Berry Custard Cups

On my recent perusals of the Costco shelves, I saw something strange & fascinating. Raw flour tortillas. A big ol' Costco size portion of them. The label boasted a whole arsenal of things you can do with these things; crepes, wraps, chips, pie crust. Wait, pie crust? hmmmm.... 

So I used them to make a Indian style wrap of sorts for lunch for my mom & I. Which was really good. But my mastication was peppered with thoughts of dessert. With berries. And custard. And, could it be?... a tortilla-ish crust? Yep.

I scoured around the internet for an easy custard recipe, found one from Gale Gand, whipped it up & voila! These beauties were a big hit with the kids, my guy, my mom & even for my dwindling sweet tooth! Give these guys a try, it was a snap.

FOR THE CRAZY TORTILLA PIE CUPS:

Cut each tortilla in half and arrange into a muffin pan, brush with some butter and bake @350 till browned. Remove & let cool before filling with custard.  

FOR THE CUSTARD:

Ingredients

2 cups whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk

1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (you know I didn't have vanilla bean, of course! A tsp of vanilla worked fine. If you have it, be my guest)

6 egg yolks

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon sugar

Directions

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and vanilla bean (yeah, yeah... see above) to a boil over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes. Or not, if you're using vanilla extract. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cornstarch and whisk like crazy until no lumps remain. Whisk in 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture until incorporated. Whisk in the remaining hot milk mixture - let the empty saucepan hang out for a minute, you're gonna need it again.

Pour the mixture through a strainer back into the saucepan (i told ya). Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and slowly boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Pour into custard cups and chill for a bit. The recipe said to chill at least 2 hours but I don't think I did it for that long. (The custard can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Cover with plastic wrap if you are keeping it longer than that.) Right before serving, top with mixed berries.

Enjoy!

Honolulu's Greek Festival

This weekend marks the 30th annual Greek Festival here in Honolulu, at Ala Moana Beach Park. When you walk through the hallway of McCoy Pavillion and enter out into the courtyard, a cheerful wave of culture, music, dance, food and art washes over you. Old, young, Greek, Hawaiian and everything in between welcome you into the revelry. I went last year and was so happy to have one of those moments where I feel like I am far, far away & I'm hoping to get down there again this weekend for the festivities 

Get ready to dance, because inevitably someone will reach out their hand and pull you onto the dance floor, and even if you resist, the smiling faces and clapping hands in the crowd will have you ready to get your Greek on because this is one of those cultures that draws you in, feeds you, raises a glass of ouzo in a toast and makes you wish you were Greek.

And speaking of… you won’t be able to resist the array of Greek specialties offered up under the many food tents. Pull up a spot under the big tree and take your pick of Spanokopita, Gyro, Moussaka, Souvlaki, Baklava, and don’t forget to wash it all down with that shot of Ouzo, while raising your glass with an enthusiastic salute of, OPA!!!!!!

To see this years performance schedule and to find out additional information, check out the official website. And if you’re in the neighborhood, do not miss this chance to travel to Greece right on the edge of the pacific ocean!

Dishes, plates, cups, platters, oh my...

... these are a few of my favorite things. For real. I have quite a fetish when it comes to all things dishes. Of course, I'm not such a fan of the new, off the shelf, out of the box types. I like, ok love, the old stuff. depression glass, old china, chipped, worn enamel, stuff that comes to me with a story already. Stuff that has to be hunted for. Stuff that you come across when you're not looking for it, when you don't even really need it, but have to have it. It's a sickness, I suppose. 

But there is something about the times when I feel like my life is unravelling, as it frequently has in the last few years, and I find myself in the kitchen. Cooking, creating, nourishing myself & those around me. And I reach for the pink depression glass plates that I bought from an antique store for like $60 when I was in high school, or the set of white & gold edged plates that I found for my first Thanksgiving dinner after my divorce, where 20 or so of my friends & family who had carried me through that time gathered around my table,  or the stack of pretty blue plates that a sweet little old lady had parted with at a yard sale. 

And there, with plate in my hand, I have company. The memories that have been served on these plates that I have dragged around through the years, the romantic dinners, the pancake breakfasts my kids served me in bed, the tea parties, the quick lunch scarfed over the kitchen sink, all of it. It's all there in those plates.  

There are some that are on my shelf, just because they are pretty. But even they have their stories. The blue flowered plate that is the last survivor of a set of four that I found in a Half Moon Bay thrift store on a cold, foggy day, a whole lifetime ago...

Some aren't so sentimental, but I just love them. Like these cool ramekins that I use all the time...

...and my chipped but fabulous casserole dishes.

Let's not forget about my favorite wine glasses - no stems because I am a chronic breaker of glasses. And the small juice glass that doubles as a wine glass & makes me feel like I am in an Italian Grandma's kitchen, a long time fantasy of mine that will someday come to fruition. 

 

Or these old, thick glasses that used to be on my mother's shelves. I don't use them much, but I love to see them there..

These milk glass cups & creamer usually accompany my mom & I in an afternoon coffee. I shudder to think of the sentimental value these will have one day...

And a simple tea cup that serves tea to my daughters when they are sick, or that becomes a votive holder when candlelight is required...

All of these things feed my soul and carry with them the things that are precious to me. The memories, the moments, the future.

Chai Masala

One of the best things about writing about eating, drinking & being merry are the meals, beverages, recipes & experiences that people share with me. Recently one of you, my dear readers, shared with me not only a shipment of Indian spices, but also some family recipes to go with them. One such recipe was for her mother-in-law's tea.

After I looked through the recipe and noted the mixture of spices, I emailed her to ask if this would be considered "chai tea", or if that was something completely different. Turns out, "chai" is simply the word commonly used for tea not only in India, but also in Iran & many other countries around the world. Who knew?!

In fact, "chai" usually describes a spiced, milky tea. Some terms that might ring a bell are Chai Masala (Tea Spice), or a Chai Latte (tea with steamed milk)

Historically, chai is viewed as an herbal medicine, rather than a beverage sipped for fun. Some recipes still used come from Ayurvedic (traditional Indian medicine) texts. And speaking of "recipes", for being such a traditional beverage, there really is no fixed recipe or preparation method. Indian markets all over the world sell their version & brands of spice blends, although many households blend their own, & methods vary from house to house.

There are however, four basic components:

Tea: A strong, black tea, such as Assam is the base for chai.

Sweetener: Anything from white, brown, palm or coconut sugars, as well as honey can be used as a sweetener.

Milk: Whole milk is traditionally used for richness & is mixed about 1/4-1/2 parts milk with water. You may come across a chai that has condensed milk working to combine the milk & the sweetness.

Spices: The "masala" usually consists of cardamom as the dominant spice along with cinnamon, fresh ginger, black pepper & cloves. In Westeren India, you might see almonds, saffron, salt, nutmeg, rose flavoring (from steeping the petals) & licourice root as potential ingredients.

The method is to simmer the tea, sweetener, milk & spices together and then strain the spices & loose tea out before serving as opposed to steeping them in already boiled water. This method does vary based on taste & local custom.

The recipe below comes from M's mother-in-law's kitchen & makes two mugs of tea.

1 1/2 coffee mugs of water

3 tsp. loose black tea

3 tsp. sugar (or more to taste)

1 Tbs. grated ginger (or more to taste)

Boil these ingredients together for a minute or two, then add: 1 mug of milk and bring just to a boil then turn off heat. And then in her mother-in-law's words, if you want to get "fancy":

Add: 1/8 tsp cardamom

1/8 tsp cinnamon

a pinch each of ground cloves & black pepper

I made this and ended up going heavier on all of the spices and then pouring it over ice for a refreshing beverage for the soul. Although I wouldn't mind ambling up to a street vendor (chai wallah) in South Asia & watching this ancient beverage being brewed and handed to me in a steaming cup, having a recipe on hand for something simple & a little exotic will tide me over for now! Thank you for sharing!!

A version of this post was featured on Wine & Food Travel

My Man Sam, the Cooking Guy

Alright, I've been a slacker. A neglectful blogger. A crazy person. But you knew that. However, I wanted to introduce you to my man, Sam. If you don't know of him already, he's me, or who I would like to be, foodwise - in a male, Jewish body. He has a cooking show on the Discovery Health Channel. The thing I love about this guy is that he's not a chef, he just cooks. He's not fussy, he cooks simple, great food & he believes in improv cooking. Yee Haw!!

I love his show, but as I was hunger-ly loitering in the cookbook section of the bookstore the other day, I stumbled upon his book, pictured above. And now I love him even more. He starts off by saying, "This is not a completely normal cookbook", and he goes on from there to to offer up such food quotes as, "I want you to add some big ass flavor...", and uses technical terms like, "ketchup-y & Asian-y". I don't remember ever reading a cook book that made me laugh out loud in the middle of a book store, or anywhere else for that matter. But alas, Sam the Cooking Guy has done it again. I was broke, so I didn't buy the book, but it is waaaay up on my list of books to get.

But YOU can buy his book, and when I am slacking in my blog responsibilities, you can flip through his pages and not only find some GREAT recipes, but you will surely be entertained as well!  

Also check out his website, which I also just discovered & of course, love.

Cheers!

Oahu's KCC Farmer's Market

Today I'm going to take you on a photo safari through the Farmer's Market at Kapiolani Community College. This tale starts on a Saturday morning, when I awoke in a strangely pissy mood, given my usual sunny disposition. I don't know what my problem was. But I knew that I had already planned to make the trek to town to FINALLY check out the farmer's market. I was going to go alone, saunter around, sniffing & chatting & touching & photographing & tasting. What was there possibly to be pissy about? Those are among my favorite activities.

But still. The clog in the parking lot once I got there didn't help. I finally found a spot about 700 miles away, gathered my stuff and started heading toward... I wasn't sure where I was going. But there was a steady stream of people coming from the opposite direction, so I swam upstream. Men passed with kids on their shoulders, dirtying their dads with sticky fingers, tourists passed by with bonzai trees and flower arrangements, a gorgeous girl with a huge bunch of sunflowers, and a guy with a very sexy, um... loaf of bread. Seriously, it was a great looking french bread!

And I realized as each person passed me, my mood was steadily improving. I was heading toward a food wonderland! It was a beautiful day in Hawaii & I had hours to putter about. sigh..... With a renewed attitude & a growl in my stomach, I made my way to the rows upon rows of tents and people & food, oh my!

There was a crap load of people, which started to arose a bit of grump in me, but I jumped in & watched them & soon became one of them.

There is something so much better about shopping for food while talking to the guy who grew it. Baskets overflow with pineapple, mangoes, onions & turnips...

I stopped to smell the flowers, and all was right with the world. The white ginger below is sold in bunches and used in making ginger leis. My favorite!

The buckets of tropical flowers reminded me of how truly lucky I am to live here.

Then I met Paul, the honey guy. I experienced my first honey tasting as spoon upon tiny spoon was thrust my way with an enthusiastic description of the process & the flowers that were the go-to's for the bees to make each one. I was amazed at the difference in taste from one to another. I left with a jar of Ohia Lehua (a hawaiian flower) honey and I have been using it in sparing, special circumstances, like it's liquid gold.

I really wanted to try these BBQ'd abalone from the Big Island, but the line was crazy. I plan to check out their farm the next time I am on The Big Isle though, especially since I just saw an episode of Dirty Jobs where they went to an abalone farm. Fascinating stuff....

And my search for the sexy bread came to an end here. Loaves & loaves & loaves of manna from heaven. I too would be the owner of a sexy loaf!
Soon enough my bag was filled with a strange array of things, and the growl in my stomach was screeching at me. Thankfully KCC's Culinary Program had a tent selling some killer kalua pork sliders with coleslaw on a taro bun. Oh. Yeah. Baby. I pulled up a patch of grass and wolfed mine down while watching crowds of people, bags overflowing with their own goodies, hunched over mountains of shave ice, slices of pizza, fried green tomatoes and god knows what else. It was a beautiful thing.

And with my day's plunder of jalepenos, limes, tomatoes, mesculin, melon, honey, heart of palm, breadfruit, and yes - my sexy loaf of bread, I rode the wave all week making many a concoction to feed my people & my soul.

So the moral of the story is: When Life Makes You Pissy, Surround Yourself With Food. Worked for me anyway.

When you're in the neighborhood, be sure to hit the KCC Farmer's Market on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Parking Lot C (Off of Diamond Head Road)

Kapiolani Community College

4303 Diamond Head Road

Honolulu, HI 96816

Coffee. Thank God for coffee!

Herein lies a cup of love. Liquid warmth & energy that is the fuel that wakes up the eyeballs & softens the hard edges of the morning. I don't mess around when it comes to coffee. It's gotta be real coffee, not that junk in a can. Although I do have a can of "emergency" coffee, because on those terrible, terrible mornings when you wake up & realize you forgot to get more freakin coffee, as if there's anything more important, emergency coffee is better than no coffee, if only by a small margin. I have a tiny little KRUPP'S espresso maker that I got for $30 bucks at Walmart. It makes one coffee at a time; thick, strong coffee and then it turns milk unto something, dare I say...sexy? Yeah, sexy. I need a sexy coffee first thing in the morning.

I'm almost always looking down the barrel of my favorite coffee cup, which is the sole survivor of a set of four. It's chipped & cracked & It's days are numbered, but unless it's been forgotten in the garden after yesterday's coffee ritual, or buried in a sink full of dishes, it's the only one that will do. It is my soul mate of a coffee cup. Freakish, I know.

It's not only about the coffee, the sexy foam or my favorite coffee cup, it's also about creating the blissfull, comfy, renewing atmosphere in the pocket of the day in which to suck it down. Sometimes I can stomach watching the morning news over my cup of Jo, but usually being bombarded by murder, scandal, natural disasters & human disasters before having my peaceful coffee moment makes me squirmy. Not to mention trying to savor my moment while Spongebob is blaring in the background, don't get me started.

When I first moved into my house, I didn't have cable TV. Sigh..... This meant coffee-time in bed, or in the quiet sunlight on the couch... But things have changed. Now, I have finally created my little haven outside in my garden. Since I have recently gotten back on the watering-the-garden-bandwagon, I have figured out that if I drag my coffee down to my haven, it forces me to water and then I can sit on the bench, kick my feet up on the table and have my peaceful moment. Then & only then can I face the day's scandal & natural disasters that I will undoubtedly encounter.

Citrus Granita

In Hawaii, we have shave ice, which is usually flavored with crazy, (delicious) artificially flavored syrup. The other day I made this granita, or shave ice with my kids and it was the perfect cool, summer treat. Plus, me being me, I quickly realized that if you pour a little citrus vodka over the top, it turns it into a lovely grown up treat!

Put your cookie sheet in the freezer while you make the liquid to help the freezing process.

4-5 large lemons, oranges etc... or enough to get about 2 cups of juice

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

Cut a couple long strips of rind from the citrus, making sure to not include any of the white pith.

Cut citrus in half & juice them.

In a medium saucepan, combine the water and sugar. Bring to a boil.

Lower heat to simmer, add the lemon juice, and stir to dissolve the sugar.

Add the lemon strips and allow to cool to room temperature.

When cool, strain through a fine-mesh strainer.

Transfer the mixture to the cookie sheet & put back in the freezer.

About every half hour, scrape the mixture with a fork to make ice crystals. Continue until it's frozen to your liking. Serve in a swanky glass.

I'm happy to have this basic recipe to be able to do some improv with! Imagine this with watermelon, peach juice, or even espresso!

"Go outside & play!"

Once again, I have realized that I have become my mother. It's summer, my kids are on break, and I find myself constantly shooing them outside. We argue back & forth, I say things like, "because I said so", or "Yes, there ARE things to do", and my favorite: "No I am NOT being unreasonable!" We live in Hawaii, for crying out loud (there's my mother again!), why is it such a chore to go play outside?!

Well, at least I have figured out that I can make them eat outside. I'm like the Pied Piper, I carry the food outside and they follow. And then something pretty cool happens. A bowl of summer cherries turns into a ruckus, funny contest to see who can spit more seeds into the bowl. When I sneak back inside to finish dinner, they slowly trickle back in & attempt to turn on the T.V. & provide me more opportunities to say those motherly "Don't-make-me...." warnings.

But then when we gather around the outside table for dinner, the chatter turns to having a bonfire & making s'mores, which we do as the sun sets, the stars come out and we settle around the fire pit talking about our favorite memories.

Later that night, my hair still smelling of smoke, I find myself in a moment of gratitude for the things of summer; a sweet bowl of cherries, gooey s'mores, the silly sweetness of my kid's faces in the firelight, and the wise words of my mother shooing us all outside to breathe in the summer air.

B.J.'s Baked Beans

Twenty-six years ago today, my parents opened their restaurant called B.J.'s BBQ & Deli. They sold it & retired 10 years ago, but it remains the backdrop for much of my childhood as well as the breeding ground for my love of food. When the restaurant opened, my mom's goal was that "B.J's would become a household name". And that it did. We lived in a small community in Northern California & B.J's went from a tiny take out BBQ place to a slightly expanded restaurant that seated 55 and would serve up to 300 dinners on a Friday or Saturday night.

The menu consisted of deli sandwiches, bbq ribs, chicken & prime rib, deli salads, corn on the cob, and my mom's famous baked beans. Every few days she would bring to life a huge vat of beans which would slowly sit cooking for an entire day. There was a lot of love & time poured into these beans.

So this year some internal clock went off inside of me. A few days ago, I dragged out my mom's recipe for baked beans, which I had never made myself before, and began my adventure of de-coding a restaurant portion recipe into one that would fit onto my stove. The process takes ALL day, but is about a million, billion times better than anything you will find in a can. Just the smell of them cooking on the stove sent me straight back to the many, many days I spent in my parents restaurant.

Ingredients:

2 C. Great Northern Beans (1 small bag)

1 C. BBQ sauce

1/8 C. cider vinegar

1 Tbs. mustard

1-2 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 C. thick sliced ham, cubed

1 Polish sausage, cubed

1 Tbs. Kitchen Bouquet (if this is not something you use, you find it in the condiment section at the store - it's great for adding a dark, rich color & flavor to sauces & gravy)

1 tsp. salt

1 C. brown sugar

What you do:

Rinse beans & put into large stock pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Turn off and let sit for 1 1/2 hours. Dump out water, and refill with fresh water, then turn back on a and simmer until tender, about an hour & 1/2 more, until tender. Make sure there is enough water remaining to cover the beans. Then add Kitchen Bouquet & salt and continue to cook for another 1/2 hour.

Meanwhile, saute onion, ham & sausage until slightly browned. Pour in 1/4 C. of water to deglaze pan and then add remaining ingredients except brown sugar, and simmer in a small saucepan until beans have cooked for 1/2 an hour.

Add sauce mixture to beans and cook for at least one hour, stirring often.

Add brown sugar and cook another hour. By then you will have tender, sweet, tangy beans that will be the star of your BBQ. These are great if you make them the day before you plan on serving them, and let them hang out in the fridge overnight. They are great hot or cold.

Last night, on the 4th of July, as I found myself hunched over a plate of BBQ spare ribs, fresh corn on the cob, and my mom's baked beans, I realized I had subconsciously re-created an exact replica of what would be served at B.J's. And now that I read these words, I see my mom's dream of having B.J.'s being a household name has lived on all these years later.

I hope you will try these and I hope that they will continue to live on in infamy in your family.

Happy Independence Day!