Not Again...

Was going to post about NASCAR Gatorade Duels today...but the tragedy at Northern Illinois just overrode anything.

DeKalb is not that far from here.

Thing is, today is Valentine's Day and it was the first day in a long while that had decent weather: warm (near 40) and clear...no snow.

So, if you're so inclined, say a prayer or two for the victims of this despicable act, and their families, friends and loved ones. And also for all the students at Northern. College is supposed to be a time of exploring, learning, trying new things, meeting new (and hopefully lifelong) friends. Then this happens...

And if you were wondering, yup, it was a "gun-free zone."

A hui hou...

Kau Yuk...Braised Pork Belly...Mmmmmm

Long.Time.Ago...we used to go to Patti's Chinese Kitchen at the Ala Moana Shopping Center for a plate lunch. My beautiful wife loved their fried rice and manapua (char siu bao). My son loved the char siu with tofu and could eat a whole order by himself...now, he was 4 years old at the time.

My favorite was kau yuk; red braised pork belly. Rich, luscious, fatty...mmmmmmm. Well, I just read recently in the Honolulu newspapers online that Patti's at Ala Moana is closing. Dwindling business, changing tastes, higher rents (and the new nearby Panda Express) all contributed to the owner's throwing in the towel after decades. A sad day.

Too many 'local' businesses, especially the local 'plate lunch' places are going out of business. Many started after World War II as a means of providing the American dream to many returning local servicemen and their wives. That generation is now past retirement age, and many of their kids are now doctors, lawyers and teachers and working 12 to 18 hours a day preparing food and making a very small profit are simply not attractive to the younger generation.

In fact, one owner said that she didn't want her kids to take over her business. "It's a hard life," she said. She and her husband had worked hard for years to provide the opportunities for a better life for her kids, and she just didn't want them to have to go through what she had.

ANYWAY...so I decided to make kau yuk. I tried a 'traditional' recipe a few weeks ago and it came out garbage. More like kau yuk jerky. The pork belly was too thinly sliced, more like bacon. This time I got some nice thick slices.

I found a 'shortcut' recipe on a Hawaiian food recipe site and used it. The KEY ingredient is a package mix (OMG, am I turning in to Sandra Lee????? NOOOOOOOOO...).

NOH makes a line of packaged, powdered mixes for a variety of local (Hawaiian) dishes...from KimChee, to Korean Barbeque, to Adobo.

BTW, the picture shows some of the pork sliced and just before I poured the sauce over it.

"Quick" Kau Yuk

One package NOH Char Siu (Barbeque Pork) Mix
1 1/2 cup water
One large 'finger' of ginger sliced into 1/8 inch thick slices
Four green onions slice into 3-inch pieces
3 lbs pork belly

Mix the Char Siu mix with the water. Add the ginger slices.

Brown the pork belly in some peanut oil in a heavy pot, like a dutch oven. I cut the pork belly into 4-inch long pieces so it would cook quicker.

Remove the oil from the pot. Place the pork belly pieces in one layer in the pot. Pour the sauce/marinade over the pork belly pieces. Add the green onion pieces. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1.5 hours or until very tender.

Remove the pork from the pot. Degrease the sauce as there will be a LOT of fat rendered.

In the dutch oven or another pot, bring the degreased sauce to a boil and reduce until the sauce thickens and becomes syrup-like.

Slice the pork belly into 1/2-inch thick slices. Pour sauce over.

You will NEED to eat this with a LOT of steamed rice as the meat will be fatty and VERY rich. I could only eat three or four pieces. A nice steamed green vegetable, such as Chinese broccoli (choy sum?), goes nicely with this dish.


SPORTS: Sorry, but if I NEVER hear about Roger Clemens again in my life, I will be VERY, VERY happy. Arrrrgggghhhh...ENOUGH already.

NASCAR: Getting closer to the Daytona 500. Gatorade Duels are tomorrow, final practice is Friday and then the race on Sunday. Whooopeeee...can't wait. You heard it here first...with the new car and all the changes, my prediction (W.A.G.) is that someone unexpected will win the race. Hmmmmm...who could that be????

POLITICS: Hey, did you know that there's some election going on? Anybody interesting running? Hmmmm...maybe I should be more interested...NAH...

A hui hou...

Oh my aching...

It snowed last night...again. Went out at '0-dark-thirty' this morning to see if I had to drag out the snowblower (again) and clear the driveway (again) to get the beautiful wife to the train.

Surprise! Just a light dusting of snow that came off the car (our trusty HHR) easily.

SO I walked down to the end of the driveway to see if the village snowplows had built up a berm where the driveway meets the street. No...again, very good.

So I start walking back to the garage and WHAM!!! Just as I get to where my brother's car is parked, my feet go one way, my butt goes another and I'm on my back, looking up at the trees.

You see, that light dusting of snow was covering a patch of ICE. So I did the 'old man's flip' and landed on my okole (that's Hawaiian for glute).

I crawled over to my brother's car, grabbed the hood and stood up.

Hmmmm...nothing seemed broken. But when I flexed my right hand...owwwwww. I guess I jammed my thumb when I fell. You're NEVER supposed to try to break you fall by putting your hand out, because then you break your wrist.

Well, I don't think anything is broken, but I have felt more sore spots as the morning has gone on.

Just another sign that I'm finally getting...oh no...OLD. Oh, well, I guess that just means I have Senior Discounts to look forward to.

Supposed to get the TV fixed today. Geek Squad to the rescue. Interesting problem: it turns itself on and off and changes the volume at random. Great, a possessed TV...is that what HD is all about???

No food today, but maybe a lamb roast with pitas tomorrow.

A hui hou...

Monday...'Nuff Said

This morning while I was taking my beautiful wife to the train, the outdoor temp indicator in the car started at 1 degree...but soon fell to -1. Yeah, I guess it's COLD. And, hey, 3-5 inches of snow is expected later today. WHY did we leave Hawaii???

Tonight for dinner: Kalua and Cabbage. That's a "leftovers" dinner. The original was Oven Roasted Kalua Pork...mmmmm. Took me a while to get the recipe right.

3-3.5 lb pork shoulder or 'Boston Butt'
Kosher or Hawaiian salt
Liquid smoke...preferably mesquite "flavor"
Freshly ground pepper
Shoyu
'Black' Shoyu (has lots of molasses in it)
Granulated garlic (also known as garlic powder)
Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Unroll 4-5 pieces of the aluminum foil. Make sure it's large enough to wrap the roast completely and tightly. Stack the foil sheets.

Place the roast in the middle of the top sheet of foil.

Sprinkle salt over and under roast. Use 3-6 tablespoons of salt. Yes, that much IS necessary.

Sprinkle 4-6 teaspoons of liquid smoke. I generally 'eyeball' this.

Sprinkle shoyu and dark shoyu over roast. Maybe one tablespoon each

Sprinkle a couple of teaspoons of granulated garlic. Grind fresh pepper over roast.

Fold up foil around the roast and crimp first sheet to seal tightly. Rotate roast 90 degrees on second sheet and fold up foil and crimp to seal. Repeat with all sheets of foil.

Place foil-wrapped roast in roasting pan. Fill pan with water a couple of inches up the side of the foil-wrapped roast. Place in oven. Roast for 5 hours. Replenish water as necessary. Turn oven off and let roast sit in oven for another hour, for 6 hours total.

Remove from oven and let cool. Discard any water left in roasting pan.

I usually unwrap the roast as it sits in the roasting pan. There will be a LOT of liquid in the foil. SAVE THIS LIQUID!!! I usually pour off the liquid into a large measuring cup (4 cups).

SHRED the roast with two forks. Put the shredded meat into a storage container with a lid.

Degrease the liquid. There WILL be a lot of grease on the top of the liquid. You DON'T want the grease.

Pour the de-greased liquid over the shredded meat in the storage container. You can eat it now... jor refrigerate it and reheat later.

We had ours with some poi we got from Hawaii...a local restaurant chain named Zippys has a GREAT online shopping page on their website. I get the poi from them and also frozen fresh saimin. More on that later.

So...tonight, leftover kalua with cabbage and steamed rice. Now if I only had made some of my kimchee to go with...

NASCAR is back! Daytona 500 next week. HD on Fox...whoopeee!! SPEED-TV is SUPPOSED to be broadcasting in HD, but not on my cable system. Must call Comcast (ugh!) and find out why.

Am I the ONLY person who could care less if Roger Clemens actually used performance-enhancing drugs? I really can't get excited about yet ANOTHER privileged, rich professional athlete who may or may not have used some banned/controlled substance to 'enhance' his performance. Yeah, gotta tell the kids NOT to do it, as it could screw up your body/life, etc. But really...I just DON'T CARE anymore.

OK, gotta do some grocery shopping before the NEXT snowstorm hits this afternoon. Hope the snowblower starts up tomorrow morning.

A hui hou...GO HAWAII WARRIORS!

First Friday

So, it's the first Friday of Lent. No meat...

So here's what I did for lunch (see the picture):

Cheesy Tomato Bread

2 slices Italian Bread (French works OK, too)
Monterey Jack Cheese
Thinly sliced onion
Finely diced red bell pepper
Parmaggiano Reggiano cheese
4 slices tomato
Chiffonade fresh basil leaves

Spread the bread slices with butter. Sprinkle granulated garlic (garlic powder) over. Grind some fresh pepper on. Grate Jack cheese...how much is up to you. Spread onions on cheese. Add more garlic and pepper. Cover the onion with more Jack cheese. Sprinkle diced bell pepper. More garlic. Cover with Parmaggiano. Broil in toaster oven to melt and brown cheese.

Put tomato slices on toasted cheese bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chiffonaded (??) basil. Enjoy.

A meatless lunch, just right for a Lenten Friday.

HOORAY!!! NASCAR starts tomorrow. Bud Shootout tomorrow night. ARCA race before that. SPEED-TV is Hi-Def, FINALLY!!

Ok, before you put that "redneck" label on me, I gotta tell you that the first "stock car" race I attended was at the old State Fairgrounds in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the 1950's. Yeah, we had cars back then. Been a fan of auto racing ever since: NASCAR, Formula1, ALMS, Rolex Sports Cars, etc. Everything but drag racing for some reason. And now in Hi-Def. Just need to get the TV fixed...drat!

Halibut for dinner tonight. Very expensive, but worth it...well, it better be worth it.

READING: The Modern Researcher, Fifth Ed., by Jacques Barzun and Henry G. Graff. Barzun is, as you know, the eminent French-born historian of ideas and culture. A great book. Now all I need to do is start my own research business...hmmmm, information broker...information consultant. Soon, sooon...

A hui hou...

Mmmmmmm...malasadas

What, you say, are malasadas? Well, roughly translated, mala-sada means "bad dough." Malasadas are Portuguese doughnuts. See the picture above.

Growing up on the Big Island of Hawaii, we had these doughnuts on Shrove (or Fat) Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.

You see, malasadas are supposed to be the last sweet consumed before Lent begins. During Lent, you were supposed to fast and abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. Now, it's just observed on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent.

We actually made the malasadas on Sunday, but the first batch wasn't very good. We put about half the dough in the fridge and made the rest last night. Well, the long rising period of the second batch did the trick. That, and making them very small.

They turned out very nice, indeed. And they reheat very nicely...25 seconds in the microwave does the trick.

Now, back to Letter of Intent day...you know what that is, right? When the high school football players sign their letter of intent to attend a certain university. No? Am I the only one? Hmmmm...

Oh, and today, I'm making Oven Roasted Kalua Pork....mmmmmm. Got some poi to go with it, too. Yum-o....OMG, I just Rachel Ray-ed...I'm so ashamed... Where is Tony Bourdain when you need him???

A hui hou...

I'm Baaaaack...

Whew, was that a tough end of 2007 and beginning of 2008. But after much stuff under the bridge...don't ask...I'm back and better than ever.

And what better day than SUPER TUESDAY...the day that we poor unwashed get to vote for the politician that we can actually stomach...you know, it's hard to hold your nose while voting...but after soooooo maaaaany elections doing it, you get pretty good at it.

SO GO VOTE. IF YOU DON'T BOTHER TO VOTE, THEN SHUDDDUP AND DON'T WHINE FOR THE NEXT 4 (or 8) YEARS. End of political rant.

How about that Super Bowl, huh??? Didn't have a dog in the fight, but was nice to see Eli silence the big mouths. Actually, before the game started, my son and I agreed that the perfect ending would be for Eli to lead the winning drive with 2 minutes left... Well, TB still has Giselle...not bad.

We're expecting a BIG snow storm tonight-tomorrow. As much as 5 to 12 inches or more. Fun. At least the snowblower works. Still, I have to clear the driveway before 6:20 AM to get the beautiful wife to the train.

So, I should be posting more regularly from now on. And, if ANYONE, is reading this stuff, here's what you can look forward to: Recipes (yes, cooking is a hobby; I've been the family cook for 25+ years); motorsports (a lifelong vice); football (great timing, huh, as the last real game was last Sunday; but college football declaration day is tomorrow...GO UH WARRIORS); and other stuff that comes up.

So, sit back and read up.

A hui hou...