chop A Culinary Playground

Summer Vacation - Cooking through Europe

It is summer vacation for my kids.  For me that means a couple extra hours to cook at home since I am not dealing with the  commute to take my son to school.  Since we are not going away this summer we have deciding to take a culinary trip to Europe at home. Every few days we will be discovering the cuisine of the different countries in Europe. The kids will be helping out in the kitchen and also learning a little bit about the cuisines bite by bite.

The last four days we have been in Greece.  I researched recipes on the great Greek culinary site Kalofagas (everything I have ever made from this site has been wonderful) and a couple Greek cookbooks. Everyone thought each meal was wonderful.

The first night we had Roasted Leg of Lamb with Rosemary potatoes.  I also made a Tzatziki sauce and a great salad with tomatoes and capers.

The marinade for the lamb was easy.  2 cups red wine, 6 cloves garlic chopped, 2 tablespoons rosemary, 1 tablespoon oregano, 1/2 cup olive oil, juice on 1 lemon, salt and pepper.

The next night we made the classic greek comfort food Pastitsio.

It is like a lasagna made with Bucatini.  This was a big hit and was requested to be made again.

The next night we made to savory pies, dill and chicken and spinach both were encased in filo.  The were very good especially the chicken pie that had lots of green onion, dill and garlic.  I did not get a picture of them.

For our last Greek meal we enjoyed some wodrful souvlaki made of pork and a greek eggplant and pepper recipe that I got from Kalofagas.

 The pork was marinated in grated onion, garlic, dill, oregano and lemon juice.  The great thing about the souvlaki is that it is cooked over slowly cooked over low heat and basted.  The slow grilling makes it a very enjoyable grilling experience especially with a glass of Rose'.

The souvlaki was served with minted rice pilaf.

 
 

This dish was incredible.  I got the recipe from at Kalofagas it is called Mantza.  It is a spicy side dish of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and feta.

Our next stop is Italy!
 

Fried Poke

I know it sounds absurd but wonder if you had some left over poke from your poke bar party? What could you make with the leftovers?  Fried Poke!

 
Fried Poke was made popular by Hawaii chef Sam Choy.  It is simple to make and tastes great.  Sam serves it several ways in his restaurant, as a salad, in a wrap, on rice.

Fried Poke

2    Cups poke, residual soy sauce drained off

2    Teaspoons peanut oil (can substitute any oil with

  high burn point)

1    Tablespoon furikaki (sesame seed and seaweed

      seasoning)

Heat a wok to high, add oil, and sear poke at the high heat for just a few seconds until it gets a little color.  You want the fish to remain very rare on the inside.  Remove from eat and sprinkle with furikake.

Curried Turkey Salad

Curried Chicken Salad was a popular lunch time salad at our restaurant. It is typical country or beach club fare here in Hawaii served in a half of a papaya. 

I substituted turkey and it is just as delicious and a great late summer lunch or dinner.

Curried Turkey Salad

serves 4

1 Pound cooked turkey or chicken, cut in

   to bit size cubes

1/4  Maui onion, minced

2 Green onion, sliced, green and white

   parts

2 Stalks celery, sliced

1/4  Cup red bell pepper, diced

1/4  Cup golden raisins

1/4  Cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

1 Tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped

1/2  Cup mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons curry powder

       Salt and Pepper

Combine the ingredients let sit in refrigerator for one hour.  Serve in a seeded half of a papaya or avocado.

Tomato Vodka Salad

Several years ago I tore a recipe out of a magazine for cherry tomatoes macerated in vodka.  I always wanted to make it for a catering job but never did because of the tedious task of  peeling the tomatoes.  I have long lost the recipe.  This year I seem to have a lot of cherry tomatoes in the garden from some rogue plants and I decide to try to make this tomato and vodka salad.

This salad would be great for brunch or a hot summer afternoon.

Cherry Tomato and Vodka Salad

serves 8

2 pints cherry tomatoes

2 cups vodka

  Coarse grain sea salt (I used Hanepepe Alae

  from our friend's salt bed) 

  Fresh basil, jullienned

Put a pot of water to boil.  Cut a X on the bottom of the tomato.  Do not cut too deep, just cut the skin.  Place in boiling water for 15 seconds, drain and place in an ice bath. Peel skin off. Place in container with vodka and basil. Macerate for 3 - 10 hours.  Drain (vodka can be used for Bloody Marys) Place tomatoes in individual glasses and top with sea salt.

This would also be excellent with some Buratta Cheese

Cheese and a Glass of Wine V

For this installment of Cheese and a Glass of Wine I choose Burrata.

Burrata is a cheese that is comprised of an outer layer of  fresh mozzarella cheese and is filled with a mixture of panna (cream and the mozzarella)  It is light and delicious.

Burrata was originally made with buffalo milk but now is made with cows milk.  From my research it should be eaten with in 24 – 48 hours of it being made.  So the fact that I live in Hawaii and the cheese was shipped means that the cheese was at least one week old.  Even so it was very nice.  It would be great for an afternoon luncheon paired with tomatoes and basil.

I paired it with a Riesling called Kung Fu Girl from K Vintners.  I found out about this wine when I went to a wine showcase last month and really  loved the wines from this small vintner from Walla Walla  Washington.  I was lucky to find a bottle from a small store here called The Wine Stop.  It is a great Riesling with a pear, apricot nose.  It reminds me of one of my favorite domestic Rieslings Stony Hill.  It may have not been the perfect pairing with the tomatoes in my dish, but it was a lovely summer afternoon wine.

Hawaiian Baby Luau

It is a tradition here in Hawaii to commemorate a baby’s first birthday with a huge luau.  Hundreds of family and friend come together to celebrate baby’s first year with large amounts of food and music.  In the ohana (family) tradition, most of the food is prepared by various family members.  An uncle will cook the imu pig.  aunties will get together and wrap lau lau over the previous months and freeze them.  A hanai (informally adopted) brother will go fishing for the poke. 

I attended a baby luau for 350 this weekend for my husband’s friend’s grandson.  Since we own a catering company we did a lot of the coordination between what each family member was making and then threw in some other things to round out the menu.   Of course there was way too much food and guests brought home lots of leftovers.

Upper left: Uncle Bunny's Squid Luau (squid cooked with luau leaves and coconut milk, I think it was the best thing there), Grandpa Eddie's Chicken Long Rice (rice noodles cooked in chicken stock, shoyu with pieces of chicken and green onion),Steamed Sweet Potato, Waihole Poi

Bottom Left:  Pineapple (cut up by various aunties) Lomi Lomi Salmon (tomato, white and green onion and salted salmon) Lau Lau, Kalua Pig (a whole 350 pound pig cooked in an underground oven called an Imu for 14 hours)

 

Lower left going clockwise: Opihi (a hard to get rock clinging mollusk),Shoyu Poke (raw Ahi tuna marinated with green onions and soy sauce) Salt Cod salad also known as Bacalao (non traditional, with tomatoes and cucumbers, reflecting Grandma's  Portuguese heritage), Limu Poke( marinated with Limu (fresh seaweed), roasted kukui nuts (candle nuts) and sesame seeds) - it doesn't get any better that this!

 

 

Non traditional sides

Lower left clockwise: Moroccan Fish Chermoula (my husband's uncle's contribution), Korean Kal Bi Short ribs, Chinese Noodles

 

 

Dessert

Lower left clockwise

Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Kulolo (dense steamed taro, coconut, brown sugar pudding) Haupia (creamy coconut pudding)   Check out the great plate by Marx Foods,  I will have more about them later

 

Please continue for more picture

Food and Wine Paradise Pairing Paradise

On day two of the Hawaii Food and Wine Paradise I attended a wine pairing seminar.  What a lovely location to taste wine.  The chefs that prepared the lunch were  Russell Siu of 3660 on the Rise, Ed Kenny of TOWN restaurant, Diego Oka from La Mar in Peru, and Peter Pahk from the Silverado Resort. 

The premise of the tasting was that both the chefs and the MC Tim Love would each choose a wine to pair with their dishes prepared. and we were to pick the best pairing.

For more about the Pairing in Paradise and more pictures, please continue on.