use real butter

Recipe: black cod with miso

Over a year ago, I was contacted by the program director of the Denver Botanic Gardens about giving a lecture and doing a workshop for their Bonfils Series. We met over tacos at Pica’s and I cobbled together a proposal – something to inject a little ethnic culture and cuisine into Denver. I asked my friends Manisha, Todd, and Diane if they wanted to join me and then we worked out a date… October 20-21, 2011. That seemed quite far off, and now look – it’s next week!

If you’re near the Denver area, we’d love to have you come to our lecture: Three Food Blogs, Three Cuisines, Infinite Inspiration on Thursday, October 20, 2011 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. If you want to arrive early (5:30 pm) there will be some great Denver food trucks to grab a nosh! On Friday, October 21, 2011, the four of us will lead a workshop in the kitchen facility where we will share and demonstrate Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese recipes and cooking techniques. The workshop runs from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm with a short break in the middle for participants to grab lunch. So come join us for great stories, fantastic food, and heaps of laughter. We can’t wait to meet you!

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I see more bare branches than aspen leaves around my neighborhood, thanks to the winds that whipped through here a few days prior. While walking Kaweah on the local trails this evening, I could see the skeletal dried flowers, puffballs, and solitary leaves shivering in the cold. They make a sad rattling noise as the winds race along the ground. They crunch underpaw when Kaweah goes careening off the trail to sniff something. Sunset comes earlier each day and practically sneaks up on us. When we came home from Boulder on Monday, I looked out the window to see some Kelvin-Helmholtz waves over the Continental Divide. These clouds are typically short-lived, but to get them at sunset? SCORE! Jeremy and I love to geek out on beautiful examples of fluid dynamics at work.

indicative of high shear aloft (SCIENCE!!!)

We had no such glorious clouds at sunset today, but that’s okay because I had something glorious going on in the kitchen. On my fall colors recon/40th birthday long weekend, Jeremy and I spent a couple of days in Aspen. One evening, we went to Matsuhisa for dinner because so many had recommended it. I have to say, I was pretty underwhelmed with the sushi and sashimi which was decent, but seriously overpriced. However, the items we ordered from the kitchen were pretty phenomenal like their heirloom tomato salad with cilantro dressing or the black cod with miso. Let’s talk about that black cod with miso. Melt. In. Your. Mouth. I’ve been obsessing over it ever since.

white miso paste, mirin, sake, sugar, black cod fillet

Flipping through some of my own books, I found a miso black cod recipe. But a quick search on the internets led me to the recipe from Matsuhisa on Food and Wine! The anticipation was crushing. I checked my local Whole Foods and asked my buddy Dustin (he’s the head of Seafood) when they’d have some black cod in. We talked about the recipe and he nodded, “That’s good stuff.” I just had to be patient. Upon my return home from my road trip, I picked up some groceries at Whole Foods and saw they had black cod fillets on ice. YES, PLEASE.

pour the mirin and sake into a small saucepan

whisk the sugar in with the miso, mirin, and sake

pour the miso marinade into a baking dish to cool

**Jump for more butter**

Raffle winners: Thank you to everyone who donated to A Fund for Jennie and a special thanks to Maggy, Erika, and Aimée of Bloggers Without Borders for coordinating the raffle and donations on such a huge scale across the food blogosphere. We had 41 legitimate entries and Kaweah chose the numbers (or rather, ate the corresponding dog biscuits for): 48 and 66. Mod 41, that gives us #7 (Jenn) and #25 (Kaela). Congratulations to our winners! I’ll contact you shortly to arrange for your choice of photo!

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I keep a long list of things to do. It’s not the normal list of errands, house maintenance, work, etc. It’s a special list for things that I will eventually get around to in either a few weeks or a few years – but I’m gonna do them. Things like the dozen or so baby quilts for which I have already collected the fabric, a care package to send around the globe, cookies to give to people who least expect them, or dinner with friends at another friend’s restaurant. Coordinating among multiple busy schedules means we have been attempting to get together for months, but we finally made it earlier this week. It was the first of many foreseeable dinners with this fine crew: Ellen, Manisha, and Kathya. We went around on email to figure out where to meet for dinner. There are so many choices, but I had been promising to visit my friend (and chef) Chris at his new restaurant since before it opened in Westminster, Colorado nearly six months ago. We’re all friends on Twitter and everyone agreed that Hideaway Steakhouse was the top of our list.

our own private dining room

I met Chris at my Food and Light workshop in Boulder in 2010 – one of our best students, a true sweetheart of a guy, and an incredibly talented chef and photographer. He told us Monday nights are generally quiet so he reserved the backroom just for us so we could dine, gab, and shoot photos to our hearts’ content. Such a great fella. The owners and manager came by to say hi and introduce themselves too. Hideaway Steakhouse is located in a predominantly residential area that is a bit of a food culture wasteland. The menu at Hideaway has the traditional steaks that you’d find at a steakhouse on one half, but the other half is where Chris gets to play and show off his culinary mastery.

chris offers so much more than just a steakhouse menu

manisha starts with a mojito

ellen soon learns that she’s fallen in with a camera-toting crowd

What I love about having dinner with my foodistas is that “they get it”. We all order something different so we can get a good sampling of the dishes. We share everything. No one dives into the food as soon as it arrives because we’re all getting our cameras ready (except for Ellen, who kept repeating “That’s a damn big camera!”). Oh, and they are absolutely hilarious, wonderful, amazing women. We had so much to tell one another that it took an hour before we finally figured out our order. But Chris took great care of us – he spoiled the hell out of us! We started with plates of his “lamb three ways” dish: braised lamb shank and goat cheese ravioli, lamb bacon (he cured it himself) sweet potato hash, and lamb tenderloin. Then we shared a couple of appetizers off the menu because everything was just too tempting to not sample a few.

lamb three ways: heavenly!

click click click

heirloom tomato carpaccio

ellen tries an escargot

**Jump for more butter**

Several people had asked for good recommendations around the Big Island, so I thought I’d jot down some of our good (and not as good) experiences for those who are planning or at least dreaming of their own trip. My references included: Lonely Planet: Hawai’i the Big Island (3rd edition September 2008), my friend Fran (a native of Hilo), our previous trip in 2005, the interwebs, and recommendations from my followers on Twitter.

* relief artist: dorothy nelson, 1966 (public domain)

Day 0: Kailua-Kona
Day 1: Green sand beach, Punalu’u bake shop, black sand beach, Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park
Day 2: Punalu’u black sand beach, Hilo Coffee Mill, Lava Tree State Monument, Pahoa, Kapoho Tidepools, Kea’au
Day 3: Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Akatsuka Orchid Gardens, Hilo, Akaka Falls State Park
Day 4: Hilo Farmer’s Market, Banyan Tree at Rainbow Falls, Waipi’o, Waimea, Pololu
Day 5: Waipi’o Valley, Hawi, Pololu Valley, Waimea
Day 6: Waimea, Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation, Kona

Day 0: Flying into Kona (Kailua-Kona) on a drizzly Tuesday night is not ideal, but who am I to argue with $10 airfare from Denver to Kona? Thank you, frequent flier miles! December-January is considered the peak travel time and that can affect prices for lodging and other services. We popped into a KTA grocery store to ogle the offerings (lots of Asian stuff, regular white grocery stuff, and beautiful local fruits) and had a stay at the Royal Kona Resort. Jeremy found that one online ($123 for room with 2 double beds, $10/night for parking). Dated, but clean with pretty grounds.

things we liked
Apple bananas: They look like half-sized regular bananas, but they have a slight tartness to them which makes them infinitely better than the regular banana. You do need to wait for them to turn yellow as with regular bananas.

Taro chips: Taro is ubiquitous in Hawai’i. I love it. I’m Chinese, man. Looking at the label on one brand of taro chips, I was mortified to see that it had been processed on the mainland and shipped to Hawai’i, so we stuck with the local brands of sweet potato and taro chips.

taro and sweet potato chips

Day 1: We went to the green sand beach at Mahana Bay (free), one of three green sand beaches in the world – the other two in Guam and the Galapagos. Hike 2.5 miles from the “parking area” to the green sand beach with mild yo-yoing as you skirt the coast. Follow the maze of 4WD roads that mar the coastal landscape (it can be quite muddy). The south part of the island is generally windy and sand was flying everywhere (not the green kind – that’s heavier). There were a few fellows with 4WD trucks driving people to the green sand beach, presumably for a fee. If you can walk, I suggest you walk and bring some water. You will see plants, minerals, critters, and beach up close. It’s a quick and not so difficult scramble down the wall of the old cinder cone to the beach itself and worth the small effort. Removal of green sand is illegal, not to mention a jerk thing to do.

on the hike to the bay, a little pocket of green sand accumulated on the beach

volcanic rock with olivine crystals

green sand

the bay: olive green, not emerald green (it would be made of emeralds if that were the case)

On Highway 11 to the east was the little town of Naalehu. The point of interest: Punalu’u Bake Shop. Their guava, taro, and other sweet breads are carried in most of the grocery stores on the island. We tried some of the samples before having lunch and malasadas. The chocolate cream and the strawberry-filled malasadas were nice, but the real winner for us was the plain taro malasada (we also got a guava, but I’m partial to taro and purple). It was raining, but there were several covered seating areas to enjoy your goodies while admiring native flowering plants in the gardens and all of the gorgeous local birds twittering about. We walked a little bit of our lunch off checking out the grounds (it’s small, but pleasant).

the claim

malasadas: guava (pink), taro (purple), strawberry-filled, and chocolate cream-filled

We made a quick stop at the Punalu’u black sand beach (free). It’s a pretty black sand beach, but I wasn’t there for the sand (which is a little uncomfortable to walk on because it is broken down from cooled lava – basalt – that hasn’t broken down completely into smooth little sand grains). This is a great location to see green sea turtles, except we didn’t see many of them on the beach – mostly just frolicking in the water. It was afternoon and the winds were crazy, so we didn’t stay long.

here is one returning into the waves

The drive from Punalu’u to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park ($10/vehicle, good for 7 days) climbs 3500 feet. At some point you cross over to the wet side of the island. There are rainforests here for a reason. On the recommendation of a Twitter follower, I booked two nights for us at the Volcano Rainforest Retreat nestled in the rainforest just outside of the national park.

entrance from our covered parking

shoes off, please

lovely little touches

We stayed in the Forest House (for 2 night stay, $170/night not including taxes/fees) – an octagonal stand-alone structure with private path to the hot tub. Our 300 square foot space had skylights, big windows, a gas fireplace/stove/heater (it was in the 50s and 60s), an air purifier (you’re RIGHT NEXT to active Kilauea Volcano), refrigerator, wifi, television, robes, flip flops, flashlights, umbrellas, and tons of information on the park and nearby services in the town of Volcano (massage therapists and restaurants). Breakfast is provided the day before: papaya, apple bananas, local pastries, 100% Kona coffee, hard boiled eggs, juice. It’s a crunchy-granola type of place, which we like. There are bins for compost, recyclables, trash. There is a purifier spigot for drinking water which, like all the rest, is sourced from the rainwater they catch. It is quiet, peaceful, relaxing, and private. My only gripe was the lack of shampoo/conditioner.

the view from our room – all rainforest

bright and tidy

our path to the hot tub

view from the hot tub

local brekkie

The Hawai’i Volcanoes NP visitor center provides the latest information on lava flows and volcanic activity (close at 5pm). There was no active lava flowing and there hadn’t been for three years. The only activity was at Halema’uma’u Crater and a little at Pu’u O’o – craters housing small lava lakes that weren’t doing much at the time. The volcanic activity was producing dangerous sulphur dioxide gas which forced closures over half of Crater Rim Drive. We grabbed a quick dinner at Lava Rock Café in Volcano (the town) even though Kiawe Kitchen‘s menu looked better – we were short on time. While nothing spectacular, the food is decent and you can get some local flavor like liliko’i (passion fruit) vinaigrette on your green salad, fresh mahi mahi fish and chips, and decent kalbi (korean bbq beef short ribs).

Reaching the Jaggar Museum in the national park by sunset, we walked out onto the back deck with hordes of middle schoolers and their chaperons in the drizzle and rain to watch steam rising from Halema’uma’u Crater. The lava levels were low and deep in the crater, so not visible from where we stood. As twilight approached, a faint pink tint appeared at the base of the steam and it intensified to a moderate glow. It was in the lower 50s, but standing around in the wind and rain made it feel colder.

the start of the glow

more color

last remnants of blue

nightfall

things we liked
Olivine sand at the green sand beach.
Taro malasadas from the Punalu’u Bake Shop in Naalehu.
Volcano Rainforest Retreat in Volcano.
Halema’uma’u Crater at night in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
**Jump for more butter**