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St. Patties’ Day Dinner

From Jen Richmond — Blog by Jen Richmond

March 15, 2009

Once a year, we indulge in a corned beef dinner. We’ll be repenting for days, what with the high salt content, non-local beef, etc.- but this Irish festival must be given the nod (at least in MY house!). St. Pats’ dinner is usually my brothers’ party; but this year, he has decided not to host it. The neighbors are in mourning, for his home-brewed ale, root beer and barbecued corned beef are legendary. Yes, barbecued! The beef is first boiled in the traditional manner (with the addition of home-made ale), next it’s given a glaze of brown sugar and good brown mustard; then onto the bbq it goes. When the glaze has browned and caramelized, it is done. Perfection! And served, of course, with the traditional red potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and soda bread.
Even though we are living in Hawaii, and even though I know that the Irish didn’t traditionally actually EAT corned beef very often (couldn’t afford to raise or eat beef), we will be getting the barbecue ready to go come Tuesday. Erin Go Bragh!

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Brave New (Food) World...

From Jen Richmond — Blog by Jen Richmond

March 13, 2009

OK, I’ve been living on the Big Island of Hawaii for a while now, and I’m still getting used to the different styles of cooking; there’s an amazing amount of diversity here. I would love to take a little bit from each one and fuse it into a whole new cuisine (with big mahalos to the Kanaka Maoli, who had the right ideas about food, the land, and the sea). I need to get together with other local chefs and play a little. Taro, fern fronds, local fish, a zillion tropical fruits and veggies- wow! On the down side, nasty little diseases like rat lung and leptospirosis: WASH those organic fruits and veggies!!! Lots of trading/bartering goes on here, we are already dialing into that whole network. The Big Island is the top producer of organic honey in the U.S., and there are beekeepers and bees everywhere. Although there is local goat cheese, most of it is fresh “cream cheese” type cheese- no aged cheese (refrigerated spaces are COSTLY). I have a theory that somebody is going to find their lava tube cave just right for aging cheese.....

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