The five culinary food trends for 2016, according to Specialty Foods, is influenced by people trying to eat healthy. Reading these trends, it is quite obvious that Hawaii has a huge influence in what people want to eat today and in the future.
1. Vegetables are now becoming the center of the plate. It is a major macro trend and replacing meat as the main attraction. According to C. Shipley, the corporate research and development chef at Food IQ, “Chefs are embracing this trend because they can deliver flavored menu items in new, inventive ways, and the inherently low-cost ingredients, allowing for increased portion sizes, which enhances the perceived plate value to the customer.”
Vegetables are charred to give more complex flavors; smoked; or oven roasted. Think caramelized cauliflower with bacon breadcrumbs as a main dish; winter squash tempura; parsnip and kale gratin with carrot and ham dust. It is refreshing to see a momentum to make healthier choices.
2. The Jewish deli choices such as smoked meats and fish, smoked foods are becoming more and more popular. Think chopped liver, pastrami, matzo ball soup, house mead meats like pastrami, smoke turkey leg rilletts, smoked mackerel or pickles and notice they are making their presence in many menus in restaurants.
3. There are now creative, ethnic ways to prepare fried chicken, like Korean chicken. But wait, we have been eating this for generations already. This trend is finally hitting the other states as a popular “new” way to serve fried chicken!
4. The younger generation has grown up with an awareness of eating sushi and are looking for ways to eat raw fish so guess what? Hawaiian poke has been gaining great interest and is now a food trend. Again, we grew up with poke! According to Megan O. Steintrager, the editorial director of Clean Place, this growing interest in authentic culinary experience means poke bowls are here to stay.
5. Natural, fresh, free of preservatives and antibiotics are very important to today’s consumers. Recently Dr. Oz had an interesting story about shrimp and where it comes from. Farmed shrimp from Southeast Asia has antibiotics and is contaminated with things we would never think of eating. Today’s consumers are concerned about their food and where it is sourced, where it is produced, and where it was grown. They are also very aware of the healthy fats, concerned about well-sourced foods for their children and know what foods to avoid.
Along with the concern of food sourcing, is the knowledge of mindful eating, which I have written about in the past. So what is mindful eating?
It is eating slower, taking time to savor and enjoy your food. When you do that, you are more likely to notice when you are full. By chewing your food more, you are also digesting it more easily. In silence, with no TV or a cell phone, there already is a tendency to eat more mindfully. Paying attention to the flavors in your mouth, what you’re a chewing and savoring the different sensations of eating, as well as knowing your food and rekindling a relationship with it is all part of mindful eating.
So let’s not eat a whole steak, instead cut it up, stir-fry with vegetables, and serve a whole family of 4 to 6 with it.
Try it and you will feel healthier.
The fullness you will experience is different, you will not feel stuffed and uncomfortable.
Many of the Southeast Asian dishes we currently enjoy have vegetables as the center-of-the-plate. Think vegetarian in this Indian dish:
Chana and Aloo
Serves 4
Soak overnight in 4 cups water:
1 1/2 cups dried chickpeas
Drain chickpeas, place in Dutch or heavy pot, add water to cover peas with two inches of water.
Add:
Pinch cream of tartar
Simmer for one hour, until tender. Drain, keep water as base for a soup for another day.
Puree in blender until smooth:
1 1/4 cups cilantro
3/4 cup flat leaf parsley
Pinch salt
Add:
3 fat garlic cloves
1/4 habanero chile to taste
Blend to smooth.
Rinse, peel, cut into 3/4 inch cubes:
1 russet potato
Heat in a pan:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Add:
2 1/2 tablespoons Madras curry powder
1/2 tablespoon ground turmeric
Add cubed potatoes and chickpeas and 2 cups chickpea water. Add:
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
Simmer for 30 minutes until potatoes are tender. Serve with basmati rice.
Here is what is popular on the mainland, Korean Style Chicken, but a dish we have been enjoying here in Hawaii.
Korean Style Chicken
5 pounds chicken wings (you could use boneless skinless thighs, cut into 2-inch strips)
Sauce:
1/2 cup soy sauce
6 tablespoons sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
4 stalks green onions, chopped fine
1 chili pepper, sliced
Season chicken with salt and pepper, dredge in flour, deep fry till golden brown.
Mix all sauce ingredients together in a medium bowl. As soon as chicken is fried, dip in sauce, coat completely and remove to a platter.
Ahi poke bowls are similar to chirashi or “scattered sushi” but the rice is not seasoned with vinegar.
Ahi Poke
Serves 4
In a bowl, mix together:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice vinegar (this amount will create a more complex flavor and is not enough to “cook” the ahi like a ceviche)
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Add and marinate for 5 minutes:
1 pound sushi-grade ahi, cut into 1-inch cubes
Remove skin, seed, and cut into 1-inch cubes:
1 avocado
Place in four individual bowls:
2 cups cooked brown rice
Top with ahi poke, on side, place:
Ocean salad
Pickled ginger
Email me at audreywilson808@gmail.com.
