Have you ever gone through a phase of your life when you use a certain ingredient or condiment excessively and frequently in your cooking or serving of a dish? Or just about all your food for that matter? Pepper. Salt. Sugar. Butter. Cream. Tobasco. Shoyu. Ketchup. You name it.
As we all know Paul Dean is the butter queen. My sister used to be a ketchup fanatic, using the stuff on just about everything, from generously drizzled over rice and eggs, to sandwiches, to pasta. A good friend of mine in more recent years took on a great affinity for garlic. For example, he’ll take a whole fish such as Moi or Opakapaka, make cross cuts, then add some mayonnaise, salt and pepper, then literally BURY the darn fish with minced garlic until you can barely see what it is. Wrap the foil up and bake it in the oven until done. He’ll also add a heaping spoonful of minced garlic into his tuna salad when making sandwiches.
Which I totally buy, as I’m a garlic fiend myself. Same for ginger. If a dish is prepared using lots of garlic and ginger, as is common with asian cuisine as a whole, count me IN! Oh, and by-the-way, that garlic-smothered baked fish turns out EXCELLENT. In my and his opinion, you can NEVER use too much garlic.
Bringing us now to the subject at hand, which lately I’ve been totally binging out on Green Onions. I know, weird, right? I mean like BONKERS. Like, borderline ridiculous. Like, I’ll go to KCC Farmers Market every Saturday and buy 3 bunches to last me through the week. That goes to show much I go through the stuff.
Why am I suddenly all into the heavy use of green onion? I’m guessing age, or better said a “phase”. Like how my dad totally got into pickled onions (da’ Portagee style) when he got into his 60s, I’m all into onions now in my 40s. Changing hormones perhaps? I dunno.
Actually now I’m in a “phase” where I use onions in general quite heavily, no matter what type, whether it’s the common round white onion, red, Vidalia, Maui, Shallot, green, or the massive Japanese Negi. You name it. If it’s “onion-ee”, bring it!
I’m not a “green thumb” by any means, yet I recently took the rooted stump from a bunch of green onions I had used and tried “planting” it in an empty porcelain potter I had sitting in my office, and not surprisingly, it grew quite well. All the pot has are river pebbles in it, with no other soil or water drainage. I simply stuck the rooted green onion stump within the pebble rocks, added water, and placed it near my office window sill where it would get at least some sun, and within just one week, it grew from just about 1″ tall with only white stumps, to where you see it here at over 6″ tall. I figure in another two weeks, it will be ready to harvest.
Lots of restaurants do the same thing, having their own roof top herb garden, growing everything from Green Onion, Cilantro, Basil, Thyme, Dill and Rosemary, to whatever else they may use frequently in their dishes.
Now that I’ve successfully grown my own green onions, this whole “green thumb” thing just may be my new found hobby! I’ll get a planter trough and try growing my own on my condo balcony. I hear other folks in our building having great success doing the same thing. I’ll start with my favorite basics, which are those mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Certainly the way to go, compared to buying packaged “fresh” herbs, which run ridiculous prices in the regular supermarkets. The next best priced place to get them would either be the farmers market or Chinatown.
So yeah, I’m all about green onions now, loading it with no abandon in stuff like Saimin…
“Negimin”
Yup, that’s it. No Kamaboko, no egg and of course no charsiu. Nothing but saimin noodles in its dashi broth, green onion and net. We’ll call it “Negimin”. And? Winnahz! Well I think so. Yet, I’m pretty sure if you were to taste it, unless you’re me, you’ll probably think, “damned dude, what the hell is this? This is effin’ getto!” LOL!!!
“Negimin”
Well, don’t quite put off the abundant use of it, as not surprisingly being a green plant by default, Green Onions are quite nutritious, including 10 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin A, 9 percent of vitamin C and 1 percent of calcium and iron. It also includes organosulfur compounds, which act as anti-inflammatories which prevent arthritis, as well as a good source of Quercetin, a class of antioxidants called flavonoids that helps neutralize free radicals, which can cause DNA damage and cancer.
What else do I “choke” with it? Instead of chives, I load my baked potato with Green Onions…
Baked potato with loads of butter, cheese, sour cream, black pepper and green onions
You’re probably like, “Where the heck is the potato?” lol I tell you, this is by far one of my favorite comfort dishes, especially late at night (when I really shouldn’t be eating this). All I do is “nuke” a couple small potatoes (I prefer them over the large ones), fluff them, add choke butter, a dash of Hawaiian salt, cheese (whatever type I have on hand), choke sour cream, then load it with a TON of Green Onions and choke black pepper.
Oh, yeah, that’s another thing I use a ton of, is black pepper. If I had one of them battery-powered automatic pepper mills, my food would probably be completely smothered with fresh crack black. Only thing keeping me from doing that is my wrists get tired from hand-cranking the mill. lol
Back to Green Onion, my Tofu always gets a good smothering of the stuff…
I also use it generously in my vegetarian stir fries, particularly with eggplant and mushrooms, my other two favorite cooking ingredients. What I do is use the Kikoman Kung Pao Chicken seasoning packet as the stir fry flavoring base, sans the chicken. The Mushrooms and Eggplant are my “meat”, along with lots of green bell peppers, carrots, red onions, green onions and peanuts (or whatever nuts I have on hand). Sometimes I also add Tofu. Yum-ohz!
While I haven’t attempted it yet, I’ll try making a green onion version of the Angry Korean Lady’s Chive Jun…
Chive Jun from Ah Lang, a.k.a. the “Angry Korean Lady”
Another Korean specialty that uses green onion generously is Pajeon, a type of Korean Seafood “Pancake”…
Palama Market – Korean Seafood Pancakes (Pajeon)
Here’s a slice..
Palama Market – Korean Seafood Pancake (Pajeon)
As for the “other” onions, I remember back in high school when I used to boogie board a lot, my favorite after-beach snack was Jack in the Box Onion Rings with their house Buttermilk Dressing. Ever try that combo? If you haven’t, you’re in for a treat! I tell you, it’s one of the few “wonders of the fast food world”. lol Seriously though, so ono! The creamy, slightly tangy flavor of the Buttermilk along with the deep-fried flavor of the onion rings are a match made in fast food heaven. Winnahz!
Which has me wondering, who makes Oahu’s best Onion Rings? Hmmmm. There’s food for thought. I’m thinkin’ it’s gotta’ be from some pub. Aloha Beer Company? Gordon Biersch? Real Gastro Pub, perhaps?
I’m also a huge fan of french onion soup, made the traditional way from scratch with a crusty baguette and melted cheese on top. LOVE that.
Green Onions, any onions, cheese, black pepper… ooh, and dare I admit, butter. Those are a few of the things I currently go “gaga” over in the kitchen. Love the stuff!
P.S. Aloha ‘Oe to our beloved Nainai, who passed away this past Monday, May 14, 2013 at 4:30pm due to age-related health conditions at the age of 13, which in human years, makes her 91.
Nainai was an AKC-registered full-blooded Shih Tzu, bred here on Oahu. Nainai was very loving, playful, sincere and smart. She was also very protective of her family (us), and keen on who was who, when people came over to visit. Her name “Nainai” is a Chinese surname for “Grandma”, and believe me, she acted like it. I wish she could have spoken “human”, as I really think we would have heard a handful from her, being she was the boss of the house.
Nainai truly was a classy lady in every sense of the word, and we will always love her.
A hui hou kakou, Me ke aloha pumehana Nainai
LOST DOG “KOA”
This is an announcement by someone who left a flier on my car yesterday. I called them yesterday evening (Saturday, May 18, 2013) to verify whether they were still looking for Koa, their beloved pet dog, which they still desperately are. This is their message, so if you have any information about their beloved Koa, please, PLEASE call them. Mahalo.
LOST DOG – $250 REWARD
“Please help us find Koa. He is a 2.5 year old Rat Terrier Mix, approximately 15-20 lbs. White with large grey spots all over his body. Has big grey ears. Had blue Harness & purple leash attached when went missing. He is friendly but skittish around people whom he does not know. Koa was rescued as a puppy.
Lost between Pawa’a St. & N. King St. across Zippy’s on N.King St. on May 14, 2013 around 1:00pm.
If found, please call Paula @ (808) 861-9899 or Larissa @ (808) 223-1368 immediately. Reward $250.00. Please, PLEASE help us find our beloved Koa. He is our heart!”