A is for (Sea) Asparagus

For this month's Heart of the Matter, my co-host, Ilva, and I chose to go with the alphabet...and what better letter to begin a series of alphabetical themes than the letter, A? While you won't be seeing a complete series for some time (we want to change the themes up with all the holidays on the way), you'll be seeing different letters appear in the upcoming months.

So many of my favorite foods begin with the letter A: apples, almonds, artichokes, avocado and of course, asparagus. While asparagus is a year-round vegetable here in Hawaii, I know for many of you, it is only a short-lived springtime indulgence. And besides, I wanted to capitalize on some of Hawaii's bounty that maybe isn't so commonly known. For these reasons, I chose one of my new-found favorite vegetables here: sea asparagus. Despite it's name, sea asparagus is not very similar to the asparagus we typically think of. It's more like a seaweed, I guess...or better said, a sea-vegetable. Sort of a cross between a bean sprout and a sea weed...it's a little salty, a little juicy and adds a bit of fresh flavor to anything.

This little sea vegetable grows wild in many places, but in Hawaii, Marine AgriFuture grows sea asparagus hydroponically on Kahuku shrimp farms, harvests it by hand, and sells it at Farmer's Markets and some of the grocery stores on the Island. So, while it's not a food product native to Hawaii (so many of them aren't), it is locally grown. And delicious.

Sea asparagus is very versatile, and good for you. It's full of vitamins A, B12 and B9, as well as folic acid and antioxidants. It's thought to be a good detoxification agent and good for your muscles. And it's a good source of iodine. Since LB and I eat a lot of dark, leafy greens, which also grow very well in Hawaii and are good for you, but tend to interfere with the uptake of the important mineral, iodine, sea asparagus is one way we get our weekly dose of iodine (we use kosher salt for cooking, which does not have iodine added to it the way "table" salt does).

While many people prefer to blanch the sea asparagus for a minute or so before using it, we've found that with the type of dishes we like to make with it, we like to maintain it's salty taste. While it is a bit bitter when eaten raw from the package, when mixed with oils (like the recipe below) it doesn't taste bitter at all. Below is my entry for HotM and a salad that is perfect for a potluck or a light dinner (with some crusty bread or even by itself). It's also easily cut in half. If you want to try it at home and don't have sea asparagus, this is still good with a bunch of regular asparagus - blanched first, cut into smallish pieces, and a little extra soy sauce or shoyu added.

Sea Asparagus and Tofu Salad, serves 8

1 package sea asparagus, roughly chopped
1 japanese or english cucumber, diced
1/2 block of extra firm tofu, diced
1 large heirloom tomato, diced
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Dressing

2 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tsp. honey

Combine all the salad ingredients, except for the sesame seeds, in a large bowl. Add the dressing to a small jar with a tight-fitting lid. Close the lid and shake. When the dressing is mixed, pour it over the salad ingredients and then mix, gently. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and then mix again gently. This is good fresh, or even after marinating over-night. Better still? I use the dressing for all kinds of things - lettuce salads, marinating chicken, just about any kind of anything that I want to add an "Asian" flavor to...try it!

Lemony Summer Pasta Salad: HotM 27

While others around the country are just now beginning to see the bounty of summer’s first produce at their farmer’s markets – stone fruits, fava beans, baby lettuces, we’re on a little bit of a different schedule here. June in Hawaii means that mangoes, tomatoes, arugula, lychee and Kahuku sweet corn are back in force.

Yep, I said tomatoes. And I don’t mean the little cherry tomatoes that grow year-round here. I mean the big beauties that most of the rest of the US doesn’t see until late in the summer. And these aren’t Early Girls or Uglies either. They’re our own variety: Big Wave. But we also begin to get other heirloom varieties too, thanks to Jeanne Vana, our resident Island heirloom tomato grower. For a self-proclaimed tomato addict such as myself, this is heaven.

The theme for Heart of the Matter this month is the Best of June’s Produce, so I couldn’t resist a dish that had a few of the tomatoes I picked out at Jeanne’s farm out in the North Shore last weekend. And I had to add in a few of the other vegetables that are plentiful these days too: peppery arugula, crisp cucumbers, sweet sugar snap peas, and local asparagus (available year round here). Summer also means we’re back to hot days and muggy nights, which means that I don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen because anything simmering on the stove or roasting in the oven also means we’re roasting in our skin it’s so hot inside the house.

Here’s the dish I came up with – it’s a pasta salad that’s great for a light, summer evening meal or a hearty lunch – it's healthy, packed with veggies, lightly scented with lemon zest, and it would be perfectly complimented by a slice of grilled bread and a glass of refreshing Riesling on the side. Play around with it! Use your favorite early summer produce or what you have on hand. If you prefer a non-vegetarian salad, this would also be delicious with a can of good-quality tuna in olive oil and some capers added. We’ve also been making our own cheese, which I would add next time to replace the feta – stay tuned for that recipe sometime next month when I’m back to blogging regularly (teaching ends after today!!).


Lemony Summer Pasta Salad, serves 6

6 oz. shaped pasta
1 bunch asparagus, the woody ends snapped off
2-3 large tomatoes, chopped or ~15 small cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 small cucumber, peeled
1 large handful of sugar-snap peas, trimmed and cut in half
2 scallions, thinly sliced
4 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
zest of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup feta cheese
2 tbsp. thinly sliced basil (chiffonade)
1 bunch of baby arugula

Bring a large pot of boiling, salted water to boil. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. When the water begins to boil, add the asparagus and cook for 2 minutes, then remove the asparagus using tongs and transfer it to the ice water bath. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook it until it is al dente, then drain. Rinse the pasta with cold water, drain and return to the pan.

While the pasta is cooking, remove the asparagus and put it on a towel to dry. When dry, you can chop it into 1 – 2 inch lengths. Pour the ice bath out and add the cut asparagus back to the bowl, along with the chopped tomatoes.

Add the cucumber, sugar snap peas, and scallions to the cooled pasta. Whisk together the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon zest and salt and pepper in a small bowl until it emulsifies, then mix this with the pasta and vegetables. Add the feta cheese and basil. Add the asparagus and tomatoes and mix very gently with a large spoon or better yet, your hands.

Just before serving, mix in the arugula. If you plan to eat this as leftovers, only add the arugula to what you will be eating at one time – it tends to wilt too fast for my taste if it’s added early.

A Different Kind of Picnic

How do you imagine the perfect picnic?

Sitting on a brightly-colored blanket covering soft, green grass? Enjoying an unbelievably sunny day - blue sky and just enough white, fluffy clouds to make things interesting? You, sitting and laughing with friends or family (or both), relaxing in the sun-shade border (must be able to get to both depending on the temperature, right?)? Perhaps each of you with a glass of crisp, chilled white wine or rose in hand? Of course there will be delicious, refreshing food, but is it all part of the experience to share your bounty with the requisite ants in attendance? Does your picnic happen on the beach, at sunset? In a mountain meadow under a gorgeous oak tree? Or does it happen in the local park, next to kids playing baseball or friends throwing a frisbee? Does your picnic include fried chicken and potato salad, burgers grilled on a portable grill, or gourmet cheeses, crackers and fresh fruit? Perhaps a bit of all of them?

All of these sound like the perfect picnic to me, but my first real picnic in Hawaii - one where we packed up the most portable food we could find - was not even close to any of these idyllic picnics. Was it better? No, but it was certainly different!

We took our picnic to The Sandbar.

We arrived by kayak.

The Sandbar is located in the middle of Kaneohe Bay. It's a small "island" of sand (yes, only sand) that is exposed at low tide. That is to say, the sand is exposed when there is a tide low enough to actually uncover it. The day we went there, the tide was not low enough to expose the sand, but that doesn't stop the locals (or us for that matter) from heading out there in boats, kayaks and jet skis to play and picnic for the day because the water is still shallow enough that you can stand on the unexposed sand and it will only come up to your waist, or in the shallower places, your shins. We'd heard the hype about it, we just happened to have a couple of kayaks in our garage, and well, we wanted a piece of the adventure too.

On the day of our picnic, we donned our suits, packed up the most portable, eating-in-the-water-friendly (but still fun) food we could think of, loaded up the kayaks and set off to see what this Sandbar place was all about. And let me just say: it lived up to they hype. It was a great day - we threw frisbees and water footballs, drank lots of beer (in cans, because they float!), basked in the Hawaiian sun, and huffed and puffed our way there and back - burning off the calories and struggling not to want to kill each other in our two person kayak.

The Sandbar is crazy, as you can tell by the pictures in the link above (though it wasn't quite as crazy as the day in the pictures, as that was a holiday). There are beautiful people everywhere , from every age group. There are lounge floaties (connected swimming pool floaties that have spots for drinks for each person), floaties with umbrellas, water volleyball, water frisbee and water football games. People bring tables to set up in the water (the water reaching only a few inches below the surface of the table) so that they can set up their grills and grill their hamburgers out there in the middle of the bay. No one arrives without some kind of water game to play, their swimming suit and a bunch of food (and ahem, copious quantities of alcohol). And everyone stays 'till the tide comes in (or the clouds hide the sun for too long - it's kind of chilly to sit in the water all day long with no place to get out!). It's a truly local, Hawaiian adventure. It was a blast, and a perfect picnic.

What did we bring for our picnic? Simple food, good food, portable food. It was the perfect time to participate in this month's Heart of the Matter, where the theme is...you guessed it: Picnics. I scoured the Internet for ideas, and while there seemed to be a plethora of ideas for picnics in all of the major magazines in July and August, many of them simply would not work for our type of picnic - standing, in water that could be up to our waists, in the middle of Kaneohe Bay (and keep in mind that I am a 5'0" woman). Even a cheese and crackers type meal was too complicated. I needed food for 3 people - food we could either eat individually or pass around in a single container. Food that could handle a 35 or so minute kayak trip out to where the picnic would take place. Food that didn't make much waste we would have to cart back and didn't take up too much space on the way out there. Worse, we didn't have time to go shopping beforehand and had to go with what we had in the house, whipping everything together the hour before we were supposed to leave.

I finally found Mark Bittman's 101 Ideas for Inspired Picnics. He had some wonderful and simple ideas that I adapted to work for my picnic, and to be heart healthy for HotM. I made whole-wheat wraps with chicken and an arugula/sun-dried tomato/basil pesto - so that we could eat them, standing in the water, wrapped in waxed paper and not worry about any of the "good stuff" falling out. We had fresh veggies passed about in baggies with homemade hummus, and my adapted version of his three-bean salad. I also took the last of my latest (and much adapted) batch of homemade granola and mixed it with a small amount of brown sugar and honey before forming it into bars and doing as Bittman recommended: calling it "dessert." These granola dessert bars were great too - wrapped up in wax paper, they made a very portable (if sticky - but that's what all that water is great for - you don't even need a napkin!) ending to our picnic.

While everything was delicious, the three-bean salad was the winner of day. And it's so adaptable that you can make it with nearly anything you have on hand. I had a few cans of different beans (oh Costco, you're such a good friend here) and used everything I had that needed to be used up. If you haven't already, please join us in creating an archive of heart-healthy picnic recipes over at HotM's home site. My lovely co-host Joanna, from Joanna's Food, is collecting all of your recipes and will post them together on her site, and on the HotM site, after all the entries are in. There's still plenty of time to join, just send your entries to her by August 25th. Details can be found here.


Heart Healthy 3-Bean Salad, serves 6
inspired by Mark Bittman's 101 Inspired Picnics

1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 can of garbanzo beans, rinsed
1 can of kidney beans, rinsed
kernels from 2 ears of corn, cooked
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large
1 jalepeno, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
juice and zest from 1 lime
1 tbsp. fresh oregano, chopped finely (or 1 1/2 tsp. dried)
1 tbsp. good fruity olive oil

It's easy: Just mix everything together and put in a portable container. And don't forget the forks!

Something for those days when even your skin feels like too much clothing

The last few weeks have been busy (as you may have noticed from the negligence of my poor little blog...I'm sorry!) and HOT. Super HOT. 100+ F degrees HOT and don't you think for a minute that particular "F" means "Fahrenheit." Luckily, it's now starting to cool off, but this dandy little salad has gotten me through it all.

This recipe is super adaptable – you can add whatever you like to it, and it still tastes delicious. Other add-ins or substitutions could include artichoke hearts, shaved fennel, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, pecorino cheese, parsley or other herbs.

Chopped Tuna Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette, adapted from Real Simple
Serves 4.

2 six oz. cans of tuna, drained (*my pick: Italian tuna packed in olive oil, drained)
1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 12 oz. jar of roasted red peppers, drained and roughly chopped
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 tbsp. capers
zest of 1 lemon, grated
10 cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
10-15 black olives cured in olive oil, pitted (optional)
1/4 cup thinly sliced celery (optional)
2 tbsp. basil, chopped
3 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper
toasted pita bread, for serving.

In a large bowl, combine the tuna, beans, red peppers, onion, capers, lemon zest, tomatoes, and olives and celery (if using). Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and black pepper in a separate bowl. Pour vinaigrette over the tuna mixture and toss. Serve with toasted pita bread.

** For those of you in Eugene, Italian tuna in olive oil and olive oil-cured black olives are both available at PC Market of Choice. And truly, the tuna makes a huge difference!

A Midsummer Day's Dream

Having been gone the last two Saturdays, I was dying to get to the Farmer's market to see what was new and what I had been missing. Yes, even as Loving Boyfriend and I headed off to Bend, OR to become engaged two weekends ago (unbeknownst to me at the time), I was staring wistfully out the window and wondering what might be coming out at the market while I was driving far away and in the opposite direction. You can imagine me...hands spread out with my palms against the window, eyes opened wide and longing to know what was happening as we sped by the market, just beginning to set up their tents. It was almost heart-breaking.

So this weekend, there was no way I was not going to go. I convinced my friend K., who had never been, to go with me and subjected her to my shameless produce weakness. First, a stop by the ATM to get out a little extra money. Usually, all I allow myself is a $20 bill to get me through the farmer's market and make my purchases - this is the best way I can force myself to budget given all the gorgeous produce calling my name out from the stands and knowing that being at a farmer's market on a budget is a bit like letting my inner child out in a candy store and telling her she can only pick one thing. Not having gone for 2 weeks, I felt I could justify an extra $20 and just let myself go crazy.

We floated through the aisles, checking out the produce, looking at prices and of course, stopping by Freeman's booth to see what delicously rare goodies he had this week. Among the produce that had arrived while I was gone were the first early summer, vine- and sun-ripened tomatoes. Also newly arrived to my eyes were summer pears (I had no idea there was such a thing, but of course, I bought some), sour pie cherries, English shelling peas, a few early figs and gloriously bright purple gooseberries. Freeman also had several unique berries, including more red currants, black currants (which make a truly exquisite jam) and josta berries (a cross between a black currant and a gooseberry), which were also quite tasty (Freeman always offers his patrons a taste of his unique hand-gathered fruits).

I made my rounds, picking up anything that piqued my fancy or looked incredibly fresh and bursting with that sun-ripened smell. I piled my bags up with mint, tomatoes, cherries, new potatoes, purple gooseberries (which were promptly turned into fabulously light-tasting custard tarts on Sunday), black currants, Italian runner beans, and more. The fava beans, however, were also looking especially shiny, heavy in their pods, and priced quite reasonably, so I also reserved a special place in my bag, and my budget, for them.

Some people prefer to stay away from fava beans, touting the difficulty in actually getting the beans out of their pods, and then again out of the tough shell that surrounds the individual beans, as their excuse. I actually find it rather theraputic... Sitting down with an empty paper bag in front of me, a large bowl for the beans in their pods and another smaller one for the beans themselves, I could spend an hour immersing myself completely in the gentle labor involved. It reminds me of when I was younger and everyone would sit together as a family and "snap" freshly picked green beans from the garden for dinner - popping off the ends and then snapping them in the middle.

For fava beans, I crack the end of the pod where it was once connected to the complete plant, pulling the string that runs like a vein along the side of the pod. This leaves an opening where I can then run my finger along the inside of each pod and scoop the beans out into my bowl. Before I begin, I start a pot of water to boil and prepare an ice bath, so that once all of my beans are freed from their pods, I can toss the contents of the entire bowl in the bubbling water to blanch them, drain them after only a minute, and put them in the ice bath. This blanching technique makes easy work of the inner bean's shells. Some people pinch alongside where the bean was connected in the pod; I find it much easier to lightly grab the opposite side and rip a small whole in the bean shell before pinching it to release the bean. The favas are then ready for any dressing up you'd like to do.

My favorite way to eat fava beans is how Ilva, at Lucullian Delights, makes hers...raw, with a bit of olive oil, lemon juice, freshly cracked black pepper, and large chunks of tangy pecorino cheese. But I had seen another recipe in Fresh from the Farmer's Market, a cookbook by Janet Fletcher that had caught my eye. For those of you in Eugene, she's demonstrating a cooking class at Cooks, Pots and Tabletops on July 19th (that would be on Wednesday!). Remember when you're choosing fava beans to get enough so that you'll have enough shelled beans for any recipe you want to try. This recipe took about 1-1 1/2 pounds of the beans from the market, to end up with about 1 cup of shelled beans to work with, and although it's similar to hers, I've changed things up a bit.

Warmed curly endive and fava bean salad, adapted from:
Fresh From the Farmer's Market
Serves 2.

1 - 1 1/2 lb. fresh fava beans, to end up with approximately 1 cup of shelled beans
1 tbsp. olive oil
3-4 thin slices of pancetta, sliced thinly into 1/4" pieces
1 large shallot, minced
4-5 large leaves of curly endive, with stalks
salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Prepare the fava beans as described above until you have removed the beans from both the pod and their inner shell. Set aside. Heat olive oil in a saute pan until hot, then add the pancetta and fry until it begins to render its fat and becomes crisp (about 5 minutes). Add the minced shallot and cook one minute or until tender. Cut the very tops of the leaves off the curly endive - they tend to be tough, then cut the entire stalk and remainder of leaves into small pieces. Place endive into a large bowl, then mix with the pancetta and salad and any oil that remains in the pan. Add the prepared fava beans, and toss these with the salad. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

the challenge

A bit more about the challenge that Loving Boyfriend and I have recently embarked upon...we are cooking our way through the "Four Seasons Cookbook," by Shirley Gail (see above) in one year. It hails from London, as is obvious by the measurements in mLs and interesting ingredients I've had to look up on the internet, such as what 'castor sugar' is (superfine sugar here) and converting mLs to cups. It's also incredibly unhealthy. Not surprising, as Loving Boyfriend loves anything unhealthy. In fact, I was recently explaining the challenge to my good friend and fellow foodie, C., and telling her of the delicious baked eggs with cream and tarragon and raspberry meringue gateau with lots of whipped cream in it we've been enjoying, and C., being the lovely friend that she is, says to me:

"Aren't you going to get FAT?"

C. is always honest and straightforward with me.

Why, yes, probably. not to mention a heart attack sometime in the future. So i've began riding my bike more, hoping to counteract this a bit...and I'm sure I'll be making some substitutions to the recipes as well...as soon as I learn what I can substitute and have the dish come out just as yummy. Thanks, C.

This is a constant struggle for me - given my love for all things buttery, creamy, bacony, and fried. Plus, a love of cooking and baking thrown in the mix. Baking in a two-person household can be especially dangerous (I only feed one of the boys - boy #2 has a girlfriend and subsists quite well on lean cuisines and healthy choice meals in the freezer when she's not around). Entire pies and cakes are eaten by two people over the course of two days, just so that I can cook something new. Yipes!

But back to the challenge. We started on September 1, 2005, and we're ending on September 1, 2006. Based on the number of recipes, we have calculated that we will have to cook 3 recipes from this book per week to be finished in a year. We're in the summer season (well, the produce, even if not the weather), based on the produce available right now. Obviously, I won't publish all of the recipes from the book, as that can't possibly be PC, but i will share my favorites of course. one of which just happens to be recipe 1.

warm salmon salad














This recipe was delicious...warm, tender bites of Alaskan silver salmon (caught just over a month ago by Loving Boyfriend, in Alaska), crisply blanched green beans, and toasted sesame seeds, all over a bed of green-leaf lettuce with an orange-flavored Asian dressing. light, crispy, warm, and wonderful. I must confess, though, that it was not I that made this tasty dish... Loving Boyfriend, the challenge having been his idea, started us out on the right foot. I feel I must clarify that Loving Boyfriend does like to cook...and he's good at it...he's my partner in crime and in cooking...he just doesn't necessarily want to talk about it food all the time...like I do.

Ingredients:
1 lb. salmon filet, skinned
2 tsp. sesame oil
grated rind from 1/2 orange
juice of 1 orange
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. fresh tarragon, chopped
2 tbsp. peanut oil
4 oz. green beans, trimmed
6 oz. mixed salad greens
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut salmon into bite-sized chunks, then make dressing. Whisk together sesame oil, orange rind and juice, mustard, and fresh tarragon.
2. Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat, then fry salmon for 3-4 minutes or until done, but still tender on the inside.
   
3. Blanch green beans and drain.
4. Add dressing to salmon in pan, and cook for 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
   
5. Add a large handful of greens to plates, then beans, salmon, and pan drippings. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve immediately. Servings: 4