Aloha Friday Recipe: Curried Mahi Katsu

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Ingredients

1 pound mahi mahi fillet
1 to 2 eggs, beaten
1 cup cornflake crumbs or panko (Japanese flour meal for breading)
Vegetable oil for frying

Marinade:
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)

Instructions

Cut Mahi Mahi into serving pieces and score. Make marinade and soak mahi for 30 minutes. Dip mahi in beaten egg, coat with crumbs. Heat oil to 375 degrees, fry mahi until golden brown; drain on paper towels. Makes 3 servings.

Four Foods on Friday #55

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Aloha all! It’s time for another installment of Four Foods on Friday. As usual, I post a day earlier so those of you who would like to play along can go over to Val’s place to post your responses in time. The more the merrier! This week’s are Thanksgiving oriented.

#1. Stuffing. Boxed or from scratch?

I always use boxed because I’ve tried from scratch once and it wasn’t as good as I thought it should be. I really want a good from scratch recipe that is like you find in restaurants. It’s got a slightly wetter texture with big chunks of bread. Maybe one of the participants will have some good recipes.

#2. If you were served the perfect Thanksgiving dinner what would it be?

Turkey, stuffing, grandma’s noodles and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans for good measure and those little bake and serve rolls and of course a piece of pumpkin pie. People have tried to use other types of rolls over the past few years and it’s NOT the same. I told my mom this year she’d better bring the right rolls since others cannot be entrusted with the job! LOL

#3. What’s your favorite Thanksgiving leftover?

My grandma’s noodles. I mean I love all of the leftovers but we only get those twice a year so they’re a special treat-fresh or reheated.

#4. Share a recipe using turkey.

God love her, Grandma comes from the school of wake up at 4am, put the turkey in and let it cook all day. The resulting bird requires something wet whether it’s gravy, ketchup or drink to get it down. I made the mistake of bringing an extra bird last year since our growing family can no longer support a 22 lb bird and leftovers. People RAVED about my turkey. So my recipe is very basic but tasty.

Separate the skin from the meat of the turkey to make pockets and rub butter in between the layers so it’ll be trapped by the skin but melt into the meat. Now I use plain butter when I bring it for Thanksgiving but if I’m doing it at home I cut up fresh herbs like rosemary and sage, add black pepper and a touch of honey to the butter, mix it up and use that to rub in the pockets. Make sure you butter the outside as well and put a little coarse black pepper and a sprig of rosemary in the cavity, follow the directions on the bird and you can’t go wrong. For slight variations for the cavity stuffing you can put cut citris of your choise along with whole herbs and peppercorns. If you want to go all “Martha” for the presentation you can tuck bay leaves in a pattern under the skin for flavor and wow factor.

Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill review

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When I found out former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar opened a restaurant at Kahului Airport on Maui, I knew we’d have to stop in. The hubby is a big fan and we needed to go for no other reason but to say we went. We had some time to kill between flights so we decided to order. I’m not a drinker but I had to order a Waborita so I could say I had one. To say it knocked me on my okole would be an understatement! Not just from the alcohol but also the astronomical price of $15!!! Maybe drinkers are used to paying that much but I don’t remember seeing a price next to it and had I seen that, I wouldn’t have gotten it. I have to say that for the money the effects lasted a long time so I guess that’s getting the most for your dollar.

I ordered the Crispy Pescado Mahi (Fish and Chips) and my hubby ordered the Pork Quesadillas. See that little thing covered up with jicama julienne strips? That’s my fish. While the Mahi was really juicy and flavorful, it was about 2 oz and for what I paid ($17.99) that is just outrageous. It was literally 4 tiny bites. As you can see from the picture there is much more chips than fish. The only upside to that is the delectable avacado cream they serve with it. It is WONDERFUL and I’m not an avacado girl at all. The hubby got the pork quesadillas and they were good and the size of the quesadilla was decent but he said for what he paid ($18.99) there wasn’t enough pork to justify paying extra for it. That black stuff on top is a black bean puree which is a good idea but kind of freaky looking.

Maui Santa Paws 2008

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Maui residents bring your furry family members in to have their holiday picture taken! Memory of Maui professional Photographers will be partnering with Maui Humane Society for this special holiday event! The photo package is $40 and includes: 1 – 5×7, 1 – 4×6, a CD of all pictures taken, AND a $100 gift certificate to Memory of Maui Photography!

Dates & Times & Locations:

Sat. Nov. 15th @ Maui Humane Society 10am – 2pm
Sun. Dec. 7th @ Lee’s Pet Grooming, Kahului 10am – 2pm
Thurs. Dec. 11th @ Maui Humane Society 3pm – 7pm
Sat. Dec 13th @ Lahaina Gateway Shopping Ctr 10am – 2pm

Hawaiian word of the week

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Malama pono-(mah-la-mah po-no)- Take care

The alphabet contains 12 letters: 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 7 consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, w). To simplify pronunciation, sound consonants as in English and break up words so they are easy to say (ie- Humuhumunukunukuapua’a would be pronounced humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apu-a-a)

Pronounce vowels as follows:

a – a in above; e – e in set; i – ee in see; o – o in some; u – oo in moon.

Pronounce vowels marked by a glottal stop (`) quickly ie- o`o sounds like oh-oh! in English.

Stress rising dipthongs (ae, ai, ao, au, oi, ou, eu, ei) on the first letter and end with a short e, i, o or u. ie- oi sounds like oy in soy, ending with a short “i”.

Aloha Friday Recipe: Fluffy Banana Tea Bread

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Ingredients

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. In large bowl of electric mixer,
cream butter with sugar, eggs, and vanilla at high speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Sift flour with baking
soda and salt. Add flour and remaining ingredients to creamed mixture. Mix at low speed for
about 1/2 minute. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. Makes 1 loaf (12 servings).

Four Foods on Friday meme #54

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Here’s this week’s Four Food on Friday questions. If you’d like to participate, head on over to Val’s place and play along!

#1. Name a food you like that uses a red sauce or anything red in it.

Cheese and onion enchiladas. You’d be surprised how hard it is to find a place that does them as good as Chi Chi’s did so I have to make my own but a very close 2nd is Maui Tacos. DROOL!

#2. Name a food you like with whipped cream in it or on it.

I like Cool Whip. I know it’s bad for you but I don’t care. Slap it on a pie of any kind, particularly banana cream and I’m a happy haole!

#3. Name a food you like with blueberry in it.

Either blueberry muffins or pancakes. I’m not a big blueberry fan though unless the little candy like blueberry bits found in Jiffy mixes count and I highly doubt they do!

#4. Share a recipe for pasta or dessert or a beverage.

With Fall here it’s time for a gourmet hot chocolate at home. Get some Ghirardelli Hazelnut hot cocoa, a good healthy squirt of Hershey syrup, a few mini marshmallows and a dollop of whipped cream. Talk about heavenly and it tastes just like those places you’d pay $4-5 per cup but you get more mileage out of having it on hand and more money in the pocket!

Congrats to president elect Barack Obama

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True Aloha would like to extend it’s congratulations to Hawaii born president elect Barack Obama and also it’s condolences that his beloved grandmother who passed in the islands a few days ago wasn’t able to celebrate with him.

Regardless of your political affiliation, we should all look ahead to the future and hope to make this country a better place. That attitude is the cornerstone of the true meaning of aloha.

Calling all culinary buffs!

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Whether you are the executive chef at a 5-star restaurant or self-proclaimed master of your kitchen at home, you are invited to enter Maui Ocean Center’s first ever Sustainable & Invasive Seafood Recipe Contest.

Recipes must use a sustainable seafood item from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Guide or an Invasive Species as the main ingredient.

Twenty lucky winners will be selected and featured in the Sustainable & Invasive Seafood Recipes section on the Maui Ocean Center website. The winning recipes will also be passed out to park guests throughout ‘That Bites’ Week, November 23 – 29.

Entries are accepted November 1 to 15. You may enter by emailing your recipe to karicayos@mauioceancenter.com or mailing them to:

Maui Ocean Center
Attn: Seafood Recipe Contest
192 Ma’alaea Road
Wailuku, HI 96793