Food is Food

I can’t remember exactly when I met my friend Lorraine aka "the Chinese Lady"  cooking personality of YouTube fame, but I can tell you she is the zing of hot sauce on your plate! Even when faced with obstacles she has an infectious joie de vivre and she positively bubbles with enthusiasm, especially when she talks about food and family. Needless to say, I was charmed by her right away. She shared with me her dream of writing a cookbook so she could share her treasured won ton recipes and stories from her childhood in Hawaii and life in San Francisco, Hollywood and beyond. She asked if I would test some recipes for her and I said yes. 

I provided my detailed feedback on Lorraine’s recipes, but really, they were all delicious and worthy of making it into her book. Some of her recipes are very traditional with pork or shrimp and others are her own inventions. Two of my favorites were her Shrimp & Lime Wontons with tangy kaffir lime, galangal and lime juice and also the Snapper’s Bag, a beggar’s purse style dumpling with snapper served in soup flavored  with ginger, star anise and red onion. 

The Chinese Lady’s A Pot of Rice to the Wonders of Wonton is now available on the ibook store. It’s a gorgeous book, thanks to beautiful photos and tech wizardry from Lorraine’s talented friend and business partner, Josimar. Some features of the book that I particularly like are the embedded videos that show you exactly how to fold wontons in 6 different styles, and Lorraine’s wonderfully told personal stories. But most of all I look forward to trying even more of her wonton recipes. 

The book is available for iPad and Kindle on the itunes store for $4.99 but you can also download a free sample to check it out before you buy so I do hope you'll check it out! 

It looks pretty good, doesn't it? Well, it was made almost entirely, by my soon-to-be five year old son. Well done! We found the recipe (that I'm not sharing by the way, it wasn't that memorable) in a new cookbook geared towards kids: Tinas recept för unga kockar by the very popular Tina Nordström. Looking forward to trying more of those recipes, and dusting off a few other of my kids cookbooks!

Tacos de Tinga is a spicy and rich stew, but not very hot. Add more spice if you want that, but we served several hot condiments instead. If you don't have a  crock-pot, just use a regular pot and cook it on the stove for about 2-3 hours, or until your meat falls apart easily. (You might need a little more water) The crock-pot is super convenient though, especially as I prepared several dishes.

1 kg pork butt (benfri fläskkarré is what I used), cut into medium dice

1 whole chipotle chilipepper

1 white onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

400 g crushed tomatoes

100 ml water

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

3 bay leaves

1/2 tsp all spice, ground

1/2 tsp nutmeg, ground

1-2 tsp salt

honey, to taste

Remove the stem of the chili pepper. Add every ingredient, except for the honey, to the crock-pot. Cook on low for about 7-8 hours. (I usually start out at high for an hour or so, to get things going.) When the meat is tender and falls apart easily, stir with a large fork to make it shredded. Season with a little honey, and more salt. 

Serve with tortillas, taco shells and whatever salsas and sauces you'd like. 

One of the many things I enjoy eating in Hawaii is poke. It’s a raw fish dish, that generally combines fresh yellowfin tuna, also known as ahi, with local ingredients like seaweed, Hawaiian salt and kukui nuts. There are seemingly infinite varieties, with ingredients such as green onions, sesame seeds, mayonnaise, tobiko, wasabi, sriracha, etc. In Hawaii you can find it at delis but also in supermarkets where there is often a poke bar in the seafood department. 

Well, guess what just arrived at Costco in San Francisco? A poke bar! It features fresh wild ahi from different regions of the world including the Philippines and Sri Lanka and marinades flown in directly from Hawaii. It’s all prepared fresh at the store and sold only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Prices range from $15.99 to $17.99 per pound.

Varieties include ahi shoyu poke, ahi wasabi poke, and ahi spicy poke. They also had two cooked shrimp styles of poke. I tried the ahi limu poke which had onions, ogo (Hawaiian seaweed) Hawaiian salt, kukui nut, sesame seed and sesame oil. The limu was my favorite, it was very fresh and had a particularly nice balance of flavors and brightness. It's cool and savory, but has an intensity from the dense fish and slightly nutty and spicy flavors. 

I also tried the ahi wasabi poke with wasabi, tobiko, green onion, kukui nut, hawaiian salt and sesame seeds. It was good but really spicy! You definitely want to try this one with a beer. 

The poke tasted just like what I’ve had in Hawaii. It’s those local Hawaiian ingredients that really make this dish so special, and something that’s hard to make on the mainland.  In Hawaii it's served as a snack or appetizer and is popular with rice. With all due respect to the Costco food court, it sure beats pizza or hot dogs! 

According to the blog Chomping Board, the weekend poke bar is also available at the Redwood City, Concord and Almaden locations. 

I know this isn't "local" but sometimes you just need a little Hawaii fix. I wish I could tell you if the fish was sustainable, but I really don’t know. Several years ago Costco stopped selling 12 of the most “at risk” fish such as Atlantic cod and halibut, Chilean sea bass, swordfish and bluefin tuna, but I don’t know much about their ahi sourcing other than what I was told by someone in the Costco meat department.  

Next time, I'll use all green asparagus, as that is my favorite, and I'll grill it in a very hot pan rather than boiling it. 

serves 4-6

250 g green asparagus

500 g white asparagus

handful of pea shoots

70 g feta cheese, crumbled

2 tbsp pistachio slivers

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 lemon, juiced

2 tsp salt

dressing: 

2 tbsp olive oil

2-3 tsp sherry vinegar

salt, black pepper

The green asparagus doesn't need peeling, so just snap off the woody ends. They'll automatically break where they're supposed to. The white ones should be peeled, so start just below the tip and gently peel with a potato peeler. Snap off the woody ends. 

Fill a wide pan with water, and add the lemon juice and olive oil and bring to a boil. Add the 2 tsp salt. Simmer the white asparagus for ten minutes. Add the green stalks and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes. Drain and immediately plunge into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Let dry on kitchen towels. 

On a large platter, arrange the asparagus and pea shoots, crumble over the cheese and sprinkle with pistachios. Whisk together all ingredients for the dressing and drizzle over the salad just before serving.