My new Food Correspondent Icon courtesy of Kevin V. Mahalo, Kevin!
My Mother's Day Dinner
My son Anthony is a very good cook...through the years and as a young man still in school he started out by waiting on tables, moving up to salad boy in the kitchen and ended up working for a 4 star chef who decided Anthony had a natural talent in the kitchen, took him under his wing and taught him a thing or two...
His cooking tends to be quite simple in his approach and technique, but the end result is always amazing....and my Mother's Day dinner certainly was that!
I had brought home the left over rosemary and garlic butter I had made for the culinary herb demo class I presented on Saturday and he decided to use it to baste the large shrimp (actually prawns since there were only 9 per pound) with the melted seasoned butter and then grill them on skewers.
Our table was set on the back lanai. My Mother’s Day basket of orchids graced the table.
The napkin rings are made from tied colorful croton leaves taken from a bush in our yard.
Our gas grill is on the back lanai, and since our dinner table is also set up out there, the prawns went straight from grill to plate!
He had bought baby spinach on Friday and he added Okinawan and Dawn Dewa spinach and mizuna greens from our own backyard garden. The leaf of the Okinawan spinach is dark green on top and purple on the bottom. The Dawn Dewa is all green and the mizuna is light green and peppery tasting.
Our dinner plates showing the grilled prawns on a bed of the mixed greens, fresh sliced tomato grown in the farm down the road and tiny baby carrots from our own garden.
I forgot to add the Mango Dressing for the first picture and by the time I remembered to take a picture, we had made inroads into our delicious salads!
MANGO DRESSING
2 cups mango puree (fresh or frozen pulp)
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1 medium Maui onion (or any other sweet onion such as Vidalia, Walla Walla or Texas Sweet)
5 large cloves of garlic
1- 1/2 inch peeled and grated fresh ginger knob
2 small red Hawaiian Chile peppers, seeded and cored
Salt & fresh ground pepper, to taste
Anthony started with two large fresh mangoes, peeled and cut into chunks. Place all ingredients in the blender or food processor and process until smooth. The original recipe called for a medium red onion, a bunch of cilantro and 2 cups olive oil, which he skipped.
The combination of tastes was like mini-explosions going off in succession as you bit into the food. First came the taste of the rosemary & garlic butter then the smokiness of the fire on the grilled shrimp…immediately followed by the sweetness of the mango and orange juice and ending with the tangy hotness of the onion and chile pepper….absolutely incredible!
The pairing of flavors was divinely inspired!
My contribution to the dinner was dessert. I took inspiration from a dessert my sister had made during my visit to Miami. Hers called for the Big Boy ice cream sandwiches, whipped topping, chopped toasted pecans, crushed Oreo cookies and both chocolate & butterscotch syrups, all layered in a trifle bowl.
Our “No-Name Decadence” desserts were served layered in individual stemmed glasses and I used Klondike Oreo frozen sandwiches, cut in small pieces, homemade whipped cream, chopped and toasted macadamia nuts and the chocolate and butterscotch syrups, then topped with a strawberry on top!
It can be made earlier in the day or even the day before. Place the finished layered dessert in the freezer, minus the strawberry, and bring out about 20 minutes before you serve it to let the “frost and rime” from the freezer evaporate from the glass and soften enough to make it easier to dig into the incredible combination of flavors!
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Sonia Martinez, Gather Food Correspondent | ||||
Sonia's column, 'Tropical Taste' is a regular twice-monthly feature of Gather Essentials: Food. Sonia is a cookbook author and freelance food writer for several publications in Hawaii, and is also a Hawaii Island Journal restaurant reviewer in partnership with her son Anthony Mathis. She lives in a beautiful rural rainforest area on the Big Island of Hawaii. You can keep up with Sonia's adventures and ongoing love affair with Hawaii by joining her network, or visiting her food & garden blog at Sonia Tastes Hawaii. | ||||
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Comments: 41
The sauce was wonderful and as a friend in my Hawaii cooking group pointed out, Weight Watcher friendly!
And Happy Mother's Day again, dear Sonia...........
Kathleen, thank you!....I really did enjoy my day!
Joanne, they were huge...we ended up eating all 9 of them! We didn't show them all on the plates so as not to look like piggies...;-))
William, thank you. You are as supportive as ever!
Lori Cee....I could barely finish my one.......even though we waited over an hour after eating our dinner to eat the dessert!
Peter, If I had to pick a place in the world to live, this would be it....unless I have to move to the mainland someday (kicking and screaming!) then it would be in the Eastern part of NC.... It is nice to have a son that cooks!
Katrina, thank you so much...........you can tell a mango is ripe by the smell. Smell the stem end and if you can smell mango, then it is ready!
We are having jazzed up banana splits for dessert tonight, and I am not even a big ice cream eater.
If it looks as good as it was, then it was magnificent! I had Farfalle with a marinara that had some shiitake mushrooms and oyster mushrooms in it. I drizzled it with Truffle Oil - made with Winter Black Truffles. I bought it at the supermarket yesterday. Yummmy.
Happy Mothers Day to you. Thanks for sharing your meal!
Your dinner sounds delicious also......!
...........and I like your Correspondent Icon too. Did you do it yourself?
Lisa, hmmmmm....? Don't know what to say. This article didn't take any effort to write as it almost wrote itself......so that means that the ones I have belabored over are not as good as this one.....? :-( ............. LOL, I'm kidding! Thanks for reading and commenting...!.......and yes, I feel I do live in heaven sometimes!
I have been missing you. Thank you!
St. Anthony....hehehehehehe!
Mango dressing...umm...bookmarked this, too.
We can find 'tropical' losbters in our markets and of course shrimp and prawns, .......and there is a type of prawn you can actually find in our streams.........!
I v enjoyed every word and photo of this article , its tuch my heart.
I pray to my God to keep you and your Son save and always gather with happyness.
found just now new mango dressing that sound great for grilled chickens too.
thanks Sonia for sharing all these delights with us