JUN6

Big Daddy Does Pho

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Devany

Big Daddy makes a few cooking attempts to ease my busy schedule. Last night he hit a homerun. Pho (pronounced FA), the simple (yet complex) Vietnamese Street food charmed him when we lived in Hawaii. He is not one for exotic flavors, so this surprised me a bit. Since then we have been to several restaurants here in Charleston that serve Pho. He decided to make it and it was an astounding winner. We paired it with a Belgian Ale and that was a fantastic match too. We had some leftover rare beef (tri-tip) so he froze it and sliced it thinly. I usually ask for my meat on the side when ordering Pho in restaurants, I don’t like it over cooked. We have enough broth for at least two more meals.

Pho 

INGREDIENTS:

Soup 4 quarts beef stock (homemade is best) 1 large onion, sliced into rings 6 slices fresh ginger root or galangal if you can get it 2 small stalks of fresh lemon grass tied in a knot 1 cinnamon stick 1 teaspoon whole black smoked peppercorns 4 star anise 1 pound sirloin tip, cut into thin slices 1 (8 ounce) packages dried rice noodles

Garnishes and Sauces 1/2 pound bean sprouts 1 cup fresh Thai basil leaves 1 cup fresh mint leaves 1 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves 3 fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced into thin rings 2 limes, cut into wedges Hoisin sauce Sriracha (Rooster) sauce Fish sauce

METHOD :

1.	In a large soup pot, combine broth, onion, ginger, lemon grass, star anise, cinnamon, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cover. Simmer for 1 hour.
2.	Arrange bean sprouts, mint, basil, and cilantro on a platter with chilies and lime.
3.	Soak the noodles in hot water to cover for 15 minutes or until soft. Drain. Place equal portions of noodles into large soup bowls, and place raw beef on top. Ladle hot broth over noodles and top with beef. Pass garnishes and sauces.

Quinoa and Corn Chowder

APR19

Quinoa and Corn Chowder from Ecuador

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Devany

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This fabulous recipe was inspired by the book The Latin Road Home by Jose Garces. The book explores the cuisines of Ecuador, Spain, Cuba and Mexico. This is one of the best cookbooks I have picked up in a while. In this recipe, I used fresh corn, but good frozen corn would work too. I also added some seasonings and chiles to the recipe. I make my own achiote paste, but you can buy it in Hispanic or Asian markets. Quinoa is an amazing chenopod, full of protein and fiber.

Crema de Quinoa de Zuleta; Quinoa Chowder with Sweet Corn

Ingredients:

2 cups Canola Oil for frying

2 small russet potatoes, peeled and cut into match sticks or cut on a spiral cutter 

Kosher Salt

2 Tbs unsalted butter

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil.

½ Spanish onion, finely chopped or TSTE dehydrated shallots reconstituted

6 cloves minced garlic or 2 Tablespoons TSTE Vik’s Garlic Fix 

1 Tbs achiote paste (click here for my recipe)

1 ½ cups quinoa (any color)

Kernels cut from 3 ears of corn or 1 cup of thawed and drained frozen white sweet corn

5 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup heavy cream

2 Tbs minced fresh parsley

4 roasted poblano chiles, seeds and membranes removed, then diced

2 Tbs minced fresh chives (or leave in 1 “ strips)

Sliced Avocado for serving (optional)

Method:

• Fry the potato strips in 375 degree oil till crispy and drain, season with salt
• Heat the butter and olive oil in a stockpot over medium heat, cook the onion and garlic till translucent, about 10 minutes.
• Rinse and strain the quinoa
• Stir in the achiote paste and cook for another 5 minutes
• Stir in the quinoa and corn.  And cook, stirring often, till the quinoa is lightly toasted
• Stir in the roasted poblano chiles

Add the cream and stock and bring to a light boil. Lower the heat to a light simmer,  uncovered till the quinoa is tender and the liquid has reduced by about one quarter, about 45 minutes.

To serve, fold in the parsley, and top with fried potatoes and chives. Garnish with avocado. This also goes perfectly with the Yuca Cheese Bread and Guava Chile Butter I posted last week.

Dungeness Crab, Corn and Potato Chowder

This recipe is inspired by one made by the Blue Mermaid Chowder House and Bar in San Francisco provides a take on a typical dish enjoyed in THE City. This dish -- California Dungeness Crab and Corn Chowder -- was recognized three times in the creative category of the Schweppes Great Chowder Cook-Off.

I did not use the cilantro pesto garnish, but instead used siracha sauce instead for a kick. I also used prosciutto instead of bacon and added it to the top instead of incorporating it. The cilantro pesto garnish is prepared separately. Instructions are included after the main recipe. To serve this dish, place the chowder in a bowl, add 1 to 2 ounces of crab meat and garnish with the pesto (or siracha) and prosciutto.

Ingredients

·  4 ounces Applewood-smoked bacon

·  4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

·  2 cups corn cut from the cob

·  2 yellow onions, diced

·  1 Pasilla chile, diced

·  1 Jalapeño pepper, split in half, seeds removed

·  2 celery stalks

·  2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

·  1 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning

·  ½ tsp. chipotle powder

·  4 sprigs thyme, stem removed, leaves chopped

·  1 fresh bay leaf

·  1 quart crab or chicken stock

·  2 lbs. Kennebec or Yukon Gold potatoes, ½" diced

·  1 ½ cups heavy cream

·  2 oz. cream cheese

·  ½ teaspoon fresh ground white pepper

·  Kosher salt to taste

·  1 lb. fresh Dungeness crab meat

·  1 bunch cilantro, diced and chopped

·  ½ cup olive oil

Cooking Directions

Chowder

Over low heat, add the smoked bacon (or prosciutto)  to a 4- to 6-quart heavy pot. Slowly render the fat and then increase the heat to medium to make the bacon crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Leave about half the bacon fat in the pan.

Add the butter, and sauté the corn. After 4 to 6 minutes, remove the corn from the pan.

Add the onion and sauté for about 4 to 6 minutes until translucent. Be careful not to brown it.

Add diced chile and sauté an additional 4 minutes, and remove from the pan.

Add celery and sauté 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and continue to sauté for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, then add the onion, corn, pasilla and bacon to the celery.

Add Old Bay, Chipotle powder, split Jalapeño pepper, thyme and bay leaf. Just barely cover the vegetables with crab stock and then add the diced potatoes. Increase the heat to high and boil the potatoes for about 4 minutes. The goal is to soften the outside of the potato to help thicken the chowder, while keeping the potato al dente. Add 3/4 cup of crab and stir.

Add the heavy cream and cream cheese. Stir for two minutes and then remove from the heat. If you need to thicken the chowder a little more smash a few of the potatoes against the side of the pot.

Adjust the seasoning with salt and fresh white pepper. Remove the Jalapeño pepper before serving.

To serve put a few pieces of crab in the bottom of the bowl, add the chowder, top with the bacon/pruscuitto, and drizzle the Siracha or Pesto

Cilantro Pesto

1 bunch cilantro, washed, dried and chopped

Approximately ½ cup of olive oil

Purée ingredients in a blender. Serve as a garnish on top of the chowder.

Tuscan Cannellini Bean and Kale Soup Hawaiian Style

Winter is  here in Hawaii.... we  had our first storm with rain for two days. It got down to a "bone chilling" 70 degrees last night and it only crept up to 78 degrees yesterday. Yes, that is what we call winter here on the big island. A little wind and rain... and the seasons have changed. Naturally when the day is rainy and a bit cooler than the norm, our thoughts go to soup. My chef/food writer friend in South Carolina, Nathalie Dupree had just been talking about her soup evolution, wherein a stock starts out with one flavor component, then you add something to it and then next day change it up again by adding other ingredients. That is the way I like to make soup too. This time it started out with a plump rotisserie chicken I picked up when I spent 5 hours driving to and from Kona. I was too tired to make a full dinner, so the chicken with some leftover mashed potatoes and peas made a nice easy dinner. I reserved one breast for chicken salad and then plopped the whole carcass in the stock pot overnight. along with some sauteed carrots, onion and garlic. I put it on the simmer burner and in the morning, wonderful stock was ready to strain. I refrigerated it for a couple of days. Sometimes I reduce it down to a concentrate and freeze it. If you are making this soup and do not want to make your own stock, you can use high quality low salt stocks in the boxes that you can find in any health food store or grocery store. If you want to make it vegetarian or vegan, you can also use vegetable stock. Of course then you also have to leave out the ham hocks and the Portuguese sausage. I sometimes divide the pot of soup up and add some pasta to this soup on a second day. If you are adding pasta, you should only add as much as you will eat that day or your pasta will absorb the liquid of the soup. You can change out the veggies, but you need onion and garlic. Fennel and celery make nice additions.

Tuscan Cannellini Bean and Kale Soup Hawaiian Style

8 cups of chicken stock (preferably home made)
2 smoked ham hocks (optional)
1 onion rough chopped
6 cloves of garlic
2 carrots rough chopped
2 small zucchini halved and sliced
1 large Portuguese Sausage (these are mostly only available in Hawaii, you can use smoked polish sausage as a replacement)
1 can of fire roasted chopped tomatoes
4 cups of cooked Cannellini beans
2 large bunches of Kale rough chopped
1/4 cup fresh flat leaf parsley rough chopped
additional water if needed
salt and black pepper to tasted
Croutons or day old bread
Parmesan

In a large stock pot sauté the onion, garlic and carrot till the onions just start to caramelize. Add the ham hocks and chicken stock, then the other veggies, beans and sausage. Cook for at least 45 minute on simmer. Add the parsley and stir. Place a few croutons or dried bread chunks in the bowl.
Top with Parmesan and additional parsley.

This serves 8-12 people depending on the size of the bowls.

Garlic and Lemon Roasted Crabs

Last Friday I bought two beautiful *local* Dungeness Crabs at the Seafood Farmer's Market. Kona Cold Lobster buys small Dungeness Crabs from Washington State and raises them in their salt water pools in Kona. When the are ready to sell we have our own *Crab Season*! That is right... we have it all year in Hawaii.

I came home and removed the crabs from the cooler, then boiled them with bay leaves, cayenne pepper and salt. I drained them and refrigerated them till Monday when I roasted the cut up and cleaned crab. That is one advantage of buying them in the bay area at stores like Lunardi's or at the docks in Half Moon Bay like we used to, they cook them, clean them and cut them up so that all you have to do is roast them or whatever you want to do with them.

And so the roasting is so simple. Once you have cleaned and cut up the crabs, just toss them in a bowl with about 30 cloves of garlic (well crushed or minced), 1/4 cup of olive oil, 2 teaspoons of sea salt, 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper, lots of freshly grated black pepper. zest of 2 lemons, slice the two lemons and 1/2 cup of finely minced flat leaf parsley. Place it on a roasting pan and bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes. Serve with crusty Italian bread, clarified butter and MOUNTAINS of napkins.

SAVE the shells and any leftover crab... Crab Bisque or Crab Chowder is another meal ahead of you. I am making Crab and Corn Chowder now... another post.

Smoked Duck Tortilla Soup

I smoked a duck and made duck tacos last week. And then what? I made duck stock and reserved the remaining meat for soup. I made a big pot of Smoked Duck Tortilla Soup a few nights ago. You can find whole ducks in the freezer section of most grocery stores. Here in Hawaii, they are a rare "find" and when someone in our group finds them we buy enough for everyone because they go fast.

Here is the recipe:
The Stock
1 duck carcas
2 heads of garlic cut in half
2 carrots quartered
2 stalks of celery
1 Large onion quartered
2 Bay Leaves or cinnamon leaves if you can get them
6 dried ancho chiles (can sub Dried New Mexico or California red chiles)stemmed and seeded.

Place all in a stock pot, simmer on low for 10 hours, do not allow to boil. Then strain with cheese cloth. Chill stock and remove fat (save 3 Tablespoons for soup). Reserve meat and garlic (remove from bulb) for soup. Remove the chiles and place in a blender with 1 cup of stock and puree, then set aside.  This should make about 6 quarts of stock.

The Soup

4 quarts of duck stock

Reserved duck meat (note if you did not have much meat left, you can sauté a breast and chop it up)

3 tablespoons reserved duck fat

2 sweet onions  or 4 chopped

3 ribs of celery (including tops) chopped

2 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly

1 bunch of kale or chard chopped roughly

Reserved chile puree

Reserved meat

Reserved garlic

1 package of fire roasted frozen corn or fresh corn off the cob

In a large soup pot sauté the onions in the duck fat. When they are beginning to sweat, add celery, garlic and carrots and sauté another couple of minutes. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer for about 30 minutes. Taste and season with salt, pepper and red crushed pepper. It should be slightly spicy, but not extremely so.

The Garnishes

4 tortillas sliced thinly and fried till crispy

1/2 cup green onions (scallions)

1 medium avocado diced Finely shredded cheddar or jack cheese

Chopped cilantro

Crema (Mexican Sour Cream)

To serve fill a bowl with the tortilla strips and avocado chunks. Ladle the hot soup over the strips and then top

with cheese, green onions, cilantro and drizzle crema lightly over the top.

Williamsburg Turkey Soup Redux

As a young mother, thirty years or so ago I first made a recipe of Williamsburg Turkey Soup, most probably after Thanksgiving. Back then I always did my turkeys on a Weber Grill with soaked pecan shells poured over the coals, essentially creating a lightly smoked turkey. It was a delicious soup then, but when I pulled up the recipe the other day, I was surprised at how pedestrian the recipe looks to me now. Obviously, it was time for me to kick it up a notch. The original recipe is supposed to have harkened from the colonies and would probably have been done with a wild turkey. And seeing that they probably did hot have half and half back then, was likely made with cream. The rice probably was not white long grain, but an earthier wild or brown rice. Regardless, I made a big pot of wonderful soup and was able to render some extra turkey stock too.

Here is my Redux Version

Part one: Make turkey stock. I roasted a turkey last week and used only the white meat. I then placed the carcass with the dark meat in the smoker and smoked over maple wood for 12 hours. You do not have to smoke your turkey, but it sure makes for great soup and stock. You could also use a store bought smoked turkey for this. After the turkey was sufficiently smoked for flavor, I made the stock.

In a very large pot place chunks of carrot, celery & onions (about 2 cups each) into a pot. You do not need to peel them as they are only adding goodness to the stock. Add 20 (yes 20!) garlic cloves. Toss in a few stalks of  rosemary and thyme and one bay leaf. Place the carcass into the pot. If your pot is not large enough, you can break it apart a bit to fit. Cover with water and place on a LOW simmer for 12 hours. The stock should never be allowed to boil, just simmer.

Remove pot from the heat and allow to cool so that you can handle the turkey to remove meat. You may want to place it on a platter to cool. Remove and reserve the meat. Then filter everything over a large pot using a fine sieve. Pour the stock into containers to cool completely so that the fat will rise to the top. Your leftover veggies can be placed in compost or fed to the dogs in chunks. Discard all of the bones. I ended up with 8 cups of rich dark stock. Some of which was used in the soup. I grabbed all of the garlic cloves and saved them for the soup.

Part Two: The Soup

1 Cup of Butter (yes, you can use olive oil if you want to)
1 Cup of all purpose flour
4 small red onions or 8 shallots finely chopped
4 large carrots, peeled and finely chopped
3 ribs of cellery finely chopped
(note all of this chopping can be done in a food processor)
Reserved garlic from the stock, which can now be smashed and added to the soup
2 cups of fresh corn kernels (if not in season, use frozen)
1 small jar of pimentos (or roast a red pepper and chop)
1 1/2 cups of wild rice/brown rice blend (I use Lindeman's Brand)
2 teaspoons of salt (I used smoked salt that I smoke while doing the turkey.)
1 tablespoon of fresh cracked pepper
3 quarts of turkey stock
3 sprigs of thyme (leaves pulled from stem)
2 cups of reserved turkey chopped
4 cups of cream or half and half if you are giving your arteries a break

• Melt butter in the bottom of a large sop pot or dutch oven
• Add flour and stir gently for about 5 minutes to form a light golden roux
• Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic to roux and sir. Cooking over medium flame for 10-15 minutes, stirring often. The onions should be just starting to brown.
• Add rice, corn, stock, salt, pepper, thyme, pimentos along with reserved turkey and stir all together. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Taste the rice and be sure that it is cooked through. Add the cream and stir. Cook on low flame till completely heated.  Taste and add more seasoning if you think it needs it. 

This makes a huge pot of soup, but it freezes well if you are not feeding a crowd. I like to serve it with a few slices of Hawaiian Chiles on it along with fresh chopped parsley or thyme leaves. However, many people cannot take the heat of the chiles, so you might just want to serve chiles or siracha sauce on the side. It is delicious just as it is. It also might be good with some browned crispy thin slices of jamon or prosciutto on top.  

Remember, you can find me on Facebook as Devany Davidson or on Twitter @ MyHawiianHome to get updates to the blog, special recipes and more!