Ed Kenny talks Hawaiian Food

I've been a fan of the restaurant Town in Kaimuki since I first dined there back in 2008. I always make a point of visiting whenever I'm in Honolulu.

Ed Kenney is the chef and owner, and a great voice for sustainability in the food system. He's very approachable, in fact you'll see him shopping at the farmers market most weekends. He also has his finger on the pulse of what's happening so on my last visit I got a sat down to chat with him about the local Oahu food scene and since I'm heading back tomorrow, I thought it's about time I shared this interview...

What do you think would surprise most people about the food scene here?
We have different kinds of visitors, the Cheesecake Factory here is the highest grossing location in the world. Then there are the Opentable people who look for places to eat before they even get here, but it's still a small group. People know the chains and the upper crust spots, but what makes it really amazing is the middle range and finding out about that takes a motivated foodie traveler. It's the middle range that's so diverse. And the diversity is blossoming.

What are your thoughts on the food truck trend? Any trucks you particularly like or patronize?
There have always been food trucks, it's beach thing, people get out of the ocean dry off and want to get something to eat. But the culinarily driven ones are new. It's a stepping stone, also it adds diversity, Zaratez, from LA tacos. Melt is run by Nobu alums, so fine dining is going more approachable. Soul Patrol, Sean's a good friend. The food is excellent. It's heavy stuff. Camille's on Wheels is run by a home cook, and it's got a really homey feel. Deep dish pies with flaky crust, fusion tacos. I haven't been to Eat the Street yet because I'm working that night.

So where should the visiting foodie dine?
The Pig and the Lady, Plancha, some of the pop up roving restaurants have young passionate, creative chefs.

Which chef or restaurant impresses you these days?
Mark Noguchi at He'eia Pier. (Note: More on Hee'eia Pier after my next visit)

How would you describe Town for people who haven't been?
We're very italian. The regional manager of Gucci comes to Town every time he visits and says 'This is not Italian but it is the essence of Italian food' and that's because because we have an Italian sensibility.

What should visitors not miss when they come to Hawaii, in terms of ingredients?
We can grow everything here, I'd like to think native Hawaiians would grow arugula today. Our locally grown vegetables even non-native ones are great. Paia hand pounded taro. We use it in breads and in dough. We slice and pan fry it crispy on the outside and mochi like inside. We've had invasive seaweeds, so it's good to eat those! Cooking with seaweed is like adding the sea to a dish.

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

Hazelnuts Basbosa Recipe

Photo: Hazelnuts Basbosa Recipe

The Arabic Food Recipes kitchen (The Home of Delicious Arabic Food Recipes) invites you to try Hazelnuts BasbosaRecipe. Enjoy the Arabic Cuisine and  learn how to make Hazelnuts Basbosa.

Ingredients

For sugar syrup
2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves

For the Basbosa
3 cup fine semolina flour
1½ cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoon ghee or melted butter
1½ cup yogurt
½ cup coconut (optional)
1 tablespoon tahini past (sesame seed past)
½ cup chopped hazelnuts (optional)
½ cup chopped almond (optional)

Method

For the syrup
- Place sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat till boiling.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (you can add vanilla or rose water optional).
- Leave it in the oven for 10 minutes or until it is ready, make sure to use it warm.

For the Basbosa
- Mix together flour, sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl.
- Add the melted butter, rub with finger tips till crumbly.
- Add the yogurt and mix it well until you get soft dough.
- You can add coconut to the dough.
- Coat a baking pan with tahini.
- Spread dough evenly on the prepared pan.
- Bake in a preheated oven to 175˚C for 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle nuts over the soft dough while pressing on the surface.
- Place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden.
- Pour syrup over the hot Basbosa.
- Return to the oven for 5 minutes, let cool at room temperature.
- Serve with whipped cream.

Chef Osama  

More Arabic Food Recipes:

Yellow coconut dessert
Sesame Cookies (Barazek)
Coffee Butter Buns
Kunafa Nabulsiah Bil-Kishta
Knafeh
Knafeh Dough

Save and share Hazelnuts Basbosa Recipe

Want to share this recipe with your family and friends? Click the button below to send them an email or save this to your favorite social network.

Sabb El-Gafsha (Kuwaiti Golden Fritters) Recipe

Photo: Sabb El-Gafsha (Kuwaiti Golden Fritters) Recipe

The Arabic Food Recipes kitchen (The Home of Delicious Arabic Food Recipes) invites you to try Sabb El-Gafsha (Kuwaiti Golden Fritters) Recipe. Enjoy the Arabic Cuisine and  learn how to make Sabb El-Gafsha (Kuwaiti Golden Fritters).  

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon yeast

1 Teaspoon sugar

1 Cup warm water

2 Cup all-purpose flour

1 Cup chickpeas flour

1 Egg, beaten

1/4 Teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 Teaspoon saffron

1/2 Teaspoon rose water

Vegetable oil for frying

Sugar syrup, for serving

Pistachio, for garnish

Method

- In a bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in water and leave for 5 minutes, or until foamy.

- In a large bowl, mix 2 types of flour, eggs, cardamom, saffron and rose water. Add yeast mixture and stir until blended.

- Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.

- Heat oil to 160 Celsius degrees in a frying pan. Alongside the pan, have ready the bowl of dough and a small bowl of vegetable oil.

- Dip tips of your fingers in the oil. Take some batter (the size of pistachio) with the tip of your fingers, carefully slip batter from your fingers into hot oil. (it will puff into a larger ball).

- Fry fritters, turning to brown evenly for 4 minutes or until golden.

- Take it off with a slotted spoon into a serving plate. Drizzle with sugar syrup and garnish with pistachios.

Chef Osama

More Arabic Food Recipes:

Strawberry Jam
Hazelnuts Basbosa
Yellow coconut dessert
Sesame Cookies (Barazek)
Coffee Butter Buns
Kunafa Nabulsiah Bil-Kishta

Save and share Sabb El-Gafsha (Kuwaiti Golden Fritters) Recipe

Want to share this recipe with your family and friends? Click the button below to send them an email or save this to your favorite social network.

Basic to Brilliant, Y'all & Spiced Sweet Potato Mash recipe

Virginia Willis is like the Southern cousin you wish you had. She's smart, funny and warm and has a mischievous sparkle in her eye. I finally got to meet her earlier this year in Monterey at Cooking for Solutions. She did a cooking demo where she had the audience laughing over a story about her appearance on the Paula Dean show (the story is in her latest book, by the way). But what I remember most is the spectacular dish she made with trout. I can still taste it in my mind. It was pan-seared trout drizzled with pecan butter and topped with an incredibly rich smoked trout salad. And the recipe is dead simple. That's the signature of Virginia Willis, amazing food that really isn't all that difficult but definitely something extra special.

Virginia's latest book, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all, is all about the 'something extra special.' Each recipe has a simple component--like the seared trout, and an optional brilliant flourish--like the topping of smoked trout salad. It's what makes this cookbook a real keeper (even if you have other Southern cookbooks). The recipes are fresh and modern and reflect both Virginia's Southern roots and her French training so you'll find recipes like Savory Monkey Bread, Coca Cola Cake and Creole Country Bouillabaisse. If you'd like a personalized book plate from Virginia Willis to go in your copy of the book, buy it within the next two weeks, then fill out this form.

I may be anything but a Southern girl, but like Virginia I am pretty much crazy about sweet potatoes. Basic to Brilliant, Y'all has eight sweet potato recipes in it, including soup, salad and spoonbread. But the recipe that caught my eye was Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes. The reason I wanted to make it was because it uses sorghum as a sweetener (there are suggestions for other sweeteners if you don't have sorghum). I love the earthy flavor of sorghum and just got my first batch of it from Bourbon Barrel Foods earlier this year. The recipe is basically roasted sweet potatoes, mashed and spiced with just a tiny bit of butter and sorghum. But it still manages to be rich and comforting. The twist is to double bake the skins and fill them up with the mash then top them with pecans and bake them yet again. It's a great side dish, but I even ate one of these beauties for breakfast the other day!

Here is the recipe, printed by permission Basic to Brilliant, Y'all by Virginia Willis, Tenspeed Press, 2011

Spiced Sweet Potato Mash
Serves 4 to 6

Sweet potatoes are good and good for you. Most Southern recipes drown them in butter and sugar, but they are so good with a just a whisper of butter. In this recipe the potatoes are first roasted, then scooped and mashed. You can use the microwave if you are pressed for time, but roasting brings out the complex flavors.

4 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds)
2 tablespoons sorghum, cane, molasses, or maple syrup
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 orange
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone baking liner or parchment paper. (This will help with clean up.) Using a fork, pierce the sweet potatoes in several places and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until fork-tender, about 50 minutes. Set aside to cool.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes, discarding the skin. Place the pulp in large bowl. (If you really want them creamy, press
them through a fine-mesh sieve or food mill.) Add the syrup, butter, orange zest and juice, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cayenne. Season with salt and pepper.

Using a potato masher, heavy-duty whisk, or handheld mixer, beat until smooth. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Transfer the sweet potatoes to a warmed serving bowl. Serve immediately.

Brilliant: Presentation
Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes
Meme peeled hers; discarding the skin, and Mama does, too, but I like the leathery skin. It's the extra step of stuffing these that makes this recipe Brilliant.
Using an oven mitt or folded kitchen towel to hold the cooked potatoes, cut the potatoes in half. Using a spoon, scoop the flesh from each half into a bowl,
leaving a 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thickness of flesh in each shell. Arrange the shells on a baking sheet and bake until dry and slightly crisped, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the mash as in the Basic recipe. Spoon the still-warm potato mixture into the crisped shells, mounding slightly at the center. Sprinkle 1/2 cup pecans equally over the filled sweet potatoes. Bake until slightly brown and crisp on top, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately. Serves 4 to 8.

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/

Watch, listen, learn, and enjoy! Hundreds of free, original video recipes, done by Chef John Mitzewich, the web's most popular cooking instructor.

Blackberry Mini Tarts Recipe

Last week Driscoll's held a wonderful event for bloggers that I got to have a hand in planning. Bloggers brought dishes made with fresh blackberries, got insider cooking tips from cookbook author and cooking teacher Rick Rodgers and an inspiring food photography tutorial and demo from food photographer Caren Alpert.

I learned about pastry tampers, (the secret to quickly forming small tart shells in mini muffin pans) improvising with FedEx boxes and tin foil to get more light in food photos, ate a fabulous of dinner made from Rick's recipes, and tasted some divine desserts from some of my fellow bloggers. I particularly loved Irvin's tangy lemon and blackberry pie. I hope he posts the recipe soon! Rick made a cream cheese crust pastry with a savory filling and a blackberry topping. It was surprisingly similar to my dessert recipe.

I got the original recipe from the Land 'O Lakes website. I adapted it for Thanksgiving using cranberries and no nuts or glaze, then tweaked both the ingredients and the techniques to make it work with blackberries. Driscoll's blackberries are so good right now that I wanted to use them raw. I like desserts with at least some tangy flavor and blackberries have such a great balance of sweet and sour, thanks to a good ratio of natural sugars and organic acids. You could top the custard filled tarts with any kind of fresh berry you like. What makes this recipe so easy is that you mix the dough and the filling in a food processor. You could probably do it using a stand mixer if you prefer.



Blackberry Mini Tarts
Makes 36

Crust;
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt

2 6-oz packages blackberries, each berry cut into two or three pieces

Heat oven to 325°F. Combine flour, butter, cream cheese and salt in food processor. Blend until dough forms a ball.

Divide dough into 36 equal pieces. Place 1 piece of dough into each ungreased mini muffin pan cup. Press dough evenly onto bottom and up sides of cup or use a pastry tamper! Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile in a bowl or food processor, cream together the sugar and butter then mix in egg, vanilla and salt. Spoon about a teaspoon into each tart crust then bake another 10-12 minutes until the crust is golden and the top of the custard begins to brown. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes then remove from pans using a knife if necessary. Place about 3 pieces of berry in each tart shell.

Enjoy!

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil

California is producing some very good extra virgin olive oil, some using old European varieties of olives, harvested the old fashioned way, and--some high quality extra virgin olive oil harvested in a very modern way, for a fraction of the price. So how is possible to get high quality extra virgin olive oil at a low price? Last week I visited California Olive Ranch, the largest California olive oil producer, and learned just how they do it.


It all comes down to freshness and quantity. California Olive Ranch plants three varieties, arbequina, arbosana from Spain and koroneiki from Greece. Their olive orchards look nothing like what you may have seen in Europe. The olive trees are pruned into a hedge shape that is harvested mechanically, using a harvester specially developed for shaking the trees to get the olives off without damaging them. Less damage means better quality oil.

Here are some numbers for California Olive Ranch:

Their olive trees grow 6-8 feet high

Trees are planted 5 feet apart

There is 13 feet between each row

There are about 675 trees planted per acre

Each tree yields 7-12 pounds of olives

Only 20% of the olive is oil, 55% is water

12 harvesters run 24 hours a day during harvest season

5,000 acres are owned by the company

5,000 acres are managed by 67 farmers who have long term leases

Each truck holds 66,000 pounds of olives

Each truck is unloaded in 35 minutes


Some more facts:

The tree trimmings are mulched

The ground pits and olives, called pomace, is fed to cattle

California Olive Ranch is using bird boxes and buffer zones to minimize the use of pesticides and tests each batch of olives, and has test plots for organic olives


If you ever get a chance to ride a harvester and see the olives jiggle off the trees I highly recommend it! That I got to share the experience with blogging friends Chef John from Food Wishes, Chrystal Baker from The Duo Dishes, Aleta Watson from The Skillet Chronicles, and Jane Bonacci from The Heritage Cook made it all the more sweet!


Speaking of sweet, all exra virgin olive oil should be a balance of fruity, bitter and pungent. The best way to find your favorite, is to taste them...however...California Olive Ranch uses descriptors like intense and bold and mild to help you find one to your taste.


* If you want the freshest olive oil, known as 'olio nuovo in Italy, sign up to buy California Olive Ranch's Limited Reserve.

* If you like a buttery mild oil without too much bite, look for their basic extra virgin olive oil

* If you like a fruitier variety, try the Arbequina

* The Arbosana is most complex

* The Miller's blend is bold and balanced (and a favorite of some bloggers, food writers and chefs too.)

My thanks to California Olive Ranch for inviting me up to visit during harvest and letting me sample their fresh oils!

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

Go West! Wai‘anae, Oahu

No matter how many times you have been to Oahu, it's quite likely you have never been very far West of Honolulu, to Wai'anae. It's not the easiest part of the island to farm because it's hot and dry, but it is where you will find some very inspiring people working hard to achieve sustainability for the land, for the food system, and for the benefit of everyone.

Eighty five percent of food in Hawaii is imported and Monsanto is now using some of the old plantations to produce genetically modified seeds. If anyone can turn the tide and bring back a more sustainable way of life, a way of life the people of Hawaii once enjoyed, it's the farmers and ranchers of Ma'o Farms, Kahumana Farms and Naked Cow Dairy. Seeing their work will give you hope for the future. They are all cultivating a deep love and respect for the land that nourishes, called 'aina in the Hawaiian language.


Ma'o Farms is a certified organic farm and education center. Ma'o produces salad greens, row crops, cooking greens, fruits and herbs. It also produces farmers! In a region plagued by homelessness, crime, obesity, drug use and unemployment they are training local young men and women to work on a farm. They are also helping to pay for their college tuition. They are farmers but see themselves as co-producers.

I walked through the fields and nibbled on the greens plucked from the ground, citrus and herbs. Everything tasted tender, sweet and vibrant. Their produce is available at farmers markets and virtually all of the best restaurants in Honolulu.


Like Ma'o Farms, Kahumana Farms also serves multiple purposes. In addition to a biodynamic farm there is a cafe, a retreat and transitional housing for families in need. They are growing all kinds of things including taro and are experimenting with herbs and plants with healing powers.

The food at the cafe is fresh from the farm, reasonably priced and delicious, served with aloha. I had some pasta with wonderful macadamia nut and basil pesto served with a piece of simply prepared fish and a green salad.


Naked Cow Dairy is run by two sisters, Sabrina and Monique, who never intended to be 'cow girls' let alone cheese makers. There used to thirty dairies on the West side of the island, but when the last dairy on the island closed, they saw a need and chose to fill it. Traditionally 95% of all feed was imported, but they are working with local farmers to create silage for the cows. They have twenty Jersey, Holstein and half breeds and have been producing butter for two years, three batches per day. Whole Foods sells their butter, their cheese and yogurt goes to chefs and farmers markets.

The butter is 45-52% butterfat and very similar to European butter. It is some of the sweetest butter I ever tasted, amazingly fresh and clean tasting. Sabrina has a culinary background and has made some uniquely flavored butters including an outstanding toasted coconut version. The sisters are hoping to make feta, cream cheese, havarti maybe cheddar. But mainly, like their farmer neighbors, they are hoping to make a difference.

My thanks to the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau for hosting me on this visit

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

Cooking Competitions

Imagine eating 16 plates of beef. In a row. A few years ago I judged my first cooking competition and it was the National Beef Cookoff. While I'd like to tell you everything about it, some cooking competitions are serious business and in that particular case, I was sworn to secrecy.

This month alone I am judging three cooking contests–the Bacon Takedown was last weekend and this weekend is the Bay Area BBQ Championship and the Lamb Jam. Last month I judged one of the Bravo Top Chef Tour 'quickfire' competitions that was part of their road tour.


(Sorry to say it, but Fabio lost, using Red Bull in a salmon dish was probably not such a good idea)

If you're guessing I rarely pass up a chance to be a judge, you're right. I like trying different dishes, evaluating and conferring with the other judges. While it might seem like work, the truth is, it's actually a lot of fun.

At Matt Timms wild and wonderful Takedown competitions it's a combination of amateurs and professionals so you never know what you're going to find. The judge's choice for first place this time around was Ivy Something who made Bacon Fried Chicken with Sweet Potato Biscuits and Tipsy Maple Gravy. Ivy has Southern roots and a gravy blog. Yup. A gravy blog. I do hope she blogs the recipe.



The Bay Area BBQ Championship is a big deal competition compared to the others. It's being held at the Oakland Coliseum creekside lot and when you buy a ticket, you also get to see a double header A's game. Nice. This competition is particularly important to me because it benefits Alternative Family Services one of the most well-respected foster care agencies in the country and the founder and Executive Director is a very close family friend. There are 32 teams competing, including Food Network champions the Bad Boyz of BBQ, the Q Masters, Bad S BBQ (featuring Iron Chef Contestant Ric Gilbert), and the Oakland Fire Department. Tickets are still available! Buy one for yourself or just donate a ticket so a kid can see a ball game. Tickets must be purchased in advance, no sales the day of the event.

Finally the Lamb Jam will have restaurant chefs competing against one another. This sold out event is being sponsored by the American Lamb Board, who are responsible for getting the message out about lamb. Did you know American Lamb is hormone free and is available as all-natural products that are antibiotic free? You probably do know that sheep are grazing animals and help to maintain a healthy ecosystem.

I'll be curious to see what the chefs will be cooking up, all weekend long. What cooking competition would you most like to judge?

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.