by TheLastWonton | May 23, 2010 | Beef, Pork & Lamb, Hawaiian, Italian, Main Dishes, Pasta & Noodles, Sauces, Dips & Condiments, Sides
MY HAWAIIAN KITCHEN
Delectable memoirs of living on the slopes of Mt. Hualalai high above the famed Kona Coast on the beguiling Big Island of Hawaii.
Dear Journal – We went holoholo (to go out for pleasure) to Pahoa. Going to Pahoa is almost like time travel – it’s a bit of old Hawaii, a bit of funkadelic 60’s, a bit of old west and no matter how you look at it, very laid back. Cool place. Backroads Hawaii. The boardwalk lined main street houses quaint shops and a good handful of down-home ethnic eateries with the most amazing aromas wafting out from them. We settled on a little tucked away restaurant where the food was all homemade and the service made us feel like one of the ‘ohana (family). A find and a perfect way to top off the day before heading back to Kona side. We’d already hit the Hilo Farmers Market and along the way stopped at a couple of superb little grocery stores too, so we came home armed with fresh herbs, killer good Parmesan and some imported Italian pasta that begged to be something special. Inspired by the utter charm of the mish-mash that is Pahoa I just let my ingredients lead me and made my very own mish-mash that turned out to be as delicious and unique as going holoholo to Pahoa.
4 plump garlic cloves, finely chopped
Olive oil
1 1/3 cups fresh cilantro
2/3 cup fresh basil leaves
½ cup good quality extra virgin olive oil – or ½ cup browned butter
½ cup toasted macadamia nuts
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 small Hawaiian chile or fresh jalapeno, finely chopped
Good squeeze of fresh lemon juice
½ teaspoon Hawaiian sea salt, or your favorite salt
¾ cup good quality Parmesan cheese, grated
1 ½ pounds whole pork tenderloin cut into ¼ -inch thick ‘pats’
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
Hawaiian, sea or Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil for frying
3-4 fresh, ripe plum tomatoes, chopped
1 pound linguine, angel hair, fusili or bowtie pasta
Lightly sauté chopped garlic in a small skillet in a drizzle of olive oil for 1 minute until just starting to get golden. Remove from heat. Let cool.
Combine garlic, basil, cilantro, ½ cup olive oil, macadamia nuts, sesame seeds, shoyu and chile in blender or food processor and buzz until combined. Transfer to small bowl and stir in cheese. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and store in fridge up to 1 day.
Put pork pats in a bowl and add 3 tablespoons shoyu, salt and pepper. Mix with your hands to distribute seasonings evenly. (Can be made a little ahead of time and let sit with seasonings)
Heat skillet over medium high heat with 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil, until sizzling. Add pork pats and quickly fry on both sides until cooked through, 1-2 minutes per side. But make sure pork is nicely caramelized on the first side before flipping. Keep pork warm while pasta is cooking.
When ready to serve, cook pasta til al dente, and before draining add about ¼ cup of the cooking water to the pesto to help it adhere better to the pasta. Old Hawaiian pesto secret! Put pasta into a large bowl for serving, add pesto, chopped fresh tomato and pork pats and toss, toss, toss. Serve with extra parmesan and enjoy!
by TheLastWonton | May 23, 2010 | Appetizers & Snacks, Baking & Desserts, Breakfast & Brunch, Greek Food, Sides, Vegetarian, Veggies
See! My mouth is already watering! And I’m not even that big a potato fan. Ohhhh, but these oven roasted gems do their damndest to take me to spud heaven each and every time.
Heady with the aroma and delicious sting of garlic, those crispy little brown edges and lemony outsides give way to an earthy, almost melt in your mouth, potato goodness in each and every mouthful.
That’s if everything goes to plan, and I’m happy to say, I’ve been lucky with yummy results every time I do these roasties. Around our house we almost always do them when we’re having Greek food, but great with prime rib or BBQ chicken too, or……..wait a minute…….yummy with spareribs, or pork chops or leg of lamb, or ……..well you get the idea.
Let me know how your roasties turn out and what you had with them.
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Here we go……..pull out a medium to large-ish baking dish, toss in cut potatoes. Add olive oil, lemon juice, lemon pieces, minced garlic, water and lots of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Get in there with your hands and mix everything around until the potatoes are coated with all that flavour goodness.
Bake at 400F for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours until you can’t wait another momento to sample your version of Lemon Garlic Roasties.
Serve hot from the oven with more fresh squeezed lemons for anyone who wants more pucker power.
LEMON GARLIC ROASTIES
6-8 medium red skinned, Yukon gold or new potatoes
5 plump garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
1 lemon, quartered
1 – 2 cups water
Sea salt or seasoned salt
Lots of freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 400F. Cut potatoes into quarters or bigger than bite-size chunkers. Put potato pieces into baking pan with minced garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, lemon pieces and 1 cup water. Sprinkle very liberally with sea or seasoned salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss about with your hands to ensure potatoes are evenly coated.
Most of the garlic with slip slide into the olive oil – water mixture which will keep it from burning and get it’s glorious flavour percolating right into the spuds as they roast. Bake 35 minutes until starting to get a golden crust, then stir them up, reseason if they look like they want it and add 1/2 to 1 cup water if pan is getting at all dry. Important not to let the pan go dry!
Pop them back in the oven for another 35 to 45 minutes until your roasties are gorgeously golden brown with crispy edges here and there and aromatic deliciousness everywhere. Serve hot from the oven. Everyone will be glad you did.
by TheLastWonton | May 15, 2010 | Baking & Desserts, Breakfast & Brunch, Eggs, Pies
You know you've come a long way together when you call your dessert by a nick-name. Me and 'Pav', we're like this.
Yup, pretty much the whole fam damily and those close-by friends loooovvvve Pavlova. What's not to love? Light, airy, crunchy, chewy meringue topped with slightly sweetened vanilla scented whipped cream, crowned with gorgeous jewel-red strawberries and raspberries. Or, when we're into those long, hot Okanagan summer days, peaches-picked-just-this-morning take munching pleasures to whole new levels. There's no going wrong with fruit choices when it comes to Pav.
Even when we're in Kona, that other place we like to call home, Pav comes with us. Just one Saturday morning visit to the Farmer's Market in Keauhou, and I'm raring to concoct a tropical pav topped with addictive Heyden mango and custardy apple bananas draped with gorgeous, tangy lilikoi. Oh my!
PAVLOVA……………………..Continued here
by TheLastWonton | May 15, 2010 | Appetizers & Snacks, Baking & Desserts, Breads & Sandwiches, Breakfast & Brunch, Sides, Vegetarian
You know those days when you’re craving something a little special, but you’re just not in the mood to fuss? I get a lot of those days!!
Time to pull the old breadmaker out of the panty. I should really name my breadmaker. It’s been around a long time. A very long time. It’s surefooted, reliable, hard-working, turns an old-fashioned task into modern day convenience. It keeps on ticking and makes whole batches of yummy. Often. Name worthy indeed.
Hmmm…..Freddy (you know, like steady Freddy), or maybe Betty (a name that’s been around a long time, rhymes with spaghetti, which goes with bread). I don’t know, got any thoughts?
But I digress. I was deep into one of those ‘craving’ days, when, click, click, before I knew it I was searching for possibilities in one of my favorite places, Steamy Kitchen.com. Eureka!
Pull out the WelBuilt. I found a fantastic idea that I can twist one of my old stand-by bread maker recipes around. Ohhh, you’re going to like this one. It turned out just right. I’ll be making this one again, and again!
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Here we go……….Once your breadmaker has done the Dough Cycle, it’s time to play. Have a large rimmed baking sheet ready, ready, freddy with a good smearing of great quality extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of cornmeal. Plop your dough out onto prepared baking sheet.
With a sharp knife cut the anxious dough into 3 equal pieces. No need to get fussy with dividing the dough just so, eye it up and slice away.
Now, take each piece and pulllllll out to form a rough baguette shape.
Once you have your baguettes formed, time to garish them with some flavour, flavour. I used ripe, red grape tomatoes, pickled hot peppers and mildly peppy pepperoncini. Then a sprinkling of chunky, crunchy sea salt and a brushing of a little more extra virgin olive oil. Next time I’m going to try a trio of different olives, maybe jalapeno stuffed, Greek Calamata and jumbo Queen. The flavour garnish possibilities are gloriously endless. Let me know if you hit on a terrific taste combo.
No matter what flavour garnishes you choose, your baguettes will boast beautiful before they’re even baked.
Lookin’ good!! You can let them rise for 15-20 minutes, but not necessary. Bake at 400F for 15-25 minutes until scrumptiously, golden brown. Remove from oven to cool.
Lip-smacking, fresh from the oven, yeasty goodness.
Break or slice and eat right away. If you’re not serving right away, when you are, pop baguettes back in the oven for a few minutes, just long enough to crisp up again.
EASY PEASY BAGUETTES
3 teaspoons breadmaker or traditional active dry yeast
2 tablepsoons sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for baking pan and brushing baguettes
Just about 1 1/4 cups warm water
Cornmeal
Grape tomatoes, pickled hot peppers, pepperoncini peppers, olives
Your favorite sea salt for sprinkling
Set breadmaker to Dough Cycle, add ingredients in order given, yeast, sugar, flour, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, warm water. Close the lid and let ‘Betty’ do her thing. While she is, smear a large rimmed baking sheet with a good splash of olive oil. Sprinkle with cornmeal. Set aside.
When dough is ready plop onto prepared baking sheet and preheat oven to 400F. Cut dough into 3 equal pieces. Stretch each piece of dough into long, kind of irregular baguette shapes. Top each baguette with your choice of a few grape tomatoes, pickled peppers, or olives. Sprinkle with some kind of yummy, crunchy sea salt. Brush with a little more extra virgin olive oil. Bake 15-25 minutes until crusty golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before munching. Then, munch happy.
by TheLastWonton | May 13, 2010 | Baking & Desserts, Breakfast & Brunch, Greek Food, Sides, Vegetarian, Veggies
See! My mouth is already watering! And I'm not even that big a potato fan. Ohhhh, but these oven roasted gems do their damndest to take me to spud heaven each and every time.
Heady with the aroma and delicious sting of garlic, those crispy little brown edges and lemony outsides give way to an earthy, almost melt in your mouth, potato goodness in each and every mouthful.
That's if everything goes to plan, and I'm happy to say, I've been lucky with yummy results every time I do these roasties. Around our house we almost always do them when we're having Greek food, but great with prime rib or BBQ chicken too, or……..wait a minute…….yummy with spareribs, or pork chops or leg of lamb, or ……..well you get the idea.
LEMON GARLIC ROASTIES……………….Continued here
