Posted in Personal

Thanksgiving 2010

Every year we go over to my paternal Grandparents’ house and have a delicious Thanksgiving feast. My grandparents are both from Hawai’i, but they’ve traveled and lived all over the world, including six years in Germany when my dad was growing up.

Because of this, our meals are always a melting pot of food from all over the world. Whenever I eat at family gatherings, I can just taste the love in the food. It makes you warm all over, especially when you know everything is home made.

Thanksgiving 2010

This year we had:

  • Turkey with Gravy
  • Cranberry Sauce
  • Green Beans
  • Candied Yams
  • Rolls
  • Mashed Potatoes
  • Stuffing/Dressing
  • Guava Chiffon Pie
  • Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
  • Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies (I used this recipe)

I really love my grandma’s yams and stuffing. Some of the stuffing she bakes inside the turkey and some she bakes outside so she can mix them together to get the perfect consistency. After we eat our big dinner at around 3pm, we drink some coffee, watch football, and play games.

We usually end up at home around 9pm, where my dad has been making his “Aorta Soup” in the slow-cooker all day. It’s that little something that hits the spot after a big, early meal so you don’t go to bed hungry. I don’t know how all the flavors are still fresh and vegetables still crispy after stewing several hours, but this soup is delicious. Sadly, no pictures of that since I ate mine up immediately before heading home.

What are some traditions you have for when you’re with your family?

Thanks to my mom and sister for snapping pictures!

A Salty Adventure

Hawaiian Sea Salts: Red & Pink

Last month I saw a tweet from Marx Foods about a photography challenge they were having for salt. I told them I was interested and I received 5 samples of cooking and finishing salts: Hawaiian Red Salt, Hawaiian Pink Salt, Ginger Salt, Espresso Salt & Flor de Sal. I was tasked to create two photographs: one of just salt, and the other of a finished dish that shows the salt well.

Immediately, the dish kālua pig popped into my head. I’m in the process of planning a vacation with my family and my sister’s Girl Scout troop to Hawai’i, so Hawai’i has been on my mind. We intend to have a “Hawai’i Day” next spring before going on the trip to expose the girls to the food and culture of Hawai’i so they don’t experience culture shock when they land on the island.

Kālua pig is one of the most popular dishes in Hawai’i, and is featured everywhere from the diner-style mix plate lunches locals eat midday, or the elaborate luau feasts held for special occasions (or tourists). It’s also one of the hardest dishes to find on the mainland, especially the east coast! We usually bring our kālua pig with us from Hawai’i on the plane, frozen, or have it shipped to us from the islands.

But, seeing the Hawaiian red & pink salt in the package from Marx Foods reminded me that the only ingredients in kālua pig are pig and Hawaiian sea salt. I then began to research how to recreate a mini imu in my oven at home. It seemed that all the recipes were for larger pieces of meat, and varied on temperature and time.

I settled on a 1.75 piece of pork butt and cooked it at 350 for  2 hours and 45 minutes. I cut 1/4 inch deep slices every inch and rubbed it with 2 tablespoons of a mixture of red and pink Hawaiian salt and 2 tablespoons of liquid smoke. I wrapped the pork with banana leaves secured with toothpicks and then wrapped with aluminum foil. I set it in a small baking dish and then put it in a larger dish. I added 2 cups water in the outer dish and set in the oven. I took the pork out after 2 hours to check on it, added 45 more minutes and 1 more cup of water around the dish. After 2:45 the pork was perfectly tender and easy to shred with 2 forks. I would suggest serving this dish hot and fresh. If you have leftovers, sprinkle with water before heating up or serve with a sauce to add some moisture back in. I ate some with rice and some red chile tortillas for lunch.

Flor de Sal, Ginger, and Espresso Salts with Milk Chocolate Caramels

In my excitement to make this dish, I forgot that all of the beautiful salt would dissolve when cooking! I then used the other three salts on some milk chocolate caramels and shared them with my friend Stephanie.

The ginger salt was surprisingly very strong and spicy flavored. After eating the caramels, the spice lingered in the back of our throats for a while. The espresso salt was a tad milder and sweeter than the ginger salt. The flor de sal was strong and straight-forward and paired perfectly with the sweet chocolate and gooey caramel.The salt granules were softer and smaller than the other two flavors, so the salt was easier to mix with the chocolate and caramel while tasting.

While we were tasting pork and caramels, we also decided to try the new Top Chef: Just Desserts truffles from Godiva that I had picked up over the weekend.

From top left, clockwise: Acai Berry – Dark chocolate ganache layered with acai, rose, and berry ganache in a dark chocolate shell decorated with a red heart; Passion Fruit – White chocolate and passion fruit ganache in a white chocolate shell; Chocolate Mendiant – Dark chocolate ganache between two dark chocolate disks, topped with bits of organic dried apricot, tart cherry, and sea salt; Green Tea – Matcha tea mousse center in a white chocolate shell decorated with green stringing.

The berry ganache tasted like alcohol or cough syrup, the passion fruit was bright, fresh, and smooth, the mendiant was rich but balanced with the salt, and the green tea was far too rich with the white chocolate and too much artificial green tea flavor in the center.

Graduation Cupcakes

Last summer my younger sister graduated from High School. I made some cupcakes for her actual graduation as well as some for her graduation party that happened soon after. Her graduation cupcakes were vanilla cupcakes filled with a homemade grapefruit curd and topped with a grapefruit-cream cheese frosting. This was when I discovered that adding citrus juice to cream cheese frosting in larger quantities doesn’t quite work. I didn’t try any of these cupcakes (I had some non-curd-filled ones), but heard they were delicious! I decorated them with hand-written messages or fondant letters, mixed with sprinkles.

A short time after my sister’s actual graduation, she held a party at our house for friends and family. There were games, good food, and of course desserts! I had a drink bar (all alcohol-free of course), including a cotton candy “mojito”! I took this inspiration and made some vanilla cupcakes with purple cream cheese frosting topped with cotton candy. Some of my sister’s friends also have gluten-free diets, so I made chocolate/vanilla marbled gluten-free cupcakes topped with purple-tinted frosting. I rolled the cupcakes in black sprinkles and topped them with a graduation pick. In case you couldn’t tell, her school colors were purple, black, and silver.

Read the rest of the entry for the full gallery of images and the recipe for the grapefruit curd filled cupcakes.
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Roll Cake (ロールケーキ)

My sister and I are huge fans of a local Korean bakery, Shilla Patisserie. There are many locations around where we live, so we often either meet their or stop by whenever we’re in the neighborhood. My family often purchases one of Shilla’s delicious and beautiful cakes for family get-togethers. One of these type of cakes is called “Roll Cake”. I recently purchased a book called くるくるロールケーキ Kuru Kuru Roll Cake from Kinokuniya in New York City. Kuru kuru means to spin or wind up, which is appropriate because the cross-section of a roll cake looks similar to a lollipop or pinwheel.

Even though my sister’s birthday is in December, she often celebrates her birthday later so that family and friends are back from vacation.I wanted to try to make a Shilla-style cake using the book I recently purchased. If I messed up, I could always just stop by the bakery on the way and pick up a real cake, right?

Unfortunately, I totally forgot that I didn’t have the special 30cmx30cm pan, Japanese super-fine sugar, a kitchen scale, and the types of eggs I had would probably be too big. These are some of the many problems that arise when cooking recipes from other countries. I also had to translate this recipe. Let’s be honest–I’m not familiar with Japanese kitchen vocabulary at all!

Here is my version of the simple Strawberry Roll Cake with substitutions/conversions below.

Sponge

  • 5 egg yolks
  • 4 egg whites
  • 40g butter
    • 2 2/3 tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 40g Low Viscosity Wheat Flour (薄力粉)
    • 8 1/2 tsp all-purpose flour
  • 90g white superior soft sugar (上白糖)
    • processed 19 teaspoons granulated sugar in food processor

Cream

  • 200ml fresh cream
    • 200 ml heavy whipping cream
  • 20g icing sugar
    • 4 1/4 teaspoon powdered sugar

Combine egg yolks and 20g(4 1/4 teaspoon) of granulated sugar. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites and remaining granulated sugar until it forms stiff peaks like a meringue. Add the yolk mixture to the whites, combining gently. Sift the flour in, mixing from the bottom to the top to make sure everything is incorporated. Add the melted butter and mix thoroughly using a rubber spatula. Make sure there are no bubbles in the batter. Add batter to a pan lined with two layers of parchment paper with slits cut in the corners so it lays flat. Smooth out the batter with a card, bake @ 200 degrees Celsius (392 f) for 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

For the cream, put the beater and bowl in the refrigerator until cold. Add the cream and sugar, beat for 6-8 minutes until thick. If you beat too long, it’ll turn into butter, so be careful!

Flip the cake over and remove the parchment paper carefully. Spread cream on with knife and fill with desired fruit slices. Roll 90 degrees (I rolled mine tighter, so it was really skinny!) using parchment paper on the outside. Once it’s rolled, keep rolled in the parchment paper for at least 30 minutes before cutting into slices.

I topped the cake with homemade dulce de leche and some toasted coconut. Toasted coconut marshmallows lined the side with milk tea pocky, some panda picks, and a bear-shaped marshmallow! (My sister’s nickname is “Bear” and one of her favorite animals are pandas) It tasted very good, but I don’t know yet if it was quite worth the effort. Granted, most of the effort went into translating and converting measurements. Now that I have a kitchen scale, it should much easier, right?

Unfortunately, due to the snow, her party was canceled! This cake won’t keep for long because of the cream in it, so I drove it out to her the night of her would-be-party so my family could enjoy it. I took a slice for myself and placed it in my French Postcard bento–that’s two slices I got to take because I had to make sure it tasted good before decorating it ^_^

 This recipe has been deemed a "hit at home" and is one of the tastiest recipes on Hapa-tite!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! (I’m a week late in saying this of course…)
How did you celebrate your New Year?

My family celebrates the Chinese New Year (on February 14th this year), but we celebrate it on New Years day since that’s when the family is together and available. On this day, my Grandma cooks a delicious feast. The side dishes vary every year, but we always have Roast Duck, Pork, and Stuffing (made with liver). It’s my favorite time of the year because I love all these foods! This year we also had vegetables (carrot, jicama, cauliflower, broccoli) with chicken, pickled cabbage, and rice. I arrived to dinner late, so there may have been other things that got eaten up! Dessert was green tea ice cream and some coconut cream pie.

I made sure to get first dibs on all the yummy leftovers. I especially like the pickled vegetables my Grandma made. She spent the whole year of 2009 pickling them for New Years! My first bento of 2010 was basically a recreation of this New Year’s spread. More on that later~