Aunty is a junk cook.  However, the ONE thing that Aunty does well is making spam musubi with sato shoyu spam and ume.

Aunty shared one with Thomas Bena when he was in town showing his excellent documentary “One Big Home”, just in time for the City Council to approve a monster house building moratorium.  This picture is from an email from him about his trip over here.  Cool, yeah?

This recipe will make 5 spam musubis, so adjust accordingly.

2 cups of cooked white rice

5 slices of spam

equal parts of brown sugar and soy sauce

smashed slices of fresh ginger root

ume pieces (avoid putting in the small ume with seed so it isn’t a hazard to eaters)

3 nori sheet cut in half lengthwise

Cook white rice in rice cooker – short grain rice is best (Aunty has become a rice connoisseur), stir 10 minutes after done to fluff, and cover until ready to place rice on board.

Heat a skillet or pot and add a heaping scoop of brown sugar in the pot, stir with wooden spoon and then add about the same amount of soy sauce.  Add smashed ginger root and a tablespoon or so of water.  Stir, bring to a small boil until all the ingredients smell wonderful.

Put the slices of spam in.  Turn slices every once in a while, simmer for about 5 minutes, then turn off heat.

Put equal sized mounds of rice on a cutting board and add pieces of ume to the middle of each mound.  Rice should be nice, hot, and soft.

Use a deep bowl for hot hot water from the sink faucet to wet your hands and sprinkle salt on wet (but not dripping) hands.

Grab a mound of rice with your salted wet hands and smash into a ball to compress, and then shape into a rectangle shape and set back on the board or a plate. (This is the toughest part because your hands will be handling hot rice, but you can do it!)

After the 5 mounds of rice have been compressed and shaped into rectangles, carefully put a delicious cooked slice of spam on each rice “brick”.  Allow a couple of minutes to cool, wrap with the half sheet of nori, and you are done!!!

Wrap with waxed paper or plastic wrap if you will be taking these to share or eat later.

*updates:  Use Aloha Shoyu because it is a mild shoyu otherwise it is too salty.  Or, Aunty just tried a super easy lazy way of cooking the spam with Bob’s Barbeque marinating sauce (from Aunty’s favorite fast food drive in on Dillingham and Waiakamilo).  REALLY ono – a little sweeter and so tasty!

Picture from Jalna’s blog of Wendell’s Pernil

Jalna’s blog just kills Aunty sometimes.  She makes us laugh, feel whimsy, and then, SO hungry when she posts her husband and son’s cooking results.

A few weeks ago, she shared Wendell’s Pernil – a Puerto Rican pork recipe .  The picture of the crispy skin pork jumped out and begged to be eaten.  Jalna assured Aunty (during the funeral picture taking day) that it was indeed ONO (delicious) to da max.

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of the month.  Each month, Aunty has her 1st Sunday dinner for family and friends at the house.  Wendell’s Pernil was going to be the main dish.  Luckily, Times Super Market had ONE 8 lb. picnic pork shoulder (looked kinda gross and weird because of the skin), and Aunty’s old spice cabinet didn’t have dried oregano so she substituted with Italian seasoning.

It was easy – even for Aunty – who is still regaining her strength in her hand after her broken arm incident.  The marinade seemed like it was too sparse but it was actually just right.  Aunty should have let the skin get crispier (it would get stuck to Aunty’s teeth instead of crunching into pieces) but everybody at dinner seemed to love it.  Pal Wandaful took home the big bone to make jook.  It was a fall off the bone success!!!  Mahalo, Jalna and Wendell!

Ingredients
8 pounds picnic pork shoulder
12 minced garlic cloves
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 tbs olive oil
3 tbs white vinegar
8 tsp salt (or 1 tsp per pound of meat)

Directions
Wash the pork shoulder.

With a sharp knife, make 1-inch deep cuts into the pork.

Using a mortar and pestle crush garlic, oregano and black pepper together.  (Aunty just smashed ’em)

Add olive oil, vinegar and salt. Mix well.

Spoon some of the garlic mixture inside the small cuts around the pork and spread remaining all over the pork.

Place pork in aluminum turkey pan (skin side up) and cover with aluminum foil tightly.

Refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Turn it in the marinade.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 5 to 6 hours.

Remove aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for another hour or until the skin is crisp.

This was a recipe link from Amy Lynn Andrews, a blogger that I follow because she gives good website advice.  She also shares good tips, and this recipe was super EASY!

Easy is important, because Aunty does NOT cook very well, and is the take-out queen of plate lunches and zip meals.  However, fresh and hot is better for the family, so if you have good easy recipes to share, please DO share with Aunty.

Truth to tell, the kids liked it but Aunty didn’t really like this brand of burritos because it was too “fat” in size and there wasn’t enough sauce in the pan.  Perhaps if I only used 6 burritos instead of packing in the 8 burritos, or used a “skinnier” burrito or a cheese enchilada instead, Aunty might have loved it.  Btw, Aunty’s absolute favorite Mexican dish is from Azteca in Kaimuki Town – their Verde Cheese Enchilada plate.  Yum yum.  Yum yum!

1 package of 8 frozen organic Bean & Cheese Burritos from Costco (important step – defrost in the refrigerator the day before!  very important step, trust Aunty….)

2 cups enchilada sauce (more or less to taste) more is bettah!

2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

2 cups sour cream

Place burritos in bottom of baking pan
Pour enchilada sauce over the top
Sprinkle cheese on top of burritos
Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 min or until done to your likeness. Dollop with Sour Cream.  Enjoy!

Construction notice:  Aunty will be getting a facelift soon, by the good folks over at OneWaveDesigns.com because of some irritating little glitches that WordPress has, and their techie types speak their own lingo about c-panel stuff and widgets, apps, etc.  Aunty cannot handle and lately, Aunty’s ticker tape stopped functioning, and then a warning at the top of Aunty’s website was really frustrating, so time to bite the bullet, pay the piper, and get a new and better look with support! 

Aunty’s friend Ahlin is a terrific cook.  Sometimes she makes Thai green curry, Pad Thai, green papaya salad, unreal pork chops, etc.  All unreal delicious.  What makes it all even better is that she shows Aunty how to cook, several times.

Since Aunty is a slow learner in the kitchen (actually, Aunty is a take out queen of the highest degree), a video was made, and Joe Young at the Apple Store taught Aunty how to edit it with iMovie on her iPhone.  Mahalo to Ahlin and Joe – after you make this sauce for yourself, you will be SO happy, especially your happy mouth and taste buds!

Ahlin’s Thai Spicy Sauce

About 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 or 2 fresh Hawaiian chilis, minced
3 TBS rice vinegar
5 TBS fish sauce
1 TBS brown sugar
fresh lemon, to taste

Mince garlic and chilis, add to a dish or bowl.
Combine rice vinegar, fish sauce, and brown sugar in a small sauce pot.
Heat up the mixture (do not boil) until the sugar is dissolved.  Taste and adjust.
Add the hot liquid mixture into the bowl with the garlic/chili.  Stir.
Add lemon juice to taste.

This sauce is amazing over noodles, fried rice, meats, fish, etc.

Store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator, and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Once in a while, Aunty loves a great steak.  One that is a little bit crusty outside yet soft and slightly juicy inside.

Most of the time, we would cook them outside on a hibachi grill after salting and seasoning with Canadian Steak seasoning (from Costco).  It would almost always be great, but it was a bit of a hassle making the fire and getting the charcoals just right hot.  This also took quite a long time and if the sun went down before the meat was cooked, it became hard to see out in the yard, and then hard to determine if it was cooked enough, or not.

Sometimes we would pan fry them with the seasoned cast iron pan – smashed cloves of garlic in the heated oil, then cook one side on high heat for a few minutes, turn it onto the other side and wait for the meat to get cooked to medium done with some Hawaiian salt and the Canadian Steak seasoning sprinkled on as it sat in the pan.  Sometimes it was good, sometimes it wasn’t so good.  It was always very very greasy and rather messy, though also very tasty and filling.

Then, one day a recipe for cooking a perfect steak without a grill came into Aunty’s inbox.  This was from Craig Ballantyne, an ultra healthy workout guru that communicates with his EarlyToRise.com website and emails.

One must start off with quality beef – organic is better but Aunty bought hers at Costco, the rib steaks that are about 1″ thick.

Ingredients are:

• butter
• salt
• a cast-iron skillet or regular pan that can be heated on high heat
• glass cookware for the oven

Preheat your oven to 450º.  Get the skillet as hot as possible on your stovetop.  Apply butter to both sides of the steak (not too much, just a very thin layer like buttering toast).

When the skillet is very very hot (can’t hold your hand over it for more than 5 seconds), place the steak in the pan.  Cook for 3-4 minutes per side.  Put steak in the glass cookware, add a little dab of butter on each steak and sprinkle some sea salt on surface.

Cook in the 450º oven for 7 to 10 minutes.  (Don’t forget the salt!). 7 minutes will be a medium rare steak.  Aunty cooked for 8 minutes (Aunty likes the number 8) and it was done perfectly medium.  Not too greasy, lightly crusty from the butter fry and so soft and juicy inside.  A perfect steak, indeed!

It was interesting cooking on the skillet WITHOUT starting with oil in the pan.  The butter on the steak contained the fat to the meat, which was quite nice.  Clean up was easy, and the glass dish went straight onto the table from the oven, though the stove top gets very greasy with butter.  Not sure how to avoid that cleanup…

Kudos to Craig Ballantyne for the recipe!   If any of Aunty’s readers have tips for cooking a great steak, please share with us in the comments below, mahalo, and happy eating!!

Update:  The first time was a winner because Aunty followed the recipe, exactly.  The second time, Aunty forgot to sprinkle sea salt on the steak before putting them in the oven, so they were not as tasty and we had to add salt as we ate.  One thought is now to try this recipe with a Himalyan salt slab – having it preheat in the oven and putting the steak directly on the heated salt slab instead of the oven cookware and finishing the process in the oven.

Most recent update:  Pal Wandaful let Aunty borrow her salt slab – big heavy thick salt slab!  She said to just wipe it down when done – so easy peasy.  It took the place of the glass oven dish and salted the meat just right!  However, this time the steaks were less than 1″ thick and so they came out a bit too well done for Aunty.

On a big thick Himalayan salt slab, yum!

Looks like Art and Kay from Travelerswife.blog!

Almost 40 years ago (man, Aunty is old), we used to do craft fairs at our homes with friends.  Ann Kondo Corum was a librarian at Kawananakoa School and had just published Hawaii’s Spam Cookbook.  She is a super fantastic artist and each page has her delightful cartoon drawings related to each dish.  Since she was selling her cookbooks as well as doing original art cards to order, Aunty made her Korean Style Spam dish for our guests.  It was really tasty and a hit, and she sold many cookbooks that day.

This is an easy recipe that cooks up quickly with what we already have in the pantry and refrigerator.  It is a winner with rice and sort of healthy because kimchee is a good source of natural probiotics to help our digestion.

Here’s the recipe (adjust ingredients for smaller eaters):

1 can SPAM, sliced in 1/2″ slivers (Aunty does logs)

1 12oz jar of Kim Chee

1 small onion, sliced

2 tsp shoyu

Brown SPAM slices in a skillet (smashed ginger optional).  Place Kim Chee in a strainer or colander and rinse with water.  Drain well.  Add Kim Chee, onion, and shoyu to SPAM and cook about 2 minutes.

This dish is also good with sliced zucchini (Aunty does logs).

Aunty does not do traditions very well, but one that is done because it is a favorite is Ozoni – soup with mizuna and mochi.  Aunty likes the simple simple kind of ozoni that her mother used to make for the family.  Other families have awesome ozoni made with fishcake, daikon, gobo, carrots, and a lot more.  For Aunty, simple is better for Aunty to remember.

However, since it is made only at New Year’s, 364 days go by and Aunty forgets what to do.  This post is one for Aunty to refer to, gomennasai (solly).

Ingredients are:

mochi

mizuna

dried shrimp or scallops

chicken broth

shiitake mushrooms

hondashi

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in water until soft.  Then cut in half.  Cut mizuna bunches into 2 inch lengths.

Meanwhile, boil 2 cups of water with dried scallops or shrimp.  Add mushrooms, chicken broth and simmer.  Add hondashi to taste (you could substitute with instant ramen seasoning).  Add cut mizuna.

If you have fresh mochi, add to bowl and pour soup over.  If mochi is hard or frozen, boil in a separate small pot to soften.  Cooking the mochi in the pot will make the broth cloudy.

Please eat hardy and have good thoughts of the wonderful new year ahead of us all!

The easiest part of preparing a pineapple is twisting off the crown from the base.  Aunty used to hate the tedious chore of removing the skin with a peeler or knife.  Many times, more of the pineapple was thrown away because of how difficult it is to score off the tough outside layer and dig out those hard “eyes” in the flesh before cutting the yummy parts into bite size pieces.

However, Aunty found a better way to slice and dice this hard fruit!

First, cut in half lengthwise, and then again, lengthwise.

Then, use a knife to scoop the fleshy part of the fruit away from the tough outer part.

Cut off the hard core portion and cut the yummy sweet juicy wedge into bite size pieces.

Eat, and enjoy.  Wasn’t that SO much easier?

[pineapple eating tip:  if the pineapple isn’t sweet enough for you, sprinkle a little bit of table salt on it.]