THE FOOD
Shown above is Graham Kerr's Oahu-inspired menu, a vegetarian feast featuring:
Fiddlehead fern salad, top right.
Calorie count is just 643, with 9 grams of fat.
Super-star chef Graham Kerr
By Barbara Burke
says meals should be leisurely times
of caring and sharing
Special to the Star-BulletinThe heart of the holidays is time we spend with family and friends. Many of our most cherished memories center on lovingly prepared meals and leisurely conversation. How we wish we could capture the warm yuletide spirit throughout the year. Graham Kerr, the former "Galloping Gourmet," shares this desire in his newest cookbook, "The Gathering Place."
"I passionately believe the home dining table is our last remaining tribal gathering place," said Kerr, internationally known chef, writer and television personality.
The Gathering Place: Informal International Menus That Will Bring Family and Friends Back to the Table, Graham Kerr (Camano Press, 1997, $27.95)
Too often, the dinner hour is used as a trampoline to bounce off to a place that someone else indicates is more important, he says. Instead, he encourages using the table as we might a hammock. Think of mealtime as an opportunity to rest and recover from the daily turmoil.
"Sitting face-to-face, elbow-to-elbow over hot steaming plates of simple food, we nourish our bodies and feed our souls. This is the place where families and friends gather. A place where communities take shape and hospitality beckons. A place where self-worth is fostered. And a place where tender feelings and ruffled feathers can be smoothed simply by breaking bread together," he said.
Kerr lived on the Big Island with his family from 1977 to 1979, working at the University of the Nations at Kailua-Kona. "We used to gather together and have 'love feasts' and sit around the table for hours."
"The Gathering Place" also offers a design for healthy living. "We believe that wellness has a great deal to do with taking more time over the food we eat. I know no better way to do that than to invite friends to share a meal," Kerr said.
Each of the cookbook's 13 menus includes an appetizer, entree, vegetable side dish and dessert. All contain fewer than 1,000 calories, with less than 20 percent of calories from fat. And, an added bonus: Preparation time for most of the dishes is 30 minutes or less.
Recipes in "The Gathering Place" were influenced by Kerr's 1995 voyage on the Queen Elizabeth II, which included Kailua-Kona and Honolulu among its 38 ports of call. The cookbook offers a creative array of international flavors and ingredients that replace excessive fat, oil, salt, sugar and large portions of meat.
A visit to Peter Merriman's restaurant in Waimea inspired one of Kerr's favorite menus: appetizer of aromatic fried rice, followed by a main course of roast chicken in pineapple-flavored curry sauce and a vegetable stir-fry with passion fruit vinaigrette. Dessert is lychee sorbet with tropical fruit salsa. The meal adds up to fewer than 800 calories and 13 grams of fat.
In Honolulu, Kerr had an unhurried lunch at the former Waioli Tea Room in Manoa, where he enjoyed a vegetarian feast prepared by chef Paul Onishi.
An Oahu-inspired vegetarian menu draws upon foods from the many cultures Kerr likes to describe as having melded, not melted, in Hawaii. The first course is a salad of native pohole, or fiddlehead fern. Next, a entree of tofu braised in a miso and mushroom sauce, is served with a spicy, soft taro and chile cake. Steamed baby bok choy and nutty kabocha squash round out the plate. Dessert crepes are topped with sauteed pineapple and a delicate Kona-coffee sauce. The meal has 643 calories and only 9 grams of fat.
If all this sounds delicious but a bit too much work, Kerr suggests planning a potluck and sharing the cooking experience with family and friends. Choose a menu from "The Gathering Place," and, as host or hostess, prepare the entree, arrange the table and provide beverages. Ask guests to fill in with the appetizer, side dishes and dessert.
THIS crisp, colorful salad is a perfect holiday dish.
Pohole or
sunflower sprout saladRemove heavy stalks from the pohole and discard. Break remaining fronds into 1-inch pieces. If using sunflower sprouts, wash and cut off any brown parts.
1 pound pohole* or 9 ounces sunflower sprouts
1 bunch green onions
1/2 cup fresh pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries
1 tablespoon tamari
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/8 teaspoon Shanghai Ethmix (recipe follows)Slice green parts of the onions into 1-inch pieces and combine with pohole or sprouts.
Combine tamari, rice vinegar, and Shanghai Ethmix, and toss with the greens. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries over the top. Serves 6
* Pohole is available at open markets such as Restaurant Row's or from Maui Herbs. Call (808) 248-7407, or visit their Web site, http://www.maui.net/~hanaherb.
Grind to a fine powder in a small electric coffee grinder designated for this purpose. Store excess in a sealed jar.
7 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
2-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2-1/2 teaspoons ground anise
RED potatoes may be substituted for taro in the following dish, although the result will be a more conventional potato pancake.
Taro and chile cakes
1-3/4 pounds taro root (or red potatoes)Steam taro for 30 to 40 minutes, or until very tender. Cover with cold water, then peel when cool enough to handle. Cut each taro root into several pieces and beat with an electric mixer into a smooth paste.
1 teaspoon light olive oil
1 large sweet onion, finely diced
2 jalapeno peppers, cored, seeded, and finely diced
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large carrot, grated
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup all-purpose flourPreheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Warm oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Saute onion and jalapenos until very soft, but not browned, about 10 minutes.
Add egg substitute, salt, carrot, and parsley to the taro paste. Add the onion mixture and combine well.
Cover a large plate with the flour. Scoop about 12 1/8-cup balls of the taro mixture onto the plate and dust with flour. Using your palm, flatten each ball into a patty about 1/2-inch thick. Lay the patties on a greased cookie sheet.
Lightly coat the tops of the cakes with cooking spray and bake 10 minutes. Turn and bake 10 minutes more, or until golden brown. Serves 6.
SERVE this vegetarian entree with taro and chile cakes, steamed bok choy and a wedge of baked kabocha squash.
Tofu and mushrooms
in spicy miso sauce1-1/2 teaspoons light olive oilWarm 1/2 teaspoon of the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute garlic and onion for 5 minutes, until onion is soft but not browned. Stir in 1-1/2 cup of dashi broth and the basil. Simmer for 3 minutes.
1 large clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons dashi broth
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
2 teaspoons hatcho miso, mixed with 1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon Shanghai Ethmix
10 1/2-ounces extra-firm Mori-Nu Lite Silken Tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/4 pound fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and halved
1/2 pound large white mushrooms, cut into 3 thick slices
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
4 teaspoons arrowrootStrain the mixture and return the liquid to the saucepan. Add the thinned miso, Shanghai Ethmix and tofu. Set aside.
Warm the remaining teaspoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook for 2 minutes. Sprinkle lemon juice over the top and cook an additional 2 minutes. Stir in parsley, then add tofu and dashi broth mixture.
Combine arrowroot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of dashi broth to make a slurry. Remove the frying pan from the heat and add the slurry, then return to the heat and stir until thickened and glossy. Serves 6.
