Let’s Talk Food — Hilo Y releases new cookbook

The Hilo Y’s Men and Women Service Club of Hilo recently published a cookbook of members’ favorite recipes. My friend Joni Neel gave me a bag of Minnesota wild rice and pointed out the Minnesota wild rice soup recipe on page 14. It sounds so wonderful that I wanted to share the recipe with my readers. I imagine this is the perfect leftover soup after Thanksgiving, but you would need to have wild rice as the dressing. The 1 cup of cooked ham, chicken or turkey in the recipe would be the leftovers, and if you made a stock pot of leftover turkey bones, you would also have the 6 cups of broth.

Minnesota Wild

Rice Soup

1/2 cup butter

1 small onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup shredded carrot

8 ounces wild mushrooms, sliced, optional

1/2 cup flour

6 cups chicken broth

3 cups cooked wild rice

1 cup chopped cooked ham, chicken, or turkey

1/4 cup slivered almonds, chopped

1/2 cup sherry, optional

2 cups half and half

1/ 2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Chopped parsley or chives for garnish

Heat the butter in a stockpot until melted. Add the onion, celery, carrots, and mushrooms. Saute until the onion is tender; do not brown.

Add the flour. Cook for two minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in the broth gradually. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat. Add the wild rice, meat, almonds, sherry and half and half to the vegetable mixture and mix well. Stir in the salt and pepper. Adjust the seasonings as desired. Cook the soup until the desired temperature. Ladle into soup bowls. Garnish with parsley or chives.

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When I wrote about my mother’s meatloaf, there was a lot of reaction to it. Meatloaf is such a comfort food and always reminds me of “small-kid days.” Lily Chow has her recipe for meatloaf. Let’s see how similar it is to your mother’s. Lily must have a very large loaf pan because I would not be able to fit 3 pounds of meat in one pan. So just in case you have a loaf pan the same size as mine, get two out.

Lily Chow’s

Meatloaf

2 pounds ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1 1/2 cups instant oats

1 stalk celery, chopped fine

1 round onion, chopped fine

1 cup shredded carrot

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup catsup

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 small can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1-2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all ingredients well and shape into a loaf pan. Bake at 35 degrees for one hour.

Gravy:

1 package brown gravy mix

2 tablespoons onion soup mix

Combine brown gravy mix and onion soup mix with drippings from meat loaf. Heat until thickened.

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If your lemon tree is producing a lot of fruit now, here is a great way to use up the juice with Evelyn’s apricot/prune/mango mui medley. This is another “small-kid” memory, and when I read the recipe, my mouth was watering.

Evelyn’s

Apricot/Prune/Mango Mui

Medley

1 (12-ounce) package seedless whole apricots

1 (16- ounce) package pitted prunes

1 (8-ounce)package li hing mui mango

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 1/2 cups tablespoons rock salt

1 1/2 tablespoons bourbon whisky

5 large or 8 small seedless li hing mui

1 star anise, crushed

1 teaspoon licorice powder (kum chow mut)

1 1/4 cups fresh lemon juice

Combine all ingredients except fruit and mix well. Combine fruit and place in galss jar. Pour marinade over fruit and leave out for at least five days. Turn periodically to coat fruit evenly. Note: licorice powder will dissolve better if combined with bourbon first before mixing with other ingredients.

Foodie Bites

The fourth annual Mango Festival will begin on July 21 in Kealakekua at the New Thought Center in Pualani Terrace on Highway 11 with the Mango Tango Dance and Desserts FUNdraiser. Admission is $10 with tango dancing, dessert bar, and a silent auction from 6:30-9 p.m. The festivities continue on July 28-29 at the Keauhou Beach Resort from 10 a.m.-5p.m. with arts and crafts, mango-themed desserts, drinks and fresh produce available. Events are presented by the nonprofit Sanctuary of Mana Ke‘a Gardens. Call 887-1292 for tickets to the Mango Tango Dance and Randyl Rupar, event organizer, at 334-3340 for information on all activities.

A relatively new restaurant in the Hilo Farmers Market area is Fish House Café, open Monday to Saturday from 10-4 p.m. Fish burger, Kawaihae Catch, Harbor Wrap and ahi sliders are priced at $8.95 and fish ’n’ chips at $7.95. Also available is a poke bowl, and for the non-fish eaters, a cheeseburger on a sesame bun.

Congratulations to Chef Colin Nakagawa of Seaside Restaurant, Hilo Huli’s People’s Choice winner!

Please feel free to e-mail me at wilson.audrey@hawaiiantel.net if you have a question. Bon appetit until next week.