Category Archives: Vegetables

Japanese, Vegetables

Okinawan Sweet Potato

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Fall is the season for harvesting sweet potatoes. I’m not just talking about the yellow and the orange sweet potatoes you normally see showing up in pies and casseroles. There is also the Okinawan sweet potato, which is purple like a yam but has almost none of that stringy fiber or gritty mouthfeel.

We picked up these Okinawan sweet potatoes for a good price, about a doller per pound at the Asian grocery these days. Just wrap in foil and bake until cooked through. I love the amazing purple color and the delicate, sweet flavor. There is nothing that can compare.

You can eat them plain like this or mash them up to make haupia sweet potato pie or use them as a filling for spiral pastries (that’s another post).

Have you had these beautiful and delicious sweet potatoes before? Try them!

Aloha, Nate

Italian, Vegetables, Yeast

Foccacia w/ Poached Garlic

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After my last foray into breadmaking, I thought I’d take another stab at it so I started looking through “The Bread Bible” for an easy recipe. This one looked interesting. Foccacia, studded with garlic cloves that have been poached in olive oil.

First I separated and peeled one head of garlic, put them in a small saucepan and covered it with olive oil. I poached them over low heat for half an hour before removing them to cool.

The foccacia recipe is a very wet dough and I almost thought I ruined it because it was so gloppy. But with a little more patience (and the right attachment for the KitchenAid), the dough got to the right consistency. I let it rise for 4 hours before pouring it out onto a sheet pan that was greased with the garlic-infused oil. I stretched it out, then studded the garlic cloves into the dough.

It sat for another hour then went into the oven at 475*F for 13 minutes.

I’d say it came out all right for a first attempt. The poached garlic is great – almost sweet. I’ll have to do it again…this time with more garlic! :-p

Aloha, Nate

Mexican, Poultry, Tomatoes, Vegetables

Musgovian Salad

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I’m one of those people that doesn’t like to have leftover stuff sitting and getting old in the fridge and freezer. So every so often I go in there, look at what’s available, and try to figure out how to make a dish with what I’ve got. I call this type of cooking “Musgovian” for “must-go”.

Here’s a Musgovian salad consisting of rotisserie chicken, romaine lettuce, napa cabbage, celery, green onions, cilantro, blanched beans, steamed corn, tomatoes and avocado. Dressing was made with lime juice, honey, garlic, olive oil, s&p.
 

I think it leans Mexican, but whatever it was, it was good!

Aloha, Nate

Fish, Vegetables

Baked Cod

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We had gotten some whole fresh cod at the farmer’s market fish vendor. Annie wanted to do a Chinese-style, steamed fish with black bean but I had other ideas. Don’t know why, but I wanted to try something Belgian-style.

Recipe adapted from http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Fillet-of-Cod-Flemish-Style-135778

First I browned a sliced onion in butter and olive oil. Then I took the cod and cleaned, filleted it and seasoned it. I laid down half the onion with some chopped chives, parsley and herbs de Provence in a glass baking dish, then laid on the fillets, then the rest of the onion, chives, and herbs. I added a couple of bay leaves, then some slices of lemon and finally poured on some dry vermouth. Baked the dish at 350* for 15 minutes.

Here it is plated up with brown basmati rice on top and steamed wax beans with Dijon mustard-shallot vinaigrette dressing on the bottom. The fish by itself was very lightly flavored but when eaten together with the herbed onions was quite tasty. Turns out, Belgian ain’t bad at all.

Aloha, Nate