Kalbi Glazed Pork Belly

 Kalbi Glazed Pork Belly (for Zoa)

5lbs pork belly

1 cup each sugar, soy sauce, Thai sweet chili sauce, mirin

4 cups water

1 small grated onion

1 small asian pear peeled and finely grated

1/4 cup minced garlic and ginger

2 TBS sesame oil

1/4 black pepper

2 green onions 

1 bunch cilantro

Place pork belly fat side up in pan or pot. 

Mix rest of ingredients and pour over pork belly. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat, reduce heat and simmer, covered 2 1/2 hours or until pork belly is soft. 

Carefully remove meat from liquid and place in single layer in pan. Refrigerate uncovered overnight. Strain cooking broth into separate container, cover and refrigerate. 

Next day, remove fat from cooking liquid. Pour into saucepan and bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until thickened. Eat with meat. 

Kalua Pig

 Oven Kalua Pig

4 lbs pork butt

2 TBS rock salt

1/4 cup liquid smoke

4 large TI leaves, ribs removed (TI leaves can be found in the freezer section at certain asian markets, usually south asian markets)

Score (slice) pork on all sides making 1/4 inch deep slits one inch apart. Rub salt into slits then rub all sides with liquid smoke. Wrap in Ti leaves, then wrap foil all around and seal. Let sit and marinade for 30-45 minutes. 

Place on rack in shallow roasting pan. Roast for 45 minutes at 550 degrees, lower heat to 400 degrees for 3 1/2 hours or until done. 

Shred cooked pork and let stand in pan juices before serving. Can also add sautéed cabbage for more authentic local eats. 

Shoyu Chicken, Katsu Chicken, Pancit Bihon

Shoyu Chicken

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup shoyu

1 TBS garlic

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 cup water

1/2 tsp sesame oil

4 lbs of chicken thighs

In bowl mix all the sauce ingredients. Pour over chicken in large oven pan. Cover with foil and bake for 55 minutes. Serve with rice. 

Katsu Chicken L & L style

2 lbs boneless breasts or thighs

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups panko

vegetable oil

Pound breasts and thighs individually between wax paper until thinner but not scallopini thin. 

Dredge in flour, dip in eggs and then cover in panko. Fry in oil until golden brown both sides about 3-5 minutes each. Let drain. Slice and serve with dipping sauce and rice. 

Katsu sauce

1/3 cup ketchup

dash of pepper

1/3 cup shoyu

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Mix well. 

Pancit Bihon

Vegetable oil

chopped small onion

chopped green onion

bok choy sliced

1/2 green cabbage shredded

4 large chopped carrots

3 crushed garlic cloves

1 chicken breast sliced thin

Patis

Shoyu

Ginger 

1 pkg bihon pancit noodles (the clear ones, Pancit Canton are the yellow egg noodles)

Soak bihon noodles in warm water for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside. In wok fry meat first then all vegetables in vegetable oil adding 1-2 TBS patis, 3-4 TBS shoyu and 1 TBS ginger while cooking. Add noodles when vegetables are done. Stir fry another few minutes with noodles. Mix it all up and serve with rice. 

Hawaiian Sweet Bread recipe

This is the one I used to make in my bread machine then changed it up for food processor. It's like basic bread making recipe. Dry first then mix in your wet. Make sure everything is a little warmer than room temp for the yeast to activate. 

2 1/2 tsp yeast

4 cups flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 TBS butter

1 egg

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

Mix all together. Let rise 30 minutes. Punch down, shape into loaf pan or pie plate. Bake 30 minutes at 350. 

Wiki Wiki Ono Ono Chicken

Hawaiian recipe for a quick potluck dish or dinner. Got the recipe from the star bulletin but it's super easy and simple. Foodland always sold chicken thighs in these large 5 lb boxes which were great for potluck nights. Eat this with rice if there's any left for you.

5 lb box of chicken thighs

1 12 oz can of orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup sweet Thai chili sauce

1/4 cup oyster sauce

2 cloves garlic

Throw all in pot and simmer for 45 minutes. Can add a little water as the liquid cooks down. 

Malasadas!

On days we travel towards the big city we would stop at Leonards food truck and get a greasy bag of hot malasadas which would never make it out of the parking lot. Here you can make some at home. Eat hot. 

Malasadas

1 pkg yeast

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup milk-scalded

5 beaten eggs

3 1/4 cup flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp each almond, vanilla

Oil for deep frying

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk. Let cool, add eggs, flavorings and sugar. Blend until sugar dissolves. Add flour and salt. Cover bowl with cloth and set in warm place. Let dough rise 2-3 hours. Spoon by drops into hot oil. Fry until golden. Shake in sugar in brown bag or roll in sugar. Eat hot. 

Kaki Mochi and Haupia

A treat. It's not bad, it's pretty ono.

Kaki Mochi

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup shoyu

1 8oz pkg rice chex cereal

Mix sugar and shoyu well until blended. Add cereal and mix thoroughly. Put in rectangle cake pan in single layer. Bake at 250 for 25-30 minutes. Cool and cut into squares.

Haupia (Hawaiian coconut pudding)

a standard for touristy luaus and church get togethers. This is the recipe from Wahiawa AG.

7 TBS cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 cups coconut milk

Mix all in medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stir constantly until a rapid boil. Remove from heat. Pour into greased rectangle cake pan. Chill until firm, cut into squares and serve. 

Portuguese/Hawaiian Sweet bread

Mix together your dry ingredients. 

2 1/2 tsp yeast

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

4 cups flour

Mix together in another bowl

2 TBS melted butter

1 egg

1/2 cup very warm water

1/2 cup very warm milk

Add wet to dry in food processor. Mix until dough is soft and pliable. Let rise 30 minutes in greased and covered bowl. Punch down, let rise in greased pie pan another 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. 

Uncle Herberts Spam Musubi

Finally, that wonderful Uncle Herbert Spam Musubi recipe. The girls are making it right now. Key word to remember is HOT. as in temperature. Rice must be hot, spam must be hot. The heat makes the nori soft to cling to your musubi. It's the rule in sushi making. Remember too that you don't have to fry up your spam in the sato shoyu sauce or add the sushi sauce to the rice. You can just fry up your spam and have unsweetened rice like the kind you get at 7-11 in Wahiawa. So here goes:

Make one pot of sticky rice-calrose or jasmine. Calrose makes the best.

Fry your spam in slices. For the sato shoyu sauce it is: 2 TBS each shoyu, sugar plus 1 TBS mirin (japanese sweet vinegar). Fry them in the sauce until it thickens, turning often.

In a cup mix 1/3 cup each white vinegar, sugar plus one tsp salt.  Stir until it's mixed well, pour over hot rice and stir it all up so all the rice is covered in it.

Quickly lay out your nori (cut in 1/2 sheets), add 1 slice of spam and pat rice on top. Roll together tight and there you are. You can use your spam can to get it right shape or look for a cookie cutter that is thick and rectangular if you don't have a musubi mold. Or if you have a sushi mold use that and make different shapes.

Enjoy!

Uncle Herberts Spam Musubi

This is our favorite recipe for cooking spam. You not only use it for musubi but you can dice the spam, cook it in this sauce and serve it over rice with some steamed broccoli or bok choy. Delicious! We got the recipe from Uncle Herbert Victor, our friend from Wahiawa Assembly of God when we lived on the aina. Recipe can be doubled.

Spam

1 can spam sliced
2 TBS shoyu (aloha! is the best or another "wheat" tasting shoyu. Not Japanese)
2 TBS sugar
1 TBS mirin (japanese rice wine vinegar)

Fry spam in this until it thickens.

Sushi Rice

HOT cooked rice (calrose rice. Hinode is our house brand)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 TBS salt

Mix sugar, vinegar and salt in bowl. Heat in microwave 30 seconds. Stir well so sugar dissolves. Pour over HOT rice, mix well.

Musubi

Sushi rice, teri-spam and nori. Cut nori into strips to fit whatever size you like on your musubi. Put a piece of nori in your musubi mold. Add spam on top, hot rice mix on that. Roll nori over it and pat down. Make sure spam and rice are HOT! because that's what molds the nori over it to soften it and make it yummy, not crunchy.

You can also add toasted sesame to the rice or to the musubi, your choice. If you use your spam can to make musubi, pat your rice in the can, dump out carefully and you have the shape. Wrap in nori/spam quickly.

This is for Josh because he requested it a few times recently. xoxo