This week's dinners started out smoothly. I was very excited to have a local source for eggs, so it was ham and egg cups with fresh farm eggs on Monday and a new salad on Tuesday.

In particular, fruit and vegetable salad salad was a hit. The combination of nashi/oranges and a lime dressing make for a very clean and zippy salad.  Click here for the recipe.  

After that, not so much.  

Wednesday's Chicken curry should have been a no-brainer. Chicken, vegetables and either an S&B or Vermont brand curry block. However, sometime before 6:00 pm, definitely before the chicken and vegetables are already cooking in the pot, one should make sure that there is a block of curry in one's house. I missed that step.

At 6:15 pm, ad-hoc chicken soup developed after adding a container each of vegetable and chicken broth, some spices and orzo. By 6:45 pm, it became orzo-risotto. By the end of the night, it would go into a pyrex dish, destined to become a chicken/orzo bake. 

Lessons Learned:
1) A block of Japanese curry really is essential for making Japanese curry.
2) Make sure you have it before you start cooking.
3) If you need something to absorb A LOT of liquid, orzo is a very good option.

Guy Fieri made Thursday's turkey/brie puff pastry tarts sound so deceptively simple. I added a few more items and the flavors are definitely all there--turkey, apples, cranberries, a dollop of mustard and brie--in a puff pastry. However, a few construction and quantity issues need to be worked out. They weren't bad and there were no leftovers but that's because teeny-tiny tarts are a a tad insubstantial for two teenagers and two hungry adults.

Lessons Learned:
1) TV is not real life, especially Food Network TV and Hawaii 5-0.
2) Some brie does not melt, even after 30 minutes at 400 degrees. At all. Best to find a soft version.
3) "Tart" no matter how much the yield, shouldn't be the main course of dinner.

Friday's dinner was postponed so we can eat the orzo before it threatens further expansion.

Eat Well. Be Well.

This brine reminded me of "potion" I made as a kid when playing out in the yard. Pick some weeds, sticks, twigs, dirt and add water.

It's from the November 2011Bon Appetit turkey recipe and we tried it for our annual Christmas potluck last month. Click here for the original recipe (from Bon Appetit). 

If I make this again, I will definitely consider an apple cider to apple juice swap. Besides about $4, what exactly is the difference? 

Pasteurization. Apple cider is a perishable liquid that is not pasteurized or homogenized. Apple juices takes that apple cider, filters out all the solids, and then pasteurizes it. They say it affects the taste, and for drinking this is important. I'm just not convinced that using cider in brine makes it that much tastier.

The turkey was a beautiful color as advertised, but in my head, I had "Chinese roast duck" flavor, which this definitely did not have. There was just a hint of anise and apple. 

The biggest issue was that there was no liquid to make any kind of meaningful sauce with. An apple/shoyu/anise sauce, even a light one would have been a great complement to the turkey. 

I'll keep the Bon Appetit page bookmarked, but it won't be going into the Greenhouse just yet. I may try it again with a chicken, using apple juice and seeing if I can get any kind of sauce/gravy going.
Any other suggestions are most welcome!

Eat Well. Be Well.

This past weekend, we hosted our annual Christmas potluck. And yes, with respect and appreciation for other religions and cultures, it is still Christmas in this household. 

The main meats this year were Crock Pot Kalua Pig and a new Asian-style brined turkey (more on that later this week), for which our guests were guinea pigs. We also attempted a miso-mustard sauce for green beans that we wisely tasted before subjecting out guests to it. Miso and mustard were just not meant to be friends, so it was a quick fix with a Shoyu-Sesame sauce instead.

What can you do with leftover Kalua pig and turkey? Here's what's cooking this week.

Monday
My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice using kalua pig and kim chee. Any salted pork product makes a mean fried rice. Pairing kim chee, which gives a little more crunch and zing to the overall texture, and kalua pig, which is very soft and almost sweet, is winning.

Tuesday
Turkey Satay Pillsbury Manapua. This is a grand experiment. I'm tossing the leftover turkey, shredded carrots and probably chard with Chicken Satay sauce and then using the construction techniques of Pillsbury Manapua.

Wednesday
Hot Chicken Salad, using turkey. I love this recipe and don't make it often enough because the majority of the household is not crazy about olives. However, the influential minority that cooks dinner loves olives, so it's on the menu this week.

Thursday
Pistachi-zu Tofu. Something light before Christmas.

Friday
Amici's Pizza and Hockey Night. I've been craving Amici's Boston and Milano pizzas for a good month now and have also saved up for it. 


I'll be posting the Asian brined turkey later this week as well as potluck items for Christmas eve and Christmas Day. 'Til then...Eat Well.Be Well.

Shepherd's Pie is ideal for leftovers roulette, and when you use the Thanksgiving leftovers instead of the more traditional ground beef or lamb and canned peas and carrots, it's that much better. I found a skeleton recipe from PGEW (Poor Girl Eats Well) for our post-Thanksgiving Shepherd's Pie. This is a knock-it-together kind of dinner, so here's what I used:

1 onion, chopped
The rest of the leftover baby carrots (about half a bag), chopped
4 stalks of celery, also chopped
1/2 carton of leftover chicken broth (vegetable would work also)
A few handfuls of eftover turkey, chopped
About 1 cup of the leftover Make-ahead Mushroom (+ Onion) Gravy
Thyme
Marjoram
Poultry seasoning
The rest of the mashed potatoes, maybe 3 potatoes worth
Milk
Grated sharp cheddar cheese

Chop vegetables and turkey so that they are all approximately the same size. Toss the onions into a large pan with the rest of the chicken broth and cook over medium heat. Add carrots and celery. Add chopped turkey, thyme, marjoram and poultry seasoning to taste. Toss in the rest of the gravy and stir. Let the mixture reduce slightly, but it shouldn't be dry. Pour into a 9 x 13 pan. 

I then microwaved the mashed potatoes. Add milk to re-hydrate. NOTE: This may not be necessary, but our mashies got a little overcooked the first time, so some help was needed. Toss in a little bit of grated cheese.

Spread mashed potatoes over the turkey/vegetable mix. Lightly sprinkle grated cheese over the potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbly and the edges are turning brown.

Turned out well, emptied out 3 Tupperwares, and the kids had seconds and requested it for lunch the next day, so this is a good sign.

Eat Well. Be Well.

 We tried a few new things this year--most notably, salting the turkey instead of tried-and-true brining. A little gutsy to experiment with the main course, and thank goodness it worked out!

Salted turkey = Unanimous thumbs up
 After a few years of self-brining, last year, we did pre-brined (it was a busy time), fresh turkey, and felt that the meat was tasty, but a little bit mushy.
 
This year, we did again opted a fresh turkey, and salted the skin instead of brining. As you can see, it was very popular. Tasty, juicy and with a whisper of lemon/herb. The most promising sign was that my relatives took home lots of turkey and sadly for us, very few leftovers. Click here for the recipe.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We've had it at our home for at least 10 years now, ever since my San Francisco cousin's oven "broke" a week before Thanksgiving, many moons ago. We have anywhere from 20-30 people--my cousins and their kids, my cousins' cousins, my Aunty and Uncle, my Mom and sometimes my niece or other Hawaii relative, our friend's Terry's parents, our friend Brian's dad, sister and Aunty, and sometimes, my college-aged nephew's friends and various visiting friends. 

Everyone is welcome and everyone is like family. Like a proper Hawaii house, we've never run out of food. Here's what we'll be eating:

Turkey & fresh cranberry sauce--paradoxically, we love Spam, but wouldn't dream of eating canned cranberry "sauce"
Cornbread stuff with dried fruits--using my LA-Aunty's SoCal Buddhist Cornbread
Candied yams in all their buttery, marshmallow-ey finest--made by my Davis Aunty
Baked yams--also made by my Davis Aunty, for those of us who are supposed to eat better
Some kind of cooked vegetable--maybe Brussels sprouts, green beans or broccoli
Mashed potatoes & gravy, lots of gravy
Pumpkin pies (2)--"Full Fat" and Non-fat, made by my cousin
Pecan pies (2)---because one just isn't enough

By now you're thinking, "Big deal. Everyone makes that." Here's what else we'll be eating:
Fresh sashimi--because it's not a proper occasion without it
Portuguese sausage stuffing
Either Chinese chicken or won bok coleslaw
White rice, inari sushi (made by my Aunty) AND spam musubi

Chinese noodles, char siu bao and assorted dim sum, brought by the above-mentioned SF cousins (see below)

And for snacks:
Raw veggies and some kind of dip
Some sort of cheese and crackers
Spam musubi
Guacamole
Hummus and/or tapenade
Arare (Japanese rice crackers) and Maui onion flavored macadamia nuts

Everyone brings their 'specialty', and the variety (thinkThanksgiving Plus) is
what I love about Thanksgiving and my ohana. So where-ever you are--enjoy
the Thanksgiving Holidays with your Ohana. And tell me what you are eating!

Eat well. Be well.