Dreaming of another trip to Hawaii

Travel will be just a fantasy until we get a vaccine for COVID-19, the Spanish flu of our century. But being in semi-quarantine has provided me with more time for research. Here is a review of a Hawaiian cookbook I wrote 17 years ago I thought I'd share.

"Kona on My Plate" Cookbook review, Sacramento Bee, May 2003 Wed, May 14, 2003 – 57 · The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California) · Newspapers.com

A healthy breakfast quiche

Quiche is a favorite brunch item for many people, but most contain stuff that negates the healthful spinach and other vegetables, namely cheese, cream, butter and bacon, in a rich pie crust.

But can you have a flavorful AND healthful quiche? Sure you can. The one below is an example, but you can substitute in vegetables to your own taste, and even use lower-fat bacon pieces if you'd like (I keep a bag of them in the freezer). I used a half of a beef kielbasa sausage because I needed to use it up. Use less salt if you use bacon; less pepper if you use a sausage.

Lori's breakfast quiche

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 cup shredded potatoes (squeezed dry) or reconstituted hash brow
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
12 leaves fresh chard (cut off stems and chop, leave leaves whole)
About ¼ cup chopped cooked sausage or lean bacon or ham (optional)
3 eggs
1 cup low-fat plain Greek yogurt
Garlic salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Mix the potatoes and oil until well coated, then press them in the bottom of a 9-inch glass pie plate. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Cook for 10- to 15-minutes until the edges are brown.

Meanwhile, sauté the chard stems in a tablespoon of oil. When nearly soft, season with garlic salt and pepper.

Put the chard leaves on a microwave-safe plate and microwave them for 2 minutes. Turn the plate over on an old, clean dishtowel, fold the sides over the chard, then roll up tightly and twist to squeeze the moisture out of the leaves. Chop the leaves into ½-inch pieces and set aside.

Mix the eggs and yogurt well.

Pull the hash browns out of the oven and turn it down to 325 degrees F.

Sprinkle the chard leaves over the cooked potatoes, then the stems, then the meat (if using). Spray the sides of the pie plate with olive oil, then pour the egg mixture evenly over the vegetables. Salt and pepper the top if desired. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve immediately. Leftovers can be reheated in the microwave the next day or so.

Roux that doesn't make you rue the day

Roux, how I love you. You take plain ol' white flour and oil and turn it into a deep brown well of flavor and texture that cannot be matched.

But what I don't love is the time it takes to make you, the attention that you crave, and your ability to turn, after a long session of fretting and whisking, into a burnt mess with no warning. And now, I've found a way, although far from foolproof, to keep my schedule intact and my right arm from repetitive strain injury and still make a mighty fine roux.

I read where you could make roux in a microwave. Unfortunately, the person who posted the instructions had a much fancier microwave than mine, which has only one power setting, so my first batch came out of the first 6-minute cook time with a telltale black bubble that of course ruined the roux. Tried again, this time for 4 minutes, then adding 30 seconds, stirring after each round, until it came out as dark as I dared make it. And I was able to do it in a glass measuring cup, which made it easy to pour back into a cast-iron skillet, bring it to smoking and add the Cajun Trinity (chopped onion, green pepper and celery) for a surprisingly quick gumbo.

By the way, roux also makes the best turkey gravy in the world, and you can use the fat rendered off the cooked turkey instead of the oil, if you can separate it without getting any broth in the fat. Use the fatless drippings along with broth to make the gravy.

Lori's cheap and quick gumbo

Serves at least 10

Ingredients
2 cups onion, medium dice

1½ cups green pepper, medium dice

1 cup celery, finely diced

2 whole bay leaves

2 teaspoons kosher salt

½ teaspoon white pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (can leave out if using andouille sausage or tasso)

¼ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon thyme leaves

¼ teaspoon ground oregano

¾ cup flour

¾ cup canola oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

6 cups chicken broth

1 pound andouille sausage or tasso, or a good smoked sausage like kolbassa, sliced

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cooked and sliced

3 cups of hot cooked rice (1 cup of uncooked rice)

Filé (dried powdered sassafrass leaves)

Instructions
Prep the vegetables, put together in a bowl and set aside. Mix the bay leaves, salt, three kinds of pepper, thyme and oregano, put in a small bowl and set aside.

Mix the flour and oil, with a whisk until there are no lumps, in a glass 4-cup measure. Microwave at 100% power for 4 minutes, remove and stir. Continue cooking in 30-second intervals, stirring after each, until it turns a deep red-brown. If any black specks appear, it is burnt and you will need to start over. Do not get any of this on your skin; it's called Cajun napalm for a reason.

Pour the roux into a cast-iron skillet and heat over medium heat until lightly smoking. Add the vegetables and the garlic and cook until they are soft, about 3-5 minutes. Mix in the seasoning mixture from the small bowl until well combined and set aside.

Put the broth in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the roux to the broth by spoonfuls, whisking until each addition is dissolved. When it all is combined, add the meats. Cook at least 30 minutes.

To serve, put about ¼ cup of rice in a bowl, then sprinkle a teaspoon of filé over it. Ladle the gumbo over.

When life give you Meyer lemons, make lemon curd

I'm not much on sweets, but there's only so much petrale sole and dungeness crab that I can use Meyer lemons on. For those of you who unfamiliar with this little slice of heaven that grows on a tree in my backyard, the Meyer lemon is citron and a mandarin/pomelo hybrid that is much sweeter and less acidic than the common lemon.

So it was to my delight to find and adapt this lemon curd recipe. It is based on an Ina Garten recipe, but uses less sugar, since she didn't specify Meyer. I liked it because it didn't demand you use a double boiler (I don't have one). I tried to see if you could do it with melted butter and a food processor like my favorite blender hollandaise, but no dice. Still, it was only a little over 10 minutes on the stove to lemony perfection.

Lori's Meyer Lemon Curd

Ingredients

3 Meyer lemons, zest removed and juiced

¾ cup sugar

⅛ teaspoon Kosher salt

4 large eggs

4 oz butter, melted

Instructions

Put the sugar, salt and the zest in a food processor and pulse until the zest is very fine. Add the eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Add the juice and blend until light and foamy. With the processor running, slowly add the melted butter. When blended, put in a nonstick heavy saucepan and heat over low heat until the mixture reaches about 170 degrees and thickens, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes. It will thicken more as it cools. Keep refrigerated and use within a month, or freeze and thaw before serving. Makes about 1½ cups.

All about butter

This listing is not mine, but I approve them all. I found the list in a stash of emails I was about to delete, and thought I'd share it. It may be from The City Cook, but I can't find it on their site.

Butter Basics

• Butter is made from 100% heavy cream that has been agitated so to separate water and butterfat. The fat left behind is butter. The watery liquid that is removed is buttermilk or whey. Contrary to its high-cholesterol sounding name, buttermilk in fact is very low fat which makes sense if you consider how it's produced. 
• Nearly every butter available in our stores has been pasteurized.
• Unsalted or sweet butter is exactly as its name suggests. Butterfat without any added salt.
• Salted butter includes one to two percent salt (that's like adding one to two teaspoons per pound). Some salted butters include grainy salts like sel de fleur, giving the butter an almost crunchy texture and a more aggressively salty taste.
• European butter has a higher butterfat content -- as high as 86%. This is in comparison with regular butter, which will have a butterfat content of about 80%. More butterfat means less moisture and this translates into a denser, more refined texture and when used in baking, it can produce flakier pastries. In addition, some European butters are made with cultured cream and due to the addition of lactic acid bacteria, it has a more forward, bigger flavor. A few butters made in the U.S., including one by Cabot, will be labeled "European" as a way of declaring its higher butterfat content.
• Organic butter is made with cream that's been certified organic and antibiotic free.
• Whipped butter is simply butter to which nitrogen has been added which means it is softer to spread. But keep in mind that the whipping also reduces volume so you're actually getting less product for the money. If you love whipped butter, especially on pancakes or scones, just let a stick soften to almost room temperature and then whip it yourself using a hand or stand mixer. 
• Truffle butter is plain butter to which bits of black or white truffles have been added. Two popular brands are d'Artagnan and DaRosario and a little 2 oz. container usually costs $10 to $15. And what's the point? Well, if you are a truffle lover and with truffles costing the price of Caribbean vacation, a tablespoon of truffle butter tossed with a bowl of fettuccine (use dry pasta and search out DeCecco's, making sure it's the egg fettuccine), or added to scrambled eggs, or glossing plain steamed green beans will satisfy many a craving.
• Clarified butter has been melted so as to separate its water, milk solids and pure milk fat, producing a clear yellow liquid. By removing the water and milk solids, the remaining liquefied milk fat will not burn as easily, making it a good choice when butter is used in higher temperature frying.
• Ghee is the name in India for clarified butter that has been additionally cooked, adding more complex flavor and extended stability (ghee can keep unrefrigerated for many months). It also has cultural and religious importance.
• Compound butter is a term used to describe a butter to which flavorings have been added. Truffle butter is one but more quotidian examples would be made with garlic, minced tarragon or other fresh herbs, chopped shallot, or ground cinnamon. It's simple to make: use a fork to mash together softened butter with the ingredient of your choice and then refrigerate until ready to use.
• Countries that have dairy legacies, such as Ireland and France, deserve their reputations for really excellent butter and flavors can subtly vary depending on the grasses the cows eat. Butters from Ireland, Normandy, Brittany and Holland are exported to the U.S. and are increasingly easy to find in our grocers and specialty markets.

Lots of lava love

This is a quick and easy take on a dessert that was very popular in the '90s. Use the best chocolate you can afford.

Lori K's Molten Mini Cakes

Ready in 30 minutes

Serves 8

6 oz 70% or more chocolate, in pieces 4 egg yolks

16 T butter, divided 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

4 eggs 3/4 cup all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 425. Melt butter in a 2 or 4 cup microwave-safe glass measuring cup, 

and remove 2 T to a small pinch bowl. Use the smaller amount to grease 

8 custard cups or ramekins. 

Add chocolate to the larger amount and stir until smooth and thoroughly mixed. 

Add the eggs and the egg yolks, mix thoroughly; then the sugar and flour and mix until smooth.

Place the cups on a rimmed baking sheet and fill. Put them all on one shelf in the middle 

of the oven and cook for 7-10 minutes. The outside of the cakes should raise slightly and look dry;

the middle should still be shiny. Do not overcook.

Super simple caramel sauce

Bananas are so good for your muscles, but some weeks, we don't eat them fast enough, i.e. before the dreaded brown spots start popping up. Someone who will remain nameless doesn't like the taste or texture of a ripe banana.

So usually, I just peel them and throw them in the freezer to be used for banana bread at some future time. But this morning I felt like bananas Foster, but didn't want to go to all the fuss.

So I just made a simple caramel sauce to pour over the sliced bananas. Delicious! Only four ingredients, and in simple proportions so I can keep it in my head.

Lori K's Simple Caramel Sauce
Serves 2 (can half or double and will keep for a week in the fridge)

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons evaporated milk
Pinch or two of coarse salt

Instructions
Melt butter for 30 seconds in microwave in a 2-cup Pyrex measure. Add the brown sugar and evaporated milk, mix well, and return to the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir well, and return to the microwave for 15 seconds.

Serve over sliced ripe bananas and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Enjoy!