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South Florida’s Taste of the Nation Helps End Childhood Hunger with No Kid Hungry

June 24, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

One of the most important culinary events to raise awareness about childhood hunger is South Florida’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry. 80 top chefs, sommeliers and mixologists showcase their talents and lured over 1,100 charity minded foodies to Wynwood’s Soho Studio recently.

NKH-collage1 — clockwise top left: Chef Michael Pirolo, Macchialina’s caponata and zucchini salad and yours truly at LG lounge area; Chef Eileen Andrade, Finka Table & Tap with arroz con pollo fritter topped with aji amarilla sauce; Chef Cindy Hutson, Zest Restaurant; VOSS showcasing their new sparkling flavored artesian water.

Share Our Strength produces Taste of the Nation and has raised over $70,000 this year in Miami alone to support the No Kid Hungry’s programs to end childhood hunger and educate families about healthy cooking and eating. No Kid Hungry is especially important in the summer, funding enables programs like a school bus in North Carolina to feed the kids when schools are closed. It’s hard to believe 1 in 5 kids in America struggles with hunger from lack of access to food, so I’m thrilled to see this program so successful in Miami which raised enough funds for over 700,000 healthy meals for children.

NKH-collage2 — clockwise top left: Chef Nelson Fernandez, Byblos braised Colorado lamb shoulder; Chef Xavier Torres, Drunken Dragon’s octopus carpaccio; Chef Adrien Grenier, 3030 Ocean, Wahoo; Chef Jose Mendin, PB Station, octopus pepperoni.

LG, a home appliance partner of No Kid Hungry was just one of the numerous national corporate sponsors who are committed to helping this cause. I liked how the LG area provided a nice setting of beautiful wood dining tables and chairs and a wonderful spread from a very popular Miami Italian restaurant, Macchialina’s Chef Michael Pirolo. His caponata and refreshing zucchini salad was a perfect start to a whole evening of top notch gourmet bites from Miami and Broward’s best restaurants. I was given a little presentation of the fabulous LG Black Stainless Steel Series Door-in-Door Refrigerator that’s finger print and smudge resistant, how handy cause I can’t stand smudges. What I love best was the refrigerator’s outer door that opens but doesn’t open the whole fridge so you have easy access to seasoning bottles and beverages! So clever especially if you have a big family of kids who keep opening the fridge to get stuff. The freezer below was very interesting, it had layered drawers and very convenient to see what you have in there instead of those deep drawers so you have to wade through. As a cooking educator and someone who enjoys cooking, I love products that are beautiful and functional. Since Asian seasonings are a big part of what’s in my refrigerator door, I think LG’s got it down, well they are from Korea!

Chef Rebholz, Quality Meats with his famous pork belly and peanut butter

LG Black Stainless Steel Series, love the outer door!

To find out more about the No Kid Hungry program, visit them here.
For future Taste of the Nation culinary events in your city, visit here.
Disclosure: I was invited by LG to this event.

How to Tame a Smoky Wok

June 7, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

Six reasons why your cast iron wok gets smoky and how to tame it! I’m only referring to the lightweight cast iron woks that folks have purchased from me, so you’ll know what to do. No cause for alarm.
Here are possible reasons why smoking can happen…
1. fermented ingredients like tamari when it touches the wok and caramelizes
2. anything that’s sweet like onions can caramelize
3. any food particles that are stuck to your wok if not washed properly
4. if you use oil that can’t handle high smoke point (another post to discuss oils) but coconut oil is one that is supposed to handle high heat but can get smoky, turn it down a bit!
5. if you use a wok whose material is not a good conductor of heat
6. if you use teflon (NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER use on high heat! I’ll post something about this horrible material in another post!)

CoconutOil-castironwok — I only took this photo to show what a smoky wok looks like. That’s coconut oil which is supposed to handle high heat but I would turn down your heat a bit!

When nos.1-3 happens, they caramelize and or harden and forms a crust. If you don’t scrub off properly and cook with the crust stuck to your wok, it will make your wok smoky and it will form a thicker and thicker crust. This makes it difficult for the heat to reach your food. So, please scrub off any hardened crusts completely. Dry off with paper towels and then just zing on your stove on medium heat to dry off completely.
Check out my short 2:34 minute video that shows you exactly how to clean the crust and restore your cast iron wok! It’s easy and takes a few minutes. Please do it so you’ll have a superb experience when cooking.
For no.4) I’ll be posting oils good for high heat cooking and their temperature chart soon.
I hope this helps, let me know in comments if you have any questions, had other smoky incidents or zing me an email.

Paradise Farm Tour and Brunch by Vesta Foods

June 6, 2016 By Eleanor Hoh 1 Comment

I love that we’re going back to basics, learning where our produce comes from and then sit down to share a meal! It’s a lovely way to meet like-minded folks, support local farmers and enjoy a meal cooked by chefs who use produce harvested from the farms! I highly recommend you search for one of these events where you live, you’ll be surprised at what you’ll learn and the experience is so worth it.
Recently, I got a chance to attend such an event, this one at Paradise Farm Mother’s Brunch was a farm tour with Gabriele Marewski followed by a delightful brunch cooked by my new chef friend, Sabrina Dora Lopez of Vesta Foods. I’ll be posting about some exciting projects Sabrina is working on, she’ll even come to your home and cook for you and your family! Yes, I bet that made your heart pump. I’m so happy to write about Gabriele and Sabrina collaborating on this brunch because I really admire what they’re doing. I videotaped Sabrina’s little talk before we all chowed down to eat.

SabrinaDoraLopez-granola — Pineapple Coconut Granola with Fresh Fruit

After a superb homemade pineapple granola with fresh fruit, we started our tour with Gabriele explaining why she is vegetarian and her mission for her farm. Because it’s organic, she doesn’t allow meat or cigarettes on her property. It’s amazing what she has accomplished since 1999, from a 5 acre avocado farm to designing a circular bed according to the ancient art of feng shui, I love that. More about Gabriele’s farm later.

Aerial view of circle with fountain in the middle according to ancient Feng Shui practice. Photo credit: Paradise Farm.

We sat down to brunch after the farm tour but I snuck off during the last part of the tour to visit with Sabrina because I enjoy watching chefs prep and cook ‘behind the scenes’! I was thrilled she used all produce harvested from the farm and her specialty is using lots of herbs and spices in her cooking, woohoo! I was so impressed she was so calm cooking for over 70 people! The thought of it would make me run and hide, ha, ha.

SabrinaDoraLopez-Brassica — Brassica Green Salad with Shaved Radishes

Blistered Tomato, Baby Kale and Egg Scramble

Oyster Mushrooms and Squash before getting tossed in with the risotto.

I could have eaten a bucket of this creamy Risotto with Oyster Mushrooms, Squash + Pesto.

Dessert: Fresh Banana Bread with Sunbutter, supposed to be for kids but we all polished it off! — Dessert: Fresh Banana Bread with Sunbutter supposed to be for kids but we all polished it off!

Cooking with what’s fresh and seasonal instead of cooking from a recipe is what I encourage folks to do when they attend my class, so I was thrilled Sabrina’s menu used all seasonal produce harvested from Paradise Farm.

Paradise Farm started out with just lettuce and now boasts 52 varieties of edible flowers along with a whole line of micro greens, herbs, root vegetables and tropical fruits. Gabriele only sells to high end restaurants in South Florida and I cannot blame her, consumers don’t buy enough to make it worth her while. She kept taking on more and more to grow her farm including buying a very expensive dehydrator so she could preserve vegetables and fruits and avoid chemicals usually added to commercially dried ones. She also started growing oyster mushrooms from scratch.
What I love best about Paradise Farm is an outdoor gazebo built for holding farm to table events, mostly in the winter months, so check their schedule. It’s so idyllic and a beautiful setting for weddings, private events, learning lunch, group tours, birding or a B & B farm stay in one of her adorable bungalows, endless possibilities.
The best part of that day was seeing so many families out together to celebrate Mother’s Day, I got to sit next to my two “adopted moms”, Gabriele and my foodie photographer, Wok Star, blogger friend, Brenda Benoit. Go check Brenda’s version. I could feel my mom’s presence and happy I finally made it to Paradise Farms Organic. It’s the first year I’ve been able to actually enjoy an event and not get emotional when I see other people with their moms! It was super Sabrina’s mom got to experience her daughter’s cooking!

Sabrina-Gabriele — What a wonderful collaboration between Sabrina and Gabriele!

Alexandra, a yoga instructor was a trooper helping Sabrina!

I’ll be posting about Sabrina’s exciting projects soon.

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