Pancit

Pancit is a Filipino noodle dish that I used to help Mom make on Thanksgiving morning. Because it is a time-consuming dish requiring a great deal of prep work, it was usually prepared only during the holidays or for special occassions. This is the singular dish to which I now attribute my knife skills. I cannot begin to tell you how many hours I spent over the years chopping, julienning, and cubing these ingredients.

It goes without saying that everyone who makes pancit has their own version. Mom's recipe is my absolute favorite. Her protein (shrimp, pork, chicken) to veggie (onions, carrots, snap peas, shittake mushrooms) ratio is perfect and all the ingredients meld together beautifully. Finished off with a squeeze of lemon I can eat a huge bowl of this stuff and still want more.

(Recipe forthcoming)

Banana Lumpia

Hawaii's tropical climate and the abundance of banana trees around my parent's home means constant banana goodness.

The variety they grow is called apple bananas which is different from what you normally find in the grocery store. These are short and stubby and unbelievably sweet. It's no wonder bananas are one of my favorite fruits.

Growing up I remember Mom was always looking for ways to use up the bananas whenever a bunch became ripe. I have fond memories of her banana bread and banana pancakes. I especially love her banana lumpia. We cooked some up a couple of times during this trip.

Lumpia is the Filipino version of an egg roll. They can be sweet (like these filled with banana and cinnamon sugar) or savory (filled with meat and veggies). There is definitely a technique to rolling them--you want to make sure they are tight otherwise they become a sloppy mess as you are frying them.

Yes, it saddens me to say they are fried; their one negative characteristic. I hadn't eaten anything fried months prior to this, and almost felt guilty as I consumed these crispy, golden treats. Almost.

Chicken Kalamungai (Marungai)

Tonight we tackled one of the things on my mom-needs-to-cook-while-we-are-here list. Growing up I was always her helper in the kitchen, usually washing the dishes as we cooked or prepping ingredients (chopping, peeling, etc.). However, since I've lived all of my adult life in a different city (mostly different state) I haven't had a chance to really learn her recipes. Therefore, I was determined to make it one of the priorities during this trip. So we started with her chicken kalamungai soup (a.k.a. chicken marungai and papayas). Pieces of chicken and green papayas in a savory broth flavored with tanglad (a.k.a. lemongrass) and kalamungai leaves--it is so good.

The most time-consuming step of this dish is picking the kalamungai leaves. We would usually sit around the table "talking story" while we did this so the time actually flew by. Brian pitched in to help during this step and we all enjoyed a great conversation.

Seeding and peeling the papaya also takes a little time as the skin can be difficult to work with. Once those two things are done though, it's just a matter of gathering the remaining ingredients and cooking. One item of note: the milk that oozes from the papaya when peeling can irritate the skin of some people. Luckily it isn't an issue for me.

The undisputed star of this dish is the distinctive tanglad (pronounced tahng-lahd) flavor of the soup. It is the knotted mass in the photo below and Mom has a big bush of it growing in the back yard. While the entire stalk is used, most of the flavor comes from the thick section near the base of the stalk rather than the actual leafy portion. The other key ingredient is the kalamungai leaves. It's a bit bitter when you bite it, similar to kale.

Mom, like many other great cooks, has a lot of her recipes in her head. As a result she "eyeballs" amounts instead of following a written recipe. Trying to get accurate amounts in order to document the recipe was rather challenging but I think we are close with this one.

Recipe:
3 cups kalamungai leaves, rinsed
4 green papayas, seeded-peeled-cubed
1/2 cup onion, chopped
5 lb. chicken fryer, sectioned
1 tomato, sliced
3 stalks tanglad (lemongrass)
1/2 cup patis (fish sauce)
2 Tbsp oil
handful of Hawaiian salt
pepper
garlic salt (optional)

1) In a large pot add onions to heated oil and cook until translucent

2) Add chicken and brown.

3) Add tomatoes and hot water to cover chicken. Stir and bring to a boil.

4) Add Hawaiian salt, pepper, garlic salt, tanglad, patis. Stir and bring to a boil again.

5) Once boiling add papaya and simmer until papaya is soft (about 20 minutes).

6) Add kalamungai leaves and cook for another 5 minutes.

We usually eat this served over rice with a dash of shoyu. It tastes even better the next day when the flavors have had a chance to really meld together.

Crab!

Our first night in Hawaii Mom arranged a cookout so we could spend some time with everyone apart from the actual wedding night which would be hectic. Most of Uncle Jimmy’s kids (and their kids) made it as did Dad, my brothers, and their families. We had a great time and the spread was absolutely delicious: shoyu chicken (chicken braised in a sweet soy-based sauce), sour pork (grilled pork mixed with onions and tomatoes and dressed in a soy/vinegar sauce), noodles, smoked fish, steak, fresh crab, patele (Puerto Rican dish similar to an enchilada), and of course, rice. A mango cheesecake topped off the meal.

Unfortunately, I got so caught up in visiting that I didn’t think to take pictures of the table, but I did get some of Brian working on the crab. Fresh samoan crab that were plucked out of the water only a few hours before consumption—no condiments necessary. My brothers and step-brothers thoroughly enjoyed showing Brian the best way to get into the crab in order to maximize meat retrieval.

I think Brian is starting to understand why I am the ‘seafood snob’ that I am. When you grow up eating seafood this fresh it is difficult to enjoy anything else.

Chocolate Crunch Brownies

Our neighbors came over for dinner last night so I indulged and made a dessert--first one in a while as we are consciously cutting back on the sweets. I got this recipe from my friend Wendy about 6 or 7 years ago and it is now one of my go-to chocolate recipes. The end result is multiple-layers of pure decadence: a rich, fudgy brownie topped with crunchy peanut butter/chocolate krispies held together by marshmallow cream (or in this case vanilla frosting).

Recipe:
1 cup butter-melted
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup flour
6 Tbsp baking cocoa
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 - 7 oz jar marshmallow cream (or 1 container of vanilla frosting)
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups rice crispies

1) Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs. Stir in flour, cocoa, vanilla, and salt.

2) Spread in greased 13x9 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 min. LET COOL COMPLETELY!

3) Spread marshmallow cream over brownies.

4) Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in microwave for 2 minutes (stir after the first minute). Stir in rice crispies and spread over top.

5) Chill for at least one hour before serving.

NOTE: You can totally cheat and use a box of brownie mix instead of making the brownie layer from scratch. I also prefer to use vanilla frosting instead of the marshmallow cream.

Blueberry fun

With our trip to Hawaii quickly looming, I’ve been thinking about putting together some goodie bags for my family. Nothing complicated or fancy, just a few things to bring my “mainland” world back home. Since we now live out in the country with Brian’s family, and summertime means an abundance of blueberries on the farm, doing something homemade with them popped into mind...as in blueberry jam, perhaps?

I had never canned anything in my life and didn't know the first thing about making jellies or jams, but I knew my mother-in-law did and I thought this would be a fun project for us to do together. She was happy to oblige so Brian and I spent about an hour yesterday picking them. Later that night we made up a batch of the jam and while it was more time-consuming than I imagined, the end results were scrumptious. I can’t wait to share this with my family in Hawaii! Yum!

Recipe:
(from the Certo box)
4-1/2 cups mashed blueberries (about 4 pints pre-mashed)
7 cups sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon butter
2 packages liquid Certo fruit pectin

WASH jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water (tip: wash jars in the dishwasher and leave them in until ready to use). Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

STEM and crush blueberries thoroughly, one layer at a time. Measure exactly 4-1/2 cups prepared blueberries into 6- or 8-qt. saucepot. Stir in lemon juice.

STIR sugar into prepared blueberries in saucepot. Add butter to reduce foaming. Bring to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in pectin. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 min., stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.

LADLE immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly.

INVERT jars for 5 minutes; then place right-side-up (this is the inversion method, I had no idea there were multiple ways to do this!).

Then wait on pins and needles for 24 hours to see if all your hard work paid off. If it sets up and tastes good you have yourself a winner! This recipe yielded 10-1/2 jars.