Kuku Kube

Can you believe that the year is halfway done already? It went so fast, yah.  I decided to take a break from blogging for awhile.

I'll leave this goal for you. Try beat my score at Kuku Kube.

Here's the link:  Kuku Kube. You just gotta click on the different square and see how far you can get. 



Let me know if you beat my score. 

DAISO Sushi Shaker

Remember the DAISO sushi shaker that I blogged about previously?



Leslie got ahold of one and let me be the first to try it. I put kamaboko in the middle and then topped it with more rice.


My video is in the wrong orientation . . . sorry . . . I forgot to hold my phone horizontally. 


Ummmm . . . I would give myself an F for fail. I hope Leslie has better luck than me. 


Addendum:  Okay, it seems that I did the thing totally wrong. I'm supposed to shake, shake, shake for awhile then put the nori in. I put the nori in from the beginning. Then there are demarcation lines to show you how much rice to put in. I didn't realize that and musta put in too much rice. Still . . . Leslie, it's your turn.

Servicing a Rolex - Caliber 3135

If you have an hour to spare and you find the inside makings of a watch fascinating, you should watch the following videos. If you only have 20 minutes to spare, then watch the first video.  All three are amazing to me. 

Lan's Pasta

Here's one of Landon's "sorta recipe". 

Boil some pasta noodles and set aside. Sauté some bacon, round onion, sliced Portuguese sausage and shiitake mushrooms. Add a can of clams with the liquid. Reduce. Add about 1 cup of white wine. Reduce. 


Add a sprinkling of "good" olive oil like these, coarsely chopped garlic, parsley and 1 tsp. of chili flakes. 


Throw in the pasta and serve topped with fried onions. 



Eat and go, "Yummmm!"

Thai Spicy Sauce

Check out Honolulu Aunty's awesome video below and then go to her blog here for the recipe. Looks so ono and easy to make! 

Fresh Apricot

I saw these fresh apricots at Keeaumoku Market. I've only had dried apricots before . . . never fresh, and I was curious how they'd taste.



At $2.69 for four it was cheap enough, so I got um.


It kinda tasted like a nectarine to me, and unfortunately it was mostly tart. Now I'm wondering what I can do with the rest of the apricots. 

Fleur de Sel

Awhile back I got this sample pack of salt from Marukai. I didn't pay too much attention to it and just set it aside.

A few days ago I picked it up and took a good look at it. I saw that it said "shio no hana" . . . "flower of salt".  I slowly started to realize that this was a special kind of salt. I cut a corner off of the pack and took a look at the grains. They were very different. They were flaky.



I googled "fleur de sel". 


I found the following info here. 

Foodies and big-time chefs go crazy for fleur de sel. This finishing salt appears in fancy eateries and cookbooks the world over. Fleur de sel is one of those small but indispensable touches, like good quality olive oil or fresh herbs that change an ordinary meal into a culinary experience.

Because of its delicate nature and higher price relative to other salts, fleur de sel isn't meant for seasoning a dish while you cook it. If you expose it to high temperatures, it will melt and lose its unique character.

Instead, you should use sprinkles of fleur de sel on anything that needs a little extra oomph right before it's consumed: salads, fish, meat, fruit, vegetables, and dessert.

I had some edamame in the freezer so I dug some out and zapped um in the microwave. I sprinkled it with the fleur de sel. After one taste I realized that it seemed to be saltier than regular salt. Do you think that's possible? At any rate, it went well with the edamame, and I'm so glad that I didn't let it go to waste. 



Baby Mynah Update: I asked Lehua about the bird and she said it's doing fine!

Cleaning with Baking Soda

Do you remember the time I cleaned my filthy oven window with a baking soda paste? If not, you can check it out here.  

I wondered if it would work on the bottom of this pan.



I made a paste with baking soda and some water, smeared it on and left it for a few hours.


It kinda worked. 

You Like Spicy?

If you like spicy, you should try this.  Coworker CQ turned me on to it.  She said that this is the ono-est, spiciest thing she ever ate. I found a five-pack at Palama Market for $8 something . . . I think . . . sorry, I threw away the receipt and can't find it now. 

It says Ramen and also Stir-Fried Noodles on the package. So, which is it, right? It's stir-fried noodles.  




I put one noodle in my mouth, and the pain on my tongue lingered there for a few minutes. I didn't eat more.  Landon ate the rest. He liked the taste and said that the spiciness was just at the level of his tolerance.


You can watch other people "enjoying" the noodles in this video. 

My Favorite Instant Miso Soup

I first bought this miso soup when it was on sale at Marukai a few weeks ago. I bought it again last week at the not-sale price of $6.49.  The package contains five packs. 



You just need to add 2/3 cups of hot water . . . 


to this freeze-dried block. You can check out Amano Foods' freeze-drying process here. 


The eggplant pieces are not quite as big as shown on the package, but still . . . it tastes good, and I like it a lot.

Cold Brewing

Karen! Karen! I took your advice and got the Café Du Monde coffee and tried cold brewing.



I watched this video and followed the instructions.  I wasn't sure about the ratio of coffee to water, so I just used 3/4 cup of the Café Du Monde and filled the water to the max level (4 cups for my press). I let it steep overnight (about 11 hours).  


I was shocked to see how dark the coffee turned out. I thought for sure it would be bitter.  


But it wasn't bitter at all. It was goooooood. I think I'll try 1/2 cup of the grounds the next time and see how it goes. 


Don't know if you guys noticed, but I have a new section on the right sidebar called "Recipes".  I never expected this blog to last this long and the collection of recipes to become so extensive.  I've been going through the recipes and am applying tags to them, so have been able to finally get them organized . . . sorta. "Favorites" are recipes that've received more than 600 views.  I'm not pau yet . . . but almost. 

Addendum: I just did a second batch of cold brew using 1/2 cup of coffee instead of 3/4 cup, and it was even better than my first batch . . . so smoooooth . . . so Danger-Will Robinson-Danger ono. 

Wendell's Kimchee Stew

This is another recipe that Wendell saw on Facebook. It's a COOKAT TV video that is also on YouTube (yay!). I've embedded the video below if you want to watch it.




*W = Wendell used*

250 g pork shoulder blade 
1/4 kimchi (W - one small bottle kimchee)
1 green onion
1/2 tofu (W - 1 block)
1 spicy red pepper
340 ml rice water (W - 1 1/2 c. plain water)

Sauce:
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp red pepper flake
1 Tbsp fermented shrimp (W - 1 Tbsp patis)
1/2 Tbsp fermented soybean paste 

1. Add kimchi, pork, and rice water in a clay pot (W - no clay pot)
2. When it boils add Sauce
3. Boil about 20 more minutes.
3. Add tofu, onion, green onion, spicy red pepper and simmer. 

Wendell's Chamorro Shrimp Patties

I thought this was good, but Wendell didn't like it. It was kinda doughy in the middle and Wendell thought it should've been crispier. 

The recipe is from here. The site is called Chamorita Momma's Kitchen. 

2 eggs
1 (10 oz.) can evaporated milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon Accent seasoning
2 lbs. medium/large RAW shrimp, thawed, peeled, deveined, and chopped or smashed
1 (10 oz.) package frozen mixed vegetables, completely thawed, and drained
About 4 cups vegetable oil, for deep frying

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the evaporated milk. Add the flour, baking powder, and the seasonings. Mix until smooth.

Add the shrimp and mixed vegetables, combining well.

Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet to medium heat. Using a small scooper, drop batter and fry until golden brown.  Using a bamboo skewer, pierce the center of patty to make sure that skewer comes out clean. A little bit of dough will be on the skewer but as long as it’s not runny and wet looking, it should be done.

Drain on paper towels. Serve at room temperature. 

Baby Mynah

A baby mynah bird was on the stairs leading to our parking structure yesterday after work. Poor thing. It was so tiny that every time the wind blew, it looked as if it would get blown away into the bushes.

Two noisy bobo birds, all excited, were fluttering nearby, hanging around just waiting for me to go away so that they could start picking on the baby bird. On top of that, I knew that if the bobo birds didn't end up hurting Baby Mynah then for sure one of the many feral cats that hang around the area would.



I didn't know what to do. I couldn't pick it up. I can't do stuff like that . . . I'm too scared. If I had it in my hands and it should start to flutter I would probably end up screaming and flinging it.

I called good ole Leslie. She would know what to do. She came and picked up the bird, but wasn't sure what we should do either. I rummaged a box outta my car and Les put Baby Mynah into it. 

We took the bird back to the office to see if anyone there would be willing to take it home. One by one we got rejected. Our last hope was the Billing Department down the hall.

Everyone there also said no. Until we got to Lehua. Lehua said that her dad loves to take care of birds, and she would gladly take Baby Mynah home. She put a small saucer of water with mashed rice into the box. She knew exactly what to do. Me and Leslie were soooo happy.

Kanzuri

I saw this advertised in this week's Marukai ad and wondered what it was. I found the best information here on a site called Happy Donabe Life. The author even has photos of chili peppers scattered on the snow. It looks so cool.




Here's a bit of what she says:

Kanzuri producer grow their own chiles as well as source from local farmers. After the chiles are harvested, they are pickled in salt for a few months. They are rinsed and spread over the snow ground and left for a few days. Meanwhile, the chiles are sometimes covered deep under the snow. The snow removes the bitterness and excess saltines from the chiles and make them taste milder. It's just such an amazingly beautiful view of all the bright and large red chile peppers thrown on the snow ground. They also smelled very nice!

Kanzuri is a true artisan fermented product, made only from the natural ingredients, red chile peppers, salt, rice koji, and yuzu rind, and made in the very natural manner. Once the snow-rested salt-pickled red chiles are collected, they are pureed and mixed with the rest of the ingredients to start the fermentation process. The fermentation lasts at least 3 years to 6 years. 

I also google-translated the following from here.  It looks like Kanzuri can be used in a lot of different ways. 




- Miso soup and in the natto Japan of a little crowded dissolved. Dipped in the morning pickled, grilled seaweed
- The cans shear a little blended into mayonnaise, put such as edible wild plants
· Little or placed in a Japanese buckwheat-noodle-noodle soup, spicy ramen put in ramen
- As fried, pan fried, spaghetti seasoning in such as chow mein
You put, barbecued chicken, grilled meat --------- directly, or put in a sauce
To steak ------------- piping hot steak smeared thinly with a knife
- Eel grilled ------ in the direct thin paint as
· Mozuku, a little put the condiments of ego-Tokoroten
- Immediately put or to fish, squid, fried to grilled fish, grilled and baked in place with a frying ----- browning
With the trough was in soy sauce "Kanzuri soy sauce"
· Overnight dried squid ---- with the "Kanzuri mayonnaise," a blend of cans shear in mayonnaise
- Turban shell-clam-grilled "Kanzuri soy sauce" in the shell a little put
- Abalone (raw) raw oysters ---- a little put "Kanzuri soy sauce"
· Horse sashimi, beef sashimi, raw lever ----- "a blend of garlic and Kanzuri
• The various sashimi ------------- wasabi instead of the usual. In particular blowfish sashimi, squid sashimi is limited to the "Kanzuri soy sauce"
- The ones that were fried and sliced ​​eggplant dipped in "Kanzuri soy sauce"
- Wild vegetables tempura, various tempura crowded little dissolved in rainy season
· Nozawana, eggplant, cucumber CRAM ----------- dipped in "Kanzuri soy sauce"
• The Tendon-cutlet bowl, bowl of rice topped with chicken and eggs, grilled chicken on rice, beef bowl various bowl Mononogu with rice with a bite shear
- A little put in miso soup with pork and vegetables
- A little put on the meat and potatoes
And vegetables to fried-Kinpira fried
· Stew put in the cooking
- Of Ponzu of shabu a little put in
- To baked rice cakes, to fried --- Kanzuri sauce (soy sauce 3: sugar 2: mirin 1: Percentage of Kanzuri 1) with the
• The fried rice cakes --- Karame the Kanzuri sagging
• The grated radish as put the cans shear "maple grated"
- Oden of mustard instead of the usual, dry and put in a curry curry, the pizza pie

It's kinda expensive, but sounds good, yah.