Keiki Palaka Band and Friends

Uncle Mel and Aunty Lynn Murata are a wonderful couple who truly embody the soul of Aloha. For thirteen years Uncle Mel has taught and led the Keiki Palaka Band ("KPB") out of first Waimanalo and now Kailua Elementary.

Aunty Lynn retired last year as the cafeteria head of Enchanted Lakes Elementary. Uncle Mel heads up the Kailua Elementary cafeteria. These people know FOOD and MUSIC. All year round they host a number of luaus not as fundraisers but to showcase both their keiki band who sing and play 'ukulele and also Hawaiian music legends. These are the kupuna musicians who have made a mark on Hawaiian music. The idea was the Muratas wanted the keiki to get to know and appreciate prior generations of musicians. Everything is done on a strictly volunteer basis.

I just returned from an all-day invitational luau or pa'ina, the Kanikapila 2009, for friends and supporters of the KPB. The food you ask? Kalua pig, chicken long rice, squid luau, lomi salmon, sweet potato, poi, rice, haupia, pineapple, banana muffin, 'ahi poke, fried fish, smoke meat, edamame, pickle onion and drinks. The music which lasted three hours? The KPB headed by Uncle Mel, Nicki Haines, Aunty Momi, Aunty Cissy, Eddie Kamae, Audrey Meyers, many others and impromptu hula by those in the audience called upon by Aunty Nicki. The price of a ticket? Twelve dollars (which only barely covers the food) and undying support of these kids which just comes naturally.

I have in my mind's eye a couple of sweet images from today's luau. There was an elderly woman who in very kolohe fashion, was gently tickling her guy friend across the table using the tip of a laua'e leaf. He was trying hard to ignore her. Another woman was unravelling and redoing her friend's upswept hairdo which carried a garden of gardenias. She was doing this so that she could share some of the gardenias with their other friends around the table.

Earlier this morning during the food prep I had a cup of coffee in one hand, I'd just finished an all butter, old school, cafeteria-style, shortbread cookie and a big slice of Paula Deen's Mt. Dew Pound cake made by Tracy. The guys were rehearsing so I was eating to rousing live Hawaiian music. Radford, one of the cooks from Ench. Lakes, offered me a sizzzzling hot early morning pupu of Korean fish directly from the hot wok. My kind of breakfast. That reminded me of a luau prep at 7:00 a.m. on Molokai, four years ago. We were sitting at a picnic table at a park pavillion. I had my ever-present cup of coffee and my hands were busily separating sticky crab from cartilage. My friend, Ruthie Naki Manu asked me if I'd had breakfast, I motioned "No". So, she obligingly popped chunks of local LOBSTER in my mouth. That's what I call a Breakfast of Champions.

Eating Your Way Through Hilo

I got back last week from the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo. It is a weeklong celebration of hula culminating in three evenings of the dance from Thursday to Saturday nights. There is also a free performance, the Ho'ike, on Wed. night that is not televised as the last three nights are. I call it a hula marathon because you have to pace yourself and your energy in order to be at your best and most observant as hula cognoscenti when the performances start.

Not only is there world class hula every evening for 5 hours at the Edith Kanaka'ole Stadium but there's also yet more hula, craft fairs, art exhibitions and cultural presentations at the hotels, the malls throughout Hilo and and at 'Imiloa, UH-Hilo's Astronomy center. One of the biggest attractions for me, to Hilo, second only to the people, is the high quality and variety of the food. I can say that for a week every single meal I had was exceptional. It isn't just that this is my favorite island. The cooks really do seem to put more love and care into their offerings.

My first stop was Ken's Coffee House, open 24 hours, for broiled mahi, eggs and pancakes. The mahi has a wonderful smoked flavor, grill marks and very moist flesh. The pancakes come with homemade syrups of guava, coconut and liliko'i. If you order a cup of coffee you get that along with a thermal carafe so that you can pour yourself as much coffee as you like.

That first day I also went to Two Ladies Mochi to pick up mochi and drop off omiyage for my friend Nora Uchida, a co-owner. Had to stop by Big Islands Candies where Lance, their floral designer, was creating a beautiful tableau of yellow and red lehua blossoms in dozens of glass cups. It was a Wednesday, so I picked up ruby-red and luscious Waimea strawberries and 3 bundles of gardenias from the Farmer's Market. On my way out to Volcano I popped into KTA at Puainako for some POG (passion, orange, guava juice) and eggs for my breakfasts.

I did something different this year and reasoning that I spend half my time at the Park anyway I elected to stay at a place in Volcano Village. The round trip by car from Volcano to Hilo is 45 minutes, something that you would want to do only once a day. So, I spent my time hiking and hanging out at Volcano National Park during the day and in the evening I would drive to Hilo for the hula performances.

My friend, Ku'ulei, who lives in Volcano, tipped me off to the soups that they have at the two general stores, Kilauea and Volcano. On previous visits to these stores, I'd noticed crockpots by the chili, the hot dogs and coffee but didn't pay any attention to them. They contain country style, hearty, chunky soups. A pint of these are perfect for picking up before you go into the Park for hiking. I had a Portuguese bean soup that was much like something I'd make at home and a satisfying Mulligatawny soup. The temperature in Volcano ranged from 60 deg. during the day to a chilly 44 deg. at night, good soup weather.

On Sunday I woke up at 6 am after going to bed at 1 from the last night of hula. I thought "I'll get to the Volcano Farmer's Market when the true locals arrive, at 6:30 am!" Not! I could barely find parking and the place was jumping. Turns out the reeaal locals start arriving at 5: 30!
Went straight to Joyce to get the best pastries ever. For, say a bearclaw, you get half mincemeat and half flaky pastry in every bite. Then, on to something I dream about when I'm home in Kailua, the Thai Lady's Tom Yum chicken soup. Try as I might I've never been able to perfect her clear stock, the homemade sambal oelek or the secret flavored oils she adds, the correct proportion of cloud's ear to potato to long rice and fresh basil leaves.

The produce is always outstanding but I noticed the addition of a new dessert lady offering mile-high apple and banana pies, liliko'i squares, dark chocolate brownies cloaked in ganache and ohelo berry tarts. Another vendor had freshly fried doughnuts dipped in chocolate and caramel!

My favorite way to enjoy breakfast was to wake up early before the buses arrived in the Park. I'd make the short hike out to Byron's Ledge with a true concert of birdsong around me and the crunch of my boots on the dirt. In the distance I could hear but never saw, nene geese. I'd sit on a log with my hard boiled egg, my POG, apple bananas, Waimea strawberries and hot Puna coffee as I contemplated the mile high cloud plume coming out of Halema'uma'u Crater in the distance.

And people ask me why I love the Big Island so much.

A Grandfather's Legacy

Our grandfather is C. Q. Yee Hop or Chun Quon Yee Hop. He came to Hawai'i from Guandong, China in the early 1900's and established a number of businesses here. Wanda Adams attended our C. Q. family's Chinese New Year's banquet this last February. She was particularly taken by a steamed fish fillets and tofu dish served that night. Locally, this technique is often prepared with blistering hot peanut and sesame oils poured over a whole steamed fish, like Moi.

The link below is to a an article that Wanda did after Golden Palace's chef demonstrated the dish for us. Wanda, the photographer and I scarfed down most of the banquet-sized platter in the middle of the afternoon even though we'd already had lunch. It was just so delicious!

I was pleasantly surprised that Wanda wrote an extensive article on my Gung Gung's life history, in addition to the recipe.

Here is an email I sent out:
Hi, Family and Friends,
Here is an article in today's Advertiser that has some background about my grandfather. Having Wanda and her husband at the family dinner and seeing it all through her eyes made me appreciate my family and its place in Hawai'i's history more. There is also an accompanying article on this site at the top, with recipes for this fish dish that was really 'ono.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090318/LIFE02/903180363/-1

Ed. note: If you do make this fish dish I would highly recommend using soft tofu for it's custard-like texture and Kim Lan Light Soy Sauce, available in Chinatown.

-foodiewahine

"Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie"

Did that heading make you 'ono (hungry)? It is the title of a 21 minute documentary about celebrated Southern chef and author, Miss Edna Lewis, which was filmed, produced and directed by gifted filmmaker Bailey Barash of Georgia.

Bailey wrote to me, I imagine, because I've cited the subjects of her documentary, Miss Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, as two of my culinary heroes in my blog.
Her note follows:

Hello -I am a filmmaker in Atlanta. I just wanted to let you know I produced a 21 minute documentary about Miss Edna Lewis. The film is called "Fried Chicken and Sweet Potato Pie".It is viewable in its entirety on Internet at a Gourmet Magazine website:http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/video/2008/01/Edna
and at a Georgia Public Broadcasting website:http://www.cforty7.com/film/theater?film_test=16
My website, http://bbarash.com/bb_friedchicken.htm has more information about the film and the story of Miss Lewis.
Sincerely,
Bailey Barash

This documentary has been nominated for and won awards. Bailey has done a super job of capturing the times of Miss Edna's life. Her passion and love for Southern food is evident in every frame. Miss Edna is considered to be THE chef who put real, local Southern cooking on the map. Not unlike the Hawaiian Renaissance, her cooking at Cafe Nicholson and Gage and Tollner in NY and her own award winning cookbooks, created an upsurge of Black pride in the culture and the food.

Watch the documentary! I loved seeing Miss Edna and Scott working together, cooking together. Up to this point I've only seen photos of them. Be sure you have some good food at the ready to eat after the viewing because it's going to make you very hungry for some authentic Southern food. Crispy, golden, fried chicken! Luscious caramel cake! Vine-ripened tomatoes! Fortunately, I happened to have made a batch of Shirley Corriher's (yet another of my heroes and from the South, too) Touch of Grace biscuits last night. I heated that up with my son's killer chili!

I wrote to Bailey to thank her profusely for the link.

-foodiewahine

Smokeout Sequel

Smoking foods has changed the way I cook. Several weeks after the Smokeout I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't forget all the tips and techniques I'd learned. So, I fired up the grill again. This time I checked out some websites that taught me how to use newspaper sprayed with Pam or vegetable oil, rolled into a "snake" and used with a charcoal chimney starter to get the coals going. It took only 15 minutes to get the coals ignited.

Once I got the coals to the white ash stage and piled it with both 'ohia and kiawe woods, I smoked red bell peppers, guava jam-honey candied pecans, plus cream and cheddar cheeses, for half an hour each. I then smoked raw pork butt in chunks and five pounds of chicken thighs for several hours. I used only salt, pepper and garlic powder on the meats. The whole smoking process and alternating the dishes took about four hours. This bounty is enough to provide you with an array of dishes for several weeks, if not months, once you freeze part of whatever you smoke.

The cheeses were eaten first at two gatherings with Ritz crackers, smoked crab dip and kiwi pico de gallo. I must say they were a hit at both parties. Some of the pecans were given away while the remainder is in the refrigerator and to be snacked on. Chopped, the pecans can elevate almost any baked good (imagine cinnamon rolls, brownies, frosting topping) to a whole other level.

I removed the skins from the smoked peppers and added balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Smoked peppers can be kept in a jar for weeks to be used in pastas, subs, soups and sauces.

The smoked pork butt added a delicious addition to saimin, fried rice and fried noodles, just as one would use char siu. You can also slice it thinly, quickly saute it with onions, remove the meat and make a gravy for the pork slices with the grillettes, the browned bits in the pan.

My favorite has to be the smoked chicken. It has a depth of complex flavors which enhances any dish. A decent chicken stock normally requires, at the very least, an hour of slow simmering and alot of skimming. With smoked chicken as a base, a complete and flavorful soup can be served in half an hour!

Simple Smoked Chicken and Green Papaya Soup
I used Edna Lewis' trick of coddling a couple of the smoked chicken thighs in an inch of water for 20 minutes in a covered saucepan. Much of the juice (Edna calls it the "essence"which gives you an idea of how tasty it is) is extracted from the chicken. Cut the chicken into cubes and add back into the broth. Then add a cup and a half of water and large cubes of green papaya. Simmer until the green papaya is barely cooked. This is a simple rendition of Chicken and Papaya Soup. If you do not have green papaya, a Chinese squash can be substituted. If neither of those are available, you could add in any of your favorite soup vegetables.


Now that I know how to smoke I've started to notice how many other products there are on the market: smoked almonds, potato chips, paprika and cayenne spices, ancho peppers (chipotle), deli meats, pork belly for bacon, ham shanks and hocks. It will be interesting to continue to experiment with other foods in the near future. David Izumi has hinted that the response to the Smokeout was good so Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay may be sponsoring another class soon.

-Foodiewahine

SSSMOKIN'

David Izumi is a culinary genius. Once in a great while you meet someone who understands food very well. He appreciates each nuance of the food he cooks and knows how to marry flavors well. He even makes his own smokers. By trade he is an underwater robotics teacher at Kailua High but by passion he is the consummate cook, "...not a chef" he humbly contends.

I, along with about 20 others, had the opportunity on Monday to learn from and assist David at my church's, Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay's, Smokeout. It was a prelude to our SuperBowl tailgate party to be held at HCKB on Feb. 1 at noon. Visit the HCKB website and look under "events" for more info if you are interested in attending.

Three members of the Men of Hope Ministry, which hosted the Smokeout and will host the upcoming tailgate party, stayed up all night to stoke the fire in Kaneohe's freezing weather. Freezing to us is in the low 60's. Charcoal (without the use of lighter fluid so as not to spoil the flavor) was used to ignite the kiawe wood which was kept at a low 220-225 deg. F.

The sharp, enticing smell of the smoke mingled with the cool Kaneohe morning breeze when I got there at noon. We were told to bring anything to smoke-"pasta, eggs, cheese" and meats and fish, of course. There were two upright smokers made out of water heaters, one made from a vertical oil drum and one conventional Weber smoker.

David's taught classes at WCC on smoking and has done this many times so he relies on instinct to tell everything: when the wood is ready for the food, when the food is fully smoked, when the fire is too hot or cold. He said that food can be fully cooked by smoking or just partially cooked with the final cooking left for later.

This is not roasting, grilling or broiling the food. It is exposing the food to a low heat over an extended period of time to impart some cooking and alot of smoke flavor.

Our feast that evening started with a teaser of wild pig smoke meat, succulent and surprisingly tender, a pupu straight from the grill of cod, then on to smoked candied walnuts, two pico de gallos (like salsas) of peaches and kiwis, a smoked cream cheese and crab dip, smoked hard boiled eggs, smoked cheddar cheese for dipping, smoked wet and dry rub pork ribs, smoked juicy brisket and whole chicken, creamy and cool coleslaw and the best baked beans any of us had ever had. Oh, and virgin mojitos with peach juice!

This would have been an impressive spread if it had been a potluck and everyone had brought their Best dish but no. All of these recipes were floating around in David's head and he had just to delegate to us what to do to create them. Nothing written down, not even a shopping list. And, in between the feast for 60 or so, each of us class participants had our own packets or pans of food smoked.

I marinated two racks of pork ribs in the recipe I created below which includes homemade guava jam, red wine vinegar, brown sugar. I left the ziplocs in the fridge for three days. The ribs were smoked for 5 hours. That's a photo of my ribs to the left of this post.

Mahalo, David,Sharon, Rodney, Rob, Eric, Bert, Charlie and all the Men of Hope Ministry helpers. We were truly Sssmmokin'!

- foodiewahine

David's Pico de Gallo
from the Honolulu Advertiser, Taste Section, Jan. 28,2009
· 4 (14 1/2-ounce) cans peaches (note: can use 10 kiwi fruit in a rough dice instead, use more mint, less cilantro, 1. ea. of fish sauce and chili sauce, 1 onion, 2 limes)
· 1 onion, finely chopped
· Juice of 2 limes
· 1 large handful cilantro leaves*
· 1 large handful fresh mint leaves*
· 1 tablespoon Sriracha chili sauce (or to taste)
· 1/2 tablespoon fish sauce (patis)
· Black pepper to taste
Mix all together, taste and correct seasonings. Allow to sit a short time before serving. Refrigerate if holding longer than a half hour.
Makes LOTS. A serving is about 2 tablespoons.
· Per serving: 71 calories, .2 g fat, 0 cholesterol, 1 mg sodium, 17.7 g carbohydrate *

My Guava Lacquered Smoke Ribs

Marinade
1 c. red wine vinegar
2 crushed bay leaves
4 T. brown sugar
1 t. chili flakes
2 crushed, minced garlic cloves
1 onion cut in 1/4 in. segments
1 juice of tangerine and ½ of it’s peel torn
½ c. guava jam
¼ c. red wine
Marinate 2 racks of raw pork ribs in Ziplocs for two to three days. Smoke, Barbecue or Broil.
___________________________________________________________________________
Note: Wanda Adams graciously attended our Smokeout and wrote three fabulous articles about David, HCKB and Smoking in the Food/Taste Section of Wednesday's, Jan. 28th's, Honolulu Advertiser. It will be available for viewing online on the Honolulu Advertiser's website for three months.

This is a link to the main article:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090128/LIFE02/901280340/-1/islandlifefront

I'm Back/Food Equipment Tips

Back on track for '09. I've been working the holiday seasonal shift at Williams-Sonoma Ala Moana doing food and equipment demos. It's been a hectic time but also rewarding in terms of what I've learned. Below is an email that I sent to friends and family.
________________________________________________________________________
Having breaks with the Williams-Sonoma associates who are all avid foodies or food professionals can be very interesting. Plus, bonus!, the treats are always especially yummy in the break room. Here are some great tips I've found so far.

W-S sells a commercial nonstick spray called Baklene that is terrific for all those Nordicware specialty pans, like their bugs and roses. The Nordicware rep told the crew that to make your cakes shiny as well, brush the pans with melted Crisco and then spray with the Baklene. Baklene costs more, 8., than Pam or Baker's Joy but it doesn't leave a sticky residue, it works better and the can weighs about twice as much as Pam in the regular markets. As far as I know, no one else in Hawaii carries this.

Breville makes the best pannini press. It can open wide for thicker sandwiches. You can also grill asparagus, chicken, etc. on it. One associate rhapsodized about it to the rest of us. Oprah had it on her O list this month so we have a little card advertising that next to the product.

Villaware makes the best Belgian waffle maker. The gal I work the most with, who's been there 14 years, says that she has 3 Villawares and you just need to butter the waffle iron once and it's good for the whole session. I've been demo-ing the All Clad Belgian Waffle Maker using the Baklene on the cold waffle iron. The All Clad faithfully churns out perfectly crisp waffles.

Just FYI. Oh, and if you do like to shop at WS anyway you should sign up at the counter for their email list which will tell you about most of their sales and samplings. I also think it's worth it to be on Borders and Barnes and Nobles' email lists for their monthly coupons!
______________________________________________________________

Another tip:

My wonderful church, Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay, serves serious food several times a week at services and meetings. I volunteer at our Courtyard Cafe every other Sunday. So far, I'm aware of 3 professional chefs-church members who help out at events.

Steve, one of HCKB's chefs on staff, was the head chef at Longhi's Ala Moana for three years. I'd read Alton Brown's suggestions re: nonstick pans in his book "Gear" and wanted Steve's opinion. Alton says to forget buying an expensive and heavy nonstick pan and just get an inexpensive and lighter pan which you will have to resign yourself to replacing every so often. Steve agreed. He said that the double pack of 8" nonstick pans at Sam's Club for just 20. is better than what you can buy at restaurant supply stores. I got a set and am happy to report that they ARE a great weight and are easy to handle. It's a breeze to do a one hand flip of the egg for over easy eggs. Problem solved!

-foodiewahine


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