Hawaiian-style Thanksgiving

It's Sustainable Sunday! Let's get into it. Since Thanksgiving is next week, I want to encourage you to incorporate as many island grown ingredients as possible in your turkey day spread.

Speaking of turkey, unless you'll be hunting for your bird on the slopes of Mauna Kea, you won't find a  Hawaii raised turkey in the grocery store. Maybe an herbed-stuffed whole fish will grace your table, or some prime grass-fed beef steaks.

Get real Gwen! I know what you're thinking, there is no way you are going to forgo a turkey dinner for my personal agenda. Ok, ok fine, but will you consider doctoring a few sides then?

Let's start with potatoes. Why mash up some decrepit mainland shipped potatoes that have been rolling around on the bottom of an ocean liner for several months when you can make delicious, fresh and unexpected mashed breadfruit? Below you'll see my recipe for mashed breadfruit with roasted garlic and goat cheese.

Grab some fresh island grown green beans (I've seen them at Costco, KTA and the farmers' market) and some Hamakua mushrooms and you've got yourself a green bean casserole, recipe below.

Savory pumpkin pie

Kabocha squash is widely available and will make the best (sweet or savory) pumpkin pie you'll ever have. Maybe you're up for adventure? Serve some avocado pie.

Will you be serving locally grown dishes at your Thanksgiving this year? I'd love to hear about it. In the meantime, I hope you'll consider trying these sides.

Mashed breadfruit

Mashed Breadfruit with Roasted Garlic and Big Island Goat Cheese
serves 6-8

1 green breadfruit (make sure it is hard, like a bowling ball. If at all soft, find another one)
1 head garlic
2 to 5 oz Big Island goat cheese (found at KTA)
2 TBL butter
1/2 cup Big Island milk (found at all major grocery stores)
Hawaiian sea salt
2-3 sprigs rosemary (if desired)

Preheat oven to 400. Peel and core the breadfruit. Keep in mind the sap is messy and can stain, so use a junk knife. Cut breadfruit into bite-sized pieces and place in a steamer basket. Steam for 20-40 minutes or until very soft. I realize that the cook time is vague, but I have found that all breadfruits are slightly different, which has to do with its stage of ripeness. Don't be afraid to steam the heck out of it.

Wrap head of garlic in foil and roast in oven for 30 minutes.

When garlic and breadfruit are finished cooking, transfer breadfruit to a large pot and mash. Peel garlic and add to mash. Place pot over low heat and add goat cheese (I only added 2 oz or so, but if you want it cheesier, add more), milk, butter, and sea salt. Continue to mash until all is combined and mixture is smooth. Sprinkle with chopped fresh rosemary, if desired.

Big Island green bean casserole

Big Island Green Bean Casserole with Hamakua Mushrooms
adapted from My Life as a Mrs. 
serves 6-8

1 lb island grown green beans
1 TBL olive oil
1 TBL butter
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 package (12 oz) Hamakua mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
dash cayenne pepper
3 TBL flour
1 cup water (or vegetable broth)
1 cup milk
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Blanch green beans in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain.

In a cast iron skillet heat olive oil and butter over medium heat. Saute onion until soft, adding some salt & pepper. Add mushrooms and cook until soft and fragrant, 8-10 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute or so. Add flour and stir to coat. Add water and bring to a simmer, then add milk and simmer until the mixture thickens, 5 minutes or so. Be sure to add salt & pepper along the way, tasting as you go.

Add green beans to the mushroom mixture and stir to coat. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Savory Pumpkin Pie

Savory Pumpkin Pie

After a Halloween birthday party blitz at her house, my friend Patty had a table full of leftover painted, but uncarved, pumpkins. She knows about my squash obsession and offered me nine, that's right, nine lovely orange globes.

I spent the afternoon yesterday roasting, peeling, pureeing, and storing the pumpkin meat. Of course, I also washed, boiled, roasted, and seasoned the seeds as well as experimented with the idea of a savory pumpkin pie.

It looks like we are well stocked up on pumpkin into the next decade. Expect many more squash recipes from me this fall.

My secret pie crust recipe is super flaky

Savory Pumpkin Pie
Serves 4-6

1 pie crust (sorry folks, I don't want to give away my secret pie crust recipe just yet)
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 TBL olive oil
3-4 cups cooked pumpkin (or squash or sweet potato)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 chipotle pepper in adobo (if desired)
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste
roasted pumpkin seeds for garnish (I served them whole as I can't be bothered to peel them)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9" pie pan with your favorite flour based crust. In a skillet over medium heat, add olive oil and onions and sautee until softened and browned, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. Add garlic in for last few minutes of cook time.

While onions are cooking, place cooked pumpkin, spices, salt and pepper, egg and milk to a blender or food processor. (I used my immersion blender for this part if you have one of those.) If you are a person who does not like spicy food, I recommend you leave out the chipotle pepper. Blend until smooth. When onions are done, add those and blend again.

Pour mixture into your pie crust and bake until set and crust is browned, 40-50 minutes. Top with toasted pumpkin seeds to serve if desired.

PS: I think this would be really great to serve at a dinner party or gathering because it's an unexpected combination. You could even serve with unsweetened whipped cream for added flair.

PPS: I was going for a "smoky" flavor profile here, but I think you could play around a lot with how you want this pie to taste. Think of it as a quiche. It would also be great with just onions, garlic, salt and pepper if you want to keep it simple.

1st Place in Kona Coffee Recipe Contest

The Big Island's most important recipe contest of the year was held on Sunday at the Sheraton Kona Resort. The Kona Coffee Recipe Contest, sponsored by KTA and Kamehameha Schools, included dessert and entree divisions divided in professional, amateur, and culinary student categories.

My display table. We went with a "candy shop" theme

I entered the amateur dessert division with my Kona Coffee Brigadeiro recipe and won first place!

Posing with Kona coffee royalty

Let me tell you, the competition was fierce. On either side of me were contestants that had entered for many years and knew all the tricks of the trade. We chatted as we set up our display tables and the intimidation factor grew quite high for me, as this was my first go at this particular contest.

I was so surprised, happy and grateful to have won. Those little brigadeiros (a Brazilian fudgy candy) look humble, but pack a mighty flavor punch. The display turned out pretty cute too, thanks to my helper Rosanne. Thanks also to Renee for cheering me on, and to Ciara and Brendan for bringing me a sandwich when I forgot to eat the entire day. Please see the winning recipe below and don't forget to drink 100% Kona coffee!

My lucky coffee cup ring

The Kona Coffee Festival continues until November 11 with loads of fun activities including a parade, coffee cupping contest, a concert, and much more. See you there.

Kona coffee brigadeiros

Kona Coffee Brigadeiros
A twist on a Brazilian fudgy candy

Makes about 3 dozen

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

½ cup espresso or very strong Kona coffee

2 TBL butter

2 tsp light corn syrup

½ cup cocoa powder

36 Kona coffee beans

In a medium saucepan combine condensed milk, coffee, butter and corn syrup over medium-high heat stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture begins to boil, turn the heat down to medium-low and continue to stir for 15-25 minutes or until the mixture thickens, like fudge.

Pour the mixture into a bowl without scraping the sides of the pan, discard what remains in the pan. Allow the mixture to cool in the fridge for 3-4 hours. 

Using a teaspoon, scoop the mixture and roll into balls with butter-coated hands. Dip into cocoa powder to coat and press a coffee bean on top. Enjoy!

You should know that it took me 4 attempts to get the technique for this recipe right. Don't get impatient when you are cooking the batter, it needs to be pretty thick or else it won't hold together. I just don't want anyone to get the idea that this is an easy recipe, it's not! But it is certainly delish and was worth all previous failures. 

Sustainable Sunday: Kona Coffee

Aloha coffee lovers! I will competing in the Kona coffee recipe contest today down at the Sheraton. If you are in town and want to sample the entries, head on over from 12:30pm to 3:30pm.

I will let you in on the results as soon as they're in. Wish me luck and remember, buy local, it matters. 

Sustainable Sunday: Eat That Pumpkin

Pumpkin and black bean burrito guts

I was happily sipping an Octoberfest draft and watching a World Series game at our local sports bar yesterday when the Halloween spirit crept up on me. Surrounded by several annihilated revelers with the sun on our backs, we started at a man shuffling drunkenly outside of the bar. He was having a hard time staying upright and we watched him carefully, concerned he may pitch himself into a nearby patch of sharp lava rock. He turned toward us and I gasped at his bloody, bandaged face. If only he could have seen me to benefit from this naive reaction. He was, of course, simply dressed as a zombie for the weekend's Halloween festivities.

Pumpkin casserole with bleu cheese

So now I'm officially ready for tricks and treats. Bring on the candy and costumes and popcorn and cider. Bring on the scary movies and plastic cobwebs and yes, please, more candy. And let's carve pumpkins but let's also eat pumpkins. Here in Hawaii the Kabocha squash is quite common, and since I'm fairly obsessed with its sweet, sweet flesh, I have many recipes at the ready.

Kabocha squash ravioli

On this Sustainable Sunday, find yourself a locally grown pumpkin, try one of these recipes, root for Detroit, and watch Pet Sematary or some such quality horror flick.

Pumpkin and Black Bean Tacos

Squash Sandwiches (2 ways)

Little Slices of Orange

Kabocha Squash Ravioli

Sweet Potato Casserole with Bleu Cheese (sub pumpkin)

Sustainable Sunday: Ice Cream Bean

Introducing the world's funnest fruit! Or is it most fun fruit? You'd think a teacher would know this stuff. Anyway, this bean is fun to eat!

Ice cream beans aren't really a bean at all. They are a fruit that grows on a tree right here in Hawaii. To eat, simply split the bean open and eat the white fluff that surrounds the black seeds. Watch this video to see how it's done.

It's a lot like eating a sweet cotton ball. A super delicious sweet cotton ball. I've never had anything like it. Fun in a bean! Bean fun.

These ice cream beans were found at the Keauhou Farmers Market along with armloads of other goodies including mac nut oil, tomatoes, Kabocha squash, limes, and breadfruit.

Sweet and Sour Poundcake

You take a sour thing. A lemon. You take a sweet thing. Sugar. You mix them. You get another sweet thing. It's science. It's life. It's a lot of short sentences.

The lemon represents the bad times. The time you drove to work in your gardening shoes. Or the entire day you spent in the kitchen and none of your recipes turned out. Maybe you've had a sour year infused with depression or stress or the loss of a loved one.

All of us in the Joy the Baker podcast community got word of some sour news recently. Veronica, a dedicated fan of the podcast, passed away not long ago due to complications in surgery. Tim, her husband, wrote in to let us all know what happened. Tim, my warmest aloha goes out to you.

It's just like that you know. We're here and then we're not here. It's sour. So, just like in this recipe for lemon poundcake, I suggest we add some sugar. Go right now and tell your dearest you love them. Make this cake for a friend. Volunteer your time somehow. Give your co-worker a pat on the back. Call your mom. Think good thoughts.

Because when you add a sour thing and a sweet thing, you get a sweet thing. Veronica's husband Tim suggested volunteering somewhere to honor Veronica's memory. I'm going to start taking a garbage bag with me every time I go to the beach to fill with trash. How can you make this sour time sweet? To begin with, make this cake, and think of Veronica and think of Tim and think of all the people you love.

Sour + Sweet = Sweet

Lemon Poundcake
recipe from Joy the Baker

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 eggs, room temperature

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 325.  Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.  Cream butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer.  In the mean time, work the lemon zest into the granulated sugar.  This process should take about five minutes, and the sugar will become very fragrant.  Add the sugar to the butter mixture and continue creaming.  Add the lemon and vanilla extract.  Add eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute each.  Scrape down the bowl after each addition.  Slowly add the sifted flour and baking powder.  Don't over mix in the electric mixer.  Bring the ingredients together with a wooden spoon.  Pour into a greased and floured pan and bake for 60- 75 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted into the cake comes out clean.