Archive for the ‘Holiday’ Category
Every Easter weekend growing up, Mom and I celebrated with her circle of artist friends with an amazing feast. These women, weavers, sculptors, paper makers, fiber artists, taught me the beauty and thrill of making by hand. These stunning Easter eggs are a perfect example–the dramatic amber color comes from a dye of onion skins, saved from New Year’s day to April, and a resist technique creates the delicate graphic designs on the surface. As a little girl, I was responsible for picking ferns and leaves from the garden outside, while all the women in attendance had to bring their old stockings & nylons (pre-washed, please!) to sacrifice to the scissors. We use the delicate stretchy mesh to secure the leaves and petals on the eggs while they sit in the dye. Fishnets make some great chain-link designs, by the way. Instead of hiding these garnet-colored beauties, we proudly display them at each place setting to whet the appetite for the five course dinner to come. Here in Downtown LA, I not only lack a garden — I can’t even keep anything alive in my windowsill. However, I think I did pretty well with simple parsley leaves and the tops from carrots I got in my weekly CSA box, fresh from the farm.
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I hate meringues. I don’t like lemon meringue pie, or baked Alaska, or floating islands, and I really don’t like meringue cookies. They’re one of those trickster foods that I keep thinking, ‘hey, I’ll try it again, because surely I’ll like it this time!’ Fluffy, light, sweet, crisp, but no. Always chalky and powdery and thoroughly unpleasant.
That was until Week 17. There were a lot of seductive desserts, too many in fact, so many that I left sure of impending diabetes, but these GORGEOUS, pale pink mini-Pavlovas were the ones that really made an impression. They were subtle and aromatic and meltingly airy and everything I had imagined meringue could be. These were the reason I kept tasting those dastardly chalky lumps over and over. Fate. Read the rest of this entry »
Poke (poke-EH) is a Hawaiian staple food and one of my all-time favorite edible items. In the world. It’s a preparation as old as the Native Hawaiian population in the islands. Hundreds of years ago, the Hawaiians used to season their fish with limu (seaweed) and the pink Alae salt that’s unique to the islands. Now, recipes like this one incorporate ingredients from Asia (sesame oil, soy sauce), the Americas (tomatoes) and sometimes even Europe, in what some Island folks call “dakine new age poke.” There are a million variations, and as long as you have enough seasoning and very fresh fish, you’re guaranteed a delicious dish, so experiment away–especially if you have 40+ pounds to get through! Here’s one to start with.
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Part 1: The Honolulu Fish Auction
At 4am, Pier 38 at the Honolulu harbor is at it’s mid-day rush. Forklifts with palates of unbelievably large fish zoom back and forth outside the warehouse, from boat to loading station, from the side door and out to the waiting trucks. There’s a loudspeaker calling names of the winning bidders, prompting them to meet their prize out front–”Nobu, to the loading dock. Nobu!” Ooh, my friends and I are standing next to the buyer from Nobu?
Aren’t these cute? Too bad they taste TERRIBLE.
I’ve been on a quest to make fresh fruit lollipops–it was one of those ideas that seemed so simple and yet awfully impressive to give as gifts for the holiday baking frenzy. They’d be different, unique, fresh, and delicious! Oh no. No, no no. I found a straight forward and very clear recipe in the Time Life Series’s Candy book, a series I whole heartedly trust(ed) that explained how to render juice from fruits, using raspberries as an example, what ratio to use, and what to look for.
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After everyone’s had more than their yearly quota of roast turkey, turkey sandwiches, turkey pizza and turkey omelets, it can be a pretty defeating experience to open up the fridge and see that 25lb turkey carcass staring back at you. Here’s what you do.
My great aunt, a local girl (of the Hawaii variety) if ever there was one, taught my mom her recipe for Jook, a Korean version of the comfort food that’s found in every east Asian culture. In China it’s Congee, in Japan it’s Okayu, in Thailand it’s Jok, and in Korea it’s Juk or Jook. Strictly speaking, one would pretty much follow the recipe that appeared in Gourmet’s 2008 Thanksgiving issue: simmer turkey carcass in water to make a broth, flavor it with ginger, cook the rice in it and garnish with green onions. Well, Aunty Nancy’s is not strictly Korean. Like most of the Asian dishes that are so loved in Honolulu, this one is a bit of a hybrid. The happy mix of Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures lends a bit of ethnic confusion to this soup that is pretty delicious (though not exactly ‘correct’).
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This year’s Thanksgiving came at a really inconvenient moment. I’m swamped at work, under a lot of pressure to meet a December 15 manuscript deadline, and I’ve been working weekends to keep up. Clearly, this Thanksgiving was not going to be the all-out feast at my apartment that I had been hoping to put on.
As it turns out, neither was last year’s. Turkey Day 2008 was going to be my first big Thanksgiving, hosted by DS and I in our home, with our friends and family and a nice fat turkey. I invited my friends who weren’t flying home for the holiday and the Smith’s (DS’s parents). My big chance to play Martha!
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