomato plants called Big Zac to play with.  UH School of Tropical Ag was giving them away if you signed up to enter the "Big Tomato Contest"...so we did....We got 2 of them and planted them the very next day.

The Big Zac can grow to 3 or 4 pounds with larger tomatoes not unusual at all.  We normally can't grow large tomatoes due to our rain (the fruit splits almost before ripening) and critters, so I am really interested in seeing how this big boy will respond to our conditions.

The following photo is taken from the Internet and it is of a Big Zac - I would be pleased if I get one to the perfect to pick ripe stage even half that big!

The stalks are sturdy and straight...they would have to be, to be able to hold these beauties...and we have each of our plants planted inside a sturdy tomato cage.  So far so good

At this point, we have two growing fruit, one on each plant, and some blooms, which we're selectively allowing to grow, but will monitor to make sure not too many of the tomatoes grow close together or from one stem.

Big Zac 1

Big Zac 2

 

and we have Green Beans!

 

...and this is how my garden grows...today!

Yes, we have some tomatoes!

A couple of months ago, we planted 3 small Hawaiian Currant tomato plants in the pig through...or what we believed to be the currants... but it turns out they are a bit larger than currants...more like grape tomatoes.

 

and in no time at all...they started producing lots and lots of little tomatoes!

 

We also planted two Roma tomatoes in another area - which has since been weeded, after the pics were taken ;-)

These Romas are not as good as the ones we had last year, for some reason.  They tend to fall off before they're fully red and ripe.  So I've started harvesting when I notice a 'certain turning of color'

 

This morning's harvest is a combination of both...

 

 

I cut the small ones in half and the Romas in quarters or smaller, if they were too big, and put them in my Dutch oven with about 1/2 cup of white vinegar and 3 cups of sugar, to make a sweet-savory jam / confit...loosely following a recipe from this old blog post

It is cooking at this time and the house already smells delicious!

 

 Got two pints of delicious goodness!

 

Garden update

 

The run of rainy days (and nights!) we just went through are beginning to pay off...the garden is grateful!

 

The baby bok-choy plants are growing new leaves and filling out

 

                                                                        

The red hot Hawaiian Chile peppers are just beginning to show some blush

 

 

 

All three Hawaiian Currant tomatoes are full of tiny tomatoes and still blooming like crazy! These tomatoes are no bigger than your thumbnail...and so sweet and juicy!

 

Both of the Roma tomatoes are also loaded!  Do you notice the black plastic pot inserted into the ground in the middle of the tomato cage?  We fill it with our compost combination and fill with water (when it doesn't rain) so that the nutrients leach out to the roots through holes we poke on the sides and bottom of the pot.  Looks like I need to do some weeding!

 

 

The nasties are being their sassy selves...

 

Manoa lettuce is beginning to bolt...need to harvest it all today...the portulaca just planted along the stepping stones a couple of days ago are already perked up and growing..amazing!

This is the area parallel to the pig trough where the Bok-choy and Hawaiian currant tomatoes are planted.  I will be filling the empty spaces in the cement blocks with soil and probably plant chives and onion sets in them.

 

This mint is so exuberant, it is outgrowing its pot...Time to take cuttings and start some in another area where it can just grow as much as it wants!

 

These are miniature pineapples.  They never grow bigger than this...about 4 inches total from tip of the 'leaves' to the base...used mainly as ornamental plants as there is not much to them, but they're also wonderful as garnishes on a dish or in table flower arrangements.  This little one has 3 more pups growing from the base and the other one in the background has 3 more...so from these two little pineapples I can grow 8 more plants in the future, by planting the pups and the tops of these.

Score!

Tomato-Onion Relish-Jam

A few days ago we received about 6 cups of beautiful, sweet grape tomatoes, bursting with flavor...we also received a few small sweet Maui onions.  We had used some of them in salads and also making a small medley of grape tomatoes, onions and mushrooms to serve over brown rice at dinner night before last.

I wanted to use the rest of the tomatoes before they spoiled and decided to make a tomato-onion relish-jam

Using a recipe for red onion jam my sister had shared with me some time ago, I played around with it to include the tomatoes.

The results were good! Great combination of sweet-tart taste.  I think it will work as a condiment with meats or as a spread with cream cheese on crackers.

Tomato-Onion Relish-Jam

3 cups grape tomatoes, cut in half

4 small sweet Maui onions, sliced thinly

1-1/2 cups apple juice

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

3 cups white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

Freshly ground black peppercorns, to taste

10 fresh sage leaves

I placed everything in a non-reactive pan (I used my enamel coated cast iron Dutch oven) and turned heat on high.  When it started boiling I turned it down to medium high and cooked it at that temperature until liquid had evaporated by half.  I then turned down heat to low and let it simmer until liquid had again evaporated by half. Turned the stove off and left on to cool a bit.

I did not use pectin to gel; the 'syrup' partially gelled as it was cooling.  

Since this was such a small amount, I am storing it in a glass clamp-style lidded jar in the refrigerator.  If making larger batches to can, you might have to add acid to bring the pH up for safe canning.

 

 

 

 

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

 

I owe this one to my friend Karen in NC...she posted it on Facebook a couple of weeks ago and I vowed when I could collect enough tomatoes from the garden to make it worthwhile, I would be slow roasting them.

That day was yesterday!  Saturday and Sunday I harvested enough Roma tomatoes from the garden to finally try it.  Well worth the time and it is really, no effort!

They are not huge, but quite a few of them were a nice size.

I lined one of my 12 x 16 jelly roll pans with foil.  Cut the tomatoes in half and lay them on the pan, cut side up; add about 2 dozen garlic cloves, a few sprigs of stick oregano (also from the garden) and a  sprinkling of my current favorite salt and pepper (Fleur de Sel from Myanmar and Kampot pepper from Cambodia), both of these last were gifts from a friend and both are so special I am quite 'choosy' as to how I use them ;-) - plus a drizzle of olive oil.

Set in the oven to slow roast at 250 F - In just an hour after putting them in the oven the whole house smelled delicious!

About an hour into the roasting, my son confessed to sneaking a piece and when I fussed at him and told them they were not nearly ready, his reply was "but the smell was driving me crazy and they're good just like that"

 

I only roasted them for 4 hours.  The result was a slightly chewy skin but an intense burst of delicious flavor when chewing.  Really...mini explosions of flavor!

The tiny leaves of the stick oregano were very crisp and easy to scrape off the 'stick'.  I let them 'flake off' all over the roasted tomatoes.  The roasted garlic cloves were a bit tough but the flavor was wonderful.

I took advantage of the roasting oven already being on and about 45 minutes before taking the tomatoes out, I set in it a small Pyrex dish of asparagus which I had drizzled with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled with the Badia Tropical Seasoning I like so much.

 

 

Dinner last evening, slow roasted tomatoes on pasta and slow roasted asparagus on the side.

 

HINT: when drizzling the olive oil over the cut tomatoes before slow roasting, make sure you put just a tiny bit more so you can have enough to spoon a bit over the pasta and tomatoes!

Karen cooked hers at 300 F for a bit longer than I did these and she also reported they were great, so use your own judgement as to time and temperature

My favorite recipe for tomato sauce is using roasted tomatoes.  I use that sauce for all sorts of dishes, not just as pasta sauce.  It can be used for making tomato bisque, as a topping for bruschetta and lots of other ideas.  You can find that recipe with all sorts of ideas on how to use it in my new cookbook "From Soup to Nuts"!

Check out my brand-new-hot-off-the-press cookbook!

https://larryczerwonka.com/books/fromsouptonuts.asp

 

 

 

 

 

Mother's Day Dinner

 

Our Mother's Day dinner was set up again, on the back lanai.

I believe the flowers are Heliconia caribaea.  My son Anthony surprised me today with a bunch of them which I placed in several places around the house.  The heliconia matches the pattern of the tablecloth, although they are not the same type heliconia.

Small Caprese Puff bites as appetizers - puff pastry sheets cut with a scallop edged biscuit / cookie cutter, a slice of tomato from our garden, sprinkled with a bit of ground sea salt, a dab of mozzarella and a basil leaf, also from our garden.

Layer the tomatoes and mozzarella on the pastry round and bake until pastry puffs up and shows a slight golden brown on bottom edges.  Let them rest for a few minutes and top with basil leaves.

Delicious and easy Caprese Puffs

The Entrée, Broiled Salmon on a bed of sautéed baby spinach, Herbed Rice Medley and Braised Asparagus with Rosemary and Laurel (this last recipe is in my new cookbook, From Soup to Nuts.

To marinate the salmon, melt butter, brown sugar, a few drops of liquid smoke and fresh ground pepper.  Pour over salmon filet and refrigerate for several hours.  Broil or grill the salmon.

To sauté the spinach, wash and add to a medium hot skillet or sauté pan to which you have added a spoonful or two of olive, macadamia nut or avocado oil.  Stir and add a bit of fresh lime juice, salt and fresh ground pepper. Cook until limp.

The rice medley is a combination of short grain white rice and brown rice with a bit of wild rice and whatever herbs and spices you prefer.

To braise the asparagus, add a spoonful or two of olive, macadamia nut or avocado oil to a skillet and heat, add the trimmed asparagus, sea salt, fresh rosemary and fresh laurel / bay leaves (if fresh not available, dried is fine) and a touch of water.  Braise for a few minutes.  Turn heat down and cover, and continue braising for about 5 more minutes.

Island made Tropical Dreams Vanilla ice cream with locally grown strawberries and mint from the yard.

Hope your Mother's Day was beautiful!