Category: Winter 2020

RICE SALAD

Recipe Courtesy of Michele Di Bari of Sale Pepe, Lahaina, Maui HI

Photography by Mykle Coyne

Serves 5

INGREDIENTS

3 to 4 cups Italian Arborio rice cooked al dente, cooled

¼ cup basil, chopped

¼ cup capers

¼ cup pickled pearl onions

¼ cup green olives, pitted

¼ cup black olives, pitted

¼ cup green peas

¼ cup corn

¼ cup chick peas

¼ cup cannellini beans

¼ cup black beans

1 small or ½ large red or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped

½ cup celery, chopped

½ cup carrot, chopped

2 tablespoons honey mustard

¼ cup vinaigrette, made with extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, plus more as needed

½ cup fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper

¼ cup Grana Padano cheese

METHOD

1. Combine the honey mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar in a small dish.

2. Put the rice and all the vegetables in a large bowl. Drizzle with vinaigrette and use two big forks to combine. Add the Grana Padano cheese, tossing gently to separate the grains.

3. Stir in the parsley, taste, and adjust the seasoning or moisten with a little more vinaigrette. Serve at room temperature or refrigerate for up to a day, bringing the salad back to room temperature before serving.

RIGATONI ALLA NORMA

Recipe Courtesy of Michele Di Bari of Sale Pepe, Lahaina, Maui HI

Photography by Mykle Coyne

Serves 4-5

INGREDIENTS

1½ pounds eggplant

Olive oil as needed (at least ½ cup)

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon onion, chopped

1½ pounds of San Marzano canned peeled tomatoes, chopped

1 teaspoon fresh oregano

¼ teaspoon basil

1 pound of Bu’ono rigatoni

¼ teaspoon parsley, chopped

½ cup grated Ricotta Salata or Pecorino Romano

METHOD

1. Slice the eggplant about ½ inch thick. Cook in abundant olive oil, without crowding, sprinkling with salt and adding more oil as needed. You will undoubtedly have to cook in batches; take your time and cook until the eggplant is nicely browned and soft. Remove to a plate. Meanwhile, put a large pot of water on to boil and salt it.

2. After cooking the eggplant, the pan will ideally have a couple of tablespoons of oil left. If there is more or less, drain some off or add a bit. Turn the heat to medium. Add the garlic and onions and cook until the garlic and onion color a little bit. Add the tomatoes, oregano, and basil along with some salt and pepper; cook until saucy but not too dry, stirring occasionally.

3. Cook the pasta until al dente, about 1 minute and half, While the pasta is cooking, cut the eggplant into strips and reheat for a minute in the tomato sauce. Drain the pasta and toss it with the tomato sauce and the eggplant. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then top with the parsley or basil and grated cheese and serve.

KIAWE CORNBREAD

Recipe Courtesy of Ed Morita, Executive Pastry Chef Na Hoaloha Ekolu

Photography by Jana Dillon

Makes 12-16 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 ½ cups of shortening

1 ½ cups sugar

3 cups of whole milk

12 large eggs

5 7/8 cups bread flour

1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder

1 cup of cornmeal

1 cup Kiawe flour

1 ½ cups of brown butter

METHOD

  1. Cook brown butter and set aside to cool while mixing the rest of the recipe.
  2. Cream together shortening and sugar.
  3. Whisk together eggs and milk.
  4. Combine sifted baking powder, bread flour, cornmeal and kiawe flour in a bowl with a whisk.
  5. Alternate adding wet and dry ingredients to the mixing bowl.
  6. Add brown butter, and mix on low speed until batter is smooth and homogenous.
    Store in the cooler until needed.
  7. Bake in a large dutch oven at 325°F oven for 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
  8. Serve with guava butter or honey butter

Letter of Aloha – Winter 2020

I’LL ADMIT I HAVE TROUBLE SLEEPING SOME NIGHTS. Don’t get me wrong I never drink coffee in the afternoon and I try not to eat a big, heavy dinner late at night. I wake up because I’m worried about the world I’m leaving to the next generation. I ask myself, am I doing enough to leave the planet a better place for my children or grandchildren?

Often times, when our team is ready to start planning the theme for the next issue, one small experience provides the inspiration. For this issue, I read an article shared by the United Nations about climate change and its relationship to food waste, food production and growing food. The article set our heads spinning in a direction that we still have not recovered from. Read more in our TALK STORY department on page 50.

You see, when I began working with edible Hawaiian Islands in 2007 it was all about farm-to-table, eating local, and growing your own food. We’re still talking about these things, but now the conversations around food have taken on stronger, political meaning. My passion for growing, cooking and sharing food has long shaped my life and that of my family, but now it’s evolved into a greater awareness that everything I do in relation to food has a consequence – some positive and some negative.

As you read this issue, please ask yourself what you can do to make more of a positive impact on our planet. It can be something as small as buying sustainably farmed meat and produce, or bringing your own re-usable bags to the grocery store. Whatever you can do, DO IT NOW, and when it becomes second-nature, challenge yourself to step up your game. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say the Earth is watching and registering our every move.

Dania Novack Katz
editor

CLIMATE CHANGE

WRITTEN BY KATHLEEN ROGERS AND DR. SHENGGEN FAN
TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE WE NEED TO RETHINK OUR FOOD SYSTEM

THE WAY WE PRODUCE, consume and discard food is no longer sustainable. That much is clear from the newly released UN climate change report which warns that we must rethink how we produce our food — and quickly — to avoid the most devastating impacts of global food production, including massive deforestation, staggering biodiversity loss and accelerating climate change.

While it’s not often recognized, the food industry is an enormous driver of climate change, and our current global food system is pushing our natural world to the breaking point. At the press conference releasing the Special Report on Climate Change and Land, report co-chair Eduardo Calvo Buendía stated that, “the food system as a whole – which includes food production and processing, transport, retail consumption, loss and waste – is currently responsible for up to a third of our global greenhouse gas emissions.”

In other words, while most of us have been focusing on the energy and transportation sectors in the climate change fight, we cannot ignore the role that our food production has on cutting emissions and curbing climate change. By addressing food waste and emissions from animal agriculture, we can start to tackle this problem. How do we do that?

Livestock production is a leading culprit – driving deforestation, degrading our water quality and increasing air pollution. In fact, animal agriculture has such an enormous impact on the environment that if every American reduced their meat consumption by just 10 percent – about 6 ounces per week – we would save approximately 7.8 trillion gallons of water. That’s more than all the water in Lake Champlain. We’d also save 49 billion pounds of carbon dioxide every year — the equivalent of planting 1 billion carbon-absorbing trees.

What’s more, to the injury from unsustainable food production, we add the insult of extraordinary levels of food waste: nearly one third of all food produced globally ends up in our garbage cans and then landfills. We are throwing away $1 trillion worth of food, or about half of Africa’s GDP, every single year. At our current rates, if food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest carbon emitter after the U.S. and China.

To ensure global food security and sustainable food practices in an ever-growing world, we need to reexamine our food systems and take regional resources, such as land and water availability, as well as local economies and culture into account. To start, the United States and other developed countries must encourage food companies to produce more sustainable food, including more plant-based options, and educate consumers and retailers about healthy and sustainable diets. Leaders must create policies that ensure all communities and children have access to affordable fruits and vegetables. And we all can do our part to reduce food waste, whether it’s in our company cafeterias or our own refrigerators.

Technology also plays a part. Developed countries should support and incentivize emerging innovative technologies in plant-based foods, as well as carbon-neutral or low-carbon meat production.

Developing countries, on the other hand, face high levels of undernutrition, as well as limited access to healthy foods. Many nutrient-dense foods (such as fruits, vegetables and quality meats) are highly perishable, often making prices significantly higher than ultra-processed, nutrient-poor and calorie-dense foods. The high cost of nutrient-dense foods creates a significant barrier to healthy diets, as seen in urban Malawi and many other countries.

By promoting enhanced production of healthy and nutritious foods while also improving markets in low-income countries, we can lower prices and increase accessibility of healthy and sustainable diets. Politicians can also tackle systemic inequalities by redirecting agricultural subsidies to promote healthy foods, as well as investing in infrastructure like rural roads, electricity, storage and cooling chain.

Change must happen at every level if we want to build a better food system. International participation and resource-sharing can spread regional solutions across countries. And working for change at the ground level — among individuals, communities, local and federal governments and private entities — can help fight hunger and food inequality firsthand.

Yes, our food system is broken, but not irrevocably so. The challenges are enormous, but by understanding the problem and potential solutions, we can effect critical changes in the ways we produce, consume and dispose of food.

Kathleen Rogers is President of Earth Day Network. Dr. Shenggen Fan is Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and a Commissioner for the EAT – Lancet Commission.
https://foodprints.earthday.org/
https://www.earthday.org/
http://www.ifpri.org/