Category Archives: Food

Adventure in leftovers

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We found ourselves yesterday afternoon heading towards the dinner hour without a plan for the evening meal. After assessing what was available, I decided to use a piece of salmon that was left uncooked when we had friends over on Sunday evening.

First thing to clear up. The Joule Sou Vide box on the counter had nothing to do with this meal. I ordered it when it was on sale last week, and it just happened to have been delivered earlier in the day. I am looking forward to experimenting with it, but that will be a tale for another time.

I started the meal prep by putting two medium red potatoes into the oven at 375.

While the potatoes were cooking, I assessed what else was on hand, and decided to make a mango topping for the salmon. That involved dicing some red onion, garlic, half of both a red and yellow sweet pepper, half a banana, and part of a haden mango.

Disclosure: I’ve been using fresh peeled garlic cloves that Costco sells in a 3-pound bag. That’s a lot of garlic, so I repackage it into six or seven smaller bags and pop them into the freezer, where the garlic becomes readily available whenever needed.

I rubbed the salmon with Penzey’s Jerk Chicken & Fish seasoning, and a dry lemon-garlic seasoning, then set it aside until I was ready.

Once the potatoes were almost ready, I heated some olive oil in a cast iron frying pan. Once it was hot, I started with the onion and garlic, cooking it for a couple of minutes, then added the peppers, stirring well. Another few minutes, and I cleared a place in the pan and dropped in the chopped banana for just a minute or two, drizzled a tablespoon or so of lime juice, then added the diced mango just long enough to stir it into the mix. Then I transferred everything to a bowl and turned back to cook the salmon.

A little more oil went into the pan to heat, then I dropped the salmon in skin side down. I think I gave it about 4 minutes, then turned and let it cook skin side up for maybe 3 minutes. At that point, I took the salmon off the stove, and plated the meal.

It was served on classic Tampico plates, accompanied by Meda’s watercress and avocado salad with a light salad dressing that she mixed up. The watercress was also a leftover from Sunday.

Add a glass of Mirassou Pinot Noir, and it was almost a perfect meal!

I’m getting a trial-and-error mango education

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It turns out that I’ve got a lot to learn about our mango trees. The two trees in our back yard were planted by my parents when my sister and I were born, and we grew up with them.

But this is the first year since we moved back to Kahala that they’ve produced more than a literal handful of mangoes. This year wasn’t a bumper crop, but it’s been quite a respectable one.

These are the mangoes I’m used to, at least from the larger tree, a Haden variety. When they’re getting ripe, it’s obvious. They turn these wonderful colors, yellow, orange, red. You learn to pick them just as these bright colors start developing, in order to beat the birds to the wonderful fruit.

But the latter part of this year’s mango crop is doing something different. This year, the tree flowered three different times. It would flower, then a storm with days of high winds would blow through, destroying a good percentage of the flowers. Then, a little later, a new round of flowers would appear. We have ended up with three waves of mangoes. The first already ripened and we picked the last of them a month or so ago. This first round all displayed those wonderful colors.

Now there’s another batch just starting to ripen, but they’re different. Some of the fruit are larger than normal, but aren’t developing those colors. They are green mixed with a rather dull purple wash of color, nothing bright at all. Some of them seem to get a shiny surface, making the purple color deeper, but still haven’t shown any red or orange. Then they seem to get a very slight background glow that, in the proper light, might be yellow. They don’t really appear to be ripening, but the birds seem to know otherwise even if I don’t recognize it.

There are also tiny mangoes ripening and falling. These don’t appear to be mature, and I’ve just trashed them. And I’ll have to wait and see whether the third round will ever ripen. There are fewer of them, and I’m just observering for now.

I’ve finally had to accept that the current round of mangoes won’t look like those from earlier in the season. It seems that I’m having to learn how to spot the ripe ones by trial and error.

Does anybody else recognize this change in the course of a long growing season? If so, please share in a comment.

Helen Lind’s mango chutney recipe

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I’ve been reviewing and trying to figure out how to organize old files and photos currently saved on a couple of dozen hard drives, which includes some backup copies (although not all are currently backed up, unfortunately). The filing system is largely chronological, but not consistently so.

But here’s a prize retrieved this morning. It’s my mother’s recipe for mango chutney.

She graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1935 with a degree in home economics. She was a student of Professor Carey D. Miller, a prominent nutritionist, and worked with Miller after earning her degree. She was continually tweaking the recipe as the mango trees matured, bringing slight changes in the chemistry of the mangoes, and their interaction with other ingredients.

She died in 2013 not long before her 99th birthday. I don’t know if this was her “final” version of the recipe. The handwritten notes indicate it was still a lifetime work in progress. And the stains show he kept it handy while cooking.

Now I’ll be challenged to give it a try. I admit to being quite intimidated.

What was the traditional Hawaiian diet?

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Interested in how people used to live in Hawaii?

Here’s another little bit of useful insight.

It’s a single page of typewritten notes about foods that Hawaiians traditionally ate. The notes were taken by University of Hawaii Professor Carey D. Miller based on a conversation with “Mrs. Webb” at the Bishop Museum.

Miller, a nutritionist, joined the university faculty in 1921. From the first, he was keenly interested in the nutritional values of traditional diets of Hawaiians and others living in Hawaii.

I found this reference to Webb in a museum publication.

Mrs. Lahilahi Webb was Guide to the Exhibits, Bernice P. Bishop Museum. A friend, companion, and nurse to the late Queen Liliuokalani, Mrs. Webb lived an active life in surroundings especially favorable for acquiring a knowledge of Hawaiian history, lore, and culture.

You can click on the page below to read a larger version.