Limeapalooza

 

What would you have done with all this citrusy goodness? 

 If you answered this, you're absolutely right.  Local lime meringue pies with perfumy zest added right in the filling is incomparably delicious to any other citrus pie I've eaten or made in my life.  They're also the best energy efficient pies because they only take ten to twelve minutes to bake.  Take that CUC!   

Ingredients: 3 limes, zested and juiced, 2 cups of sugar, 4 eggs (yolks, tempered), 2 tbspns of flour, 2 tbspns of butter and 1 1/2 cups of water make the silky filling.  Egg whites (of 4 eggs), 1 cup of sugar and a tspn of vanilla make the meringue.  Help from four daughters makes it extra delicious!

Trust me, it's good enough to tame even the hungriest bunch!

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When life gives you limes and you've already made pie, you don't come up with more corny cliches -  you make more delicious concoctions.  I made Limoncello for the first time the other week.  Technically, I shouldn't call it that since I did use limes, but limecello sounds funny, so we're sticking with it.  There are literally dozens of recipes out there and they all say the same thing - authentic limoncello takes no less than 40 days. Ha ha, 40 days.  Who are we kidding?  Giada De Laurentiis is Italian and a chef and a judge on Food Network and she says 4 days is ok.  I like Giada. 

 

You'll need a really sharp peeler or paring knife and about ten limes.  Peel the limes, making sure to not include any pith (white thingy).  See the picture above? I had to scrape the pith off.  That's stuff might look innocent, but it's bitter and nasty and will ruin your beautiful drink. This is the most time consuming part and you'll need patience, but you'll smell really good after, so it's a fair trade. 

 

Place your peels in a glass jar and fill it with a bottle of the strongest vodka (good vodka or Everclear) you can find.  Leave the jar in a dark place like your pantry, in room temperature for about four days.  If you aren't in a hurry, go ahead and let it steep for 40.  It's your drink, not mine.  After you steep the rinds, it's time to add the second part of the ingredients.  The sweetness. Who called my name?

 

 Combine 3 cups of water with 2 1/2 cups of sugar.  Let it boil for about 5-7 minutes, or until you have a nice simple syrup.  Cool your syrup completely and then add it to your lime infused vodka.  Control your urges to try any and let that steep overnight in room temperature.

The next evening, strain the mixture into another bottle.  You can use a cheesecloth or coffee filter and a funnel.  You can make candied peels out of the leftover rind, but that's another recipe, so just dump em.  But, wait!  You can't drink it yet.  Let your limoncello chill in the freezer for at least 4 hours or overnight.  It won't freeze and will be good for about four months. In Italy, limoncello is shared super cold and after dinner as a sort of digestive, but I just like to bust out the shot glasses and "Cheers!" 

Ingredients for a Delicious Life

We recently got together with some long time friends and super cool new ones for the first ever Grill-Off at the Propst Party Pit.  I'm not exactly sure how the idea came about, but we figured it would be fun to gather some friends and practice our love of cooking.  Life in the Marianas revolves around family, friends and what else? Food!  It was an amazing evening and the best part was watching everyone come together to cook, plate and share their dishes.  I'm a very private person who only has a couple of really good friends so I was able to reach outside my comfort zone for a while and guess what?  I enjoyed myself!  Our islands have a wealth of talent, not just culinary, but people who contribute to this society to make it a better place to live.  There is a definite need for everyone to become more involved in the decisions we make for our community, but whether it's political activism or a passionate cause, I learned that we all have something to bring to the table.  We all have a vested interest in the development of areas we specialize in or causes we care deeply about.  When I start to get discouraged, feeling like I am making less of a difference than I used to, things like this happen to keep that fire going.  There were many toasts made this evening, but the ones that remain in my heart are the ones that reminded me that no matter how bleak things get with our economy there are still many things to be thankful for.  Here's to great friends, living in a place that values family, growing up in a culture that nurtures interpersonal relationships!  Here's to Saipan! And, thank you Ed and Daisy for your hospitality!

 Dave & Tracy Guerrero, Wayne & Bon Pangelina, Alex and Nora Sablan, Jay and Joyce Santos and Ed & Daisy Propst

 

Beef Sirloin Kabobs with Uni Spaghetti by Chefs Sablan

 

Herb Grilled Pork Chops with Grilled Asparagus and Twice Baked Potatoes by Chefs Propst

Auntie Mary's Carne Asada with Fresh Salsa and Black Bean Salad by Chefs Santos

The winning dish: Lamb Kabobs with Spicy Mint Chutney by Dave and Tracy Guerrero!

Our Almost Winning Recipe

Feta Smashed Potatoes: When I make mashed potatoes I like to use

two varieties: Russet and red potatoes.  Russets are grittier and soak up sauces better and reds are a bit sweeter and creamier.  That's just my opinion and by no means culinary fact.  I like to throw in my garlic clove while boiling my potatoes because it makes it easier to incorporate it into the mix later.

Once the garlic has softened you can just squeeze it out and mash it along with your potatoes.  The smell is fantastic, but without all the super pungency.  Before boiling potatoes I like to score them so that they're easier to peel and I don't have to burn my fingers. Pretty cool eh?  I don't have a masher so I use my meat tenderizer to pound my potatoes and then a hand blender if I want them fluffier.  Ingredients are simple, just add some cream, milk or half

and half.  This dish has feta cheese crumbles in it and about 4 tablespoons of butter.  For flavor, add some sage, parsley, salt and pepper to taste.  If I'm roasting something else I'll make gravy with the juices, but this  is so yummy you won't even miss it.


Basil Summer Sauce actually has spinach in it.  Puree one cup of

fresh basil and one cup of spinach in 1/2 cup of olive oil, 1/3 tbspn of white wine vinegar and about a half cup of Parmesan.  This is the "dressing" for caprese (tomatoes and mozarella).  It's great because you can save the sauce for later instead of wasting fresh basil that might not get eaten.

Drunken Steak Marinade:  1 diced onion, 3 tbsp. butter, 3/4 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cider vinegar, 1/2 cup bourbon, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup molasses, 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp. paprika, salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme to taste.  Bring all of these ingredients to a boil and then blend until smooth.  If you're using good steak (Rib eye, portherhouse, etc.) marinade for 4 hours at the most or your meat will turn to mush.  *The alchohol serves as a tenderizer as well as flavoring, but good meat doesn't need much done to it.  Grill your meat to your preference and baste with remaining sauce until cooked. 
  Oh, the caprese! Cut your tomatoes in three horizontal slices (actually four - cut a bit of the bottom so it sits on a plate nicely balanced).  Drizzle with olive oil and salt.  I sprinkled some rosemary leaves on the tops.  You'll want to grill the tomatoes, turn them over and place the mozzarella on top of each piece until it melts.  Do not flip the tops and leave the stems on.  Don't forget to let your meat rest before cutting into it or all the nice juices that make your taste buds dance will merely drain sadly away and leave you with icky, dry meat on a puddly plate. 
If you're plating for guests, use a neutral colored plate so that there is lots of negative space to draw the eye to each individual dish.  There are balancing techniques for plating too, but I think that as long as you add the most important ingredient, whatever you make will be fantastic.  So, don't forget to add a dash of love to everything!  Allez cuisine!!

*Alcohol doesn't actually tenderize meat, that's a myth busted (duh, don't you watch Alton?).  Marinades don't penetrate meats enough to make a difference and can actually break down the meat if absorbed for too long.  What the marinade will do is create a tougher outer coating, therefore keeping all the juices nicely tucked inside. 

You like eat?

Peanuts and peas at Red Box

Bean paste stew with beef at Wol Mi Jung

Avocado roll at Shin Shen

Where do these dishes come from?
Hint #1: not from the same restaurant.
Hint #2: they're not all restaurants.
Hint #3: Sing mi tuna roll

PAY ATTENTION: PART ONE

Basic physical human needs: food, shelter, clothing, water.

FOOD: What next? Stone Soup?
A very wise nutritionist tells us that the price of corn has gone up. While this may seem insignificant to the rest of us, it affects our ability to deliver quality services to our schools. Corn feeds animals that produce much of the foods we require to balance our nutritional services to our students. The rising price of corn affects the farmer who sells it and the farmer who buys it. It affects the livestock, the milk, the eggs, the wheat industry and it ultimately trickles down to the consumer, us. On the homefront, the PSS homefront at least, we have had to scale down our meals for students because we can no longer afford to feed them certain foods for more than a few days at a time.

The price of fuel has made feeding our families harder to do because we have to chip in to cover the cost of getting it here in the first place. When it finally gets here, we chip in again to keep it fresh at the grocery store where the price of electricity to keep the place running adds another few cents. That's just the cost of buying food in general; buying healthy food is an entirely new dilemma. The luxury of preparing a nutritionally sound meal is almost impossible for families in the lower end of the socio-economic scale, for the rest of us it is a trade-off. Families have been forced to choose between buying that 49 cent bag of chips and fresh produce in order to survive. I don't have to elaborate on the implications this has in regards to health care or the conflict it causes with the implementation of a wellness curriculum in most schools. How do we encourage parents to cook only healthy meals when two cans of SPAM and some rice will feed the entire family and help free up some money for other bills?

We used to gossip about people who balutan at parties and professional rosary scouts. Now I wonder if we weren't prematurely judging them. Could it now be that because we all have to conserve food we can identify with the need to hoard it? Might we all have to bite our tongues one day as we shove that bread roll from the buffet table into our pockets? Sustenance has never been so complicated.

I would like to learn more about what our Health, Education and Welfare committee are doing to address wellness from the economic, educational and legislative standpoints. Programs aimed at overall wellness, whether they come from the schools or the health care industry are useless if we do not have safeguards in place to prevent price gouging, protect our local farmers, protect our natural resources, provide or support/incentives to businesses who promote and market better products, etc. Who is paying attention to how we feed ourselves?

Pay attention. Because we can't afford to live like this any longer!