Hawaiian-Style Stew

Made Hawaiian-Style Stew tonight that I had written about before. Really enjoy the soup-style stew. Just has carrots, potatoes and turnips. I add shoyu before eating and eat with rice and kim chee, the way I grew up doing. First bowl is like the pix with rice on the side. For seconds, bowl is just soup with rice, slurping up to finish. Almost like shabu shabu or ochazuke but with stew soup.

Shrimp Curry

Felt lazy last night so just made curry again that I posted before. Put in more shrimp this time. A real comfort food for me of Hawaii.

Hawaii Rainbow

Picture of a rainbow in Hawaii sent to me by my daughter, taken at Kahala Beach in Honolulu while on an afternoon walk on the beach close to home.



Rainbow, musume (daughter) and mago (granddaughter) - very favorite picture of mine.



And to show the nature of rainbows, a couple minutes later when the clouds passed, the sun came out and the rainbow was gone.

This post was prompted by Kat of Our Adventures in Japan, mentioning rainbows in Hawaii.

I have seen rainbows here in Okinawa but not to the frequency as in Hawaii, where after every rain shower there seems to be one. Actually few and far in between here in Okinawa, and don't last long.

Chashu or Nibuta

This is the Japanese way of making their chashu, unlike the Chinese style of roasting for their char siu, this is braised. And I like to leave it in the shoyu mix longer than usual to get a very concentrated glaze on it. You can save the pork broth to use for ramen, adding a bit of the shoyu mix.

Pork belly is rolled and tied into a cylnder (top), then lightly boiled for an hour with green onions and cabbage. Then the cooked cylinders are put in a sauce of shoyu, mirin, sake and shoyu, rolled around for a half hour to color and flavor the surface. Slice, eat it on rice or put on ramen. Ono! Especially if put sauce on the rice!

There are many, many recipes, each chef/cook in Japan must have his own. I just keep mine simple.

Looks fatty, but that's the nature of pork belly, and I love it!

Braised Pork Ribs

This is just pork ribs cooked in a crockpot about 3~4 hours over sliced round onions, after marinating in red bean curd (nam yue), oyster sauce and Shaohsing wine. I don't stir it at all, maybe basting a bit half-way, but not disturbing the onions at the bottom. You get a pretty good broth without adding any water.

Uncooked pork ribs as bought, shown below, are the ends with the cartiledge tips that are so tender. Same ribs are used when I make Soki Nitsuke. When cooked a long time, the cartiledge bcomes so soft you can eat it all! Nice soft crunchy texture. There're no real bones in these pieces.

Relatively inexpensive. You can see it costs 256 yen (~$2.15). Interesting how it's sold. All the individual pieces seem to be frozen into a block, then are cut (sawed) into sell size. You do buy it frozen. But so handy, already cut in bite-size pieces.

Rainy day in Okinawa...

Taken a few minutes ago. Been raining since last night. Thunderstorms throughout. Let up a little. But as usual the parking lot across Jusco is packed with people going to Jusco, the 7-plex movie theater and the American Village shopping area (behind the ferris wheel). Not to mention Jusco's two top floors are parking too!.

Made lotus root/pork rib with red dates soup last night and now making braised pork ribs with Chinese red bean curd/oyster sauce. Both in the crockpot. Also making kim chee right now, salting the cabbage first. Post them all later. The weekend is really the only time when I can cook special or involved things.

Waiting for the papio

Am waiting for July/August when the papio run starts here in Okinawa at about the same time as in Hawaii. This a papio I caught the other year that ended up being steamed Chinese-style (julienned green onions and ginger, sliced shiitake mushrooms, sesame oil and shoyu, garnished w/ Chinese parsley) and was thoroughly enjoyed by my neighbors. But no picture of the final presentation as this was before this blog and all interested in was taking a picture of catch.

I just whip with curly tail lures (clear or white) and white wood egg bobbers I bring from Hawaii, a lure or method not used here. I'm always asked what I'm using, since I'm catching and getting hits when no one else is.

Papio in Okinawa are called gara. There's seems to be no fishing regulations that I know of here. I've asked a lot of folks. In fact Okinawans keep whatever fish they catch, but love the real small keiki papio, maybe only 1-1/2''~2''. My co-workers say to just deep-fry them and enjoy while drinking Orion and awamori. Me, I throw them back. I go by the old Hawaii regulation of 7''. A side comment - I haven't seen gill nets here. Would be amazing at these river mouths. Not that I condone it, just wonder why the Okinawans don't do it. Maybe there are some regulations.

When the run starts I go for a half hour or so after work and on weekend mornings depending on the tide, and before it gets too hot at a small river mouth close by where I live. Below is a typical catch. Can be only a couple or at the peak maybe 6~8 per day.

I enjoy eating them - perfect size to pan-fry and eat with just shoyu like I did in Hawaii. But after a while there's too much and I do get tired of eating it every day. First time catch maybe 4, eat two that night, save two for the next day. Next day catch 4 more, then 4 more the following day, etc. Crazy, huh? Whoever heard of getting tired of eating papio? I freeze some but end up bringing in to the office to give away. There are always takers. So much so there's list of people to take turns. But I just enjoy the fishing on light tackle. And it never goes to waste. This is a fish that you never see in supermarkets, though I did once see about a 1 lb. size one in the seafood section at the market of Kokusai-Dori in Naha. Have a feeling the Okinawan fishermen keep all for their home/personal use.

Added note:

When I was growing up, my mother had this strange quirk. I don't know if it was a Chinese based superstition but she would not eat and hence not feed us red fleshed fish, especially for sashimi. Never had ahi or any other tuna at home. She would buy ulua filets from her regular fish guy at Oahu Market. I remember going there as a young kid. So would eat ulua sashimi. For those who don't know ulua, it's the grown-up papio. These guys can grow over 100 pounds.

But can't eat ulua like that too much now-a-days. Being at the top of the food chain of predatory reef fish, they contain a high amount of this thing called ciguatera, that can make you very ill. Cooking doesn't get rid of the toxin. It's from a certain seaweed that the small reef fish eat. Big fish eat little fish, and so up the line, and this poison gets concentrated in the larger fish. There are test kits to check if the ulua (there are other fishes affected too) are OK to consume. But many people avoid it today. Wonder if there's a ciguatera problem here in Okinawa. Haven't heard.

Best Foods Mayonnaise

I am really fortunate to easily get Best Foods Mayonnaise on base here. Don't know what I'd do without it! Cannot handle Japanese mayonnaise like the popular Kewpie, and cannot handle Miracle Whip either. The taste is different. Grew up with Best Foods in Hawaii. And I'm not used to seeing yellowish mayonnaise like Kewpie. For mayonnaise it's gotta be Best Foods (or Hellmann's).

It is a ''requirement'' for macaroni or potato salad in Hawaii. Nothing else will do.

From club sandwiches, to subs, to BLTs, to tuna salad or egg salad sandwiches, to using a mayo/shoyu mix as a dip for boiled artichokes or fresh watercress or grilled dried ika, it's gotta be Best Foods.

A very favorite sandwich spread I make, and so easy, involves chopping/dicing up small any leftover meats that I have and mixing with BF. From the Kalbi Shortribs I made the other night (used for my dinner tonight - pix below), to shoyu chicken, to teri beef, to steak, anything, to even kalua pork, it is just a divine sandwich! Whatever used to marinate the meat gets mixed with and flavors the mayo!

Pasta Puttanesca 2

Anchovy pasta again, as I posted before - Pasta Puttanesca. Very rich, very ono! This time on small shells with Parmesan sprinkled over. Remembered the capers this time.

By the way, I like my pasta as a sauce served over the pasta, not pasta and sauce mixed prior to serving as is so often done. I like the look of it much better, and the mixing portions of sauce and pasta as I eat.

Kalbi Short Ribs

A mess of kalbi short ribs I made last night. Did it on a grill pan because my apartment frowns on having a hibachi on the lanai. One big disadvantage of living in a highrise aparment. But still ono!

Chinese-Hawaiian Shrimp Curry

Just a simple & fast shrimp curry I make. A comfort food of home. Unlike the typical brown curry here in Japan.

Chinese-Hawaiian Shrimp Curry

1/2~1 cup vegetable oil
1 ea. onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
~3/4 cup flour
4 tsp. curry powder (McCormick)
water, as needed
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. shoyu
1 can evaporated milk (14 oz.)
1/2 box frozen peas (~4 oz.), thawed
1 can diced potatoes (6 oz.), drained
1 lb. cooked shrimp, peeled, deveined

1. Heat oil on med., add onion, cook until translucent ~3 min., stirring constantly, watching carefully so doesn't burn.
2. Add garlic, cook ~30 sec. stirring.
3. Add flour, stir to brown.
4. Add curry powder, stir to brown.
5. Add cold water gradually to thin mixture to desired consistency.
6. Add salt, sugar & shoyu.
7. Add evaporated milk, stirring constantly, then peas.
8. Add shrimp & potatos to curry sauce, heat through.

Leftovers Dinner

A dinner of leftovers from a co-worker - tonkatsu by his wife (a really good cook).

This guy and I sort of let each other try our own foods. I had given him a mess of Beer/Miso/Shoyu Chicken. He responded with some tonkatsu.

I cooked some rice, heated the tonkatsu (lightly zapped in the microwave) and brought out some tsukudani I had previously bought from a Jusco "fair" and some takuan. Delicious dinner! The tonkatsu was great! Still tender and moist. Tsukudani on left was iriko and dried shrimp, one on right was thin dried fish and konbu strips.

Don't know where these are from in mainland Japan, but I get very, very similar stuff at home. Surprisingly it's from a Korean guy who goes around bars at night selling things. Especially good is his Korean nori, where it's heated slightly over flame and brushed with sesame oil and sprinkled with salt. It is really good! I always buy to bring back. My Okinawan friends love it.