Loco Moco

Some time ago I wrote about the famous plate lunch that epitomizes popular Hawaiian cuisine (at least in my mind). When I was on the Big Island in April, I was able to get my plate lunch fix by going to L&L drive-ins on two separate occasions. The food was good and plentiful as ever, and even though I shared one three ways, we were unable to finish the rice, macaroni salad, bbq beef, chicken, and short ribs that are included on the “combination plate.”

Another thing I had to have was loco moco. A stop at Ken’s House of Pancakes in Hilo was the sure place to order up a bowl. Considered the ultimate Hawaiian comfort food, this dish is comprised of a generous serving of steamed rice topped with a hamburger patty then one or two over-easy eggs and finally a rich brown gravy. Delicious!  (For the hearty eater, Ken’s offers the Sumo Moco made with six scoops of rice, two hamburger patties, and three eggs all smothered with gravy, and when this dish is ordered, a bell is rung and everyone in the place yells, “SUMO!”)

I pride myself in cooking delicious, nutritious, vegetable intense foods for my family but have been craving loco moco for days now, so that’s what we had for dinner.  (My daughter did point out that I used farm-fresh organic eggs and lean beef)  As I sat down to the steaming, delicious smelling bowl of gravy drenched Hawaiian Heaven, I almost felt like I was back in the islands…

Visit Ken’s online or be sure to eat there when you go to the Big Island – just turn right out of the airport and go a little way. (Order the most awesome pancakes - available 24/7 and served with Guava, Passion Fruit and “Kokonut” syrups, Yum!) http://kenshouseofpancakes-hilohi.com/

$11 Well Spent

This morning I headed out to my favorite honor system farm stand in search of something to go in between the chicken pieces for tonight’s kabob dinner. I never know what will be available but hoped for zucchini, yellow squash and perhaps a green pepper or two. I visit regularly to see what they have, as produce varies by season and by what is ready for picking each day.

Sometimes I am truly surprised by what I find and have had the opportunity to try things new to me like patty-pan squash. Today, I found exactly what I was looking for and also grabbed a pint of little tomatoes to brighten up the dish. I rounded out the day’s purchase with a couple big, ripe tomatoes, 3lbs of new potatoes, three cucumbers and – today’s new treat – a canary melon. (I’ve never tried this type of melon but imagine it will taste similar to a honeydew). 

I wait anxiously each spring for them to open the stand for the season because, even though it is a few extra miles from my house, I find the whole experience to be charming.  Sometimes the owner is there dropping off a bushel of fresh picked green beans, corn or tomatoes, but more often than not, I have the place to myself.    

There is a scale to weigh my goods and a little pad of paper, pencils and a calculator to add up my purchase. I drop my money in the green metal box on the wall, pack my produce in my own shopping bag or grab a recycled plastic bag from the holder on the shelf, and pause for just a moment to enjoy the peace and solitude that’s an added bonus of driving a little extra out of my way.

This round of grocery shopping was done, and plans were made for the squash, peppers and tomatoes.  Now...what to do with the rest.  Potato salad? Creamed potatoes and peas?  Kombu-zuke (a type of Japanese pickled cucumber)? Who knows.  Only my imagination knows.  And, I can't help but wonder what he'll have next week.

Cobbler, Crisp, Crunch, Crumble

Yes, I know we broke all kinds of records this weekend with the heat, but I baked blueberry muffins Sunday. I had produce that needed using and wasn’t about to let a little 105 degree heat wave stop me.

Last Monday, my neighbor and I went blueberry and blackberry picking. I made a cobbler with all of the blackberries and let the kids munch on some of the blueberries. The rest would later be destined for the aforementioned blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes (I add 1/4 cup of berries to each individual scoop of batter to ensure there are adequate berries in every bite). I had intended to make Alton Brown’s Blueberry Buckle too but ran out of berries. See the link for an absolutely delicious blueberry treat: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/blueberry-buckle-recipe/index.html

I also made a fruit crisp. I had four not-too-pretty peaches and three mangy apples and decided to combine them all into one crisp. After I sprayed the cooking dish (non-stick spray has got to be one of the greatest inventions. I love it when I remember to use it and curse myself when I forget), I peeled and cored the apples, sliced all the fruit, tossed the whole mess with 1/3 cup raw sugar and 1/4 cup of apple jack – yes, the booze – and packed it into the Pyrex. For the topping I combined 1 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1t cinnamon and crumbled in 1/2 stick butter with my hands (it’s just easier that way). I then topped the fruit with the topping and placed the whole mess in the oven (375 degrees) for 35 minutes until the topping was browned and the crisp was bubbly. It was delicious – the apples were sweet and the peaches a little tart. Who knew!

Monday’s blackberry cobbler and Sunday’s crisp got me thinking. What IS the difference between the two? This reminded me of the scalloped/Au Gratin potato discussion I had with my Aunt Carol many years ago. The jury is still out on that one. Back to the fruit desserts…

I once also heard cobblers got their name because of the dough’s semblance to a cobblestone street, and a little research in my handy-dandy Cook’s Illustrated (July/August 1996, p. 18-20) led me to believe this may be true. While any fruit will do (less maybe watermelon), the difference lies in the topping. To quote:

“Cobblers usually have a biscuit topping, while crisps and crumbles have a crumb topping. To further differentiate, crisps are topped with a mixture of butter, sugar, flour and nuts, while crumbles have the same topping, with oatmeal taking the place of the nuts.”

(PS - Cook’s Illustrated offers recipes for four versions of cobbler toppings: butter cookie dough, rich shortcake, flaky pastry and batter. )

In retrospect I did make a blackberry cobbler - I used the batter style topping but have tried the butter cookie dough and found it a little too sweet for my taste - but apparently actually made a apple/peach crumble. Crisp, crumble, cobbler – they all may be a little different; however, all taste GREAT with vanilla ice cream!

Now...what about buckles and Bettys? Streusels and strudels?

My shopping style

I like grocery shopping because I enjoy picking out the foods I need to cook, but I hate the tedium that is the act of shopping itself. However, this time of the year I rarely venture into the grocery store. I do buy milk (organic!) and browse the flyers to see who has what meat on sale (a particular favorite is the buy-one-get-two boneless, skinless chicken breast special one local store frequently offers). Other than that, there are no major expeditions to stock the pantry and deep freeze. As a matter of fact, I have vowed to get to the bottom of the freezer and back of the pantry using every last thing I may find on this sort of archeological dig. Why?  For starters, I tend to hoard, stockpile, gather - whatever you want to call it - food items and need to thin the herd, so to speak. And, secondly…from early May to late September I primarily “shop” at the local farmer’s markets and fruit stands – and there are so many to choose from in this area.

Take my latest haul. I hit one market, the Old Beach Farmer’s Market, last Saturday morning and literally spent every penny I had on me. I went for steamer clams and corn but walked away with much, much more. After I secured the clams (I paid 30 clams for 100 clams - haha) and a baker’s dozen ears of corn (as well as eight beautiful peaches and two plump ‘maters from the same stand), I started thinking how good a loaf of the fresh baked French bread would be as an accompaniment. After I picked up a loaf, I remembered the dairy stand around the corner and figured fresh butter would go nicely with the clams, the corn and the newly acquired bread.

Both reusable grocery bags were packed to the top when I walked past the organic veggie stand and spied the most beautiful red, white and blue new potatoes. Of course I needed to get a couple containers. They were $4.00 a quart or two for $7.00 tax included. I wanted to get a pack of white and a pack of blue. Alas, as I scrounged around in my pocket, I found I only had $6.90 left. The kind lady running the stand spied my pile of crumpled ones and assorted change, and I confessed my shortfall. She smiled and gave me a quarter off the register left by a previous customer. I returned the favor by leaving my extra 15 cents in the same spot and left with taters in tow.

Back home, my bounty spread out on the counter, I contemplated lunch. As is often the case, I bought too much, so I opted to skip the potatoes after all. I warmed the bread in the oven, dropped the corn in my biggest pot (with some sugar and salt added to the boiling water) and the clams in my next largest (steamer bucket installed), melted a little butter and rallied the troops.

As we feasted, I decided I liked my shopping style.  It was good for my patience, the local economy and my stomach!   

Work is in the way...

My job is getting in the way of the fun of writing my food blog.  (Maybe I need a job writing a food blog.)  My job is also getting in the way of picking fresh and local fruits and veggies!  I missed the strawberries and peas completely (picking that is-I did manage to eat a few) and better wrap stuff up at work because blueberries and blackberries are almost ripe for the picking, and I'm NOT going to miss those!  Check out these big black beauties from last year...

Zillions of zucchini

When I was a kid growing up in Ohio, we had a huge garden; in fact, everyone in my family did – aunts and uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents. As is the norm, I did not appreciate what I had then and only looked at the hours of picking string beans, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, summer squash and green peppers in the steaming mid-west sun as grueling, tedious, torturous child labor. Quite to the contrary, helping work in my great-grandfather’s acre+ garden was a completely different story (big potatoes in the wheelbarrow, little ones in the bucket). That was a pleasure. Maybe because it was his, maybe because the whole family was there, maybe because after we were done we would all sit down to a huge meal celebrating the fruits of our labors. He was a master gardener before there was such a thing. He grew tomatoes as big as dinner plates (orange, yellow and red), celery, carrots, cantaloupe, and more but always had the time to steal the salt shaker from the kitchen and sneak out to the garden to eat sun-warmed tomatoes straight off the vine with me.

Regardless of the size of garden, the varieties of produce grown or the skill of the gardener, no one in my family planted zucchini. Ever. Zucchini grew very well in Ohio. Too well, in fact. So well that anyone who grew zucchini found their garden soon overtaken by monstrous, leg-sized dark green behemoths. If, however, some were smart enough to NOT grow them, they did not go without. Indeed, the few who dared to grow zucchini, had enough to feed the entire community. As the zucchini plague spread each summer, an ever expanding radius of neighbors and friends woke early in the morning to spontaneous zucchini growth right on the front porch – my family included.

I soon became the master of zucchini preparations. Raw was good, grilled or steamed was better but breaded was best! My recipe was pretty simple. Dip the sliced zucchini in egg, then flour and into a pan with a little butter until brown on both sides. A dash of salt and my summertime breakfast and lunch was now ready for consumption. Even though I ate it nearly every day in the summer, I never grew tired of my fried zucchini. I still love it today.

Recently, I was at a local produce stand and saw these cool little, perfectly round zucchini. They were called “eight-ball zucchini.” I decided to buy a couple and make fried zucchini for dinner. In an effort to be “healthy,” I tried a new method which turned out to be very delicious (although I still prefer my simple egg, flour and salt method.) So, next time you find yourself with zucchini overload or you happened to pick up a few fresh and local beauties at your neighborhood farmer’s market, give the following a try. I’m sure you’ll like it – my family did.

Oven-fried Zucchini
Zucchini slices (about 1/3” thick)
1 egg
1 cup homemade bread crumbs (I let a variety of old bread dry completely on the counter and grind it in my food processor after I have a bunch saved and seal in an airtight jar)
¼ cup parmesan cheese (in the green can)
1T Mrs. Dash® Italian Medley Seasoning Blend
2t garlic salt
2T olive oil

-Heat oven to 350. Place parchment paper on two baking sheets. Spread 1T olive oil on each sheet.
-Scramble egg and place in shallow dish. Mix bread crumbs, cheese, Mrs. Dash and garlic salt and place in second dish. (I use half at a time in case the egg makes the mixture gloppy.)
-Dip zucchini slices in egg then crumb mixture evenly coating both sides. Place on parchment.
-Bake for eight minutes. Flip each and bake for an additional eight minutes until golden brown.
-Serve immediately and enjoy!

Thank you to Burpee for the veggie pictures: http://www.burpee.com/

Peter Rabbit, Eat Your Heart Out

The calendar might not quite say it’s summertime, but the produce stands sure do! Strawberries are ending their run as are peas, asparagus and spring onions, but the summer bounty is starting to come in hard and fast. Earlier this week I headed out to my favorite honor system stand to see what it had to offer. Mr. and Mrs. McGregor (No, no, not their real names) had been very, very busy. Laid out for my shopping pleasure was a bonanza of veggies, so I indulged – perhaps even overindulged.

I bought a half-dozen or so beautiful little zucchinis and summer squash – not a ding or dent to be seen (yet another benefit of living on fresh and local produce) – a cabbage that would make Peter Rabbit himself swoon, a bunch of green onions, broccoli, a pound of kale, two cucumbers, and three tomatoes (I’m almost sure they are not local but they actually smelled and tasted like real, vine ripened tomatoes) and spent a whopping $11.45 (and I rounded up).

There was more to be had – little red potatoes, sweet onions, sugar snap peas, snap beans, even some pickled okra – but I was out of money.

As I dropped my bills and change into the green metal box bolted to the wall, I knew I’d be back...and soon. The corn was already knee-high and I saw more squash just waiting to be picked.

Tomorrow morning I plan to head to the Old Beach Farmer’s Market to pick up even more fresh and local produce. Check them out here: http://www.oldbeachfarmersmarket.com/

Oh, and check out the spring edition of Buy Fresh Buy Local buying guide for more ideas and sources for yummy summer produce: http://buylocalhamptonroads.org/