The Jolly Fox
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Maui Pt. 3: Things I Made.
My Maui posts are almost over. Actually I think there is going to be one more after this one, showing you some amazing vegan options on Maui. This time around I thought I would show you some of what I made while there.
Within the first two days of being there, I hit up Whole Foods, Costco, & the farmer’s market in Makawao. I loaded up on goodies as I had a few things in mind I wanted to make. I knew I wanted to make both Hawaiian inspired quick breads from Eat the Love, a vegan version of Hawaiian sweet bread, a vegan Hawaiian burger, and some of the taro recipes from an old issue of VegNews.
I decided to start with the Honey Mango Orange Bread from Eat the Love. I replaced the 3 eggs with 3 tsp dry Ener-G Egg Replacer (NOT mixed with water) and it came out excellent. Very moist, loaded with Hawaiian mango, humane organic Hawaiian honey, local navel oranges and Maui grown organic vanilla beans (which you can get for a little less than $1 a piece!).
I had to smuggle some vegan white chocolate chips over on the plane to make the White Chocolate Ginger Papaya Bread from Eat the Love. I used a Hawaiian strawberry papaya and subbed out the butter for Earth Balance. I replaced the eggs with 3 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer and replaced the yogurt with So Delicious Dairy Free Yogurt. This turned out to be a moist and delicious bread. It was difficult deciding if this bread or the mango bread was better. I loved incorporating the papaya seeds into the bread batter.
Here is my Hawaiian Sweet Bread attempt. The flavor was right, but the texture was far too dense. Going to try again and hopefully have a recipe for y’all.
The only taro recipe I had an opportunity to make was the Taro Poke from VegNews. It was excellent. I loved it so much I have made it since being home. I’ve also made the Pineapple-Taro Smoothie since I’ve been back, using some of the Maui Gold Pineapple I brought home.
This guy showed up while I was photographing the Poke.
And then there were these Hawaiian Burgers, with a not so great patty, but with amazing Maui Gold Pineapple, mashed Big Island avocado, sauteed Maui sweet onions, and homemade Teriyaki Aioli made with Kupa’a Organic Farms amazing Elephant Garlic. Now I don’t want to trash talk, but I happened to have a coupon good for some free Gardein. I enjoy their “chik”n” products, so I thought I’d give the burgers a try. They’re not terrible, just incredibly similar to a Boca Burger, and I know we’ve all had better veggie/vegan burgers than those. So, def try it if there are no other burger options, but this burger would be great with a homemade patty or some of those crazy good ones from Costco whose brand name escapes me. Don something….. Despite the so-so patty, the rest of the burger was great. The aioli I invented was so good, that my friend and I snuck some into a restaurant in Lahaina to jazz up our veggie burgers there. 😉
The Jolly Fox 
Reblogged this on shsphotoshop and commented:
looks good
Thank you!
Your photos are looking good. I am so bummed I missed you again now that I am reading these. You have to come back. I am headed back next week, Screw this rain/cold crap. Great blogging!
We will see each other next time! Hope Maui is treating you well since you’ve been back. Can’t wait to visit again and see you and Penny! 🙂
All those recipes look so good! Now you’ve totally got me pining for Hawaiian mango. I tried Boca Burgers for the first time when we were there (can’t get them in Canada), everyone online seems to think they’re great but I thought they were kind of gross. We jazzed ours up by adding pineapple, red onion and smart bacon, it wasn’t half bad! I missed out on the taro, that’s something I definitely want to try when we go back, how does it taste?
The Gardein burgers were so similar to Boca you may just consider yourself having tried both! While I love that Boca makes vegan burgers (therefore giving me options in places like Red Robin–chain restaurant) they are so NOT my fav. Glad you were also able to make yours edible by adding yummy stuff! Taro on the other hand, is the freakin’ BEST. It’s super starchy, but tender and ever so slightly sweet when you cook it. Sweetness aside, it lends itself well to savoury stuff. It is probably most like a potato and makes great chips/fries and poke! It’s also a huge Hawaiian staple as they make this stuff called poi out of it. I’ve never tried poi, but hope to some day. People tend to have mixed feelings over it, but I love taro so much I think I will probably like it. Taro is also really nutritious, filled with tons of vitamins and that despite their starchiness, they digest and metabolize easily and are a good-for-you food. Warning though–if you decide you want to give taro a try, always glove yourself when dealing with fresh ones. The outer hull is fine, but the raw inside has stuff in it that irritates certain people’s skin. It makes my hands/fingers feel like they’re going numb. I think the leaves and parts of the plant are mildly toxic when raw, so I use gloves when cutting them up. You can pre-cut frozen taro from an asian grocer–who will likely have the fresh as well. There are a couple of different varieties, but the two I’ve tried are similar enough. Also, the brand Terra makes taro chips. They have them mixed in with sweet potato chips…or if you have access to a particularly well stocked Whole Foods, you can find bags of just taro chips (also made by Terra). They’re really pricey (which is weird because taro is relatively cheap) but that being said, I CANNOT buy them ever because I eat the entire bag in one sitting. Not like there’s a ton in there but still…..SO GOOD. okay, longest comment reply ever. 😉