Pizza + Beer = fun

I'd had more than a few spicy & sweets before I got took these less than awesome pictures.

By Cookbad

I made a really good pizza the other night. Maple Chipotle Soaked Pineapple & Ham Pizza and I served it with a beer cocktail that I named the Spicy & Sweet Shannon. the pictures are pretty bad. I'd had a few drinks, I was quivering with hunger. . . .

The Pizza:
Slice up some fresh pineapple. About 1 quarter a pineapple is enough for 1 pizza.
Cut into 1/8s and then slice them about 1/4 inch thick. Put them in a bowl with 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup water and a chunk or two of canned Chipotle peppers.
Marinde for 30 minute or more.
When they have marinaded, put the pineapple in one layer on a baking sheet, pour over some of he marinade and broil until the tops start to brown a bit.
Get some ham and slice it up into strips.
Dress you pizza


Next, go here for detailed directions on how to make grilled pizza or do it however you want. Top with sauce, cheese, the roasted pineapple and ham. We made this pizza on a particularly shitty grill so it took forever and I eventually just decided to finish it up in the oven.


The Spicy and Sweet Shannon:
All these flavors can be adjusted to your taste.
Pour all this into a pitcher:
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of maple syrup
a few shakes of cayanne pepper
Ice
4 light beers

Pour over more ice.
If you are thinking that it sounds an awful lot like the master cleanse with beer, you'd be right.
Sounds gross, but everyone that tried it really liked it.

The pizza, was terrific. I have been thinking about it for days.

Food on the North Shore

Mango Mama's is a good solid take-away choice for morning coffee and baked thing

When we are here we pretty much stick to the North Shore and more or less have only eaten places in Hanalei and Kilhuea. Over the years been to all the places mentioned below at least twice.

Tahiti Nui has the best Mai Tais on the island and is right next to the best hangover breakfast too!

Tropical Taco in Hanalei is good. Solid choice. Good lemonade. It used to be just a van, now they are to the right as you drive into town.

Sushi Blues in Hanalei .. nothing to crow about and you have to listen to live 'blues' while you eat your manhattan priced sushi. . .

Pau Hana Pizza in Kiluea . . .used to be pretty awesome, but I did eat at the best pizza places in Brooklyn in the past 2 months, so maybe I'm just more judgemental. They have a crust to topping doneness issue. Crust undone, topping cooked. Actually, come to think of it I find this a problem nationwide. Maybe ask them to make it well done and the crust will be okay. The pizza with pineapple, ham and chipolte is the best one.

they also have anice bakery and coffee

Hanalei Pizza. I've only been there twice, but they will make a pizza for you to bring home and cook. They are also really nice .

no. no. no.

Light House Bistro in Kiluea. . avoid, avoid, avoid. . . even if you have a coupon. Even if your option is a sandwich in your hotel/tent/renal cottage. Go home, light a candle and eat your PB&J outside by candlelight and you'll be happier.

Bar acuda or Baracuda in Hanalei. Tapas. Fine wine list. Nice desserts, great dessert wines. Extremely expensive for Hanalei. The host staff acts like you are trying to get a seat at Babbo at 7 on a Saturday. Avoid.

Lepperts in Princeville next to Foodland. Ice cream. . . do not avoid. go now. Buy a ticket to Kaua'i and go there . . . now. It is the kind of ice cream that makes you unable to sleep if there is any in the freezer at night.

Banana Joe's just outside Kiluea. . . good produce. They have mint growing out front that they let me pick for free.

banana joe's is known mostly for the smoothies that they make

Foodland Groceries (Kaapa'a vs. Princeville). . . Specifically Poke. It is good if you buy it in Kaap'a. Cheap and tasty. It is basically a tradition that I buy it first thing on the way to the house from the airport and eat it in the car. When purchased at the Princeville Foodland there is a good chance you will get ill from eating it.

Princeville Resort. . . The best place I have ever been for cocktails at sunset. Brunch is also nice. The New Years Eve party is pretty good too, although slightly more conservative a party than I would generally enjoy. Lunch and dinner are fine with a much better view and nicer staff than Baracuda for the same price. They do not scowl at you if your kids are running around like manicas.

Safeway (in Kapaa) is lame and more expensive than Foodland.

Fish Taco Van at Annini Beach. . . good. nice location. Just head to anini beach on the 'no outlet' road and the fish taco dude is usually parked around the picnic area. Buy the tacos and then drive to the very very end of the road to eat them.

goooood tacos. photo by malcome

Kihuea Fish Market. . . pretty much the best bet on the north shore. Fresh, good, laid back, nice location. Good for kids, good without kids. The poke here is far far better than foodland. The mahi mahi sandwich is terrific. It is just across from Kong Lung in Kihuea.

the best poke I have ever had came from here

There is nothing at all to eat at the Lihue Airport so if you have a long flight on any airline that wants to sell you a 'Bistro Box' or some shit like that stop in Kaap'a and pick something up. Or, there is Ono Burger. Ono means good in Hawaiian. This place is good. In my opinion the best burger on the island.

The menu, double click to see a larger image

a local boy and and old fashion.

Chicken Lu'au

tastes better than it looks

Basically I could just go out and pick everything in this dish. This island is rotten with wild chickens, but they are hard to catch (not that I have spent much time trying). There is taro everywhere and coconuts are so plentiful they actually kill more people at year than sharks do. True fact. I swear.

actual photo of a real sign. by Malcome.

This is a very hawaiian, traditional meal. There are premade frozen versions on all grocery stores.

Chicken Lu'au
6 cups frozen coconut milk
5-6 lbs either chicken thighs or cooked squid
4 tsp salt 6 cups water
9 lbs taro leaves (luau leaves)

Cooking Instructions:
Place chicken in pot with 3 tsp salt and 3 cups water. Simmer uncovered until tender. Remove bones and cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. Set aside. (If using squid, cut into 1/2-inch pieces).

Wash taro leaves, remove stem and strip tough part of rib. Place leaves, 3 cups water, and 1 tsp salt in a deep saucepan. Simmer for 1 hr. Change water and cook 1 hour more until bitter "sting" is out of leaves. Squeeze out excess water. Add drained chicken or squid and coconut milk to cooked leaves. Heat thoroughly and serve immediately. Adjust flavor with salt.

This looked pretty disgusting during the cooking process. I was not happy at first, but add some hot sauce and you've got yourself a very hearty, healthy and satisfying meal.

Hawaiian Snack Foods

an aquired taste snack

Both of my favorite snacks on Kauai are fish based. Not surprising.

I love the saki ika aka squid jerky. You can find it regular and spicy in almost every grocery stire and gas station shop on the island. I had it in NY first, I think my friend Josh made me try it (thanks, Josh!). In Kauai it is about 3.50 for a large bag.

sadly this poke made us sick. it was the only picture of took of poke, tho

Poke, although arguably not a snack, is my very favorite thing to eat here. I tried to make it, but I couldn't fine any kikui nut paste anywhere. I looked all over the north and western shores for it.

Poke should really only be eaten if acquired from a good source, and only on the day it is purchased. If it is grey, green, or weirdly shiny either toss it or fry it up. Both my husband and I have lost the Poke lottery and were very sick afterwards. It goes bad fast.


Here is a recipe for Poke from a great source for all traditional Hawaiian recipes.

Ahi Poki
Ingredients:
Ahi
Shoyu
Garlic
Onion Green Onion (scallions)
Sesame Oil
Ogo
kikui nut paste

Cooking Instructions:
Ahi - It is imperative that you get the choicest and freshest fish possible. I now am on the mainland and use a seafood wholesaler to ensure that I get the best cuts. I tend to use sushi-grade fish (#1). You can use #2-plus and #2 fish, but check them out beforehand to ensure the best cuts. Traditionally, Ahi is Yellowfin Tuna and Aku is (darn, I forget) another Tuna. Sometimes, it can be difficult to get Ahi or Aku, I have used Bigeye Tuna with great results. Just don't use Starkist (Sorry, Charlie).

Shoyu - Personally, I like Aloha Shoyu. So much so that I import it from Hawaii by bringing gallons in my luggage or bothering my cousin to send me some. Aloha Shoyu has just the right amount of caramel and saltiness as to not be overpowering. Some alternatives might be that green label light Kikkoman (not bad) or another shoyu of your choice. Do some experimenting and let me know your results.

Garlic - I personally like fresh garlic, chopped into tiny bits. But you can get away with the prepared garlic that is already crushed (I've done that a number of times with great success).

Onion - Take the onion and slice it up into slivers and add to the mix. I think I tried a poke with Maui Onions and that was pretty good. Any white onion will do, be sure that it is fresh!

Green Onion - Also known as scallions, they come in long stalks. Take the majority of the stalk, both the green and white parts (but discard the ends) and chop. Add and mix.

Sesame Oil - This is battle ingredient of Poke. Without it, you've got a bunch of fish and veggies in a bowl with shoyu- sashimi. With the right amount of Sesame Oil, you've got an aphrodisiac! Anyway, use the Asian/Oriental type of Sesame oil. This is the one in bottles that look like they're been browned because the color of the oil is brown. Supermarkets have another sesame oil that is clear in color (clear like vegetable oil), but I haven't tried it and cannot recommend it. It is the nutty flavor of the oil that makes it. Some say use it sparingly, I say use it to taste!

Ogo - What the hell is Ogo? It is also known as Limu Kohu. Ogo looks like twiggy-like seaweed and can be found at FoodLand Waialae, but seemingly nowhere on the mainland. If anyone knows where I can source this on the East Coast, I will be thankful. I go to FoodLand, buy up pounds of it, freeze it and fly it home. The Ogo should be chopped up and mixed in. I keep my ogo frozen and just hack off a chunk and chop it up. I include the seawater ice that comes off to add whatever flavor it might impart (you know, a taste of the Pacific).

Hawaiian Salt - I do not normally use this because I make Shoyu-style Poki. But follow the rest of the ingredients and substitute Hawaiian Salt for the Shoyu. If you use both (like I did once), it becomes a bit too salty and not very pleasant. Just Lomi the salt in. If you don't have Hawaiian Salt, you can use Kosher Sea Salt from Mortons just as well or rock salt (but not the kind you put in water purifiers).

Kukui Nut - Not something that I have really used much of in Poki. I don't know quite where to source it. Be careful if you do get kukui nuts. While they are good for burning as a candle, too much in your poki will make you burn a path in your floor to the restroom. It can be used to soothe constipation in the right dosage, so use sparingly in your Poki!

Here is a poke recipe that seemed to be a favorite from the semi-finals of Top Chef.

Grilled Spam & Cheese with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

Simple, to the point, terrible for you, but quite good:

Grilled Spam & Cheese with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

The sandwich
Sharp or extra sharp cheddar
spam - orginal or spicy
hearty wheat bread
olive oil

assemble sandwich, heat pan, add a touch of the oil and grill until cheese melts.

dip:
2 tbs. good quality honey
6 dashes hot sauce

combine.

New Years Breakfast

Breakfast. Photo by Jordan

Pomelos, are for the most part something I would never buy. Maybe I would pick one up in Chinatown if I was feeling flush and lucky, but the cost is prohibtive, so I stick to grapefruit when I'm feeling like a large cirtrus.

Here, we have a pomelo tree. There is actually a whole orchard. There are limes, lemons, oranges, star fruit, avocados, pomelos, tangelos, tangarines, papayas and mangos (maybe others stuff too).

We are next to a guava plantation. In the guava plantation there is a jackfruit tree, which is pretty exciting as most Nothern Americans will never see one and if they are lucky enough to taste jackfruit it is likely from a can.

Anyway, pomelos, or Chinese grapefruit, pummelo, pommelo, jabong, or shaddock.

So I'm going to work with them. After I got tired of just soaking them in rum, this is what we made for New Year Breakfast:

Candied Pomelo Peel
(1) Peel pomelo, taking care to remove as much of the pith as possible, and reserve fruit for another use. Cut the peel into 1⁄4-inch-wide strips. Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the pomelo peel and
(2) blanch for 1 minute. Remove peel and drain. Repeat 3 times, changing water each time (this removes some of the peel’s bitterness). After the third blanching, refill pot with 2 cups fresh water and 2 cups sugar. Dissolve sugar over medium-low heat. Bring to a boil, add the peel back to the pot, and reduce heat to low until the peel is translucent and almost no liquid remains, about 1 hour. Remove the peel from the pot and
(3) cool on a wire rack. Toss in granulated sugar (or dip in melted chocolate). Store in airtight container for up to one week.

I think this recipe was from NY magazine.

The recipe worked, but Kauai is pretty humid and they never really turned into a solid candy. They remained pretty sticky and floppy.

But, they were a nice garnish for our New Years Breakfast:

FrenchToast with Pomelo Syrup
French Toast:
* 1 cup whole milk
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
* 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
* 4 (3-inch) slices of any bread you choose
* 2 tablespoons butter
* Black pepper
* 1 teaspoon salt

Mix it up and use the butter to fry up the french toast.

pomelo syrup

Pomelo Syrup
1/2 cup pomelo juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
a bit of pepper
1/4 cup of sugar
a wee bit of red pepper flakes (optional)

mix, add to sauce pan and reduce for 20 minutes over medium heat.

mmmmmmm. . . .

Then there was the ultimate mimosa. To make it you have to get up at dawn, in Kauai, pick clemintines and oranges, juice them and them mix them with Veuve Clicuot. I would never normally mix that bubbly with anything, but the juice was equal to the champagne. It was a lovely morning.

Lomi Lomi

lomi lomi on a triscut. we were eating everything on a triscut for a while.

The Hawaiian gravlax.

LomiLomi Salmon
1 1/2 lb salmon fillets
Rock salt
3 tomatoes
1 small onion 3/4 lime juice
1/8 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. Pepper

Cooking Instructions:
Lay salmon on bed of salt in glass dish, cover with more salt. Put in refrigerator overnight. Wash off salt & dice the salmon.

Peel & dice tomatoes & onion. Mix with salmon & add other ingredients. Toss lightly.

very good on cracker

Spam, kimchi and Egg Sandwich

surprisingly good sandwich

recipe # I don't know

So I got off the flight from the mainland to Kaua'i in an ativan haze and the first thing I did was head to the grocery store to load up on supplies. I had done some researching of hawaiian recipes, but for the most part I put things in my cart that I had not seen before or had 'produced in Hawaii' on the label. One thing I did get that was neither, was spam. As far as I've seen spam comes in the following varieties: low fat, low salt, garlic, spam and cheese, spicy spam, turkey spam, hickory smoked spam and regular spam.

All I knew was that Hawaii is the number one consumer of spam of all states in the U.S..
mmmm. . . .

So this is what I made my first morning:

Spam, Egg and Kimchi Breakfast Sandwich spam, any kind you like, but original is what I used--sliced thin and fried in a bit of oil. spicy kimchi, any brand you might have eggs--I used only egg white as I felt guilty about the spam. flat bread, pita, wrap - toasted or warmed. Assemble as you would any sandwich.

It is actually quite good and I feel secure also putting it into the hangover cures category. I think it wouldn't suffer if a bit of cheese was added. Maybe cream cheese. . . but that might be pushing it too far.