MAKING SAIMIN FROM ALMOST SCRATCH

It's been a few months since I really posted something totally local Hawaiian style. So in this post I'll get to a soup dish with noodles we all love, and nope it's not a pho, nor is it tom yum, but saimin. Say it…"Sigh….Min" there you got it, saimin is a staple soup and noodle dish that's a Japanese influence and can be found in lots of local diners like world famous L&L Drive Inn, Zippy's, Big City Diner, and many other establishments. What is saimin?

Saimin is generally made up of a dashi soup base, or frankly a seafood soup base. Out on the market you can buy frozen saimin and in the packet you'll get a few ounces of cooked wheat noodles, and a small packet of soup base. You will follow the instructions on the plastic wrap, and it looks something like this.

Directions:

Heat up a cup of water in a pot, bring to a boil and add in the soup base, then add in the noodles, and cook for about 2 minutes. Pour soup into a bowl with noodles, and garnish with chopped green onions, fish cake, scramble eggs, or whatever it is you want.

So here is what I'd do if I wanted saimin from (almost scratch)…meaning I will not make the noodles from scratch but buy it from a grocer that sells saimin noodles only. If you can't find saimin noodles, use angel hair pasta, seriously it works just as good man. But I'd make the soup base from scratch, and here we go folks, just follow me here.

Soup from scratch for saimin.

1. First cook your noodles and set them aside.
2. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.
3. Add in 1 strip of seaweed (kombu), 3 tbsp. of bonito flakes, 1 tsp of salt, and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for about 4 minutes. 
4. Pour the soup into a bowl and add in the cooked noodles.

For garnish I'd use these precooked items. (and if you don't know how to make these, that's for another segment).

1 fried chicken thigh, sliced.
1 egg scrambled
1 slice of canned ham cooked.
3 slices of fish cake
Green onions to top it off, chopped of course, and I'd use some hot sauce and soy sauce to give it body and taste. Easy cooking. Here are some photos from Google Images I got for saimin, and I have older posts of saimin, but it's such a great meal, I had to do this again, and I'll probably do another one again too. WTF right?

Fresh saimin noodles from Hamura's

This bowl has fish cake on left, noodles and charsiu pork

This bowl has steamed won tons left, fish cake top center

boiled egg center, and some cooked meat to the right

with noodles sunk down into the bowl, mmmm.

This guy definitely sauced his bowl with some soy sauce

look how that broth looks like..but man, it is good I can tell.

Like a fine wine..a fine saimin has personality.

Until next time, don't choke on your food!!!!

Copyright © 2014

THE CORN DOG AMERICA'S BATTERED WEINER

The corn dog, that battered coated wiener that's deep fried golden served usually with a stick shoved in one end. Hot Dog On A Stick franchises very popular, their gimmick was selling fresh lemonade, and french fries. Corn Dog, just the sound of it makes you think…county fair, amusement park, fund raisers, birthday parties with clowns, clowns who were ex-fellons or something looking to make a buck.

Anyhow corn dog, do I love this meal? Of course I do, but the hot dog that's battered needs to be a very tasty dog, Nathan's comes to mind, or like a reddish Redondo's or something like that. And the batter? Who can really screw that one up?

So here I go again, using my MacBook Pro looking at Google's Images for corn dog pics, as I eat my Supreme Pizza at Barnes and Noble.

THIS IS A NICELY GOLDEN CORN DOG

MASS PRODUCED CORN DOGS I KNOW

SOMEBODY THAT CAN EAT ALL OF THOSE

ECLAT PRESENTATION OF A CORNY

This is a copyrighted pic ©DISNEY

PUPU CORN DOGGIES IN A CUP

FLAKY CORN DOGS? WHATEVERS!

©Disney's Corn Dog Castle

NOTICE THE LINE AIN'T LONG WASSUP WIT DAT?!

NOT A PERFECT LOOKING CORN DOG BUT PROBABLY

TASTY AS ______!!!!

WATCH THIS VIDEO CLICK THE LINK

AN EASY HOMEMADE CORN DOG RECIPE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igF8D7iE46o

OK, now it's time for all of you to try and make your own corn dogs, you can use any sausage, try a battered Italian sausage, or some battered chorizos or something, whatever you like.

COMMON OILS USED FOR DEEP FRYING

Whenever you start to deep fry anything especially coated or battered foods, it's a good idea to have a deep enough frying pan or a pot pertinent for the size of foods you are frying. To deep fry corn dogs at home, using a 12" stainless steel braising pan is good, make sure you have enough oil so that the corn dogs will be fried golden all around, if not you may need to use tongs to turn them over after a few minutes. Also don't be disappointed if your dogs comes out uneven, without industry equipment you'll never get that perfect looking dog. You can purchase wooden skewers to stick inside your dogs.

Vegetable Oil- easily available in all supermarkets, a combination of different oils from different vegetables, this oil is good for deep frying it has a rather high smoke point (the temperature at maximum heat when oil starts to smoke). 

Deep frying temperatures should be maintained around 325 to 400 degrees F. Vegetable oil fits the bill. Other oils you can use with success is Canola & Corn.

To save your used oil, cool in completely, and strain it through a fine mesh funnel, or use some coffee filters over a bowl. And always label the oil, like "USED FOR CONR DOGS" and store it in a cool dry place. If you won't use it in a week, you'll have to dump it, it will turn ugly.

BASIC BATTER

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup corn meal

1 egg

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

Milk to thin out use sparingly until you get a nice batter.

You can mix by hand or use a food processor, whatever twirls your beanie girlfriend.

Alright- keep on dogging it!

copyright 2014 ©

KNIVES IN MY BAG

Doing cooking videos here on Maui, I get asked sometimes "Hey Ron what kind of knives to you carry in your bag?" Well, I tell you what kind of knives I do carry at the moment, as well as the knives I'm looking at on purchasing. Knives to a cook is like drumsticks to a drummer, or a hammer for a carpenter you know?

So here we go, and I'll just Google the pics because it's late in the early morning and don't want to wake the people in the house. 

My first knife I got is actually a 7" Henckels

Santoku knife that has a hollowed edge, when a manufacturer labels a blade hollowed edge it means just that, the knife's blade is not totally flat but comes with some indentations, this is to prevent foods from sticking to the blade, like anything moist. We've all been there and done that…slice tomatoes and the slices sticks to the blade. Well by giving the blade a hollowed edge foods tend to stick less or never at all.

I love this knife because it is a thin blade and razor sharp, it slices, dices, and chops very nicely. Fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, seafood, all good with this baby. I'd say for slicing thin cuts of meats, this knife works well. The blade is wide enough to take chopped garlic and scoop it up. Love this blade.

Next is my 8" Henckels Chef Knife, it's just a standard model that works great with slicing, chopping, dicing and mincing. It cuts snapper in quarters right through the bone really well. One thing though…that I've noticed, the edge for some reason does get dull pretty quickly, so keep a honing steel near by, and a whet stone too to give it a real edge and sharpness. Other than that I love it, just got to really hone in on the blade.

The handles on these knives are comfortable, and cleans easy with soapy hot water and wiped down, much better than having a wooden handle the can store bacteria.

My next weapon is an Ad Craft CLC 8 Chinese Cleaver, all stainless steel from the handle to the very front edge of the blade. Easy to use, my favorite for slicing thin meats, chicken, fish and veggies for wok cooking, the wide blade makes it a nice shovel to scoop minced onions, ginger, garlic and scallions to transfer to the hot wok sizzling with oil. The dimensions are 7-3/4" x 3-1/2" Tapered Blade, it's very inexpensive and rivals many expensive Chinese Cleavers, this cost me about 12 bucks online. Note: This blade is not made for hacking thick bones, for breaking chicken bones like thighs or other somewhat thick bones I'll use my other cleaver you'll see after this one.

My next cleaver is the one used for hacking bones more so than slicing meats or veggies, it can act as a weapon too. Just kidding. So this is the cleaver I use for cutting through some meat as well as hacking at bones. It's a 6" Messermeister Meat Cleaver, it cost me over a 100.00 I had it for a while.

For filleting small fish and deboning chicken or removing silver skin from large sub cuts of beef, I use this 7" Victorinox Boning Knife, very inexpensive and does the job.

I also have a few other small paring knives, and other small cutting gadgets that does not need any mention, but these are the knives I currently have in my bag and does fits most jobs I do. I will get a 10 or 9" cimeter, a Japanese filet knife, and a thiner 8" Japanese chef's knife too, just to have it.

Knives are important to cooks, it's a special tool, oh yeah I was going to pick up a 7" Chai Dao knife too, it sort of looks like a santoku but a little wider like a cleaver, again just to have it.

Copyright © 2014

MACHINE FRENCH BREAD

Basic Machine French Bread

If you own a bread machine, and haven't used it, you know what I mean like you got one for you birthday, or anniversary, or maybe you saw the delivery truck idling on the street curb and the driver wasn't in his seat, so you opened the cargo hold and took the first box that you saw, and it was a bread machine. Cool…now it's time to use it. Make sure you read the owner's manual, that pamphlet that is sealed tightly in plastic, and don't forget to fill out that product registration card, because you want more bullshit in your inbox for emails, and more shit in your mailbox on the street.

Okay so now let's get cracking on making simple French Bread, we all love French Bread…I actually prefer sandwich making with French Bread as opposed to say, South African bread, or maybe Idaho Bread, or Irish Bread, or Taliban Bread, or some other off the wall country's bread. French is it for me my friends, I love it so much, I stuff French Bread, with more French Bread and make myself a French Bread Sandwich.

Here we go standard recipe.

Makes a 1 lb. loaf and serves 8-12 or 1 hungry mother fucker

1 1/2 cups of warm water

4 cups of flour

2 tsp. of sea salt

2 1/2 tsp. of dry yeast

Directions

1. Add to the pan a) the water, b) about half the flour and salt, c) and then the rest of the flour salt and the yeast.

2. Set the cycle you need, like normal, full blast, or the start later cycle.

3. Make sure you do have electricity and turn it on.

When it comes out you'll have a beautiful loaf to feed your family, or store it for later sandwich making. Here's a checklist of ingredients you'll need to make sandwiches just in case you are a clueless dumb ass.

1. Cold cuts, turkey, ham, salami, corned beef, chicken breast etc.

2. Thin sliced veggies, tomatoes, onions, lettuce etc.

3. Condiments, dijon mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, ranch dressing etc.

4. Cheeses, mozzarella, cheddar, American, Swiss.

Sides like bags of small chips, and don't forget pickles, no sandwich is a sandwich without pickles, I mean anything pickled gives sandwiches a nice balance, I like to use regular cucumber pickles, as well as kimchi, anything like that will suffice.

This picture came from another blogger here on Google's Blog Spot .Com

www.kim-thislittlelifeofmine.blogspot.com

So there you have it, just a tad of information for those of you who haven't used your bread machine yet. I mean c'mon, it's embarrassing when those gift givers ask you later on in life, "Hey guys, do you love that bread machine?" Look, we can all see lies…if you haven't used it, and you'll bullshit to them by saying, "Yeah we love it…yeah thanks…" That's not going to work m friends, so either you come clean and be honest, "Nope never used it." Or do use it and be honest how your bread turned out.

Until next time.

Copyright 2014

COFFEE & TEA IN PORTLAND, OREGON

PORTLAND, OREGON Coffee & Tea.
Some of you may be wondering what this blog post is all about, when I'm in Maui…well on Maui we have what we call people that visit…yeah you know some people call them tourists? Orite you ain't that fucking dumb after all eh? So I sit here at a local Star Bucks on my Mac Book Pro, typing some nonsensical bullshit…I think its some worthless business plan that will probably not generate any interest ...whatever.

So as I'm listening to Ronnie James Dio's "Rainbow In The Dark" a nice young couple sits next to me…okay they look pretty clean, their clothes aren't stained like those loser drunks that live in the bushes on the beach smelling like shit and piss and every foul odor you can imagine…yeah you know…

"Hi," says the dude…
"Hi" I respond.
"Hi" says the girl.
"Hi" I respond.

That was it for a few minutes, with my peripheral vision I see them talking and giggling, no doubt they're honeymooning, or possibly they are fooling around on their spouses and giggling, or maybe they were reading some funny book, or talking about some dumb ass movie that's playing…I don't watch movies, fuck the big movie makers, I ain't giving them my money, screw them!!!

Finally I had to show them some Aloha spirit, I mean it was the only right thing to do, I don't want them to go back to where they came from and tell their friends "Hey some local dude just didn't want to talk to us, because we were white." Or something, by the way, I think I am 1/8 Norwegian..that's right white man.

"Hey guys, where are you from?"
The guy looks at me, "Hi man, me and my girl we're from Portland, Oregon."
"Really, nice…man…what are you doing in a Starbucks isn't the Northwest a hotbed for coffee shops?"
The girl chimes in…wait a minute…chimes in? Okay I ripped that off from someone, she chimes in, "Yeah in Portland we got a few great coffee shops."
I respond, "Okay, I've been to Portland one time and loved it, where's a good coffee shop?"
The guys looks at me and says "Peet's."
The girl, "Peet's Coffe & Tea is pretty good we go there a lot…we live close by."
Hmmm Peet's, alright. 
They went on to tell me that their favorite coffee shop to hang out at is Peet's, it's just their favorite place. So after we talked about Maui, and all the good things they were doing like going on a boat ride and watching whales, and driving to Hana. And me telling them a bunch of bullshit like how I was dating Beyonce and Mariah at one time, and how I was an ex Navy Seal, shit like that.. We parted ways, they probably thought I was a lunatic out of the mental clinic I had to Yelp this Peet's…and Yelp it I did, I did.

From Yelp. Peet's Coffee & Tea

508 SW Broadway

Portland, OR 97205

503-973-5540

For one thing that picture looks like Peet's is clean, no roaches here..look how clean this place is, I like the look. So I give Peet's a call just to see if whoever answers is friendly and will answer all my stupid questions.

Girl: Peet's Coffee & Tea

Me: Hi Peet's?

Girl: Ah that's what I said…

Me: Hey you sell coffee?

Girl: Ah yes we do.. we also have tea…

Me: Okay because my friends (Lie) from Portland said you guys are the best coffee shop in Portland is that correct?

Girl: Of course we are, stop by and see us.

Me: I would but I need to catch a flight out there Im about 3,000 miles or so away.

Girl: Hmm can't help you there, where you calling from?

Me: Maui.

Girl: Maui….wow! Well… if you ever get here…stop by and see us.

Me: I will, I'm on Yelp right now looking at your page.

Girl: Well I hope there's good reviews.

Me: Well I can't read…(LIes), but the pictures look good.

Girl: If you can't read how did you type Yelp in your computer?

Me: Voice activated..

Girl: Haha.. Well, we're open from 6am to 7 at night, please see us when you get here.

Me: I will thanks.

Girl: Bah bye…

Here are some more pics from Yelp.

Green Latte

Peet's exterior

I think it's some creamy drink

Another fancy drink, looks carameleee

Peet's Ad

As you can see, the pictures are nice, very professional and high def, not the cheap stuff like I'd use to promote any business I'd run, I mean if it was my shop, there would be cardboard signs with bold black markers used to make the menu. Yeah, I'm sold…if I ever make it back to Portland, Oregon I'd stop by and check out Peet's..can't say I will, but it looks inviting why not?

COPYRIGHT © 2014

FRIED CHICKEN LOCAL MAUI STYLE

Yes Fried Chicken Maui Style!
Brought to you by 

Fried chicken isn't for just for our southern fried rock and roll brethren, on Maui we got our style of fried chicken that can be just as good…better? Ahhh, I won't go there because I know how southerners can be about their fried prized chicken.

Here's my take on fried chicken, it needs to be seasoned at least a few hours before being fried into a crisp juicy product.

Here's a recipe for you guys that's easy to prepare.

INGREDIENTS:

5 lbs. of chicken thighs, thawed if frozen

Garlic Powder

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Chili Powder

2 cups of sour cream

2 cups of mayonnaise

1/4 of hot sauce

5 cups of all purpose flour

2 cups of cornstarch

2 cups of cornmeal

Directions.

1. Mix some garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder to your specs. Toss the chicken in this mixture and set aside.

2. In another bowl, mix the sour cream and mayonnaise and hot sauce together, coat the chicken pieces in this mixture and refrigerate for about 2 hours or more.

3. In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, cornstarch and cornmeal together. Dredge chicken in this mixture and set aside.

4. Heat up a deep fryer to about 300 deg F, or when a bread crumb about an inch cube sizzles quickly.

5. Deep fry the chicken in batches so it cooks evenly, to ensure each thigh is cooked, stick a thermometer in the center of each thigh, if the temperature reaches about 155 degrees F, remove and set aside to rest a few minutes, the chicken will continue to cook to at least 160 degrees which should be safe to eat, as long as there is no blood dripping from the inside.

Serve with some veggies and rice or potatoes.

copyright 2014

IN HAWAII IT'S ALL ABOUT A THING CALLED OHANA

OHANA (Family)
Family is a very vital part of Hawaii or Hawaiians that have been relocated to different parts of the world. Family doesn't need to be blood family or relatives, family is anyone that connects with each other in perfect harmony. Ohana (Oh Hah nah)..very vital for life.

Food is also a very vital part of survival, as well as for entertaining along with music and dance, like most cultures of the world. I have a friend in Westport, Washington, a Hawaiian who is married to a lovely local girl, his ohana is now in Washington, and the Hawaiian contingent there thrives.

I have heard from friends of mine that served in the Army and was stationed in Germany, "Hey brah, us guys and the Germans have lots in common, they love meat and beer, and having a good time." Yes, food and drink is a bond, most definitely.

In Hawaii, we celebrate many things of importance, one could be the first baby's life on earth, a luau would be scheduled, family and friends will know months ahead of time to take that Sunday off, and to be ready for good times, to put away all falsehood, and narcissistic behavior, and to show respect for the hosts, and to show respect for the elders first, and of course everyone else. In Hawaii we always show respect for our Kupuna (elders)…to show disrespect is shameful. I've witnessed many an embarrassing moment where an adult child of one of the elders would return home for the celebration, only to have his nose in the air because he became a successful businessman on the mainland, thinking his poop don't' stink. You can bet, an elder especially an elderly wahine (wah hee neh) or woman would dress this person down making him feel like a one inch nail. You never show up anyone in Hawaii, you will be respected no matter what your status is on the social ladder…only if you humble yourself completely.

Then the food is very comforting if done right, and with the myriad of different cultures that make up Hawaii, the spread may look like this… a table with chafing dishes filled with teriyaki beef, lomi salmon, kalua pork, lau lau, chicken long rice, pork adobo, dinuguan, seafood pasta, pizza, grilled chicken, pork and peas, fried mackerel and more. And the dessert spread can look like a bakery, Hawaiians and its people are beautiful and giving people, we take this concept and say we are very wealthy, maybe we aren't Wall Street celebrities, but the wealth we have is Ohana, with love and warmth, and this thing we have and it's called Aloha.

Until next time.

Ron Sambrano

copyright 2014