Aloha!

I’ve decided that this will be the last night of American food, because its time to move on to greener, healthier pastures.

Hawaiian food, Succotash Stew and Gumbo battled it out for the chance to be eaten and reviewed at our place. Annnnnd the winner is… Hawaii! Mainly because I’m not that into okra (gumbo is basically okra soup), and I forgot to soak the beans for the stew.

During my research I discovered that they don’t eat a lot of vegetables in Hawaii. They do eat a lot of pork, chicken, banana, pineapple, coconut, and spam though. In fact, they eat more spam than any other state in America. Much of the food is inspired by Chinese, Japanese, and mainland US cuisine.

I chose to try Huli Huli Tofu (usually chicken), Macaroni Salad, and Banana and Pineapple Cake.

Macaroni Salad

Basic versions of Macaroni Salad include macaroni, grated carrot, and mayonnaise. Sometimes fruit, other vegetables, sauces and macadamia nuts are added. I used Plamil Egg Free Mayonnaise, a little lime juice, chopped brazil nuts (I don’t have macadamias atm), and some very finely chopped carrot. Oh, and macaroni, of course.

It was a little bland, but not a bad version of pasta salad. Mr ate about three peoples’ worth, so I suppose he liked it!

The Huli Huli tofu is just fried tofu, with a BBQ-ish sauce. The sauce is made from pineapple juice, soy sauce, worcestershre sauce, grated ginger, and cornflour. I marinated tofu slices in the sauce for about 30 minutes, then cooked them in all the sauce a skillet for about 15 minutes on one side, and 5 on the other. The sauce thickens and coats the tofu slices, and they become delicious saucy morsels of goodness.

Huli Huli Tofu

I also made a very quick vegie stir-fry to go with it, because I really couldn’t find a decent Hawaiian vegetable dish to make, and I didn’t feel like dinner without them.

vegie stir fry

Yummy cake

The last dessert from the US was Hawaiian style banana and pineapple cake. I used my own recipe, which is below. I overcooked it a little while distracted, but its still moist and flavoursome. The icing is made of icing mixture, tofutti sour cream, and lime juice.

My verdict on Hawaiian food: Tasty, but not my style. I’d like more vegies and much less sugar and meat. To get an idea of what I mean, check out the image at this website of Hawaiian recipes.

Banana and Pineapple Cake Recipe

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tbs golden syrup
• 2 tbs Tofutti sour cream
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 6 pineapple rings
• 2 cups plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 tsp coconut essence

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees, line a cake tin with baking paper.
2. Beat the sugar, golden syrup, sour cream and oil together with a wooden spoon, until thoroughly mixed.
3. Add banana and pineapple, and mix well.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder, and beat well.
5. Add coconut, milk, and coconut essence. Mix wth a wooden spoon until mixture is consistent.
6. Pour into the cake tin, and bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
7. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool on a tray.
8. Ice or dust with icing sugar and serve.

BBQ Tofu, Mash and vegies

Night three of American food was BBQ tofu, mashed potato, and orange glazed carrots and greens.

I used the BBQ Tofu recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, although not having access to Liquid Smoke, I used the Jack Daniels smokey BBQ Sauce instead. I did the mash my ordinary way (mar, soy milk, salt, nutritional yeast, mustard), and used the Glazed Beets recipe (also from Vegan with a Vengeance) but subbed carrots and greens for the beets.

The BBQ sauce was fruity, smokey, and spicy ( I *may* have added more hot sauce than the recipe called for). A small amount of it was really good, but the tofu was a little too bbq-ey for me, as I’ve never been a BBQ sauce fan. Mr. liked it though, which is good because we had a lot of the sauce left over, so he might find it makes a second appearance tonight. The greens and carrots mixture was really good, although maybe not the best match for the tofu. Mash was, as always, really yummy.

BBQ tofu, orange-glazed carrtos and greens, and fluffy mashed potato

BBQ in the US is most popular in the southern and mid-western states, although the sauce (and the meat) differ frequently. I have no idea where my sauce would fit in best, because I took it straight from a book, and while I can find states that use a vinegar sauce, a red tomato sauce, and a white sauce, I can’t find anywhere that uses sweet and smokey.

Lexington in North Carolina claims to be the Barbecue Capital of the World, and reportedly has more than 1 BBQ restaurant per 1000 residents ( a LOT). They also have a BBQ Festival every year, and according to Wikipedia, the style of BBQ you chose to cook could be very political (in North Carolina, anyway). People really do care about weird shit sometimes.

Next up is hot dogs, woohoo! Oh, and don’t forget the pumpkin somethings I’m just about to bake…

Disaster strikes, but turns out yum

The aim for last night was to attempt the Traditional Pancake Rolls, or Milssam, and Pumpkin porridge, with Persimmon Tea, Persimmon sherbet, and Barbequed beef. I had made a plan, I had all the ingredients, I had a clean kitchen to start with and I was in my element- this was going to be good.

I started with the Persimmon Sherbet, or Yeonci. Re-reading the recipe, I realised I didn’t have the required freezing horsepower to turn a whole persimmon into ice before dinner, so instead I peeled and belnded it, and stuck it in the freezer in a plastic container.

I then moved to the tea, and realised that I had again mis-read the recipe and had bought fresh rather than dried persimmon… ah well, how different can it be, right? So on with the tea, fresh chopped persimmons and all. At least I got to throw in some of my newly-procured jujubes.

I then moved on to the seasoning the beef-flavoured seitan and some tempeh to make the barbecued beef. No worries here, at least. I cooked the pumpkin for the porridge, again, no issues. For the pancake rolls, I managed to get the vegetables julliened without a hitch.. things are beginning to go well. I made the batter, no worries there, and then preceeded to heat the wok.

I poured in the stated amount of batter, fried the pancake, began to lift it and bam! pancake crumbles. That’s ok, I say to myself, the first one never works out, we’ll try again. So I pour in the next spoonful, fry one side, lift it up… and no joy. It tears, it crumbles, it falls apart. Okay, third time’s the charm right? Wrong. The third one was the worst. It wouldn’t swirl, it got all thick in the middle, and then it just stuck to the bottom of the pan and no amount of coaxing would get it off.

So I left off for a while, stuck the evidence in the compost, and fried up the ‘beef’. I, rather nervously as I just couldn’t imagine it working, added the rice flour to the pumpkin mixture. Inspiration struck, and I wrapped the intended pancake filling in some rice paper rolls, and served the lot with some rice noodles. Mr made the mustard lemon sauce, being drawn to the kitchen by the sounds of and impending tantrum.

We ate the lot with the persimmon tea (which was wonderful), and followed it up with the pureed frozen persimmon and some vanilla soy ice-cream.

In the end all was well. I loved the ‘beef’, and the rice-paper-cum-pancake rolls were great, especially with the lemon mustard sauce. The pumpkin porridge, which I had been suspicious of from the start, was fantastic- much better than either of us imagined. My noodles (I made them up on the night) were a good fit with the other flavours, and Mr loved the persimmon sherbet. Me, not so much, I didn’t like the flavour of the persimmon, but otherwise it was yum.

So, without further ado, I have some photos, and my recipe for fresh-flavoured noodles to go with the tempeh and seitan.

Dinner on the box table

Tempeh, seitan and noodles

Surprisingly yummy pumpkin porridge

Yummy mustard sauce in my favourite tea cup, and rice paper rolls

Persimmon Tea - so good

Sweet Noodles

1 packet glass noodles

4 tbs chopped corriander

1 nashi pear, diced (small)

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbs raw sugar

2 tbs lime juice

3 tbsp sesame seeds

Cook the noodles in some water, as per packet instructions, drain and set aside.

Chop the pear and corriander.

Add the rest of ingredients to a large frying pan, add noodles and stir until completely mixed. Serve warm.