I can create a pad thai recipe in my head.  I don’t need a cookbook.  I only need a bit of ingredient inspiration and a few basic cooking skills.  Luckily, I’ve just returned from the Koloa Rum Company, and I’m excited to find a way to get the flavors of their dark rum into my cooking.

I’ve also taken an organic beef tour in Hawaii, having toured the Maui Cattle Company earlier this week, so I’m also inspired to use local pasture raised beef.

I’ll have to make one confession.  While I say that I can create a recipe without a cookbook, the truth of the matter is that I HAVE to create my own recipe because I don’t even have a cookbook.  I don’t have a pantry of ingredients.  I don’t have spices, I barely have acceptable pots and pans in my vacation rental kitchen, so it’s up to me and my basic cooking methods for dinner tonight.

My improvised pad thai recipe will start with marinating local beef in the Koloa Spiced Rum, in an attempt to steal some of that great spice flavor from the rum.  From there, it’s a simple saute procedure, as I’ll brown the drained beef, deglaze with some beef broth, add Koloa Dark Rum for that extra level of flavor, and reduce the sauce.

What will give this made up meal it’s flavor profile is peanut butter and coconut milk.  They’re added to the reducing liquid to give even more complex flavors, but not complicating the cooking process.

Lastly, I’ll add the Thai noodles to the pan and crack a raw egg on top.  The egg will scramble from the heat and attach itself to the noodles and strips of beef.  It’s a delicious combination of flavors and textures that no cookbook could tell me how to do.

I can whip up an easy pad thai recipe, and so can you with just this basic procedure.  Once you watch the video I hope you’re inspired to change the ingredients I’ve used and create your own dish, to your tastes, in the way you like it, and forget about written recipes.

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Making Rum from pure cane sugar that is farmed within 15 miles of the distillery is what makes Koloa Rum Company different.  They use the best ingredients they can find while supporting the local economy and ecology with their portfolio of rum products.

I’ve already toured their production facility and was introduced to the “Crown Jewel”, their copper pot still.  Their hands-on single batch processing makes their rum unique.  Today, I’m back visiting with Bob Gunter, the President of Koloa Rum Company,  to further examine what goes into their award winning rum.

In the tasting room, Bob shows me a tray piled high with an ivory powder.  I know there’s no snow on Kauai and I’m not in a scene from Scarface, so this must be sugar before me.  It’s the purest form of cane sugar, almost white with an earthy aroma that bring a sensation of the dirt it was grown in.

Making rum is just like cooking, the best ingredients treated with skill always yield the best results, and Bob explains why the purest form of sugar creates a better product.  Brown sugar has molasses in it.  Molasses is actually a by-product of sugar production, so the more molasses you add to the fermentation, the less pure the end result will be.

From this pure ingredient comes all their rum flavors and I’m fortunate enough to be tasting them with the President of the company.  Their newest product is the Kauai Spiced Rum.  It’s like no other spiced rum I’ve ever tasted.  It didn’t assault my palate with heavy spices.  I was rewarded with the sweetness of the pure cane sugar BEFORE being given a hint of the spice on the back of my tongue.

The Kauai Spiced Rum is their newest introduction and won third price at the International Rum Competition in Miami, Florida last year.  My mind starts to race, considering how I can get the great flavor of this rum into my cooking.

The Koloa Dark Rum has been my favorite since it was initially released.  Bob offers me a taste, and all that I’ve learned today is summarized in one small glass.  I can certainly taste the pure, local, natural sugar that he uses, but much more.  I can now taste the earth, the community, the ecology and passion that goes into making every bottle of this fantastic product.

Making rum is a passion for Bob Gunter, just as cooking with natural ingredients is a passion for me.  The next step will be putting our passions together.  I’ve just got to create a “No Recipe” dish using Koloa Rum.  I wonder what I’ll come up with……

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The best drink in Hawaii starts with Rum that is made from local ingredients.  Today, I tour the Koloa Rum Company with President Bob Gunter to see how it’s made.

The Koloa Rum Company is yet another example of how you can take the freshest local ingredients and create a product that supports the local community and environment while thrilling your customers with an outstanding product.

I found their production facility on the island of Kauai, and my expectations of a huge warehouse with large machinery was immediately proven wrong as I drove up a gravel driveway and was greeted by chickens scurrying around the front yard.

This former candy making factory now houses all operations of the Koloa Rum Company, explains Bob Gunter, President of the company.  He’s been kind enough to offer me a personal tour of the facility.

The best rum in Hawaii starts with only Hawaiian sugar cane that comes from a plantation only 15 miles away!  Now, that’s locally sourced ingredients!  Bob explains to me that he uses only the purest crystal sugar and not molasses to make his rum.  These are the two biggest differences between Koloa rum and all others.

However, the single element that sets them apart is their “crown jewel”, Bob says.  The crown jewel is their huge copper still.  Koloa rum is made one batch at a time so they can carefully scrutinize and adjust for the best end product.

After the crystal sugar is distilled and the evaporated alcohol is captured, it is transferred to large mixing tanks, and eventually pumped to the bottling line for filling, labeling and capping.

The end result is the rum that will always give you the best drink in Hawaii because it is made from pure, natural ingredients while supporting the environment and community and producing an artisan product that shows the focus and concern they put into it.

I love to explore natural, local foods and the farmers who are doing it correctly.  But, production of local ingredients doesn’t always have to mean food.  In this case, I’ve witnessed the best rum in Hawaii being made the same way any other locally sourced food product is.

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Organic beef tastes nothing like the Styrofoam tray grocery store beef.  Humanely cared for, naturally fed animals give you beef that is healthier than Salmon!  Today, I’ll tour the Maui Cattle Company where they do it right.

An old pineapple processing plant now houses the operations of the Maui Cattle Company where they have a respect and passion for every element that goes into supplying the best grass fed beef to the state of Hawaii.

My tour guide is Tweety, the production manager.  As we enter the first large aging room, there are bulky sides of beef hanging from ceiling hooks.  It’s one entire cow, in 4 pieces, Tweety explains to me.  However, they don’t look like other primal cuts I’ve seen before.

The animals that come to Maui Cattle Company average about 500 pounds.  That’s quite small compared to the mainland feed-lots.  Cattle that are fed heavy carbohydrates and corn can grow to 800 pounds faster than a grass-fed animal can reach 500 pounds.

However, organic beef and grass fed beef cannot be compared to feed lot beef strictly on size.  It’s a matter of quality versus quantity.   I’d rather have six ounces of the most flavorful, healthy beef than a pound of bland mooing corn.

The carcasses I’m inspecting with Tweety have been aged 12 days to this point, kept at a constant temperature to tenderize the meat.  As a matter of fact, this company grades every carcass individually and performs a tension test on the meat to assure it’s the most tender.  If it doesn’t meet their standards, it doesn’t sell.

The processing room at Maui Cattle Company looks like many kitchens I’ve seen in the past, but not a meat cutting plant.  Here, there are no huge pieces of equipment.  There are just four skilled craftsmen and their knives, hand cutting each and every steak to be vacuum packed and shipped for sale.

Tweety explains how proud he is of the cleanliness of this operation.  They are fanatical about assuring the quality of the product they so lovingly provide.  The vacuum packaging helps with this cause as well.  Because, if there ever were any bacterial contaminants, the gasses they give off will slightly inflate the packaging.  This is an immediate sign that something is wrong.  Luckily, it rarely happens here.

Just before shaking hands and bidding good bye to Tweety, he feels he must explain to me how well they treat their animals.  The local cattle are lovingly raised and live a stress free life full of nutritious grasses and natural feed.  Being raised naturally, they are not subjected to the loads of steroids and antibiotics fed to animals that are not eating a native diet.  Corn-fed animals can lead a sickly, stressful life.  As Tweety says about his animals, “There’s only one bad day, they live very well otherwise.”

Organic beef at the Maui Cattle Company is raised naturally, treated humanely, and results in a beef product that has a better Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio than salmon.  I’m so glad to have spent the afternoon here, witnessing the pinnacle of wholesome and natural beef production.

If you’d like to know even more about organic beef, I speak with a nationally renowned expert, John Wood of US Wellness meats.  I’ll ask him why grass fed beef makes the best steaks for grilling. 

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Unique food in Hawaii comes from the many cultures that each contributed their favorites, resulting in the Mixed Plate Lunch.

In the early days of the sugar plantations, lunch was a simple affair. Plantation workers gathered in the fields for their mid-day meal.

The Japanese laborers would bring teriyaki beef with rice and pickled vegetables. Seated next to them might be their Filipino neighbors with the traditional dish adobo or perhaps a pork or chicken stew. The Koreans had their kalbi or marinated ribs and the Chinese offered a rice noodle and vegetable dish called chow fun. Hawaiians were known for their kalua pig, roasted in an underground oven called an imu. It wasn’t long before they began to share their foods with one another and the “mixed plate” was born.

“Two scoops rice” and “one scoop macaroni salad” always accompany the traditional plate lunch. The rice is an important part of the meal because it provides the “backdrop” for the distinctive flavors of the main courses which, local style, tend toward the savory. Macaroni salad also presents a counterpoint to the main courses while providing a small portion of vegetables such as finely chopped carrots and small diced celery – just the way the Locals like it.

The food in Hawaii reflects the contributions of the many cultures that have come to this paradise, each with unique ingredients and cooking methods.  The combination of chicken, pork and beef on the same plate with rice and macaroni salad is a metaphor for the varied tastes and backgrounds you’ll find on these islands and how they seem to mix perfectly together.

But, there’s so much more food in Hawaii to discover, that’s why it’s one of my favorite food destinations on earth.  Do you know how to open a coconut in Hawaii? 

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I revealed the bottom five yesterday, helping you to examine and concentrate on your food habits as they exist today.  Certainly, there are items in your pantry that don’t contribute to healthy eating.  Stop buying them.  I also suggested that perhaps you improve your basic cooking skills so that you can use the most wholesome ingredients and create meals you really like.

Today, I want to give you some very specific cooking methods that you can follow to create meals that are attractive, delicious, and contribute to healthy eating.

5)  First, get some healthy foods.  That should be obvious, you can’t eat better if you don’t know how to go about it.

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4)  Master ONE basic cooking method, like saute’.

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3)  Be sure you keep the healthy in healthy eating.

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2)  Use a basic method, but substitute better proteins.  Using beans instead of rice, pasta, or potatoes gives you nutrients your body will love as much as your taste buds.

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1)  Use seasonings correctly to add unique flavors to healthy foods.

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If you want to begin this new year with a new outlook on food, consider my 10 Healthy Eating Tips.  First, examine what and how you eat now.  Then, seek out more wholesome foods and learn to cook them in a way you like and season correctly to give even greater variety to your overall diet.

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However, eating healthy means different things to different people, and that’s okay.  To some, it means salads and carrot sticks at every meal.  To others, it’s simply finding a new way to enjoy more wholesome ingredients without feeling like they’re depriving themselves of flavor and enjoyment.

Most people don’t want to be on a “diet”, while the truth is that everyone is on a diet.  Diet is the summation of all you eat, good or bad it’s your diet.  My point is that you needn’t be on a diet to improve your overall diet if you think of the word as something permanent, not temporary.  We all know temporary diets are just that, fleeting in time.

If you want to improve the quality of what you eat in this new year, whether for health or just a curiosity of the world of foods now available, I’ve got 10 Eating Healthy Tips for 2012.  Here are the first five:

10)  Understand that recipes have inherent limitations and you CAN change them.

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9)  Examine what foods or eating habits you KNOW are bad for you and slowly try to eliminate or reduce them in your diet.

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8)  Identify the foods in your pantry that are not contributing to eating healthy and stop buying them.

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7)  Change your eating habits by eating better quality foods more purposefully rather than quickly consuming convenience items.

4 Steps For Avoiding The Food Police  

6)  Stop the guessing in your cooking.  Healthy eating may not be appealing to you because you lack confidence to cook the most wholesome foods.

4 Cooking Tips Will End Your Recipe Guessing

My Top 10 Healthy Eating Tips will continue tomorrow with much more specific detail in exactly HOW to cook the most wholesome ingredients so you actually PREFER to eat healthy.

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Stick out your tongue and say “ahhhhh”. Yes, I see a case of cake-envy. You’ve seen cakes in magazines, on television and even appearing in the local bakery and you want to know how YOUR cakes can be so high, fluffy and moist.

Whether you’re at home or in baking classes , study your ingredients firstto diagnose any cake problem. Every ingredient plays a specific role in the final outcome of your baked good. Some are tougheners, others tenderizers. Some ingredients add moisture, others dry your mix. Knowing the role each ingredient plays is the first step to curing your cake envy.

One of the 7 basic categories of cake ingredients are Leaveners. Chemical leavening usually means the addition of baking powder or baking soda, but can also refer to mechanical leavening where egg whites trap steam and rise your cake.

If you consistently have poor volume on your cake, AND you understand how baking soda reacts with moisture, heat and acids to release carbon dioxide, then you can cure the dense cake with more leavening agent or more acid to activate the chemical reaction.

Any cake problem can be solved with the background knowledge of the hows and whys in baking. Sugar in a cake formula acts as a tenderizer, shortening the gluten strands that are developed during mixing that could make your cake chewy.

However, sugar also aids in crust formation and browning. When your favorite cake always comes from the oven with a dark crust that you have to carve away with the bread knife, you should examine the amount of sugar in the formula to solve this issue.

The secret to diagnosing any cake problem is to look it like Dr. BakeGood does. He wants to know what is going on behind the scenes in any baking recipe. He’ll cure your ills with an understanding of the HOWs and WHYs behind baking, or empower you to cure yourself.

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When I was a student at Baltimore International Culinary College many years ago,

Baking cakes, pies, cookies, or breads need not be difficult or intimidating, but it does require an understanding of ingredients and mixing methods. Every ingredient has a role in the science and biology going on behind baking.

While a recipe will give you the list of ingredients and a step-by-step procedure, it will never tell you the HOW or WHY behind baking and why you need each to bake great results.

Great baked goods begin with high quality ingredients. Even the finest ingredients must be combined in the proper balance. Each ingredient performs a specific function and has a specific effect on the final product. Ingredients are classified by function as:

Tougheners

Flour, milk, and eggs contain protein. Protein provides structure and toughens the item. Too little protein and it may collapse, too much protein and it may be tough and course-textured.

Tenderizers

Sugar, fats, and egg yolks shorten gluten strands, making a cake, muffin or pie dough tender and soft. These ingredients also improve the items’ keeping qualities.

Moisteners

Liquids such as water, milk, juice and eggs bring moisture to the mixture. Moisture is necessary for gluten formation and starch gelatinization, as well as improving shelf-life.

Driers

Flour, starches, and milk solids absorb moisture, giving body and structure to baked goods.

Leaveners

Baked goods rise because the gases in the batter expand when heated. They’re leavened by the air trapped when fat and sugar are creamed together, by carbon dioxide released from baking powder and baking soda, and by air trapped in the beaten eggs. Even with yeast or chemicals, all baked goods must rely on natural leaveners – steam and air – to create the proper texture and rise.

Flavorings

Flavorings such as extracts, cocoa, chocolate, spices, salt, sugar, and butter provide the desired flavors. Acidic flavoring ingredients such as sour cream, chocolate and fruit also provide the acid necessary to activate baking soda.

Whether you continue to experiment on your own with written recipes, or enroll in baking classes, an examination of the role of each ingredient will give you the insight to fix common cake faults. If you cake collapses, perhaps you need more leavening or driers. If the cake is too dark, perhaps you have too much tenderizer in the mixture.

These things become apparent when you know the HOWS and WHYs behind baking, something a recipe will never tell you.

I get more baking-how-to questions about oven temperatures than any other query. Home bakers have been duped into thinking that somehow oven temperature and baking time are the keys to successful baked goods. It’s not true.

The greatest amount of baked good worry from home bakers comes from what happens in the oven. “How long should it bake?” “What’s the correct temperature?” “How do I know when it’s done?” These are all concerns expressed to me that the baker has very little control over.

Once your cake, pie, cookies, or bread enters the hot box, there’s very little you can do at that point to affect the outcome. When you add the fact that most ovens are mis-calibrated and are lying about their temperatures, it becomes even more difficult to control the baking part of baking.

I’m going to reveal that it is not the BAKING at all that causes most of the problems for bakers, but the MIXING. The biggest impact you can have on home baked goods in greater scrutiny of the method used to combine all the ingredients. You have much greater control over how something is mixed than how it is baked.

If you really want to solve all your baking-how-to questions, start with mixing-how-to answers. Think about it, ALL baked goods are made with the same handful of ingredients; flour, butter, milk, eggs, leavening agent, and flavors. It’s HOW these same ingredients are put together that makes such a wide variety of cookies, cakes, pies, pastries and breads. Mixing is the most important part of creating great baked goods, and the most often misunderstood step.

The object of mixing a dough or batter is to combine ingredients into a consistent form. This is obvious. However, there are chemical and biological elements going on behind the scenes that make this more important than just combining things.

Mixing is also meant to incorporate air, giving texture to the finished product. In a Creaming Method, fat and sugar are creamed together first. The gauge of success for this step is much more than just mixing them together. This is the first opportunity to trap air in the combination of fat and sugar.

“Add the eggs”, a recipe might say. What they don’t tell you is that egg yolks are the necessary ingredient to form an emulsion between the fat and liquids, two unmixable items. Creating a complete and smooth emulsification using egg yolks is a critical stage in any baked good.

The baking-how-to doesn’t stop there. When flour is mixed with liquids and agitated, gluten is formed. Gluten is the fibrous protein web that makes pizza crust and bagels tough and chewy. You don’t want a tough and chewy cake, so using the correct mixing method to avoid gluten development in cakes is another critical step not explained in a written recipe.

Even just before your successfully mixed cake batter, pie crust, or cookie dough enters the oven, you still have opportunity to assure that when it emerges, it’s the best it can be by portioning correctly. Cookies of all different sizes will bake differently. That’s why some are doughy and others burnt.

You can worry less about times and temperatures when you apply a little behind-the-scenes comprehension, a little baking-how-to that will make any written recipe suddenly deliver improved results.

What’s your biggest baking challenge? Please leave your questions in the comment box below: