UnRecipe: Currant Events

My cousin who lives in Sweden inspired this post, along with all the summer berries that have ripened around us. She told me about the five liters of black currants she picked, and then photographed the delicious scones and jams she made from her impressive harvest. We weren't that fortunate with our own berry gathering, only picking whatever was left of the blackberry brambles throughout Duvall, and small currant-like berries from our own backyard. Our modest berry harvest was used for a colorful Pork Tenderloin and Berry Wine Sauce, served with sauteed Swiss Chard.

Pork tenderloin and Swiss chard in a sweetberrahwine sauce - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Yet another recipe-free adventure in MacGyver Cooking-land, this dish was a good way to use up the quickly-softening berries we picked. We were late to the party for gathering blackberries, so most of the bushes had been om-nommed by either people or animals. Too few to bake with, so a sauce seemed like a good solution. After searing the pork tenderloin, I used the same pan with all the delicious drippings leftover to make a wine reduction sauce. I used a bit of pinot noir and threw in the berries when the liquid was starting to cook down. It made for a richly-colored sauce with a concentrated flavor that went well with the mild pork.

Crazy colors of summer: fresh Swiss chard, red currants, blackberries - Photos by Wasabi Prime

We had two bouquet-like bunches of Swiss chard from the Redmond Farmer's Market. They were in a stunning array of colors -- you didn't know whether to eat it or put it in a vase!
We went with the first option and chopped everything up and wilted them down in a hot pan. Chard has a nice peppery, bitter flavor that tastes amazing with a big chunk of meat, or even something creamy like a fried egg. My only disappointment was not buying more, since two whole bunches cook down to maybe enough for a couple of servings. Talk about shrinkage...

My cousin's currant-rich dishes would have made for a great dessert after the berry-sauced tenderloin and veggie side. I'll just have to be content with her photo of the scones and jam. I hope you're as hungry as I am, looking at the goodies she made!

Treats from afar - fruits of my cousin's labor! Photo by Dawn Yoshimura

* Post Script - Serious thanks go out to Serious Eats' Photograzing for posting pics of the Swiss chard and tenderloin!

UnRecipe: Mah-hollah for Statehood Day!

Happy golden anniversary, Hawaii! Fifty years ago, on August 21st, 1959, da islands of Hawaii were admitted to the union. Fifty years for the fiftieth state. This calls for a celebration -- let's eat Spam!

Hooray, hooray, it's Hawaii Statehood Day -- have a slice of Spam musubi! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Yes, that's the Hawaiian flag. And yes, it's the only state flag to feature the Union Jack. Hawaii has the rare distinction of having previously been a kingdom under its own monarchy, as well as a British protectorate through the mid-1800s. Flash-forward, as a result of the strong WWII military presence and their love of environmentally-sealed rations, Hawaii got into the habit of being a big consumer of Hormel products, including that mystery meat of fear and loathing: Spam. Or as my mom likes to refer to it as Spare Parts, All Meat.

There's this misconception that people in Hawaii sit around eating food smothered in sugary teriyaki sauce and chunks of pineapple on everything. In all honesty, the local food of Hawaii is its own unique melting pot of cultural cuisine, a direct product of the various immigrants from China, Japan, Philippines, and even Mexico, all mixed together with the Native Hawaiian offerings. I didn't grow up there, but my whole family was born and raised there, so I had the good fortune to spend a lot of summers being immersed in what was really like another country. Hawaii is a food culture, and it deserves much more than a simple post about Spam, so I think I'll save that exploration for another day. But until then, I just really like Spam and I thought it would be amusing to do a post about the very native dish called Spam Musubi.

Simple steps toward comfort food nirvana - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Most people just make it at home, since the ingredients are pantry staples, but one can find Spam musubi swaddled in plastic wrap on the counters of restaurants for a quick purchase, the same that you'd find tuna salad or a turkey on rye. It's both a quick snack or a simple lunch. Filled with the naughty promise of sticky white rice sandwiching a pan-fried slab of Spam and wrapped in nori (seaweed), this Japanese-inspired treat is a mainstay of the locals. I've been known to bring it on an airplane in lieu of the soggy hamburger that I see most people smuggle in from the food court. Don't judge me, fellow airline travellers. You're just jealous you don't have ono kine grindz like mine.

You'll notice the plastic apparatus being used. It's a Spam musubi mold -- yes, for reals -- and you can buy it online, but if you're in Hawaii, you can usually find it at Longs Drugs store, the unofficial store of awesomeness for the locals. What I made was a quickie version of Spam musubi -- some people add a fried egg or a sprinkle of furikake -- I just went with the basic nori/Spam/rice combo in the interest of time. I did, however, make sure to pan-sear the slices of Spam. While one could consume the jiggly slab of meat straight from the oblong can, I'm not quite Spam-gangsta enough to do so, and I like a bit of pan-crusted goodness on my mystery meat products. You'll notice I purchased the 25% Less Sodium version of Spam. Kind of pointless, I know, seeing as how my heart will stop from the pau hana backup of solid pork fat, long before the hypertension sets in.

Hunger won out during the Spam musubi photo shoot. - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I wasn't the only one with Spam on the brain. My Island Homegirl cousin who now lives in Sweden reminded me of Statehood Day, sharing a great blog post by Tasty Island, called The Goteborg Musubi Project. Apparently, the Goteborg sausage being featured as a Kauai treat is an Americanized version of falukorv, a native Swedish sausage that's similar to Spam in its mystery meat-ness. I'll let the note from my cousin explain the provenance of falukorv: It is named falukorv for more sinister literal reasons...back in the day, Swedes mined copper and this is also how the falu-red paint was created, and used on barns and houses and is still used today on traditional cottages... Well back then in these mines, they used horses in the mines and they would get old and worn out--so they were used to make sausages when their usefulness in the mines was used up. So the mixture described in Hormel's Goteborg Sausage is according to Anders Stridsberg, not quite authentic, it should have been 75% horse and 25% pork probably, instead of beef. He said the sausage, falukorv is really saying it was horse sausage, since it came from the copper mines. The fact that falukorv is also usually shaped like a horseshoe makes it all the more bizarre and grisly.

Giddyup, horsie, or it's the falukorv factory for you! I kid, I kid -- I realize many countries have similar types of mystery meats, and they've all developed out of the same necessity, so I can dig on that. Let's bridge the gap between Sweden and Hawaii and celebrate our love of guilty pleasure meat byproducts! Happy Statehood Day, Hawaii. I hope Swedes raise a slab of falukorv in your honor!

* Post Script - Mahalo plenty to both Food Gawker and Serious Eats for posting photos of the glorious Spam Musubi. Thanks for showing Spare Parts, All Meat some good Aloha spirit!