Holiday dishes with the flavors of Hawaii -- in quantities for sharing

CRIMSON, GOLD and rust-tinted autumn leaves. Crisp, cold air, Pilgrims and their Indian friends, hayrides and harvest moons, cider presses in the orchards. These lovely pictures of the American holiday of Thanksgiving are more Norman Rockwell than Madge Tennant.

Celebrate this holiday in Hawaii, however, and you'll find that it blends perfectly with our fabled aloha spirit. The Hawaiian proverb, "I kanaka no oe ke malama i ke kanaka," encapsulates this idea: "You will be well-served when you care for the person who serves you."

Hawaii's Thanksgivings are days full of giving as well as of gratitude, and nowhere in the remote land of the Pilgrims will you find a day so marked by sharing, especially of our foods.

A batch of Hawaiian cranberry sauce is poured into small jars, then shared with neighbors and friends. The Thanksgiving feast at Aunty's house in Manoa benefits from a warm casserole of creamy potatoes -- enough for dinner and some extra for taking home. Sharing haupia-topped pumpkin pies that came from your oven, not a bakery, reflects gratitude for the many gifts special to these islands.

Thanks and giving. Gratitude and sharing. Old-fashioned concepts from a long-ago time on a faraway shore, but never remote from Hawaii.

---

Thanks & giving

Holiday dishes made for sharing

WHETHER you are hosting the Thanksgiving meal or carefully placing your contributions to the feast into your car to take to a friend's house, you'll be proud to share these three dishes. The cranberry sauce, potato and pie recipes require no special skills, and all can be made before Thanksgiving day.

Hawaiian Cranberry Sauce, although bright and brimming with mainland berries, makes a special gift because it also brims with Hawaiian flavors. The recipe has evolved over the years, and my friends and neighbors claim to love it -- even Tony Garnier, our across-the-street neighbor who says he detests cranberries.

If you have fresh lychee, pineapple and macadamia nuts, instead of the packaged and canned ingredients in this recipe, all the better, but if not, this still makes a bright, tropical sauce.

Best of all, your friends can keep it in the refrigerator for weeks if it hasn't already been gobbled up with the Thanksgiving turkey.

Hawaiian Cranberry Sauce

3 packages (1 pound each) fresh cranberries
4-1/2 cups sugar
2 each oranges, limes and lemons
2 large (16-ounce) cans whole berry cranberry sauce
2-1/4 cups pineapple (or pineapple and orange) juice
1 large can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple in juice
1 large can (20 ounces) lychee, seeds removed, chopped
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup water (or juice)
1/2 cup diced macadamia nuts

In a large sieve or colander, rinse cranberries and remove any ugly berries and all stems. Place in a large (4- to 5-quart) pot with sugar. 

Zest one of each of the citrus fruits with a lemon zester, or pare outer layers with a potato peeler and cut into very fine strips. Remove seeds from all the fruit and chop all, including the peel on the remaining fruits.

Drain pineapple and lychee, reserving liquid in a measuring cup. Add water to reserved fruit juices, if necessary, to make 2-1/4 cups. Add pineapple, lychee and juices to cranberries.

Bring mixture to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes, or until most berries have popped.

Combine cornstarch and water in a cup and slowly stir into sauce. Continue cooking until sauce has thickened. Add more sugar or lemon juice until sauce is as tart as you like it. Stir in nuts. When cool, pour into clean jars and refrigerate until used. Filles 16 to 20 pint jars.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving (based on 16 pints): 120 calories, 1 g total fat, no saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium or protein, 28 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 26 g sugar.

---

MY FRIEND LaVonne Tollerud considered my request for a potato side dish that was simple to prepare, yet more elegant and tasty than whipped potatoes. From the files of recipes that her cooking school students used to learn classic food preparation, she pulled out this recipe, which is sure to become a new Thanksgiving tradition in my family.

Potatoes (Yukon Golds are readily available now), whipping cream, salt, pepper and butter make the richest gratin potatoes you've ever served. The only preparation time involved is slicing the unpeeled potatoes, and if you've invested in a $300 mandolin (or a nifty little plastic replica with a sharp blade that you'll find online or in Japanese stores), the work is cut to but a few minutes. Using a food processor is fine, too.

You can fancy up this basic recipe with herbs and cheese, and adjust its size if you need more or less, but I'd suggest preparing it exactly as LaVonne's recipe reads the first time.

This is definitely not a dish for dieters. As an indulgence appropriate for Thanksgiving and other special occasions, however, it is worth its calories in gold. Just a small square will have you giving thanks for the gift of food.

Potatoes Gratin

6 to 8 Yukon Gold potatoes (about 2 pounds)
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 to 4 cups whipping cream (1 quart equals 4 cups)
4 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a shallow 2-quart casserole with non-stick coating.

Scrub potatoes and slice very thin (do not wash or peel slices, just place on a towel and sprinkle with generous amount of salt and pepper).

Layer potatoes in casserole and cover with cream. Dot with butter. Bake for 1-1/2 hours, until top is bubbly and brown. Serves 16.

Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving (not including salt to taste): 270 calories, 25 g total fat, 15 g saturated fat, 90 mg cholesterol, no sodium, 55 g carbohydrate, 11 g dietary fiber, 2 g sugar, 3 g protein.

---

YOU MAY already know how to bake a pumpkin pie, but you may not have discovered how appealing the taste of haupia can be when layered on top of the traditional Thanksgiving dessert.

Making your own piecrusts, haupia and whipped cream will make this recipe completely your own, but if time during the holidays is at a premium, the shortcuts built into this Pumpkin-Haupia Pie recipe will make them more doable, and therefore more giveable.

Pumpkin-Haupia Pie

2 unbaked 9-inch piecrusts (homemade, refrigerated or frozen)
1 small (1-pound) can pumpkin, plus ingredients listed on the label for making one pie
3 ounces macadamia nut baking pieces
2 (2-1/2 ounce) packages haupia pudding mix
Whipped cream, for garnish

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place crusts in 2 shallow (not deep-dish) pie pans.

In a large bowl, combine pumpkin pie ingredients and nuts, reserving 2 tablespoons of nuts for decoration. Divide mixture evenly between crusts. Bake 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until set, about 30 minutes. Cool.

Prepare haupia mix according to package directions, cool slightly, then pour over pumpkin layers. Chill until haupia is set.

Decorate edges of pies with whipped cream and sprinkle with remaining nuts. Serves 16.

Nutritional information unavailable.

---