Hawaiian Mac Salad

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Hawaiian macaroni salad, part of the holy trinity that makes up plate lunch, is something close to my heart. Everyone has their own special recipe and every since I visited Helena’s Hawaiian Food this past fall, I’ve been trying to figure out what made it taste so good. My dad clued me in that he uses whole milk in his mac salad which makes it taste creamier and mellows out the vinegar.

So when I saw a recipe for Hawaiian Pasta Salad on Kim’s blog Feed Me Seymour, my mind was made for this month’s Secret Recipe Club pick. Kim prides herself on recipes that aren’t daunting or scary such as: Black Tea Honey Scones, Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows, Butterbeer Cupcakes, Rolo Cookies, and Nutella-stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Since I made this mac salad in the middle of a snow storm, I had to improvise. There was no macaroni pasta at the store so I picked the closest thing; I had to make my own mayonnaise out of olive oil, egg yolks, mustard, and salt; I used almond milk instead of regular milk. Using a more traditional milk, especially whole milk, will make this much creamier and less tangy.

Regardless, this was a mighty fine macaroni salad — 2 scoops of this and some Honey Garlic Chicken really hit the spot.

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Hawaiian Mac Salad Recipe

By nicole Published: March 23, 2015

  • Yield: 10 Servings
  • Prep: 10 mins
  • Cook: 20 mins
  • Ready In: 60 mins

Adapted from Feed Me Seymour

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Whisk together 1½ cups milk, 1 cup mayo, brown sugar and some salt and pepper. Put in the fridge.
  2. Boil your noodles in a pot until soft then drain. Return to pot. Add vinegar to pasta and toss until absorbed. Transfer to a bowl. Cool for ten minutes.
  3. Stir in the dressing until pasta is well coated. Cool.
  4. Add in remaining milk, carrot, celery and remaining mayo. Stir well to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  5. MIx in sliced green onions and top with chia seeds (optional twist).

Green Tea Sandwich Cookies with Honey Cream Cheese Filling ♣

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I like St. Patrick’s day because it gives me an excuse to make and eat green food. Other than that, I don’t really celebrate it — in fact I’ve never even seen a green beer! These cookies are naturally colored with some beautiful sencha green tea powder gifted to me by Sugimoto America. This sencha powder had a nice strong earthy taste that paired naturally with the honey cream cheese filling.

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The recipe for these cookies came from my co-worker who had brought them into the office but I never got to try them. I usually avoid making sandwich cookies since they’re twice the amount of work for one cookie, but these just might be worth it. Not as much work as linzer cookies, but a little more work than whoopie pies. I also got to try out my new rolling pin so that I could make sure the dough was uniform in thickness.

If you’re in the mood for a seasonal treat that isn’t tooth-achingly sweet, these are right up your alley. I’ve stuck a few in the freezer to give to my friend this weekend when we meet up for the NYC Coffee & Tea Festival; I’ll report back on how they fared.

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This recipe is very easy and has a limited number of ingredients. I added heaping tablespoons of green tea powder because I had only a little left in my container (total amount = 227 grams). The cookie is a little dense, but lighter than shortbread. When eaten fresh, the filling will ooze out a bit. I stuck them in the fridge overnight and the filling firmed up for easier chomping.

Green Tea Sandwich Cookies with Honey Cream Cheese Filling ♣ Recipe

By nicole Published: March 17, 2015

  • Yield: 16 cookie sandwiches
  • Prep: 10 mins
  • Cook: 10 mins
  • Ready In: 50 mins

From Amy, via Snixy Kitchen

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Whip the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
  2. Add the egg and mix until combined.
  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar, and add it to the butter mixture. Mix until combined.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and matcha powder.
  5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter, mixing until a crumbly dough forms.
  6. Use your hands to form the dough into a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and flatten to form a disk. Chill for 30 minutes.
  7. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and roll out to ¼-inch thickness. I found the best combination was a silipat on the bottom and plastic wrap on top to avoid over-flouring the dough.
  8. Use a cookie cutter to cut your favorite shapes and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet., leaving about ½-inch between cookies. Repeat with remaining dough.
  9. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until just beginning to turn golden brown. Let cool before frosting.
  10. While the cookies cool, combine the butter, cream cheese, and honey in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until well mixed.
  11. Spread just under a tablespoon of frosting between two cookies. If not eating immediately, place in covered container in the fridge overnight.

Sugimoto America: Gyokuro 玉露

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Description

Gyokuro is green tea that was cultivated in the shade and is considered one of the finest green teas in Japan. It has a unique sweetness since the shade allows the tea to retain a high Theanine content. Only the first flush tea leaves are used for Gyokuro.

Available through: Sugimoto America | Facebook

Tasting Notes

This is a very typical green tea. Smelling it is very buttery and then a hint of grassiness. The butteriness is missing almost completely from the tea when drinking and is instead replaced with a slight bitterness at the end.

The leaves are a very pretty blue-green color and are smaller than most other leaves, brewing up like spinach. The packaging suggested 140 degrees for steeping but I think this would have done better at either a lower temperature or lower steeping time since it did have a tad of bitterness.

Flavors: Butter, Grass, Spinach
Preparation: 2 minutes, 15 seconds @ 140 °F

About sa

Sugimoto America is a complete supplier of Japanese green tea and a subsidiary of Sugimoto Seicha, a Japanese green tea company founded in 1946. They have been awarded both the Green Tea Connoisseur Award as well as the prestigious Prime Minister Award for its superior quality of tea leaves.

Tea quality is determined by tea farmers. Our Tea Maestro has selected 11 artisan farmers in his local area of Shizuoka prefecture. He and his farmers work toward the same goal — to produce the highest quality green tea possible using the traditional Japanese steam processing method (Fukamushi), and without using large machines to harvest from their farms located on mountain slopes.

Product provided for review.  All notes & opinions are my own.

Spinach Pizza Dough

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We make pizza a lot, so I was excited when I was paired up The Spiffy Cookie for this month’s Secret Recipe Club. Erin, a constant cooker and baker has 39 pizza recipes. 39!! I thought we loved pizza, but she puts us to shame. I had trouble choosing between her recipes, especially since, like me, her favorite food group is dessert! But the pizza kept calling my name and I just had to make her Spinach Pizza Dough.

This pizza dough came together quite easily but I didn’t make it right away. Since I made it a day in advance, I put it in the fridge to proof overnight. Since we like our pizza considerably thinner than how Erin prepared hers, this dough actually makes 3 pretty large pizzas.

We topped the pizza with some of our favorite toppings: red onions, chianti salami, pesto, sambal, garlic, and some peppercorn cheese. We even used the remaining spinach top top it off. That means this pizza has an entire six ounce bag of spinach in it!

If you’re hungry for pizza now, you can check out Erin’s pizza category, including Pizza Quesadilla (which I make all the time now!), Stromboli, and Christmas Wreath Pizza Ring.

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Spinach Pizza Dough Recipe

By nicole Published: February 23, 2015

  • Yield: 2 medium pizzas, 3 small pizzas
  • Prep: 10 mins
  • Cook: 20 mins
  • Ready In: 60 mins

From The Spiffy Cookie

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Immerse spinach and cook until wilted. Immediately drain and gently squeeze out excess water.
  2. Place spinach in a measuring cup and add water to make a volume of ½ cup. Add to a food processor or blender and pulse until pureed; set aside.
  3. Note: If you're using a stand mixer with a dough hook, you can start this process in the mixing bowl. In a large bowl, add ½ cup warm water. Sprinkle sugar and yeast over the water, and stir to combine. Set aside until foamy, about 5 to 10 minutes.
  4. Add one cup flour, salt, oil, and spinach puree. While kneading (by hand or stand mixer dough hook) add remaining flour, one cup at a time and continue kneading until flour is well incorporated. Add extra flour (too sticky) or water (too dry) if necessary.
  5. Form into a ball, coat with oil on all sides, place in a bowl and cover. Let rise for 30 minutes or until doubled. If not using right away, wrap with saran wrap and refrigerate.
  6. Preheat oven to 450°F. Roll out dough and transfer to a pizza stone or pan. Prepare with favorite toppings.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until it the crust turns golden and the cheese (if any) starts to bubble.

Roasted Merino Lamb Rack with Potatoes

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Lamb is one of my favorite foods to eat, but it’s intimidating for me to even think about cooking at home. I’ve heard people complain that it smells and heard horror stories of too rare or burnt messes.

That’s why I was glad to receive some lamb in the mail from Marx Foods to pair with a tried-and-true simple recipe from someone I know.  I went all in and tried the scariest seeming cut: frenched racks.

Searing
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This recipe, from one of my favorite chefs José Andrés, comes from his cookbook Made in Spain: Spanish Dishes for the American Kitchen which is paired with his PBS television show. It only has a handful of ingredients and is very straight forward so that the lamb itself can shine. Finishing with pyramid salt added a nice crunch, especially when paired with a smear of pesto.

The lamb itself was seared to a juicy, caramelized crunch and cooked to an internal temperature of 130°F. The meat, after resting a few minutes, was silky, moist, and lean. There was no off-putting smell prior, during, or after cooking — in fact, it tasted fresher than I ever knew meat could smell.

For those that haven’t tasted much lamb before, it tastes similar to beef, but lighter, cleaner, and less fatty, almost like venison. As the meat cools you can actually taste the flavor of the lamb more.

About  the  Lamb

Now, this lamb is not the same as average supermarket lamb. Alpine Origin Merino roams free on mountain pastures in New Zealand, grazing on grasses & alpine herbs. Because of this, the meat has a lighter, less gamy flavor and is more evenly marbled.


Product provided for review.  All notes & opinions are my own.

Thank you Marx Foods for the opportunity to taste this amazing lamb and to try my hand at making it myself! Stay tuned for a recipe involving Lamb Loin Fillets.

Roasted Lamb Rack with Potatoes

By nicole Published: February 21, 2015

  • Prep: 5 mins
  • Cook: 40 mins
  • Ready In: 50 mins

From José Andrés' Made in Spain.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
  2. Toss the potato slices, garlic, onions, rosemary, thyme, and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil together in a mixing bowl. Spread the mixture in a large roasting pan, season to taste with salt, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
  3. While the potatoes roast, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the pan begins to smoke, add the lamb racks and brown about 2 minutes per side.
  4. Remove the potatoes from the oven and pour the wine over them. Arrange the lamb racks on top of the potatoes, leaning them against each other to form a triangle. Return the pan to the oven and cook for another 20 minutes or until the lamb measures 130°F on a meat thermometer. Transfer the lamb to a cutting board to let rest for 5 minutes.
  5. Slice the racks into chops and divide them among 4 plates. Spoon the potatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs onto the plates. Drizzle the lamb with the pan juices and the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Season to taste with salt.