It’s about that time that I turn slightly green, not with
envy but more that Grinchly green hue. Why? Not because I’m a true Grinch but
because of everyone’s rush – namely the retailers – to get to Christmas as soon
as possible, we’ve seemed to have bypassed Thanksgiving as an afterthought.
Thanksgiving was the holiday in our family that was hosted by the Tatsumoto
clan so it was something I looked forward to every year. And since I grew up
Buddhist, Christmas didn’t have the religious significance most of America
associates with the holiday. In the rush to fatten their registers, retailers
even have Christmas leap frogging Halloween. But in the spirit of the season,
I’ll give in and make merry…
Smoke Two Joints…
Because I work for the Federal Government, both
recreational and medical use of marijuana is still prohibited and we do have random
urine drug screening, sometimes several times a year though I’m not worried at
all as the only smoking I do is with food including various proteins,
carbohydrates and even fat. Though my latest contraption is on a smaller scale.
Namely to smoke various raw seafood and cocktails. It’s basically a handheld
smoking gun that’s powered by two AA batteries. The smoke is pumped into a sealed
box or pan or under a glass cloche and simply left to sit for a minute or so to
give the seafood or cocktail a light “kiss” of smoke. And because it’s only
about the size of a medium flashlight, you can also bring it to parties over
the holidays to wow the host with your mixology skills.
Grub Hub Anyone
No, I’m not suggesting that you order food from a
restaurant to be delivered to your host’s home. In fact, I don’t even endorse
having it delivered to your home even if you’re the host – if you do purchase
food from a restaurant to serve to your guests, at least “doll” it up a little
to make it appear you put some effort into feeding your guests. What I am
endorsing is transport systems that take your culinary creation from point “A”
to point “B” that keeps cold foods cold and hot foods hot. You can find various
insulated food carriers that can transport up to two 13” x 9” pans to your
destination keeping your creation hot or at the very least, very warm. Some
also include gel packs that can be microwaved for additional heating capacity. These
same insulated carriers can also transport cold food items keeping them chilled
and if they include the gel packs, the packs can be frozen for prolonged
cooling capacity.
At our recent workplace Thanksgiving potluck lunch, the Mrs.
suggested I make my Asian Sweet Rice Dressing which basically is sweet rice
cooked with bamboo shoots, rehydrated shiitake,
water chestnuts, chestnuts and lup cheong
with some oyster sauce, shoyu and
five spice powder. I did all of my chopping the night before and pre-soaked the
sweet rice overnight so that all I had to do was mix everything together, place
it in my trusty Tiger MiCom multicooker and hit the start button.
Of course, since we normally leave the house about 5:45am
and the first lunch doesn’t start until 11:00am lasting until 2:30pm, that
would mean that the rice dressing would be sitting at room temperature from a
little over 5 hours to almost 9 hours. That’s potentially a lot of time sitting
in the “danger zone”. The danger zone? Yes, the danger zone which is between 40
degrees Fahrenheit which is just above refrigerator temperature to 140 degrees
Fahrenheit which is the maximum temperature most water heaters can be set to.
As a rule of thumb, food should not remain in the danger zone for more than 4
hours. Some public health nutritionists actually set a tighter danger zone for
just 2 hours so while my rice dressing might not pose a culinary risk for the
first set of luncher’s, those who start lunch after 12pm are playing culinary
roulette. Of course, I could simply leave the rice dressing in the cooker and
set it to warm but my workplace lunch room isn’t equipped with very many
electrical outlets. Therefore, I simply transferred my rice dressing to my
Tiger Thermal Magic Cooker which is simply a stainless-steel cooking vessel
placed inside of a dual walled, vacuum sealed outer container that keeps food
very hot for extended periods as the vacuum sealed outer chamber reduces heat
loss to a minimum. Therefore, my Asian Sweet Rice Dressing remained hot until
the last of my co-workers sampled lunch.
Entertaining
Should be Fun!
Most of all, entertaining whether you’re the host or the
guest should be fun. You shouldn’t have to stress over your culinary creation
as the holidays are mainly about people whether it’s connecting or
re-connecting with acquaintances with food and drink being secondary. Of
course, if you feel you have to roast that perfect A-5 Wagyu rib roast served
with the perfect black truffle infused Perigueux sauce or that perfect Duck a
l’Orange, then you’re self-inflicting your own holiday stress.
And I’ve learned that even if you pull off culinary
perfection, some diners may not prefer their beef medium-rare or well done.
Some may not like raw seafood, some avoid all seafood and in my own personal
world, I have two good friends who have very severe shell fish allergies.
For starters, in the 50th, raw seafood always
has a place on anyone’s tablet whether it’s sashimi
or poke’. And while most poke’ is purchased, it also is simple to
prepare and can be made well before leave the house or the guests arrive. For sashimi, I simply adorn the bottom of
the serving plate with either finely julienne cabbage or daikon “strings” sliced from a mandolin. They help to maintain the
moisture level of the sliced fish and once it’s plated, I wrap with cellophane
to maintain the moisture in the sliced fish.
Salad courses also keep the stress level low as most of
the ingredients can be prepared well before party time such as salad Niçoise,
Panzanella or whole grain salads. They simply need to be transported in a cool
travel vessel (soft sided cooler) or kept in the refrigerator prior to service
(if you’re the host).
Finally, for proteins I favor braising poultry, pork or
beef as the timing between dish completion and service isn’t critical at all. I
can also easily transport braised dishes in my Tiger Thermal Magic Cooker…
sometimes I simply leave it the cooking vessel especially if it’s cast iron as
cast iron Dutch ovens maintain heat quite nicely and Le Creuset and Staub also
make decorative tomato and pumpkin shaped cooking vessels.
For Those not
Culinarily Inclined
We do have several acquaintances who don’t cook nor do
they pretend to be cooks. In this case, a nice hostess gift, floral arrangement
or bottle of Champagne is always welcome at most households. Especially
Champagne but if you feel the pocket pinch for the real McCoy, simply purchase
any domestic Rose sparkler for this cocktail I first highlighted about 3 years
ago in the Hawaii Herald.
The inspiration for this cocktail comes from the French
75 which combines two of my favorite libations, Champagne and gin. Though this
libation contains no gin, I created my Hawaii twist to the French 75 and wanted
to originally call it the Hawaii 5-0 but I’m pretty sure that the name is
copyrighted, so since my cocktail has two Hawaii based libations, Kai vodka and
Lokelani Rose sparkling wine and it’s garnished with the state flower, I call
it the Hawaii 2.5. Point five because the Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup is
actually made Down Under.
The Hawaii 2.5
1 bottle of chilled Maui Wine Lokelani Rose sparkling
wine
6 Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup hibiscus buds
1 oz ginger liqueur
2 oz lychee liqueur
3 oz Kai lychee vodka
Mix the ginger & litchi liqueurs and the vodka then pour 1 ounce of the mixture into Champagne flutes. Place one hibiscus flower in the flute and top off with 4 ounces of Lokelani Rose sparkling wine.
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