How To Save Decrepit Carrots

Cooking with fresh ingredients is one of the most basic of pleasures. It keeps me motivated to maintain my garden and get up early to hit the farmer's market.

But in the real world I also buy the 5 lb bag of baby carrots at Costco which eventually become whitish-orange decrepit imposters of their former selves. Which were not that great to begin with.

Since my husband hates it when food goes bad in the fridge, and I really would rather not waste anything, these decrepit imposters must be eaten somehow.

Enter roasted carrot soup, the saver of the less-than-fresh. I first learned about this soup from my friend Becky. She was inspired by Food52. Since my carrots were seriously really old, I doctored the recipe into an Indian version with lots of spices. It worked out brilliantly.

Curried Carrot Soup
serves 4

1.5 lbs baby carrots
3 TBL olive oil, divided
salt & pepper
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp red chile powder
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, finely minced
4-6 cups vegetable stock (depends on how thick you want the soup)
cooked brown rice
plain yogurt

Spread carrots out on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle about 2 TBL olive oil on them and toss to coat. Sprinkle a good amount of salt on them. Run under a broiler for about 15 minutes, tossing them every 5 minutes, until browned and softened.

In a soup pot over medium high heat, toast the curry powder, turmeric, chili, and cumin seeds in 1 TBL olive oil for about 2 minutes or until aromatic. Add onions and saute for 3 minutes, then add garlic and ginger and saute another few minutes or until onion is translucent.

Add stock/broth and do a taste test to determine how much salt to add, some stocks are very salty. You may also need to add more chile, depending on how spicy you want it. Stir in salt & pepper, and roasted carrots and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer the soup for 5-10 minutes.

If you have an immersion blender (on my Christmas list!) woo woo the soup. If not, add it in batches to a blender.

Serve over some cooked brown rice with a dollop of plain yogurt, enjoy!

No Carb Lasagna

I'm getting stressed. I mean, it's pretty safe to say we're all getting stressed right now. The thing that's stressing me out the most though is the smidgeon of weight I've gained since the summer time.

And I'm really trying not to stress about this thing because it is the damn holidays and there is just no way around eating foods that are dreadfully unhealthy.

So I say to myself, hey, these dreadfully unhealthy foods are also awfully good so you may as well enjoy eating them.

Tips on enjoying dreadfully unhealthy foods:


1. Stick to the homemade stuff. If the only desserts on offer are store-bought pumpkin pie or cake, I'm going to skip those because, in non-holiday world, I can eat those anytime. But it is not any old time when you get the chance to devour your co-worker's candied nuts or sister-in-law's chocolate pie. The time is now for these precious treats.

2. Keep it special. My best food memories are of treats that I only got to savor once in a very great while. Keep it that way.

3. Give it away. So you have a hankering for cookies or pie or salmon pate. Cool. Make some, eat some, then give the rest away. People will love you a little (read: a lot) more.

4. Get a dog. Since we got one I have no excuse anymore to skip a little physical activity because now I gotta make sure the dog gets his walk. It's like living with your personal trainer. Except cuddlier.

5. In between parties and big meals, cook the healthiest food imaginable. This totally cancels the bad stuff out.

No Carb Lasagna
Serves 4
Inspired by Dashing Dish

2 cans stewed tomatoes, drained or 1 jar pasta sauce
optional: 1/2 onion, 2 cloves garlic, 1 cup frozen spinach
2 Japanese eggplant, sliced to 1/4 inch
1 - 8 oz container ricotta cheese
2 large handfuls fresh herbs (I like basil and oregano) or several healthy shakes or a dried Italian herb blend
salt & pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375. If using canned tomatoes, first cook your onions, garlic, and spinach over medium heat. Add tomatoes and cooked onion mixture to food processor and pulse a few times to get a sauce.

In a 9x13 baking dish begin layering the lasagna by first putting down a layer of tomato sauce, then a layer of eggplant. Spread half the ricotta on the eggplant, add some salt & pepper and 1/2 the herbs. Repeat. Top with remaining sauce and parmesan.

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until browned and bubbly. Enjoy!

Eggplant Tacos with Cilantro Pesto

Vegetables I'm obsessed with this year: lima beans, Kabocha squash, sweet potatoes, and eggplant.

I'm going to get a little existential on you with some food philosophy. When I cook, it's important to me to honor the essence of the ingredients, to bring out what's fabulous about the ingredient versus trying to alter it or cover it.

When I'm cooking a thing, it's all about maintaining the integrity of the thing. Be it animal or vegetable.

So I think to myself, how can I make these beautiful ingredients: eggplant, cilantro, avocado, and tomato burst into a new thing that's even better than it's original self?

I'm saying this because I don't want you to think of the eggplant as a meat substitute. It's a whole new experience. Let's allow the eggplant to be herself.

She won't disappoint.

Love your ingredients. All they really want in their short lives is to please and impress you.


Eggplant Tacos with Cilantro Pesto
serves 2

2 Japanese eggplants, or 1 regular sliced in 1/4 pieces lengthwise
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 tomato, sliced to 1/4 inch or less
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp mild chile powder (like chile molido pasado)
1 TBL olive oil
salt & pepper
4-8 corn tortillas
1/2 ripe avocado
feta cheese
hot sauce

For pesto:
2 cups cilantro, stems are ok
4 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup walnuts
juice from 1/2 lime
1/4 cup olive oil
salt & pepper

Heat oven to 400. Drizzle a little of the olive oil on a cookie sheet. Arrange eggplant, onions, and tomato on sheet, spreading them out as much as possible. Drizzle with more oil. Sprinkle all over with cumin, chile powder, and salt & pepper. Toss to coat. Roast for 10 minutes then remove tomatoes to a plate to cool, add garbanzo beans to sheet, flip veggies to other side, and roast for another 7-10 minutes.

For pesto: Add cilantro, garlic, nuts, lime juice, and salt & pepper to a food processor. Pulse until combined. Slowly add olive oil while pulsing until desired consistency is reached.

To assemble tacos, spread a little pesto on a heat tortilla, add some of your roasted veggies, a slice of avocado, a sprinkle of feta cheese, and hot sauce if you like. We are partial to Frank's. Enjoy!

My Home Town - The Big Island of Hawaii

Aloha lovely readers! I'm so happy to be a part of the "My Home Town"series on Meg's blog, Henning Love, today. She has created a wonderful blog space for us to enjoy in Blogland, so check it out! 

Since I write for my blog way out here in the middle of the Pacific, I thought it would be fun to share what makes my hometown great. Please go check out my post on Henning Love! 

Aloha,

Gwen

Homemade Butterfingers

This recipe features a key ingredient that you may or may not be able to get your hands on this time of year. Our school got a huge donation of said secret ingredient so in the spirit of "waste not," I got crackin' on my first batch of candy.

This is super easy and does not involve a candy thermometer or even the stove. Just the microwave y'all!

In other news, we randomly acquired a dog over the weekend and are in dire need of a witty name. We already have a cat named Abba Zaba, named for this clip from Half Baked. In that same spirit, we are considering naming him Cuban B. Other options are Scooter, Radar, Cruiser, Johnny Utah, and Kip. What say you dear readers?

The big reveal:

Candy corn! Yup. You gotta have the corn if you wanta make the butterfinger.

Homemade Butterfingers
from Plain Chicken
yield varies depending on size of candy bars

1 - 24oz package of candy corn
2 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 - 24 oz package chocolate almond bark of chocolate candy coating or just use chocolate chips

In a microwave safe bowl, nuke the corn on high for 2 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon and continue to heat them in 15 second intervals until corn is melted, stirring between each interval.

Add peanut better and stir well to combine. In a wax paper lined 13x9 inch baking dish, spread mixture evenly using the spoon to press down.

After the corn mixture has completely cooled, remove from dish and cut into desired sizes.

Melt chocolate according to package directions, usually in the microwave.

Dip corn pieces into melted chocolate, allowing to cool on wax paper. Yummy in my tummy. Enjoy!

Weekend Fun and News

What a weekend!

Dustin and I were whisked away for an evening of amazing treats and food at the VIP Sunset Circle. This is an event put on at the Waikoloa Marriott for concierge in the resort area where our business is located. Since we sell activities at our shop, we got to attend. The best part was the restaurant showcase. All of my favorites were there including Merriman's and Sansei. I really wish I'd taken photos of the food but my husband said that would be weird, so we just enjoyed the evening sans blog documentation.

As if that weren't enough, we were running errands today and saw signs at Petco for a dog adoption event. We've been in the market to get a dog for awhile, but were unsure of what we wanted. But there he was, little Cruiser, just waiting for us to scoop him up. So now we are official dog owners of a one year old mixed breed with huge ears and a friendly disposition. Our cat immediately let him know who was boss, which is just find because I was afraid she'd get pissed at us for bringing a dog home and never return. It's looking like she'd rather rule over him.

Hope you all had a good weekend, recipe posts coming soon, just now getting to the end of our Thanksgiving leftovers if you can believe that.

Pheasant Stew and Fricassee

My husband has taken up hunting the last couple of years, which is great for me because I grew up hunting and eating game all my life.

Hunting on the slopes of Mauna Kea

Just to be clear, as I've been harping the vegetarianese over the last year, I've got no problem eating meat that's been sustainably harvested. (Wait, is meat "harvested?") I'm just doing my best to avoid industrialized meat that been packaged and shipped to us across the Pacific.

Urkel

We've had fun creating recipes around the lovely pheasant, urkel, and turkey he's brought home. I had the most fun showing him how to skin and prepare the birds for eating. It reminded me how much more the food is appreciated when you can make a connection with the life (be it plant or animal) that it once was.

D with pheasants

Dustin made an awesome fricassee with the breast meat and I cooked up some stew in the slow cooker.

One of the most difficult aspects of preparing game birds is that they dry out very quickly. You have to have a strategy for keeping the meat moist, which means adding some sort of fat. The recipes below are really just guidelines, ideas to help you in preparing game birds.

Fricassee

Finished fricassee

Pheasant Fricassee
serves 4

Breasts of 2 pheasants, skinned and deboned
1 cup milk
1 glug olive oil
1 cup white wine
5 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 yellow onion
large handful mushrooms, slices
salt & pepper
large handful of mixed fresh thyme, oregano, and sage
1 smoked pork sausage (bacon can sub here)

Marinate the breasts in the milk, olive oil, and wine for at least 2 hours and up to 5 hours.

In a large cast iron pan, heat some more oil over medium high heat and cook up the onions, mushrooms, sausage and garlic with some salt and pepper. Add the breasts along with the marinade and herbs into the pan and turn the heat down to medium low. Gently simmer the mixture until the breasts are cooked through, maybe 20-30 minutes.

Pheasant Stew
serves 4

Legs, thighs, wings, and backs of 2 pheasants (backs may be stretching it for some, omit if you don't like a gamey flavor)
1 cup flour
1 tsp paprika
salt & pepper
olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 yellow onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, slices
1 potato, peeled and chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 TBL fresh thyme
2 cups stock

Heat a large pan over medium high heat and add some olive oil. Put flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a paper bag. Add the pheasant pieces and coat with the flour mixture. Brown the pheasant pieces in the pan, making sure not to crowd the pan so they will brown. You may have to do this in 2 batches. As soon as the meat is browned, add it to a slow cooker.

Deglaze the pan you just used with the wine by adding the wine to the hot pan and swirling to loosen the the browned bits. Add this to the slow cooker.

Add the veggies, stock, and herbs to the slow cooker on top of the meat. Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve with rice or biscuits. Enjoy!