Lilikoi & Thyme

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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What’s a malasada, you ask?  Oh, let me tell you.  A malasada is a kind of Portuguese donut–since it’s Portuguese, it’s amazingly rich with egg yolks and butter–that I’ve routinely overindulged in to the point of illness since I was 6 years old.  Malasadas are a local favorite in Honolulu and, not to brag, but my high school’s recipe is legendary.  Every February, the school puts on the Punahou Carnival and the fist-sized malasadas are sold by the thousands at the impressive price of 50₵ per donut. The Carnival supplies the scholarship fund for the school, so it isn’t much of an exaggeration to say that my education was sponsored by these rich, soft, sugary treats.

I mentioned a milestone a while back, and as promised, here comes the first of a string of event-based recipes. Here’s the deal–I’m getting married!  We’re deep into the planning stage, and my mind is a flood of hors d’oeuvres, cocktail recipes, and other nice little yummy touches to make the guests feel welcome and make the day a memorable one for all.

As far as I’m concerned, a malasada means festivity and special occasion indulgence. So, I’m excited about this little beverage as a welcome-to-the-party/good-morning-sunshine for the bridal party. High quality Kona coffee is a hard thing to beat. Spiked with a bit of Kahlua or maybe some Bailey’s Irish Cream it’s a great way to begin a day of celebration. Garnished with miniature malasadas, could there be anything better?

So now I have a favor to ask you. We’re entered in a contest to win $100,000 for our dream wedding, of which these mini malasadas are a small (& essential) piece.  We need you to vote!! The final round is decided by number of votes then after that it’s up to the judges, but we need your help to get there.  Pretty please???

I’ll make you a dozen malasadas each if we make it to the finals–Promise!

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Busy. I’ve been busy.  I’ve been in 3 cities in the last 5 days, Honolulu, Santa Barbara, and only a day in LA in between. All the stuff was really good stuff, and I’m feeling pretty invigorated by the pace that’s been set recently, but man, does it put a strain on my unwinding time in the kitchen.  To ensure that Daniel didn’t starve to death while I was gone, I slow roasted a pork shoulder (his favorite) and convinced him he’d love one of my beloved do-ahead classics, this amazing beef stew.  He had a boy’s weekend with his dad and with the pup, and by the time I got back into town yesterday, everything had been thoroughly enjoyed.  Now, what to cook next…

This stew is an amazing winter dish.  If we’re being proper, we’ll call this a Daube–it’s a french layered stew, simple and delicious, and nothing could be simpler.  This one takes on an East Asian personality with layers of spice and heat that make it even more satisfying.  Oversized cubes of beef and big hunks of veggies get a red wine and citrus marinade overnight, then a long slow simmer with rich beef stock.  It’s a long list of ingredients, but honestly, it’s all in the prep. I swear.  Since nothing needs to be browned, this hearty stew can even be done in a crockpot (busy girl’s best friend, right?). In fact, it’s one of those magical dishes that actually improves when it sits for a day in the fridge, so the only thing to do before dinnertime is cook up some rice or egg noodles, and chop up the persillade topping that brings a bright freshness to the bowl with it’s kick of raw garlic, grated citrus zest and parsley.

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I feel like I’ve been a bit delinquent in preserving this year.  Last year by this time I already had dozens of jars lined up and labeled, ready to be given as hostess gifts and housewarming presents all year long.  I took full advantage of the winter bounty of Southern California citrus fruits–meyer lemon, key lime, and brown sugar-orange marmelades, and even took advantage of a gorgeous apple harvest with some velvety braeburn apple butter.  This year, not so much.  This batch of jam is the first I’ve made in 2010, and it’s a way to capitalize on one of the only other ‘fruits’ in season right now, rhubarb.

Rhubarb, obviously isn’t really a fruit–it looks like red celery, and definitely doesn’t have seeds to qualify it as a proper fruit.  What we cook and eat are actually the stems of the plant, and with the leaves they sort of look like rainbow chard.  The leaves are poisonous, which is why in the market you see only the stalks.  Rhubarb and ginger sounds like a nouveau-whatever combination, but it’s actually a classic pairing in England. Just ask Alan Davidson.  The spicy warmth of the ginger, both candied and fresh, boosts the tangy round flavor of the rhubarb.

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For the past two years between work, blogging, and taking classes I’ve devoted my free time, such as it is, to a fantastic organization called Share Our Strength. Together, with chefs and cooks around the country, we’re working toward ending childhood hunger by 2015–an enormous task, but one that is just as vital as it is daunting.  My contribution is as a member of the planning committee for Taste of the Nation, one of the largest fundraising arms of SOS.

Taste of the Nation LA is an awesome food festival event with 50 of the city’s best restaurants, mixologists, gastropubs and high-flying chefs, complete with demos, an auction, and all kinds of fun.  100% of the ticket sales go directly to Los Angeles area hunger-related charities like St. Joseph’s in Venice, Nancy Silverton’s Garden School Project, the LA Food Bank, and Operation Frontline’s LA chapter.

And here’s the best part! Through the end of March, you can use this discount code to get an INSANELY cheap ticket–I think you get general admission for $60, when last year at the door you paid $125.  How sweet is that?!  So buy a ticket, or 5, or 50. They’re your admission to a day of incredible food and fun, and a direct donation to hungry kids in our community.  What’s not to love?

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 »

You may have noticed that there’s been a brief pause in the cooking school series. That’s because weeks 12-14 really weren’t that exciting–poultry and beef, wet and dry cooking methods, totally delicious, but not terribly exciting. During those weeks, there were other more interesting things to write about. But oooh, boy, last week’s class was a good one. We made sandwich loaves and wheat rolls and focaccia and challa. So much yeasty loveliness. It was one of those great days that get me all full of ideas and itching to experiment.

Since class was on last Sunday, I had to wait all week long for a full day at home to proof and wait and rise and bake. The happy coincidence of the weekend is that I have an excuse for all the baking (more than my usual excuse of “I just wanted to see what it looks like if”). Tomorrow is my book club brunch meeting and I love the chance to practice the indulgent and otherwise unreasonably unhealthy. With that in mind, I made a few different recipes and tinkered with these luscious sticky buns until I thought, mmm, definitely keeping this one. Yup.

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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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Milestone in the life of Christine! A good friend is here to celebrate with me this weekend, and we kicked off the day with champagne cocktails. Expect lots of canape experiments and beverage posts in the coming months.

Celebration Champagne Cocktails

Makes 12 cocktails

• 1 cup lemon sorbet
• 1 bottle Champagne or sparkling wine
• 4-5 sprigs of mint, cut in thin slivers

Using a mellon baller, scoop 3 small balls of lemon sorbet into each glass. Gently pour the champagne over the sorbet so that they float at the top, and sprinkle a pinch of mint over the top. Serve at once.

When you’ve gone to the trouble of getting up at 4am to procure a beautiful beast of a fish, broken it down into usable portions and lovingly kept it cold and happy on beds of ice, the very last thing you want to do is waste any of the perfectly good meat (especially if it was a $280 fish). Any trimmings from the collar or bones that smell and look great should definitely be set aside and kept very cold, along with bits that get sliced off the loin when trimming it for sashimi cuts.