Nathan's Grill

For Christmas, my in-laws got me this cool stovetop grill and griddle, made by Nathan's - the famous hot dog people. Tonight I got to give it a test-drive, cooking up some chicken breasts for dinner. It worked perfectly, and was easy to clean. I expect I'll be using the flip side soon for a NYE treat.

Homemade Treats from Friends & Neighbors

This year we received an abundance of tasty gifts from friends, neighbors and coworkers.



Stephanie & Tom down the road brought us homemade Strawberry-Basil Jam, Brandied Pears, two kinds of fudge, caramels, and these little meringue pillows with candy-cane dust. You might notice the fudge & caramels got devoured before I could snap a photo.



Anna, Jason & Otis spoil us every year with delicious gifts dropped off on our doorstep - like little culinary elves visited us. Past years have been homemade tamales and homemade s'mores fixins, and this year we came home to a bounty of sweets.



Reverse rocky-road had me very intrigued, and a taste revealed them to be homemade marshmallows with chocolate and nuts swirled inside. Incredibly unique and equally yummy.

Spicy biscotti cookies studded with bright green pistachios and bright red cranberries were more flavorful than any biscotti I've tried.

And taking the award for most beautiful was the chocolate bark, which I still can't figure out how they made. It really looks like chunks of bark, with the intricate pattern of the wood etched into the chocolate, white chocolate and almond treat.

Party Leftovers - Shrimp Cocktail and Rosemary Bread

We bought two platters of shrimp cocktail, and although the first one went fast, I failed to notice and put out the second one (bad host!).

We planned to pair them with some marinara we have in the freezer and some pasta, but that sounded daunting after both of us had long days at work - so we agreed to just eat the shrimp cocktail as God intended, and warm up Rosemary bread that Anna & Jason gave us (along with a variety of salts from around the world - as salt & bread is a traditional housewarming gift in a variety of cultures.)

Housewarming

Today we invited some friends, family and neighbors (old and new) over to our new house to break in the tiki bar and warm our home.

I ended up running around all day, and failed to take more than this single picture of the food table early in the day - which doesn't begin to do justice to all the food people brought.

In addition to the chocolate peanut butter brownies, Mai Tai cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, and white chocolate coconut cookies I made, and the other snacks we put out, Dan's Mom brought sandwiches, his sisters brought chips and dip, a fruit platter, and a pie, my Mom brought chips and her homemade pico de gallo salsa, Serenity brought a rum cake, Mark & Kurt brought a chocolate pecan pie, Marshall brought chips and Spanish dip, Martha brought brownies and biscuits (plus the biggest bag of peanuts ever, which was a huge hit in the bar), Alice & Geno brought chips and snacks galore (and amazing pineapple serving bowls), and Jim & his wife brought her famous lemon meringue pie - and I'm surely forgetting something (like the gorgeous veggie tray Anna made for us and sent with Jason, since she was at home with Otis and his fever).

Dan & I made up big batches of our Mai Passion cocktails (Mai Tais with passion fruit juice), and there was more wine than anyone could possibly drink.

It was a wonderful day. I only wish I'd taken more pictures!

I was also excited that thanks to some careful choices when shopping for supplies, bins with labels listing what went where, and conscientiousness by our guests, the party was nearly a zero-waste event! We were able to recycle, reuse, or compost nearly everything - and produced only a tiny bag of garbage - about the size of a plastic grocery bag!

The Gift of S'Mores

Our good friends Anna, Jason, and their son Otis dropped off homemade graham crackers, homemade marshmallows, and a couple chocolate bars this holiday season, which we discovered on our doorstep early one morning accompanied by a poem they wrote. It was such a wonderful way to start the day, and we only wish we'd been awake (or perhaps heard them stop by) so we could have chatted a bit and shown them our place.

Now that one of our fireplaces is usable (we're still working on #2), we were able to make a s'more the old fashioned way the other night, and enjoy it. Tonight, we went new-school with our approach, making use of our gas stove to roast the marshmallow. Thankfully, in both cases we avoided a repeat of 'The Great Tamale Fire of 2008' - when I tried cooking up homemade tamales given to us by Anna & Jason & Otis last holiday season.

To anyone who's never had a s'more featuring both a homemade marshmallow and homemade graham cracker, I highly recommend it. The graham cracker was firm but still had a moist, chewiness to it, and (as you can hopefully see in the photo) was glistening with a sprinkling of sugar. The marshmallow was soft, and neither cloyingly sweet nor spongey like store-bought impostors. Maybe if we ask nice, Anna & Jason will share their recipes?

Panang Pineapple Chicken Curry

Fresh Maui Gold Pineapple sent right from the islands

Mae Ploy Panang Curry Paste from my coworker

Potato Scallop, Salmon Roulade, and Carrot Puree

Tonight we watched Top Chef prior to me going into the kitchen to make what was planned to be a simple dinner - fig leaf wrapped salmon and potatoes.



But often when I watch cooking shows, I get inspired and want to put a little extra effort in. So I started some water boiling and cooked some carrots from our garden until they were soft, and then popped them in a blender with some olive oil and lemon juice until they were pureed. Next I cooked some red potatoes (a housewarming gift from Brent at Olsen Farms) and then mashed them with a little butter and milk. I took a tail fillet of pink salmon from Loki Fish Co., cut it in half lengthwise, and then rolled each half up before wrapping it in a fig leaf from our backyard and baking them for 12 minutes at 350 degrees F. In the meantime, I used a biscuit cutter to create a cylinder of mashed potatoes, which I seared off in a hot skillet to which I'd added some ghee - clarified butter - because it can take the heat without burning. I used a couple spatulas to flip the potato 'scallop' and sear the other side, before plating on a bed of the carrot puree alongside the salmon roulade, topped with some dill.

BBQ Chicken

After a walk around Seward Park (who knew it was so big and amazing?!) we grilled some chicken breasts on our indoor grill, coating them with yummy BBQ sauce given to us by Gerald & Jacqui. My barbecue skills are very minimal, so I can't say I did the sauce the justice it deserved, but it certainly elevated the chicken.

I forgot to photograph our actual dinner, but snapped these shots of our leftovers prepped for lunch tomorrow.

Lemon Meringue Gift

The closest I ever came to having a nutritionist was spending a week in the Costa Rican jungle with a yoga teacher/nutritionist as part of a yoga retreat that also included a class on nutrition. I'll never forget her suggestion to eat dessert first, so you can adjust your serving of dinner according to your appetite afterwards. Seemed like a brilliant plan to me... and perfect tonight.

One of Dan's coworkers, Jim, is wonderfully generous, and to thank Dan for helping him on some work lately, he brought us one of his wife's famous homemade pies. He even got Dan to reveal what his favorite type of pie is - so we got a homemade Lemon Meringue. I couldn't resist a slice before dinner, and it was amazing.

Hawai'i Day Five: Reuben's, Beer Tai, Dragonfruit, and Ono

I started my fifth day in paradise - my first waking up at The Falls - with a bowl of Golden Grahams. Not exactly exotic Island cuisine, but when you're on vacation for three weeks, you have to save money where you can. Plus, I get grouchy, followed by headachey, if I don't eat first thing in the morning, so having cereal and milk around was a bit of an insurance policy.




After checking out some of the exhibits at the Lyman Museum, and enjoying the Hawai`i-ana Live show at the Palace Theater, we headed to Reuben's for some Mexican food. The place had mixed reviews in guide books we read, and we never tried it - but Spencer & Scott checked it out last year while visiting Hilo for our wedding, and recommended it highly.



I'm glad they did, because they serve a great Lilikoi margarita (I stole a sip of Dan's), the service was quick, and the food was good at a good price. I ordered the Torta with fish, thinking it would be a light, economic option. At under $9, it was definitely the latter, but with a pile of avocado and a basket of seasoned waffle fries as an accompaniment, light will have to wait.







In addition to his lilikoi margarita, Dan ordered the Chicken Flauta, another budget menu item, which also turned out to be a heaping plate of food.



Considering how much we enjoyed the meal, and the good review our friends gave it, I suspect that even in Hawai`i, Mexican restaurants are subject to same strange attitudes that frustrate me in Seattle. Almost weekly I hear people complain that you can't get good Mexican food in Seattle - which baffles me, since I've had so many different varieties of good Mexican food in Seattle... and now in Hilo!



After so many meals out, I was eager to get in the kitchen again - and with the freshest ingredients at my fingertips, I was particularly excited to do some cooking. We swung by the Hilo Farmers Market after lunch and picked up mango, dragonfruit, lilikoi pulp, avocado, and okinawan sweet potatoes, then hit Suisan for some fresh caught Ono. Suisan is a fish market right on Hilo Bay, and is unlike any I've been to. Looking in the tubs of fresh catch around the room, I realized I recognized many of the fishes from my snorkeling books. I'd never seen so many colors of fish for sale, outside a pet store. Anna & Jason recommended it to us last year, when they came home with a huge chunk of Ono to share with us and Dan's folks.





Neither Dan nor I had eaten dragonfruit before, so we were interested in what it tastes like. It's not featured in The Hawai`i Farmers Market Cookbook we brought with us, so I turned to the web to figure out how to prepare it. Turns out, you just cut it in half and eat the insides, seeds and all. In many ways, it's similar to a kiwi fruit, both in form and flavor. It's very mild, but would make a good sorbet or cocktail garnish, I think. It's also beautiful fuschia.



As a little afternoon treat, I decided to keep exploring my obsession with the flavors in a Mai Tai by mixing one up with beer instead of dark rum, and light on the other ingredients. It actually turned out pretty good. I just can't decide if it should be called a Beer Tai, or a Mai Beer.



For dinner, I peeled and boiled the purple Okinawan sweet potatoes, then mashed them with a little soy milk and avocado. The Ono I pan seared on medium at first, then dropped down to low and let cook through, which took maybe 15 minutes or so. I topped the potatoes with the fish, then topped that with sliced avocado (drizzled in a little lime juice, to retain it's color) and some crushed mac nuts (a gift from the owners of The Falls). The colors were bright and the flavors went well together. I'd forgotten how much Ono tastes like chicken!



(Dan's writing all about our trip over at our other blog, The Dans In Hawai`i, so I'll just stick to writing what I know: food.)

Indian Cooking Class with Ruth

For Christmas, Ruth's boss gave her a free cooking class from his wife, Julie Little, who teaches at the Blue Ribbon Cooking School. Julie told Ruth to bring a friend, and I was incredibly grateful to be chosen as her cooking date for the night.

We met up downtown, walked up to her car on Capitol Hill, swung by Paul's place to drop off some Gatorade and bananas (he wasn't feeling well), then headed to Eastlake to the school. The location of the school is amazing - right on the water, in what was apparently an Azteca some time ago, but is now a perfect space for teaching cooking, and for holding events (they do weddings). One entire wall of every room is windows looking out on the lake, and there's a patio/dock on one end of the space, too.

We were greeted warmly by the staff, met Chef Julie, and were pointed to where we could get an apron and a cocktail. There was beer and wine, as well as two homemade cocktails inspired by the Indian theme of the night - a tamarind drink and a ginger cosmopolitan - both of which were delicious and perfectly refreshing on a hot almost-Summer evening. They also had a strawberry-mint drink and a lavendar lemonade that were non-alcoholic, and equally tasty.



Once nearly everyone had arrived, we washed up and got started making some appetizers - curry puffs (aka samosas) that Julie gave us a quick lesson in making, then set everyone to work trying their hand at rolling out the dough, adding filling, and sealing them shut. Chef Mark (an assistant for this course) set to work himself with a large wok of hot oil, making some spicy corn vada balls, and got some of our classmates up and running frying up the curry puffs. As batches of each were ready, they were passed around for everyone to enjoy.



While we noshed, Chef Julie introduced us to the basics of Indian cooking. We learned that Indian cooking uses primarily spices, not herbs (the reverse is true of many other Eastern culinary traditions), that 'curry' is a word used in Indian cooking to describe any stew-like dish, and she passed around containers of the key spices of Indian cooking. We also walked through how to make the spice mix garam masala, learned why it should be made fresh (ideally) and why we shouldn't bother with the powdered stuff in a jar (the aromatics are all but lost), and were all encouraged to make some for ourselves to take home.

Chef Julie then walked through all the dishes we'd be making, and then asked who'd like to do what. Ruth was excited about the Tandoori fish recipe, so we both pulled an Arnold Horshack ("ooh-ooh-ooh") and got picked for that dish. It turned out all it entailed was peeling garlic and ginger, tossing it in a food processor with spices, oil, and tamarind paste, then marinating the fish for awhile. (Later we laid the fish out on parchment lined baking sheets, and broiled the fish for about 10-15 minutes.)



Since we had so little to do with the fish, we also took on frying up the papadums. We had a lot of fun when we realized we could use the tongs to 'free-form' the softened papadums into shapes before they dried and hardened. The goal was to create a swan, which Ruth very nearly pulled off.




Other students in the class were busy making lamb biryani, curry chicken, raita, chutney, lentil daal, rice, and seemingly countless other Indian dishes. The two kitchens were a flurry of activity.



During our downtime, Ruth and I got a chance to chat a bit with Chef Julie, and she asked what I do for a living... then recanted and asked what I do in my spare time, so I told her I cook and write about food. She talked about how the class is mainly aimed at beginners, but I assured her I was definitely learning new things and having a great time - and took the opportunity to ask some questions. It was wonderful to get to ask a chef questions about terminology and ingredients, and her enthusiasm toward teaching was readily apparent. We went to the back kitchen to get the fish in the broiler, and talked about Thai vs. Indian 'curry' and showed me galangal - a ginger-like root that I've not yet worked with. She also showed me her favorite Indian cookbook, Curries Without Worries, which is unfortunately out of print but still can be tracked down on Amazon and elsewhere.



Somehow, despite a very wide range of experience levels and many people just getting their feet wet with cooking, everything turned out beautifully. It seemed like, all of a sudden, a long banquet table was filled with food and our noses were filled with amazing, rich, spicy smells.



I was only able to capture photos of a few of the finished dishes, but did load my plate up with a little of everything. Ruth and I found a seat and were joined by Dylan, a lawyer who's friends with the owners of the cooking school and lives on a houseboat just down the block. We had a great conversation and ended up invited to swing by his place on Saturday when we're out on the electric boats - even though he'll be away. He assured us his wife, Misha, would love to have a boat full of strangers dropping by.













Just as we were finishing up our meal, Chef Julie brought out dishes of a dessert they'd prepared of ricotta cheese & sugar mixed, then baked, then cut into circles and coated with a mix of cream, spices, and pistachios. The creaminess and richness of the spices made it seem decadent, without being filling, heavy or overtly sweet.



And Chef Mark brought out decaf coffee for everyone - which I normally wouldn't go for, but the presentation and pairing with thick, whipped cream on top was too enticing for me to pass up.



As things wrapped up, Ruth & I got a chance to chat with Chef Julie and our host, Bryce - an old friend from my days up at Western Washington University. They, and the rest of the staff made us feel so at home, and all the little touches made it such a great experience. I highly recommend checking out a class there if you get a chance.

Blue Ribbon Cooking School
2501 Fairview Ave. E
Seattle, WA 98102
206-328-2442