Nana's Cookbooks -- Mrs. R. Forster's Meatloaf

The day before my mom arrived to live with us, I discovered three of her mum's cookbooks in zip lock bags wedged between cookbooks on my kitchen shelf. I completely forgot I had them.

When a sister and I emptied our childhood home five years ago, they were one of the few things I brought home to Kauai. The cookbooks are from the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, Evangeline Chapter, Halifax Nova Scotia. Those are the words on the yellowed cover.

Hundreds of tiny paragraphs describe everything from Fairy Fluff to Meatloaf. For my mother's first meal, I made a meatloaf contributed to the cookbook by a "Mrs. R. Forster." Yes, the vegetarian household took a radical turn, and yum, it was delicious, and no, Wes did not partake.




Here's the recipe exactly as Mrs. R. Forster wrote it. I clarify some points at the end of the recipe instructions.

1/2 pound sausage meat
2 lbs. round steak ground
1 egg lightly beaten
1 can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cups soft breadcrumbs
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 salt, pepper
2 tblsp. poultry seasoning
Turn into a greased loaf pan, and bake in a pan of warm water in a hot oven for 1 hour.

I used organic ground beef from Costco and the ground pork from Cost-U-Less. I didn't have canned tomato soup. I used half a can of tomato paste. My mom says a "hot" oven is 375 degrees. I reduced cooking time to 48 minutes because I prefer meat undercooked a bit. This is a rock solid recipe that made really good sandwiches for the following week.

Enjoy! We did.

One Confession, One Digression, a Haiku and Soursop Coconut Scones

Scones are my super power. 

And with great power comes great responsibility. For one, a person with a super power should use it only for good. So my wielding It as a bribe for doing good in the world of non-profit organizations is justified, right? 

The confession: Take for instance the two years I worked as volunteer coordinator for Kauai Humane Society. Record numbers of volunteers would turn out for mailings if I sweetened the deal with fresh baked scones. 

Proof positive, there are too few bakers in the world, so a flaky pastry warm out of the oven is a much coveted thing. 

In 1985, at Macy’s European Coffee House in Flagstaff, I trained to be an early morning baker with a hippy chic named Sue Bug. Sue was the only employee with a “bug” at the end of her name, the rest of us answered to “bob,” as in Tim Bob, the owner and Lynn Bob, the manager. Friends I still know from that time refer to it as the Macy’s “Bob” era.

It wasn’t long before other people began to notice how my scones were different from those made from the same recipe. At Macy’s in the 80s we measured dry ingredients in giant metallic scoops and our spices, by the handful: x scoops of flour and sugar to x handfuls of cinnamon, cardamom, all spice or what-have-you. 

Another baker working there at the time explained the excellence of my scones according to karma: “You had a grandmother who baked scones for you in a past life.” 

I don’t know about karma or if the size of my hands happened to be the best size for measuring dry ingredients. What I do know is when Sue Bug trained me, she emphasized texture and appearance of the dry ingredients as I added liquid at the end of preparation. This is why the following recipe has no exact measurement for the soursop juice. Because of the humidity of our tropical climate, I can’t count on an exact measure. I begin with a scant ¾ cup of juice and drizzle in according to texture from there.

This is not the Macy’s recipe. The original recipe came from Julia Smith, a lovely Westside kupuna who has since passed, so I’m unable to trace its roots. I’ve been tweaking this recipe for 10 years so feel pretty safe calling it my own. 

At the Café 

Crossed legs, chin on fist

Her gaze studies vacant air

Words collect like dew 

Digression

Location: Sitting at a window in Ha Coffee Bar in Lihue, I sigh with contentment. In five days my 85 year-old mom moves back in with my husband and I. To my left is my friend Lois Ann working on a paper for her teaching program and across from her is Kim, writing a post for her blog. I’ve been writing with these two women for 8 years. Ours is a friendship that grew from our love of story and matured into a hui of respect and mutual support seasoned with laughter. This writing life would be so lonely without them.

Back to the recipe:

I begin with a base that evolves into either date/cherry, date/cranberry, mango/coconut, carrot/walnut and most recently, this soursop/coconut version. I change sugar types according to the texture I seek, and introduce wheat or rice flours on occasion. This recipe is amenable to many types of fresh or dry fruit. Just add fruit to dry ingredients and feel free to switch the liquid according to taste. I use either buttermilk, orange juice or soursop juice. I always prefer something grown close to home and the soursop is 30 feet from my kitchen door. 

Soursop Coconut Scones

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

Notes: I use a food processor, but it’s not mandatory. If you don’t have a processor, work the butter into the dry ingredients until it is the texture of gravel. They will still come out flaky and perfect.

I live in a hot climate so always use frozen butter.

Combine:

3 cups flour

½ cup white sugar

1 Tbl. baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Add:

¾ cup frozen unsalted butter

Mix until gravelly.

Transfer from the food processor into a large bowl.

Add:

¾ cup coconut flakes. I prefer the wider ribbons vs. the thin shredded style

2 cups chopped Madjool dates

Add:

½ cup sour cream. Mix in lightly.

Add a scant 3/4 cup liquid, in this case soursop juice. Only add enough to pull dough together. There should be dry ingredients still visible in the dough. Plop spoonfuls of dough on to an ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Scones bake faster on the black cookie sheet. If using black, bake 18 minutes; if using aluminum, bake 22 minutes.

Another Ode to Mother Nature’s Condiment -- The Sunflower Seed

Macy’s European Coffee House in Flagstaff, Arizona is where I cut my teeth in a commercial kitchen. The word “commercial” hardly captures the glow of this funky café and eatery on Beaver Street just blocks from Northern Arizona University, where I went to school.

Macy’s is where I fell in love with the kitchen as an entity; a magical environ where cinnamon, folk music and hippy women ruled. Filling three-quarters of the kitchen was the bakers’ table – a waist high stage where mounds of dough were tossed on a floured surface and coaxed, twirled and stretched into sugary danish, scones and bagels. 

The joy of working with dough on a wide surface, where the body can gain leverage with ease, makes the average home kitchen an annoying space in which to bake. That aside, Macy’s is where I met myself as the woman I would grow into with age. I couldn’t know this at the time, but it is in the kitchen where I commune with the best parts of myself. 

Macy’s was primarily espresso drinks and vegetarian meals. The sandwiches, soups and salads were simple and everything was made fresh. We tossed tamari sunflower seeds on green salads, and today, my own kitchen is rarely without them.Where sprouts offer a fresh, bright crunch, these have a  totally different mouth feel and flavor. 

Here’s how you make them:

Pour a pile of say 2 cups raw seeds into the center of a rimmed cookie sheet. Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons tamari or shoyu sauce. Spread in an evenish layer on the sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 7 minutes. Cool and scrape from sheet to pour into your container of choice. There is always a jar of these toasty, brown darlings on our counter top.

Yes they can be bought on Kauai for around $10/pound at Papayas, or $7/pound at Hoku Foods, but that’s pretty pricey and they are so quick and easy to make.

Enjoy!

When it comes to these green gems, bigger isn't better -- Choyote Squash Tacos

A missing onion for one of my standard taco fillings led to a nice alteration. This simple combination of sauteed choyote squash and eggplant worked well in a corn tortilla piled with sunflower sprouts from farmers market, and these pickled red onions from Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook. 

A prolific vine of choyote squash grew wild in my backyard for nearly a decade, then suddenly disappeared. Luckily I see them at farmer’s markets regularly; with one cautionary note regarding the size available there. There is a trick to choosing and preparing them: eat the babies, avoid the adults. Baby choyote should fit in your palm. They are simple to prepare since the entire squash is edible. You can eat the skin of the young squash and the seed too.  

The adult fruit, on the other hand, requires peeling and seeding, which doesn’t sound hard to do, right? Well, there’s a sticky substance between the meat and the skin. The glue gets all over my fingers and doesn’t wash off without serious scrubbing. It’s pretty annoying. In the adult squash the seed has hardened, so you must slice around the pear-shaped seed. The flavor of the larger fruit tastes the same, it’s just more work.

Choyote Eggplant Tacos

3 Tbl. olive oil

4 small diced Japanese eggplant

2 small diced choyote squash with skin and seed

1 tsp. each of chili powder, oregano and cumin (Optional)

Salt to taste

Corn Tortillas

Sunflower sprouts

Molly Kazen's pickled red onion

Heat oil,  then sauté eggplant 4 to 5 minutes until tender. Add choyote and continue to sauté 2 to 3 more minutes. Choyote are naturally sweet, so don't over cook. They have such a nice crunch when al dente. Also, eggplant and choyote are such a complimentary pairing, if you're looking for a neutral palette, they really don't need the spices.

It's time for something green that is totally unIrish -- Salsa Verde

My dog walking buddy, Meg, dropped in for a soursop margarita last weekend. As an impromptu snack I whipped up a salsa verde in under 5 minutes. The brilliant color alone makes an impression. Besides, it’s yumalicious.

When it comes to red salsa, I always simmer it on the stove top in lieu of serving as salsa fresca because those raw onions give me dragon breath. But for a zesty tomatillo salsa that is pure freshness in the mouth and easy to assemble, all you need is a knife, cutting board and food processor or blender.

I can practically drink it. In fact, I bet is would mix well with vodka. Why not? Think Irish Bloody Mary. I’ll let you know.

These tomatillos came from Costuless, but there was a farmer selling tomatillo last summer at the Wednesday Kapaa Farmer’s Market. As much as I love to cruise the tables loaded with local produce, I rarely attend the Kapaa market anymore even though it's barely three miles from home; the 3 p.m. market set on black asphalt and timed to collide with the middle school traffic has lost its shine. 

I order most my produce from John and Nandanie Wooten. I call the order in by 9 am. Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, then pick up at 3 p.m. from their Anahola farm. Their number is 823-6807.

Salsa Verde

In a blender of food processor blitz:

10 tomatillos quartered

3 cloves chopped garlic

4 leaves of kale, Swiss Chard or lettuce

1 handful chopped cilantro

2 jalapenos, sometimes I use fresh and other times the pickled canned ones.

3 green onion

½ cup water

1 pasilla pepper, I roast the pasilla on a gas flame, peel and seed.

1 tsp. salt

Enjoy.

Apple Tofu Sauté – Two techniques converged, and the results? A bright, flavorful meal.

Less is definitely more when preparing a dish for potluck. Two weeks ago my friend Morgan made an unseasoned tofu with whole garlic cloves for a dinner party. The shiny white “pudding” poised in the company of a brilliant garnet yam casserole, polenta salad and an array of other colorful bowls, looked anemic by comparison, but was possibly the most talked about dish at the party. 

I tend to overcompensate for tofu’s neutrality by over seasoning. So I did eye her dish with suspicion, which quickly evaporated after the first bite drove me back for seconds.

She told me she cooks it over a very low heat for a long time. Her method differed from how I usually prep tofu for a stir fry or soup; I brown the cubes in sizzling oil, then flavor with Braggs Liquid Aminos, maple syrup and lemon juice. Morgan added no flavoring beyond these fat poached garlic cloves. I loved the simplicity of the flavor for many reasons, foremost, that too often my tummy rejects all the weird food combining that can happen at a potluck dinner.

Then the following week my friend Meg, who swears she’s not adept in the kitchen, (liar) had a stroke of genius when she added diced apple to a vegetable soup. Apple. Who knew?

Last night I employed the two new strategies and the results were excellent. One caveat, I chose firm tofu in place of Morgan’s silken since I was adding vegetables. 

The only catch is that the one essential ingredient is a fine balsamic vinegar. I used Olives Wild raspberry-ginger, white Balsamic vinegar. For this dish I didn’t want to discolor the tofu with a black vinegar. Olives Wild is in Flagstaff, Arizona. My best gal pal Kelly turned me on to it, and fortunately keeps a regular supply flowing my way. Thanks Kel-Kel.

This is a quick meal I made in under 30 minutes. There are few side dishes quicker or as delicious as polenta. Here is an herbaceous polenta that compliments the subtlety of the sauté. 

Herbed Polenta

2 ¼ cups vegetable stock

½ cup polenta

1 tsp. Thyme

1 tsp. Dry French Tarragon

1 tsp. Fresh minced rosemary

2-3 green onions, green part only

1/3 cup grated Parmesan

butter to taste

Boil stock, stir in polenta. Simmer, stirring often until the polenta thickens. This will be barely 5 minutes. Stir in the butter, herbs and Parmesan. Cover until ready to serve. If you use it immediately it will be a soft mash and once covered for a few minutes, it will solidify into more of a cake. I like both ways. If you use fresh thyme or tarragon just double the amount. And go wild with different herbs. Sometimes I don’t have one or the other and replace with parsley, oregano or even cilantro. 

*Notes:

Penzeys Spices: This is where you can procure quality spices and dry herbs. Penzey’s publishes a great catalogue. They include customer recipes and stories. Fun stuff!

Olives Wild: This is where you can order killer vinegars and oils. The site is not operational yet, but there is an email for requesting a list of products. Trust me and just order the raspberry-ginger white balsamic. You can’t go wrong.

Apple Tofu Sauté

2 Tbl. Olive oil

One tub firm tofu cut into 1-inch squares

1 full head of roasted garlic

2 bundles of bok choy or any green leafy thing you like

1 large carrot cut into matchsticks

2 celery stalks cut fine

1 Ambrosia apple, Fuji, Pink Lady or Gala would be fine too

A generous drizzle of Olives Wild raspberry-ginger white balsamic

A sprinkle of sumac, this is a lemony spice. I think lemon pepper would be a suitable substitute.

Heat oil. Sauté tofu squares 5 minutes covered on the lowest heat on your smallest burner. Flip tofu when it is very lightly golden and add roasted garlic and sumac. Simmer uncovered not for another 5 minutes. Drizzle with Balsamic, simmering maybe one more minute. Remove from pan to a bowl, now toss in carrot and celery. Sauté till tender, add bok choy and diced apple. Toss and sauté until the bok choy is bright green but not wilting, maybe 2 minutes. Return tofu with all its yummy juices to the pan and warm for another minute.

Recipe Malfunctions -- When ingredient substitutions fail

Didn't this dish photograph beautifully. I wish it tasted as scrumptious as it looks.

Every curious cook does it: improvisation. We take liberties with someone else's recipe for our own creative appetite. In this case, I didn't have all of the listed ingredients for the Royal Potato Salad in Yotam Ottolenghi's book, Plenty, one of my favorite cookbooks. I've included the recipe link above rather than print it here.

The impulse to make it arose when my husband returned home from work with a container of pickled quail eggs and a dozen fresh. A customer at work raises quail and shared them with him. Apparently these folks sell their eggs out of a parking lot across from Kapaa's Wednesday farmer's market.

I found Ottolenghi's recipe which included quail eggs, but didn't have plain basil for the pesto. What I did have was lemon basil and since the recipe called for sorrel, and sorrel has a lemony flavor, I thought lemon basil would substitute. It didn't. Both my husband and I agree the potatoes taste perfumed.

As if that wasn't enough to change, I also used walnuts in place of pinenuts and roasted garlic in place of raw. Stop shaking your head. I was running amuck in the kitchen. Sometimes three lefts lead to one "right" or so that's my justification for wrong turns.

Then there was the egg boiling debacle.

Ottolenghi suggests boiling them 30 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on how raw you like the yolk. I went with 2 minutes and it was too long. A softer yolk would have been much prettier, even if it wouldn't have rescued the dish.

I hadn't intended to post kitchen failures, but then realized I don't know how to use lemon basil. I could Google it, but it'd be more fun if you shared your use of this herb. Thanks for considering.

Cheers Big Ears: Soursop Margaritas with Salty Li Hing Mui Rim

An ugly, delicious fruit deserving of a sexier name, soursop is a slightly sweet, custardy flesh with a hint of grapefruit; my absolute favorite tropical fruit.
My mom and I discovered it first as a juice while cruising the Kapaa Market last spring. One vendor sold little bottles at $3 a pop, so my husband and I planted a tree and this spring have a dozen of the ungainly alien orbs.
They peel easy, take a few minutes to seed and make refreshing smoothies and margaritas. Some of the fruit we freeze in gallon bags, flattening it out so that when needed, we just chisel off a few chunks. We also juice it in our Çhampion so we have a half gallon in the fridge for smoothies.
As for li hing mui powder, try to find it without aspartame and weird red dyes. Sadly, that is all I can find on Kauai at the moment. Mix it with Real Salt, kosher style, available at Hoku Market.
Enjoy!