w & m style sliders

With all the rain and gloom, I was craving some comfort food...a W & M Bar-B-Q burger.

Inspired by a recipe I found in the Hawaiian Electric Cookbook, I marinated some hamburger and made sliders.
makes 4 sliders

1/4 pound (total) ground beef & pork
1 tablespoon shoyu
1 tablespoon sugar
several grinds of pepper
1/2 clove garlic, grated
little nub of ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon sesame seed oil
4 walnut rolls (or your favorite)
lettuce, washed
mayo

Mix the shoyu, sugar, pepper, garlic, ginger and sesame oil together, this is the marinade
Massage the marinade into your ground beef pork mixture and let it sit in the refrig for at least half an hour or overnight.
Divide the mixture into 4, roll into balls and then flatten out into patties
In a non-stick pan, cook these to your liking on medium heat
While the burgers are cooking, cut your rolls and toast them, if you wish
After your rolls are toasted, place the lettuce on top
When you sliders are cooked, put them atop the lettuce and add some mayo
Enjoy!

NOTES: I think marinating the meat overnight made the burgers really juicy! After cooking these up, I had these with some rosé and they hit the spot!

I'm making these again, next time, I'm adding cheese...

teriyaki sandwich

I had told you that Kirk's post, had me craving all things teriyaki.

And even though I had had a teri burger, it still wasn't the "local style", comfort kind of food that I grew up with...

You should know that teri beef sandwiches in our family usually don't happen the day the teriyaki is made (grilled).

Nope, it is the day (or two) after that the sandwiches are made.

The teriyaki is usually cold, right out of the refrig.

I usually toast my bread, I think I'm the only one in my family that does this for sandwiches.

Best Foods mayo is used, and for me, I always put lots of lettuce.

So anyway, since I still had teriyaki on my brain yesterday, I made some...unfortunately grating garlic and ginger (frozen or fresh) or any veggie for that matter almost always results in grating Kat's finger(s)...eep! and ow!

The sauce is super easy to put together and comes from "Popo's Kitchen". It's the recipe my mom used whenever she made teriyaki.

I scribbled this recipe down the last time I was home, so if you have the book, you may want to look at it for more "details"...

Teriyaki Sauce: "Popo's Kitchen"
1/2 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
1/3 cup sugar
ginger
garlic
1/8 cup sake (rice wine)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

NOTES: The shoyu I used is a less-salt type. I also used turbinado sugar (large crystal type brown sugar), 1 clove of garlic and a 2-inch diameter 1/2-inch thick piece of garlic.

I also added some sliced green onion.

Since I only used 200 grams (less than half a pound) of thinly sliced beef, I cut the sauce recipe in half.

In Japanese they call the cut of beef, "momo" which means thigh, but I think we call it "flank" or "shank" in the US.

I marinated the meat for 5 hours and cooked it on a non-stick pan　(medium heat).

Because the meat was so thin, it cooked up in no time.

The sugar in the marinade helps to give the meat a nice char.

For my sandwich, I used a malt-walnut roll, which I split in half and toasted. I also used mayo (Kewpie) and some lettuce.

Since I had this for dinner, I had it with some salad and this Orion beer.

This is their can at the moment. Did you know that in Okinawa, their sakura (cherry blossoms) bloom in late January-early February?!

Anyway, it was my first time trying Orion, and I think it matched nicely with this sandwich.

Talk about messy eats...teriyaki sauce dripping all over the place! at least the meat was super tender and marinated well.

The weather yesterday was crappy, gloomy and rainy, but this sandwich really helped to brighten things up (even though it wasn't eaten a day or two after the teriyaki was made).

shiro's saimin haven

We went to Shiro's for lunch the other day.

My brother had their won ton min with veggies. He said their take out portion is WAY bigger.

My Dad had their tuna sandwich. He said it was good but a bit messy.

I tried their supa teri burga...not too sure what made it supa (super), maybe the amount of meat used?

Anyway, I liked that this was a homemade patty. It seemed like it was all hamburger too, no fillers.

I also liked the teriyaki sauce, though it made the bottom bun a bit soggy.

The fries were a bit of a disappointment, you could tell they were the frozen type, they were also kinda dried out when fried.

Still, the prices are still pretty reasonable and it is a great place to eat at.

We'll be back!

hawaii eats and shops

Tuesday met my friend Gaye for some lunch and shopping. One of the places I checked out was Blue Hawaii Lifestyle at Ala Moana. They are supposed to have an awesome acai bowl, but I didn't get a chance to check that out.

I did pick up a little package of spice rub (I know I just bought some but...) there made by Aloha Spice Company, which I saw in "Honolulu" magazine. They are actually from Hanapepe Kauai (do you know them Rowena??) and make all organic spice rubs...can't wait to try this one out too.

On the way home, I stopped by Ward Centre and checked out Honolulu Chocolate Company only to be disappointed. Almost all their shelves were sparse. I don't know if it was because of the season (middle of summer) and I am hoping it wasn't because of the economy.

I did find something I had not tried and picked up a 75% Ivory Coast bar by Theo. I have been seeing their chocolates on various sites and have been wanting to try them, I hope they are good.

Wednesday, took my mom and grandma to Marukai. It was the start of their weekly sale and there were things they needed.

As I waited for them, I noticed this display...(Nate, thought of you when I saw it and took a pic (secretly))...US$5.99 +tax for the tebichi (pig's feet) soup.

There was also a demo by Walaka Gourmet Products...they had peach, banana and apricot pies. They also had sweet bread and other goodies too. My mom said, "here" and shoved a sample of peach pie into my mouth as I waited in line at the cashier.

We bought their personal sized (6-inch) peach and banana...real fruit filling...crusts made of shortening...delicious! each US$4.99 + tax. The banana was filled more than the peach but both were good.

And here was my lunch...teri beef don...US$4.79...lots of teri beef (a little too sweet for me), lots of rice, choi sum, a piece of tamagoyaki (rolled egg) and two mandoo (fried dumplings)...filling!

Aloha Spice Company
3865 Hanapepe Road
P.O. Box 950
Hanapepe, Kauai
Phone: toll free (800) 914-5944

Blue Hawaii Lifestyle
Ala Moana Shopping Center near Nordstrom
Honolulu, Hawaii
Phone: 808.949.0808

koromogae

It is that time of year to take out your Spring/Summer clothes and to put away the Fall/Winter stuff. This is called koromogae. Koromo is clothing and is also the outer batter of tempura. gae/kae means to change. So, it is like taking your outer shell and changing it for a lighter one. Koromogae also occurs after summer before Autumn starts. In Hawaii, we don't have this changing of clothing because we don't really have seasons. This is one of the fun things I look forward to in Japan.

I washed my fluffy Hello Kitty slippers and put them away.

And took out these lauhala (pandanus) ones. My great-grandma used to make these type of lauhala slippers to sell. I'm not sure if others still make these, but I figured I should use them instead of leaving them un-used in my box. They have something quite hard in the middle, so it is a bit raised... I guess I need to break them in.

Another thing I love about the change in seasons is that a lot of the Japanese cookbooks are arranged amongst the seasons too. I have quite a collection of these and love that the recipes feature the shun (in season) ingredients.

As I was looking through a cookbook, I came upon this easy recipe. It was perfect for dinner and aside from the seasonings only took 2 ingredients!

Here is the recipe if you'd like to try it. Onion wrapped in pork-teriyaki style-- Serves 4
translated from "Orange Page Haru ni Oishii kondate"

1 onion
1/3 teaspoon salt
240g (8 slices) thinly sliced pork thigh
cornstarch
2 tablespoons salad oil
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablepoons sake (rice wine)
2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)
1 tablespoon ginger juice

Take the onion and cut it into 8 crescent pieces.
Put the pieces on a plate and cover gingerly with plastic wrap.
Zap in micro for 3 minutes. Sprinkle with salt after it comes out of the micro.
In a frying pan, put oil and heat on medium.
Take the pieces of pork and sprinkle cornstarch on them then place a piece of onion on each piece and roll up.
Put the end of the roll onto the hot pan and cook on both sides until it turns golden brown.
Add the sugar, sake & shoyu and cover for 2 to 3 minutes to steam.
Take the cover off and turn the pieces over. Cook until most of the sauce has cooked away, turning every so often.
Squeeze the juice of the ginger over the pieces and serve.

NOTES: I put the amount of oil that the recipe called for and ended up with way too much oil in the pan from the pork and had to sop it up with a paper towel before starting the sauce. Also, I put a piece of ginger from the freezer into the sauce as it cooked and when it got softened, I squeezed it over the pieces at the end. This recipe is super easy and showcases the tender onions that are in season here.