Favorite Grass Fed Beef Recipes

Beef tongue tacos made with Hawaiian grass fed beef

I'm headed off to the Taste of the Hawaiian Range today, a celebration of Hawaiian agriculture highlighting grass fed beef. Luckily, several different cuts of grass fed beef can be found in many locations on the Big Island and is served at many restaurants. If you'd like to try cooking with it at home, I've got some recipes for you to try below.

Grass Fed Steak with Kona Coffee Marinade (scroll down to find the recipe at the bottom of the post).

Liver and Onions with Alii Mushrooms and Sauteed Chard

Shredded Beef Tongue Tacos (my personal favorite)

Southwestern Meatballs with Creamy Cilantro Dipping Sauce

Grass fed steak with coffee marinade

Cochon Island: Pork Party on the Big Island

You had me at nose to tail. Some of Hawaii's most talented chefs gathered at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Saturday, September 21st to celebrate sustainably raised, heritage breed pigs as part of the Cochon U.S. Tour, now in its fifth year. One of only 18 stops along the way, the Big Island hosted the first stop ever in the Hawaiian Islands...

To read the rest of this post, head on over to HuffPost Hawaii. This is my first post as a HuffPost blogger, wish me luck! 

The Great Waikoloa Poke Contest

Beautiful amateur contestant poke display

Fish and seafood of all kinds were celebrated at The Great Waikoloa Poke Contest, part of the Hawaii Island Festival, September 7, 2013. Amateurs and professionals competed for top honors in traditional, limu (seaweed), soy sauce, and cooked poke categories. Meaning "to slice," poke can be made with any fish or seafood the cook dreams up, although this contest made a point to only include locally sourced seafood.

Packed house for poke tasting

Aloha was in the air as contestants gathered early Saturday morning to assemble their dramatic display tables and plate their poke entries for the blind judging. The awards were based 100% on taste, with the exception of one award for presentation, judged separately.

Amateur presentation winner

Hosted by the Waikoloa Beach Marriott, the event also included a poke making demonstration, an appearance by the Royal Court, and of course a tasting for the public.

The chefs from Waikoloa Beach Marriott swept the professional division, including the presentation award. Amateur winners were Jason Wood (shoyu), Anthony Carvalho (cooked), Doug Wang (traditional) and Grady (Pono) Bintliff (limu).

My "diner" themed display for the BLT poke. Get it?

My BLT poke entry didn't make the cut, but it was hard not to be impressed by all of the wonderful and creative entries. Overall, this was a fun event overflowing with aloha and I'd love to compete again next year. If you'd like to try my BLT poke, the recipe is below. Mahalo to When Pigs Fly Island Charcuterie for making the awesome bacon.

BLT poke

BLT Poke

Makes about 2 pounds

1 lb ahi

2 TBL shoyu

5 slices thick-cut bacon

1 French baguette loaf, if desired

2 TBL butter, if desired

1/2 lb Waimea tomatoes

3 TBL mayonnaise

2 TBL fresh lemon juice

2 green onions, chopped and divided

3 cups Manoa lettuce leaves, if desired

salt to taste (if needed)

Pre-heat oven to 375. Cut ahi into bite-sized pieces, toss with shoyu in a medium bowl and allow to marinate in fridge.

Line a baking sheet with foil and place bacon slices on top. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until small bubbles form on the bacon. When done, place bacon on paper towel to drain, then chop into small pieces when cooled.

While the bacon is cooking, slice the baguette into very thin slices, about ¼ inch thick.  Melt butter and brush both sides of bread using a pastry brush. Place on a baking sheet and toast in oven about 10-12 minutes, flipping bread once, until both sides are golden brown. [This step is only if desired, can be served without bread, butter and lettuce]

Chop tomatoes and place in a large bowl with the chopped bacon. Drain excess shoyu from ahi and add fish to bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk mayonnaise, lemon juice, and one chopped green onion. Add mayo mixture to large bowl and toss lightly to coat. Taste, add salt if desired.

[This step is only if desired, can be served without bread, butter and lettuce] To serve, place one small piece of lettuce on each piece of toast. Top with a spoonful of poke and garnish with chopped green onion. Enjoy!

Cheese Plate 101

For those not in the know, I am very fancy. We enjoy a fine selection of canned beans in the cupboard, toss rocks for our dog to retrieve and if you're lucky I'll even wear make-up on the weekend.

Another way we keep it fancy is by enjoying cheese plates down at the beach on a Saturday evening. If you live in Kona, head down to Westside Wines where you can buy samples of their large cheese collection for $2-3 plus a great bottle of wine to wash it down.

For this fancy cheese plate date you'll need:

- A decent bottle of wine. White or rose is nice for a picnic, but get what you like.
- A selection of cheeses. If you are lucky enough to live near a cheese store, grab a few small portions of whatever sounds good, try some you've never heard of. Be bold. If you are not lucky enough to live near a cheese store, places like Safeway have some decent cheeses. Or slice up the cheddar block in your fridge, it's no big deal.
- Root through the contents of your refrigerator door for things like olives, artichoke hearts, peppers, pickles, kim chee maybe a sauce or two. Don't worry about trying to pair them with the cheese, just grab.
- Cut some veggies and fruit like cucumbers, broccoli, peppers, carrots, apples or peaches. Fresh herbs are nice.
- Find some bread or crackers.
- Pack up your goodies, don't forget wine glasses, a wine key, a cutting board, small knife, and some napkins.
- Find a picnic spot. We like Otec because we can bring the puppy.
- Mix and match! A little brie with some honey and jalepeno? Truffled goat cheese on toast with olives? Get creative. Get fancy.

The puppy that chases rocks

Sustainable Camp Eats

Rare and endangered ahina'ahina (silversword)

My HYCC team spent five days camping and doing conservation work at Kona Hema, an 8,000 acre nature preserve stewarded by The Nature Conservancy in south Kona. 

Ancient camp site high above the coastline

We spent most of our work hours fixing the 25 miles of fencing that keeps damaging pigs, goats, and sheep out of the preserve. 

The gorgeous ohia lehua

We also found some time to admire the pristine forest around us, including the biggest koa tree in the world and many rare and endangered plants. We were able to pick plums (non-native) an I attempted to make a pie with them, see pictured. How lucky is that? 

Plum pie attempt, topped with instant oatmeal packets

I've harped on this before and I'll do it again, it has been super important to me that my team eats as sustainably as possible on our camping trips being that we are a conservation group and all. Luckily KTA has a slew of locally grown and made products, so I've done all my shopping with them. In case you're wondering where else to find local food products in the Kona area, Sack n Save and Costco also have plenty of choices. The farmers' market wasn't an option (this year) because I only had a credit card to buy food with. 

Meals with a * by them were made using locally grown or produced ingredients. A list of locally made products I purchased for this trip is below the menu. 

Day	Meal
Monday	*Dinner: Spaghetti & salad
Tuesday	*Breakfast: Portuguese sausage, eggs, rice
	Lunch: sandwiches, chips, fruit, cookies
	*Dinner: Pork adobo with veggies & rice
Wednesday	Breakfast: Yogurt, oatmeal, fruit
	Lunch: sandwiches, chips, fruit, cookies
	*Dinner: Burgers w/sweet potatoes & chips
Thursday	*Breakfast: eggs, toast, fruit
	Lunch: sandwiches, chips, fruit, cookies
	*Dinner: Beef stew & rice
Friday	Breakfast: oatmeal, yogurt, fruit
	Lunch: sandwiches, chips, fruit, cookies

Locally made products purchased for this camping trip at KTA:

Grass-fed beef (ground and stew meat)

Pork belly

Eggs

Lettuce

Sprouts

Cucumber

Bananas

Kale

Yogurt

Sweet potatoes

Taro

Bread

Vintage Honolulu

We snuck in a couple vaca days in Honolulu before I had to report to work at my summer job this week. I'll be leading a team of 17 and 18 year olds on camping adventures on the Kona side of the Big Island, where I live. Along the way, we will be doing conservation work like building trails, planting native trees, and removing invasive species. I am more than stoked.

We stayed in Waikiki and just chilled since Dustin had hurt his back. This was totally fine with me having just finished a nightmare 2012-2013 school year, I needed some downtime.

Everywhere we went in Honolulu clues from the past kept popping up. I couldn't help but wonder what Waikiki would have been like in the '60s.

We also took some time to look at a few sailboats, we'd like to buy one next summer and plan so do a little world cruising. For real.

Aloha vintage Honolulu!

My friend Danielle introduced me to the La Mariana Sailing Club tiki bar. It is fully decked out in tiki regalia, complete with dive bar status. If you have never been, it is a must.

Of course we had SPAM musubis for breakfast, this one has bacon and egg. Nom.

For Memorial Day, Magic Island hosts an annual lantern lighting ceremony in which a message is placed in a lantern for a lost loved one, lit and set free in the ocean. (Don't worry, the lanterns are collected so they won't harm the environment). It is a beautiful way to remember and honor those that have gone before us.

We enjoyed some classy drinks poolside at The Modern Honolulu including a fab deconstructed mai tai garnished with a shiso leaf.

Even the carpet patterns are vintage.

Love the turquoise.

A rare snapshot of me. Hi!

Review: The Strawberry Patch

I often dream about what it would be like to own a little cafe with a chalkboard menu and a tiny, intimate dining room decorated in antique furniture and lace. The offerings would change with the seasons and my guests would linger for hours over espresso and freshly made pastries.

That dream may be distant for me but is a reality for the owners of The Strawberry Patch. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday in Kainaliu, this adorable little bistro has all the charm of a family-run cafe plus all the quality of a high-end restaurant.

The menu has something for everyone from locally sourced salads to pasta and pizza, sandwiches and even a selection of curries. Specials change with the tides but are guaranteed to please.

We tried the fried green tomatoes, roasted beet salad, macaroni and cheese, and a cheesy mushroom pasta dish that was on special. All were excellent and lovingly prepared with many locally sourced ingredients. There was also a large selection of freshly made desserts, we had the apple cake and loved it. It felt like going to a friend's house for dinner.

If you want to avoid the road noise in the outdoor seating area, call ahead to reserve a table inside at (808)322-9060. There is no alcohol available at The Strawberry Patch, but you can bring your own and they will provide glasses, and don't charge for corkage. Ok for families, but not a lot of space for large groups.

Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory Tour

Cocoa beans drying in the sun

The Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory is one of only a handful of places in the United States where chocolate goes from bean to bar. In fact, it was the very first. And right here on the Big Island, no less.

The Coopers bought the small farm in 1997, with about 1 acre of already established cacao trees. Not knowing exactly what they had, the cocoa beans were tested and revealed to be of both the forestero and criollo varieties, ideal for making high-quality chocolate.

Which is exactly what they did. Today, the Coopers sell their single-bean chocolate (a rarity in the chocolate world) all over Hawaii in addition to offering tours of their farm.

Mr. Cooper, owner of OHCF, wows the crowd with raw cocoa peans straight from the pod 

Come on a tour and you'll be treated to the smell of cocoa beans drying on racks in the sun and a glimpse of the otherworldly manner in which cacao pods grow straight out of the trunks of their mother trees. Cooper likens the cacao harvest to an "Easter egg hunt," as the ripe pods come in various bright hues such as magenta, yellow, and orange. The pods are then split open to reveal slimy white beans that  self-ferment in wooden crates until they shed their outer coating. The beans are then dried, cleaned, roasted, winnowed (to remove the hard, outer shell), conched (the process of adding soy lecithin and vanilla powder), and tempered to become chocolate. Witnessing this involved process brings chocolate appreciation to a whole new level and is highly recommended.

Freshly picked ripe cacao pods

Tours can be had at their farm in Keauhou on Wednesday and Fridays at 9am for only $15. Be sure to book ahead, these tours sell out fast. More info: http://ohcf.us/tour/

This farm tour was part of the 2013 Big Island Chocolate Festival.

Big Island Chocolate Festival Prelude Reception

Chocolate and wine flowed freely under a gloamy light at the Big Island Chocolate Festival's kickoff event hosted by The Shops at Mauna Lani.

Chef Wressell explaining chocolate and wine pairings

The tasting reception included chocolate and wine pairings by chef Donald Wressell of Guittard Chocolate Company, known for his 2011 win at the National Pastry Team Championship. Wressell emphasized the similarities in both wine and chocolate tasting, in that terroir (where the grapes/beans are grown) plays an essential role in the overall flavor.

Ruth's Chris chocolate samplings

Several restaurants offered sweet and savory samplings. Monstera created a spicy ahi roll with tuna, pineapple and chocolate sauce. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse served chocolates with mango, raspberry, and chocolate mousse as well as a lava cake. Just Tacos provided churros with white and dark chocolate drizzles. And the evening's standout, Tommy Bahama Tropical Cafe, presented pulled pork sliders with  a chocolate hoisin sauce and last year's winning dessert, a malted chocolate pie which didn't disappoint.
Westside Wines and Johnson Bros. of Hawaii both supplied the revelers with wines meant to pair well with chocolate.

Proceeds from the reception support the new Hawai'i Community College-Palamanui kitchen and Kona Pacific Charter school. The prelude reception was part of a series of events in the Big Island Chocolate Festival going on now through March 23, 2013. For a full list of event details visit http://bigislandchocolatefestival.com/ .

Vegan Avocado Ice Cream

What if I told you this ice cream was vegan?

What if I told you this can be made without an ice cream maker?

It's creamy and simple and pretty darn healthy for a dessert. Oh, and if you make it with Maui sugar, it makes a nice little Sustainable Sunday treat. Would you run off and make some? Let's do it!

Avocado Ice Cream
serves 3-4

2 very ripe avocados
1/4 cup sugar  or agave syrup
2 TBL lemon juice

Chocolate sauce:
1 part cocoa powder
1 part agave syrup

Cut avocados into chunks and toss with lemon juice. Place in a freezer safe container, taking care to spread the chunks out some so they don't freeze in one large block.

Once avocado is frozen, place in a blender or food processor with sugar or agave and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness or add more lemon juice if desired.

To make chocolate sauce, mix cocoa and agave together in a small bowl.

Serve immediately topped with chocolate sauce. Enjoy!

Green Pie at the Grow Hawaiian Festival

This weekend we enjoyed the Grow Hawaiian Festival held at the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Gardens. In addition to enjoying the garden itself, packed full of native and canoe plants, the festival hosted lei making, poi pounding, plant identification booths, a seed exchange, and of course a recipe contest.

Lei making at the Grow Hawaiian Fest

The idea was to come up with a dish that included as many locally grown foods as possible. If you have hung around this blog for any length of time, you know that I'm WAY into growing, eating, and cooking with locally harvested goodies. The recipe exchange and contest was hosted by Feed Hawaii, an organization that supports food security.

Me with recipe contest prizes (fruit!)

Because there were only a few of us that entered the contest, we were all winners! The real prize was sharing our recipes and spreading the word that eating local matters. Particularly in Hawaii, where most people depend on shipped-in foods, and prices are extremely high because of it, we need to make an effort to buy local when we can.

And guess what? You don't need to have a garden and you don't need to shop at a farmer's market to achieve this goal. Everything in the recipe below was purchased at my local grocery store. If you keep your eyes peeled, you'll see that there many locally grown and made items on offer at the store including produce, milk, cheese, tea, coffee, nuts, oil, and meats. Do the islands a favor and add a locally grown product to your grocery list, it's an easy way to preserve this land we love. End rant. See recipe below.

Big Island Green Pie

Big Island Green Pie

Serves 8 as an appetizer

·      2 pounds Big Island greens (I used a mix of spinach, kale, and taro leaves. You could also use chard or collards.)

·      2 island grown green onions

·      ½ cup island grown flat leaf parsley

·      5 oz Big Island goat cheese

·      2 farm fresh eggs

·      Salt & pepper to taste

·      1 package phyllo dough (not a local product)

·      1/3 cup olive oil (not a local product)

Preheat oven to 350. Steam veggies until just wilted, strain and squeeze to remove excess liquid. If using taro leaves, choose young ones and be sure to steam for at least 15 minutes to avoid itchy mouth when eating. Chop.

In a medium bowl add chopped greens, chopped green onion, chopped parsley, cheese, and slightly beaten eggs. Add salt & pepper to taste and stir to combine.

Oil an 8x8 inch baking dish. Cut 12 pieces of phyllo dough to fit dish, taking care to cover the dough as you’re working so it doesn’t dry out. Place one piece of phyllo down in the dish, and brush with oil. Repeat this until you have 6 layers.

Spread greens mixture evenly over layers. Layer 6 more phyllo sheets over the greens, taking care to oil each one.

Bake for 30-50 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool before cutting into squares. Enjoy!

Grilled Sweet and Sour Coleslaw with Fennel

I'm not teasing you. I'm not. I'M NOT. It's just that backyard barbecues are a normal thing around these parts, even in February. So if you are reading this from a colder part of the world, just think of the following recipe as something to put on your list for when warmer weather rolls back around.

To make this salad, you'll need to fire up the grill and hire a grill master.

You'll need a helper in the kitchen, too as you whip up the dressing.

A cold glass of lemonade topped with a fennel frond keeps the grill master cool and refreshed.

And an ocean view around sunset time won't hurt either.

Happy Sustainable Sunday! All components of this lovely meal were locally sourced: sausage from When Pigs Fly Island Charcuterie, cabbage from KTA, fennel from Keauhou Farmer's Market, lemons from the backyard, and sugar from Maui. Recipe for coleslaw is below.

Grilled Sweet and Sour Coleslaw with Fennel
serves 2-4 (This recipe can be easily doubled)

1/4 red cabbage
2 fennel bulbs with fronds attached
1 green onion
1 TBL olive oil
salt & pepper

For dressing:
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
3 TBL sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Cut fennel bulbs in half length wise, remove and discard stems but keep and set aside fronds. Cabbage quarter should be in a wedge-like shape, see photo above. Brush all sides of veggies with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place veggies on a hot grill for 3-4 minutes per side (just the 2 cut sides of the cabbage is fine) or until grill marks are present.

While the veggies are grilling, gather dressing ingredients and place in a small sauce pan over medium low heat for 4-5 minutes or until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly.

Chop green onion and about 1/2 cup of the fennel fronds and place in a salad bowl. Once they have cooled some, chop grilled veggies and add to bowl. Toss with dressing and served with some grilled sausages. Enjoy!

Why do you love food?

Food. Where do I begin? It starts somewhere between boiling salted water until it was dry just to see what would happen and staring, longingly, for hours at the glossy pages of my mother’s Betty Crocker cookbook. I’d hover around my father, working over our little white enamel gas stove throwing bits of leftover chicken, the last of the cabbage, and squirts of teriyaki sauce into a pot to turn out something comforting for us on a rainy Portland night.

In college, my palate seared after a year of suffering through carbohydrate-sprayed cafeteria lettuce, I managed to cook all my meals in a dorm room, to the marvel of my peers. “How DO you make a bean burrito?” they’d ask. “That chicken smells divine,” they’d cluck. And of course it was far from divine, it was chicken breast in a pan with some salt.

At one point I even pledged to drop-out of university to attend culinary school. But my family, lovers of higher education that they are, didn’t approve. Looking back, I’m still not sure why I’d listened.

Luck flew me to Spain for a semester abroad where a sense of adventure in eating was born. I dove into barnacles, snails, stinky cured pork hanging from the ceiling, curious wines, and a little something called saffron. I visited Greece and fell in love with gyros pita, olive oil, the darkest greens, and foraged herbs. Never had I ever loved a cheese as much as feta. The yogurt, the homemade wine, the lamb, it was all so much and yet never enough. Around and around Europe I went, sampling and tasting, cooing and coveting. My love for global cuisine was bred.

As a real adult I now live on the Big Island of Hawaii, in a whole new world of sub-tropical edible wonders. I’m passionate now about discovering and preserving Hawaiian food culture.

But I feel that I’ve reached a plateau with my culinary skills that can only be continued with a culinary education.  Please help me continue along my path toward great cooking, and this time, I won’t let my family talk me out of it.

*This was my submission to the Food Network Great Food Truck Race scholarship contest in answer to the following prompt: "What cuisines are you passionate about? Explain how a scholarship from The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes could help you expand your knowledge of global cuisines." Wish me luck. 

PS: there is still time to enter if you are interested, deadline is 2/28/13.

Blue Corn Pancakes with Garlic Avo Butter & Tomato Chipotle Syrup

Blue cornmeal made its way into my shopping cart last week. I just couldn't resist it when I spotted it in the bulk section. Since Dustin isn't a huge fan of cornbread, I had to put my recipe dream machine to work. Did I really just call my brain a recipe dream machine? This whole food blog thing is obviously going way too far.

Let's have some fun with pancakes. It all starts with blue cornmeal, a little fresh corn and some playful toppings that resemble the usual butter and maple syrup. But don't get tricked, these pancakes are anything but sweet. If you are not into making the "syrup," salsa would work just fine.

These would be great served with sausage and eggs. Breakfast for dinner!

Blue Corn Pancakes with Garlic Avo Butter & Tomato Chipotle Syrup
pancake recipe adapted from Closet Cooking
makes about 12 four inch pancakes

For pancakes:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup blue cornmeal (regular works, too)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 TBL sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 TBL butter, melted
• 3/4 cup corn, about 1 ear (frozen is fine, too)

For butter:

1 ripe avocado

1/2 head roasted garlic (about 6 cloves)

1 tsp lime juice

salt to taste

For syrup:

1 can chopped tomatoes (with juice)

2 chipotle chiles in adobe

1 TBL sugar

salt to taste

In a food processor or blender add the can of tomatoes to the chiles, sugar, and some salt. Blend until smooth. Dump into a small sauce pan over medium heat. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Set aside. 

In a food processor or blender add the avocado, garlic, lime juice, and some salt. Blend until smooth. Taste for adequate salt, set aside. 

In a medium bowl mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, mix melted butter, eggs, and milk. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined, try not to over mix. Fold in corn. 

Add dollops of pancake batter to a hot skillet, flipping when bubbles appear in the batter. Top with "butter" and "syrup" and have fun. Enjoy!