In this episode of From Hawaii With Love, you’ll meet New York City blogger Chef Mark Tafoya. Chef Mark has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appetit, Fox Business Channel and more. He’s a personal chef in New York City, world traveler, self-taught gourmand, and author of The Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home.  Tune in today at 1 p.m. (HST) or 3 p.m. (PST) on From Hawaii With Love to hear what this New Yorker says about Hawaii food. And, with the holidays right around the corner, The Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home cookbook is the perfect party resource or gift for your fave party host. Check it out!  If you miss today’s live show, remember that you can subscribe to our From Hawaii With love podcast for free on iTunes or download past episodes at www.FromHawaiiWithLove.com.

Yes, folks, according to Nation’s Restaurant News, “Chili’s Grill & Bar is firing up its ‘Baby Back’ ribs jingle, which has been on sabbatical since 2006, to help the 1,400-unit casual-dining chain drive traffic and introduce new burger and rib cooking techniques.”

Pairing a proven jingle to market a new cooking method is brilliant as it eases uncomfortable, uncertain feelings about change. We think this is a great move, and one that will keep Chili’s top-of-mind (Speaking from experience of having the song run over and over in my mind for days on end).

Looking forward to those commercials!

A few notes about kim chee: according to “The Korean Kitchen,” kim chee has seven components including a hot or sweet chili taste, saltiness, sweetness, sourness, bitterness, astringency, and any ingredient that will intensify or enhance flavor.  The great thing about kim chee is that the salt in it softens all kinds of greens, even ones that have gotten a little tough from late harvesting.  In my recipe, I use kale, bok choy, radicchio (Italian chicory), and chard, plus I add garlic chives and green onions, which I also grow.  My husband, who lived in Korea while he was in the Air Force, likes the bitter greens because he says it tastes more authentic than the pure cabbage kim chee that we buy in the store.

The other nice thing about kim chee is that you can make many different kinds from greens to cucumber, eggplant, radish, and anything else you’d like to experiment with.  I store mine in Ball jars and they keep in the fridge for weeks (it would last several months, but we eat it too quickly).  Each night for dinner, we place it on the table like a condiment and it goes surprisingly well with a variety of meals.  It’s also terrific for breakfast with rice and a fried egg.

So here’s my kim chee recipe:

Ingredients:
Garden greens, about 1 to 1-1/2 pounds (kale, bok choy, radicchio, chard, etc.), rough chopped into 1-inch pieces (can be larger)
¼ cup salt
½ cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons kim chee base (I use Momoya brand)
1-inch piece of ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 green onions, finely sliced
10 garlic chives, finely sliced
¼ Maui onion or other sweet onion
Pinch of Hawaiian salt (if needed)

Remove the outer leaves from the greens and rough chop into 1-inch pieces (I leave some pieces larger for variety).  Put greens into a colander, add salt, and mix well.  Place over a bowl and let drain, covered, about two hours.

In another bowl, combine vinegar, sugar, kim chee base, ginger, garlic, green onions, garlic chives, and Maui onion and stir.  After the greens have been sitting with the salt for two hours, squeeze them out until you’ve gotten most of the liquid out of them.  Rinse the greens for a few minutes, until you’ve gotten a lot of the salt off, and squeeze again until the greens are almost dry.  Add the greens to the vinegar mixture and stir to combine.  If needed, add a pinch of Hawaiian salt and stir again.  Put the mixture into sterile glass jars and pack the greens down.  Add enough water to cover.  Close the jar and refrigerate for at least four hours.

A little goes a long way so if you make enough jars, you can give some away to family and friends.  Ma-ni dŭ-se-yo!

Another easy, healthy entrée to make for any occasion, flexible enough to be a regular night’s dinner or a dish for your next family gathering, is furikake salmon.  In addition to how quickly you can whip this up, it only takes six ingredients (including salt and pepper)!  Here’s how you can create this dish at home:

Ingredients:
Salmon filet
3 cloves of garlic
Mayonnaise
Salt
Pepper
Furikake (dry Japanese condiment made with sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar, salt, and dried fish, usually used to sprinkle on rice)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place a good sized salmon filet on a sheet pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the filet. Grate or chop three cloves of garlic add to a small bowl. Add mayonnaise, enough to lightly cover the salmon filet, to the garlic and mix together. Spread mayonnaise mixture over the salmon (not too thick).  Sprinkle furikake over the mayonnaise so that it covers the mayonnaise mixture and entire top of fish. Bake fish in the oven for 20 minutes. Feel free to adjust the ingredients according to the size of the salmon filet and for the amount of people you are serving.

Enjoy!

“Pack to Fly” is a term heard often in Kauai restaurants and stores, usually referring to the packaging of food being taken on an airplane.  Most times, this food will be presented as omiyage (o-mee-yah-gay), the Japanese tradition of gifts given to co-workers, family, and friends upon returning from a trip.  Omiyage has been adopted by Hawaii and Kauai locals and usually involves food.  Anyone can take on this custom by buying and giving locally-made favorites from the places that they visit.  

Kauai visitors know that the island presents a multitude of ono (Hawaiian for delicious) omiyage food choices.  Here is a list of some of the best.

• Aunty Lilikoi Products offers a variety of passion fruit mustards, jellies, butters, syrups, dressings, and sauces that are sure-to-please gifts for those with tropical fever. The Passion Fruit Butter is divine to lather on a scone or dollop on ice cream. Notably, Aunty Lilikoi’s Passion Fruit Wasabi Mustard garnered the gold medal and title of Grand Champion at the 2005 Napa Valley International Mustard Competition. Visit their store in Waimea or pick up their products at grocery and specialty stores island-wide.
• Deli & Bread Connection is a sandwich emporium located in the Kukui Grove Shopping Center. Owned and operated by a Kauai family, Deli & Bread Connection’s sandwiches are an island favorite custom made to order using the company’s fresh baked bread. You can’t miss the comforting aroma of the baking bread as you approach the eatery. Purple taro rolls and bread loaves (wheat, white, sour dough, and sweet) are sold in-store and make wonderful gifts to take home to friends.
• Hamura Saimin Stand, a 2006 James Beard Award winner, is a small, family-owned restaurant that has been serving hot ramen out of an unassuming, wooden building with old-fashioned counters and stools for more than 40 years. Tucked in the armpit of Lihue, Hamura Saimin Stand is open for lunch and dinner. Their famous noodles that are made fresh daily are available for purchase (dry) to take home with you. Also made each day are manapua, steamed bun filled with pork, and lilikoi chiffon pie. Boxes of noodles, manapua and lilikoi chiffon pie are repeatedly spotted as carry-on luggage on airplanes departing Kauai.
• Kauai Chocolate Company creates premium chocolates on-site in their quaint shop at the Port Allen Marina Center in Eleele. Savor rich tropical truffles, fudge and homemade ice cream all while watching these sweets being made. A must-buy is the Chocolate Opihi, the company’s most popular item, a shortbread cookie, caramel and a whole macadamia nut covered in chocolate. A box of Chocolate Opihis is a luxurious gift for a special someone.
• Kauai Cigars are certain to hit the spot after a satisfying meal. The cigars are made with premium, all-natural, sun grown Kauai filler tobacco, and are perfect for a business associate. Dark and light varieties are available at nearly 30 locations on Kauai. Visit their website for a list of retailers.
• Lawai Menehune Food Mart offers a variety of Kauai-style pastries. Much loved by locals are the plain or cream-filled malasada, a deep-fried, sugar-coated Portuguese donut; manapua, a steamed Chinese rice cake; and gooey, sweet cascaron, a deep-fried Filipino dough ball. The deep-fried sweets are good to bring along on short jaunts to neighbor islands as they are best eaten on the same day that they are produced.
• Mark’s Place Lawai is located directly next door to Lawai Menehune Food Mart and is a take-out restaurant offering gourmet plate lunches, marinated meats, and poke (seasoned, raw seafood). Mark’s Place Lawai also has an omiyage section boasting freshly made cookies, mini cakes, snack mixes, prune mui, and lavosh, which is available in hot chili pepper, Hawaiian salt, sesame seed, and macadamia-coconut flavors.
• Pono Market is a locally-owned, family business that has been serving Kauai’s Kapaa town for decades. Offering espresso, take-out lunch, sashimi, poke, Spam musubis (Spam wrapped in rice and seaweed), and more. Pono Market is a busy stop for hungry locals throughout the day. A favorite omiyage item from Pono Market is their fresh manju, a bite-size Japanese pastry filled with one of the following: red bean paste, coconut, Okinawan sweet potato, or apple. The manju are made daily and ready for sale at 8 a.m. Arrive early as they sell out quickly, and ask them to “pack to fly” to protect these delicate confections from air travel.

These are just a few of the most popular Kauai food omiyage that are regularly packed to fly.  Uniquely-Kauai omiyage can be found in all corners of the island, and the County of Kauai has a Kauai Made Program that represents items made on-island, using products from and by the people of Kauai.  View its entire directory of vendors at www.kauaimade.net.

This article can also be found on 52perfectdays.com.

Contact Information for above mentioned businesses:
Aunty Lilikoi – www.auntylilikoi.com
9875 Waimea Road
Waimea, HI 96796.
Toll free 1-866-LILIKOI

 Deli & Bread Connection
Kukui Grove Shopping Center
3-2600 Kaumualii Hwy #F05
Lihue, HI 96766
(808) 245-7115

Hamura Saimin Stand
2956 Kress St.
Lihue, HI 96766
(808) 245-3271

Kauai Chocolate Company – www.kauaichocolate.us
Port Allen Marina Center
4341 Waialo Road
Eleele, HI 96705
808 335-0448

Lawai Menehune Food Mart
2-3687 Kaumualii Hwy
Lawai, HI 96765
(808) 332-8641‎

Mark’s Place Lawai
203687 Kaumualii Hwy.
Lawai, HI  96765
(808) 332-0050

Pono Market
4-1300 Kuhio Hwy.
Kapaa, HI 96746
(808) 822-4581

Arrange boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breast on a sheet pan. Drizzle it with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Chop onions, carrots, celery (leafy parts too), and tomatoes and layer them on the chicken in the order listed. Put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

The result will be a tasty, juicy meal that will save you from slaving over a stove (to me, that’s the best part…I put it in the oven and come back when it’s done).  Go ahead, try it out and leave us a comment to let us know if you liked it.

Ingredients:
1 squash (seeded, peeled, and chopped into 2-inch pieces)
2-4 cloves of garlic (slightly smashed, but kept in one piece)
4 slices of fresh garlic (peeled, sliced about 2 inches long, slightly smashed but kept in one piece)
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (cut in 1-inch pieces)
Beef bouillon
Oyster Sauce
Salt
Pepper

Salt and pepper the raw chicken. In a soup pot, cook chicken, garlic, and ginger in olive oil. Once chicken is cooked through, add squash and cook for five minutes. The squash will start to become tender.  Add water to the pot so that it just covers the squash and chicken combination.  Bring the water to a boil and add the beef bouillon, oyster sauce, and pepper to taste.  Simmer for 15-20 minutes.  The squash should be very soft. Serve as is or with rice (my husband and son enjoy their soup with rice).  Feel free to adjust the proportions of the recipe to your taste, or to substitute pork for the chicken. 

This is a simple, go-to meal in my household, and I hope that your family will enjoy it as much as mine does.

Here’s how to make it: put the ingredients for a Philadelphia-style ice cream base (cream, milk, and sugar) into a pot, add a dried vanilla pod, a little less than one-third of a cup of the loose tea, and a pinch of salt.  Let the mixture heat until bubbles just start forming around the edge.  Turn it off and let it steep for about 15 minutes, then put the pot into an ice bath and let the mixture cool.  When it’s cold, strain it and pour it into your ice cream maker to churn, and then freeze it.

This is a great dessert to serve on its own for a special dinner with friends.  They won’t have had it anywhere else and the taste and mouth-feel are luxurious, silky and satisfying.  It also makes a lovely midnight snack, which maybe you can justify since it’s packed with antioxidants.

If you have a specialty food that you’ve mastered, change it up, reinvent it.  And, if you’re willing to share your recipe, post it in our comments below so we can all enjoy it.

Bon appetit!