Honey Lavender Ice Cream

Remember that restaurant in the old Palomino spot? Yeah, me neither. But I do remember celebrating a birthday there over lunch and having lavender ice cream for dessert! It was unusual and savory-sweet. I wanted to recreate it. I got this recipe from "Homesick Texan":

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

2 cups half-and-half

2 tbsp dried edible lavender flowers (Adrienne's note: I got mine at R. Field, Foodland Beretania)

1/2 cup light honey

2 egg yolks

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

-->Cook the half-and-half and cream on medium heat until warm. Do not let it come to a boil. Turn off the heat, add the lavender to the pot, cover and let steep for half an hour.

-->After flowers have steeped, strain the liquid and discard the flowers. Add to the liquid the honey and heat on medium low until honey has dissolved. Again, do not let the liquid come to a boil!

-->Beat the egg yolks with the vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt. Stir into the eggs a half cup of the warm liquid and then add the eggs to the pot.

-->Heat this on medium low for five minutes or until it gets slightly thick. You'll know it's ready when it coats the back of your spoon. Cool in the refrigerator for four hours.

-->Freeze and churn according to your ice cream maker's instructions.

-->Yield: 1 quart

Batido de Guanabana (Milkshake with Soursop Fruit)

When we lived in NYC and visited Puerto Rico now and then, Willie introduced me to the wonderful world of batidos: thick, Caribbean-style milkshakes often made with exotic fruits. He likes batidos de mamey; I like batidos de guanabana. The guanabana is a freaky, reptilian-looking fruit. When cut open, it has meaty white flesh strung through with fibers and studded with large, smooth, dark seeds. Here are Willie's thoughts on eating guanabana: "A guanabana doesn't taste how it looks. You think it would be creamy and vanilla-ish, but it isn't. When you bite into it, you experience an explosion of tropical flavors"-- a mash-up of banana, strawberry, lilikoi, and citrus. To make a batido de guanabana, throw the following into a blender and mix until smooth: 1 cup guanabana pulp; 1/2 cup cold milk; 1/4 cup sugar; and 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy! Recipe credit: http://www.food.com/recipe/batido-de-guanabana-guanabana-shake-120818

Enoki butter

When I was 18 and in college, I worked at Sharaku, a Japanese restaurant in the East Village in NYC. They served a grilled mushroom dish called "Enoki Butter." It was a simple preparation but so delicious. Oh, hey, dirty little secret about Sharaku circa 1993, 1994-- if you dined there and didn't eat your leftovers and didn't ask for a doggie bag, the reason why it took me forever to bring you your check was because I was eating your food back in the kitchen. Okay, I feel better now coming clean.

I found a recipe for Enoki Butter from the blog Kirsten's Recipes. If you click on the link, you'll also see a nice candid photo of Kirsten and her friends in Las Vegas with Suge Knight! (???) I'm kinda scared of Kirsten! Here's her (adapted) recipe:

Cut off the spongey ends of the enoki mushrooms. Toss enoki mushrooms with 1 tbsp sake, 1 tbsp ponzu shoyu (just mix ponzu with shoyu), salt and pepper. Place in foil. Put a 1 tsp to 1/2 tbsp knob of butter over the mushrooms. Seal up the foil pack and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

http://homecookkirsten.blogspot.com/2007/07/roasted-enoki-mushrooms-izakaya-style.html

After four months of excellent produce...

we are temporarily suspending our CSA subscription. We enjoyed experimenting with the MA`O produce, and we were proud to support the farm and the youth leadership program. We will most definitely be buying individual MA`O products when and where we can (like at KCC or at Whole Foods). We just need to cut back on our household spending for a little while. We will re-up with MA`O as soon as possible!

In the meantime, each week we will now post about the "Weekly Weird Thing"-- one fruit or vegetable that we will pick up at the Chinatown markets, farmers markets, or Whole Foods. We will first identify what the thing is then experiment with how to prepare it. Stay tuned!

But as a temporary good-bye and thank you to MA`O, we are posting a top ten countdown of our favorite recipes made with MA`O Farms produce! Happy eating!

10. Queen Surf Banana Bread: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/04/queen-surf-banana-bread.html

9. Fennel and Orange Salad: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/04/fennel-and-orange-salad.html

8. Curly Endive Salad with Blueberries, Toasted Hazelnut, and Shaved Parmesan Cheese: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/04/curly-endive-salad-with-blueberries.html

7. Baby Bok Choy Pesto and Grilled Salmon: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/03/baby-bok-choy-pesto-and-grilled-salmon.html

6. Massaged Kale Salad: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/03/massaged-kale-salad.html

5. The Green Goddess! http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/04/green-goddess.html

4. Salad of Castelfranco, hazelnuts, and oranges in a pink papaya seed dressing: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/04/salad-of-castelfranco-hazelnuts-and.html

3. Baked Coconut Curry Chicken with Hakurei Turnips: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/04/baked-coconut-curry-chicken.html

2. Alton Brown's Parsley Salad: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/05/alton-browns-parsley-salad.html

And our favorite MA`O produce recipe of all time....

1. Lemon Basil Fruit Salad: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/05/lemon-basil-fruit-salad.html

Thank you, MA`O Farms! See you again real soon!

Hot Kale Dip

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's Hot Spinach Dip. It uses baby lacinato kale (AKA dinosaur kale or tuscan kale) in place of the spinach. Where possible, I stripped the middle rib from the kale leaves.

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil, plus more for baking dish

1 medium onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 lbs lacinato kale, cleaned, trimmed, and coarsely chopped (Adrienne's note: Boil this kale for 10 minutes, drain, squeeze out excess water)

1/2 cup milk

6 oz reduced-fat bar cream cheese

3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

3 dashes hot sauce, such as Tabasco

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella

Coarse salt and ground pepper

Baguette slices, breadsticks, or crackers, for serving

Directions: [Adrienne's adaptation]

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium. Add onion and garlic and cook until lightly browned, about 5-8 minutes. Add kale and mix well with the rest of the garlic and onion, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a separate dish.

3. In the same saucepan, warm milk over [medium-]high heat. Whisk in cream cheese until melted, about 3 minutes. Add in spinach, garlic, onion, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and 1/4 cup mozzarella; stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into a lighly oiled loaf pan. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.

4. Bake until bubbly and golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Serve hot with accompaniments, as desired.

Colcannon

Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish. It's a combination of mashed potatos and creamed kale. This recipe comes from the website irelandnow.com. I used the third recipe variation from that webpage, which reads:

Yield: 4 servings. 2 1/2 lbs potatotes (cooked and mashed); 1 c cooked kale (finely chopped); 1 c hot milk (Adrienne's note: I used half and half); 4 chopped scallions (optional); butter. Strip the heads of kale away from the stems and shred them finely. Kale is a tough vegetable which needs to cook for 10-20 minutes depending on its age. Cook as you would any green vegetable in furiously boiling salted water until it is just tender. (Some people add 1/2 tsp baking soda to the water to help keep the kale at its brightest green). Strain it and refresh it with cold water. Drain it thoroughly and squeeze out any excess water. Put the kale in a food processor with the hot milk then blend them into a green soup then mix with the mashed potatoes. Reheat it in the oven until it is very hot.

Street Tacos with Restaurant-Style Salsa

This is "Sarah's Salsa Recipe" for Restaurant-Style Salsa:

Throw the following ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until the salsa is of the consistency that you like (I like it in tiny, tiny bits):

2 (14.5 ounce) cans of diced tomatoes

1 1/2 (10 ounce) cans of diced tomatoes with green chili peppers

2 tbsp lemon juice (Adrienne's note: I used lime juice)

1 fresh jalapeno chopped (Adrienne's note: The salsa is VERY spicy if you leave in the jalapeno seeds)

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 large yellow onion, chopped

3 drops hot pepper sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

Street Taco Recipe:

The key to authentic tasting Street Tacos is the tortilla. Mercado de la Raza sells 5 dozen fresh corn tortillas for $5.50. They're located at 1315 South Beretania Street. Take two of these tortilla shells, warm them with a little bit of oil in a saucepan, then fill with your favorite meats and toppings. We filled ours with lime-marinated flank steak, sour cream, cilantro, and the restaurant-style salsa.

The recipe for flank steak appeared in an earlier blog post, here: http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/03/lime-marinated-steak.html.

You could also make a nice guacamole for your tacos. The recipe for guacamole appeared in an earlier blog post, here:

http://greenivoroushawaii.blogspot.com/2011/02/guacamole.html