HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL HOME COOK

"Honey they didn't like my casserole!" your wife says after the relatives leaves the house on a warm Sunday evening in the summer time.

"Oh babe, it tasted great, I ate all mine, and junior polished his plate, and the potatoes were perfect."

"You're just saying that."

"No worries…it was perfect!"

Well you married peeps out there let's face it, sometimes your wife's cooking doesn't hit a home run, but she does get on base, and does make it to second, and possibly third, and she may have an RBI or two. But c'mon…that's successful…you aren't gonna hit home runs all the time. I mean let's face it, I've heard of foodies eating in 3 star Michelin restaurants and weren't totally impressed by the chef's creations… so if a so-called 3 star Michelin chef doesn't hit a homer with well traveled foodie aficionados, don't worry if aunt Mabel critiques your Swedish Meatballs with a Tabasco Béarnaise or whatever.

The best way to be a successful home cook is to keep on cooking and practicing, take a cooking class or something, and feed someone. If that someone eats his or her plate, guess what? You're a success eh? Yes you are. So here I am telling you "You can do it! You are a champion, don't give up or let others take you down. And remember you are the hostess, you invited them over, if they don't like it? Hey they can go to Burger King…"

TIP FOR TODAY!

Pan Frying. Here's a big mistake many people make when pan frying, the proteins they are cooking are too thick. The best way to get good pan frying results is to slice meats like beef, about 1/4" maybe 1/2" thick, same with chicken, or pork, and don't over cook it. Once you see the juices oozing out, it's cooking! Flip it and go for a couple of minutes, use a good quality pan, stainless steel, or nonstick…whatever you are comfortable with and it's all good.

In fact, if I pan fry, I use a carbon steel flat bottom wok, the heat sears thin cuts of meat perfectly and quickly, try learning to cook with a carbon steel wok.

Okay guys, keep on cooking, and be good to yourself, don't beat yourself up because some foodie snob didn't like the cat dish you served up. Hahah just kidding, in fact some Asian countries do eat kitty for dinner, now if you are inviting me over for some kitty cat stir fry… I'll politely decline.

-Ron Sambrano

© 2014

DINUGUAN VIDEO

Do you like pork? Do you love peppers? Do you love being different? Well us Filipinos can help you and if you are a die hard foodie that's looking for new and exotic stuff to eat, try this nationally popular dish called Dinuguan (Dee noo goo won). It is made of pork, and some trippy stuff, and pig's blood. Enjoy the video.

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EPIC MEAL TIME

Not your culinary graduate chefs, but if you want to be entertained, Epic Meal Time is a funny bunch of characters that make some outrageous dishes, just watch this video and make a comment.

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MAYONNAISE FROM SCRATCH

There's nothing like fresh sauces, if done right it tastes much better than store bought sauces. However if you don't have the time to make a fresh sauce of any kind, then store bought is good, we all use it at times, in fact most of the time.

One classic sauce, or dressing, which ever you want to call it is mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is a sauce, or …dressing that can add flavor to other sauces, or to dress up a sandwich, but in this video it is just making mayonnaise from scratch.

Enjoy, and happy mayonnaise making.

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CHEF MING TSAI'S VIDEO OF WOK COOKING

ENJOY THIS VIDEO OF CHEF MING TSAI, JUST A FEW MINUTES WILL ENLIGHTEN YOUR FOODIE DESIRES, IT WILL TEMPT YOU ALSO…TO BUY A WOK AND COOK UP A STORM IN YOUR KITCHEN, AND INVITE ALL OF YOUR FOODIE FRIENDS FOR A MEAL COOKED FORM THE HEART…AND THE WOK!

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AHI GUACAMOLE

TOMMY'S AHI GUACAMOLE!
Co-Workers that bring food are the best. Tommy our co-worker brought some Tostitos Chips and his homemade Ahi (Yellow Fin Tuna) Guacamole. It was refreshing, very mellow, with hints of lime and sea salt. The avocados weren't mushy, it was very good.

          

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PIZZA HUT 4 DA MUNCHIES

MUNCHIES! "I'm hungry, what the @#%*! we gonna eat?"
Being on an island you wouldn't think we got fast foods, but we do. And we make use of the fast food restaurants. The chain restaurants. A friend calls me up and wants to meet over some food, but we don't have the kind of funding we used to have to go to a nice restaurant, I mean the kind of place where the bill for 2 would be around a 100 bucks. Those days are kind of gone.

Well, he picks me up and we start driving down the street.
"So where you want to go?"
"I don't know, I got like ten bucks."
"Don't worry I'll buy since you bought the last time."
"Shoots, sounds good."

We go down a mile and we turn left into the local Pizza Hut, the ones that has a Taco Bell built right in, yeah because it's the same corporation, they sell Pepsi. I figured what the hell, might as well…I"m going for the ride and free food.

Standing there like Beavis and Butthead, we make stupid sounds, we don't know what to get. Do we get the 10.99 large ass New Yorker? Or do we get some personal pizzas, or pasta, or wings… 

We settled for the Super Supreme Pizza, and I don't care what pizza gurus say, shit like Chicago has the best, or New York has the best, or Italy has the best. Well we are in Lahaina, Maui, a far cry from the mainland or freaking Italy, so PH sounded good to me, we opted for the pan pizza crust.

My buddy had a 2 for 1 card, so he got another Super Supreme to take home to the wife and son, what a dad and husband my bro, great guy. Splitting a medium pan Super is just what the doctor ordered, shit… I've eaten a whole medium by myself in the past, those days when you were all stoned. Remember those days? I'd eat half, then fall asleep, and the next day eat the other half for breakfast, right? So what the roaches walked over a few pieces eh? Hey it's still good. Ewwww.

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MIKE'S HONG KONG BISTRO

Mike's Hong Kong Bistro located in Wailuku town has been around for some time now, their food is okay, Chinese influence with a mixture of local favorites. Yesterday I was running late from Wailuku and heading back to Lahaina for a job interview, so I decided to stop by Mike's because they have the steamers with food already cooked, just order, the lady scoops and plates it, you'll be eating quickly.

This is how you do it, like a cafeteria set up, you go to the left of the line, tell the lady what you want, chow mein, or fried rice. Then you move to the right, and point out what kind of entree you want. Well, on this day the food was minimal I don't know why, could be they got slammed for lunch or something or they didn't cook a lot to not waste food. The only thing that looked truly edible was the chow mein, the kau yuk (braised pork), and the teriyaki meatballs, and I grabbed a can of Pepsi (Sorry Dr. Delaughter).

Mike's also has made to order entrees which is very good stuff, I just did not have the time to wait for my order hence the ready made food was more conducive to my mission and that was hurry up and get my ass back to Lahaina, a 30 to 40 minute ride with traffic.

My food rating on this day was 3 out of 5 spoons, 5 spoons being epic, it was average, but good to eat. I would recommend Mike's for sure.

Photos © 2014 Chef Sambrano

         

THE ONLY THING A SINGLE DUDE NEEDS IN THE KITCHEN TO COOK

Single dudes out there! I Chef Ron will teach you that the only thing you will ever need in your kitchen to cook a good meal for your sorry ass self, and possibly a pretty girl you hooked up with, the one that your buds will go, "Her? She likes you dude?" Yep her.

Anyhow, I'll tell you what tools you will need, and why. And here is the tools, don't ask me any questions, just do what I say okay? Good Junior…good… just shut your trap and listen up.

First of all if you have a stove, great. It's probably either of two styles, one is the electric stove run by electricity of course, the other is a gas stove run by natural gas. Either or, it works because a stove does heat up stuff.

Now let's get into pots and pans, and I'll tell you what right now you should need.

Number one: A nonstick 10" pan. This pan is made to cook foods on the stove top, and because it is nonstick, you won't need lots of fats or oils to cook your food making it a healthy tool to cook..healthy. This pan can fry your eggs what ever way you like em, over easy, scrambled, as an omelette, you get the pic.

Also, you can use this pan as a stir fry tool, instead of a wok, you can use it for stir frying Asian foods. You can use it to sauté other stuff like onions, mushrooms, and even fry a steak or burgers, or even fried chicken. This pan is all you will need, just don't scrub it with a wire brush. Simply soak it in warm soapy water to remove stuck on food particles.

Number two: Get at least 1 4 quart saucepan with a lid, you can make soups in this, or stews, or chili, and it's a great vessel to bake in too, eliminating baking pans. Just fill it with your favorite cake mix and stick it in the oven.

Number three: a 3 1/4" Pairing knife to peel and section small fruits for salads, a vegetable peeler to peel potatoes, carrots and whatever, at least an 8" chefs knife for all around slicing, chopping, mincing of foods. A pair of tongs to turn foods that are hot.

Number 4: An electric rice cooker to cook rice, and to cook other foods that need steaming, great for reheating foods if you don't like microwave ovens.

Number 5: An electric toaster, a small coffee maker, and some plates, and forks, spoons, steak knives etc.

Number 6: Mixing bowls, and storage containers to store your leftover foods in the fridge.

10" NONSTICK FRY PAN

Notice the metal handles, great if you need to finish a dish in the oven up to 350dg F.

8" CHEFS KNIFE

This is from Forschner and very reasonably priced at around 30 to 40 dollars and found in many professional chef and prep cooks bags.

4 QUART STAINLESS STEEL SAUCEPAN WITH LID

An inexpensive one from Walmart will do, it holds a gallon of liquid, way too much for a single dude, but it is a great tool to have to make soups, stews, and of course sauces. I use mine to deep fry tempura on a small scale. You can get one for about 30-50 dollars.

There you have it, and the other tools you know how it looks..just wanted to give an idea of the main cooking tools you will need on the stove. Until next time.

© 2014

IHOP MAUI

IHOP Maui… Yeah I love to hop on Maui..today was a pretty good day so far anyhow, it's high noon. Wait, high noon? What the fuck am I a cowboy in some western movie? Nope I'm a sluggish local boy that just ate a filling meal at IHOP in the Maui Mall in Kahului, Maui, Hawaii…what was I thinking, that shit was too big I wanna sleep!

I had to do some business with some friends, and when it's business it's at the DCCA office in the mall. So after a few signatures here, print your name there, it was breakfast time. Johann tells me we are going to have breakfast, me him and his wife I call "mom" Sabrina, headed across the way to IHOP. 

We got seated, and quickly our orders were taken. Johann ate the 2 eggs, with sausage, and toast, and pancakes, and hash browns. Wow! Sabrina had the Veggie Omelette, it looked delicious, I should've had what she had. Me on the other hand ate the Ham Omelette, filled with cheese, and a good size hash brown with coffee and water. I was full, and still am full, and I got to clock in to work in about 3 hours.

After one bite I became alive!

Does this look delicious

Mmmm Yay for IHOP

© 2014

Aloha from Maui, Hawaii, from the Valley Island, home of Haleakala the 10,000' volcano, and home to many timeshare owners from B.C. Canada.

Today I'm going to blog about food, as usual, and what kind of food? Local Plate Lunches of course…and the plate we'll talk about today is the famous Loco Moco, it is always a topic, a discussion. What's a loco moco? If you don't know what it is, it's a plate that consists of 2 scoops of rice, the white sticky kind from medium grain rice, and a scoop of macaroni salad, made of cooked macaroni noodles, and seasoned with salt and pepper, with some minced veggies, generally onions, carrots, and celery, and tossed around in some real mayonnaise. Loco Moco is so popular, that I need to keep blogging about it.

The star of the Loco Moco is the hamburger steaks, or patties. It has to be cooked first of all just right. It can't be overcooked. And it can't be so raw as well. To me, a perfect patty is about 4 oz. to 5 oz. and having 2 each on a plate would be sufficient unless you eat like a pig. The patties needs to be seasoned, I like to use lots of garlic and onion powder, minced round onions, maybe some minced green onions too. Salt and pepper, some panko flakes, a few scoops of mayonnaise depending on the amount I'm making, some steak sauce, yellow mustard, and some egg whites. When I cook em, I make em really flat and wide, so when it cooks it cooks fast! And when it's thin, you can cut em with a fork. And of course 2 eggs over easy. But you need a brown beef gravy, and you can make that in advance, or if you're cooking small kine, or for just a few people, you can use the drippings from the fry pan that you cooked the patties in, add some flour for the roux, and then add in some canned beef stock, I usually do that. Anyhow, I top the patties with gravy, then put the over easy eggs on top and spoon more gravy over the eggs, making it messy.

Loco Moco always needs to be discussed…am I tired of this? Yeah and no..but I get people asking me about it all the time, usually visitors from the mainland. "Hey Ron what's a Loco Moco?" "Hey dude, tell me about this..this Loco Moco you guys eat?" Well that's what a Loco Moco is, it's 2 hamburger patties (steaks), with gravy and 2 over easy eggs.

Here's some ripped off photos of Loco Moco from Google Images.. again. And I'll probably blog it again.

From inuyaki.com

From crossfindlandvalley.com

From Tasty Hawaiian Island.com

Well my friends theres some of the pics from Google Images of Loco Moco, so that is what it looks like. Very comforting foods from Hawaii..but when you look at it, it's not really native Hawaiian food…so when I say Hawaiian Style, it simply means what we eat in the modern day Hawaii. 

Aloha until the next blog which will be about…Loco Moco no doubt..please stop asking me about it already! I want to move on don't you all know?!

© 2014

PINE TREE CAFE

Today I ran into a local couple from Kona, of the Big Island of Hawaii.. a couple in their 60s, more than likely and I say that out of respect. As we get to talking, the small talk of course, I joked with them that I just got out of prison for stealing a container load of carbon steel woks that came from China. They looked at me as if I was crazy. Long story short, I told them I was kidding, and that it was my nephew's 17th birthday and I was shopping for a birthday card. After all that, I come to find out that they are here on Maui for a few days…I think until next Wednesday visiting friends.

As you know by now, I am a food blogger. Yes that's me if you've haven't noticed I don't do blogs on sex, mechanical drawings, real estate, or aviation. I do write about food period. So the topic I came up with was, "Hey if I ever go to Kona…where should I get a nice plate lunch?" Their reply, "Pine Tree Cafe Bradda Ron…really good local stuff..get plates, Japanese kine, Hawaiian kine, Korean kine..sandwiches too kine."

Hmmm, okay… so we talked more about this…this Pine Tree Cafe. As we talked, sat at the same table, I got my Android G2 from LG out and Googled Pine Tree Cafe..and what did I see? Well here's the address: 73-4040 Hulikoa Drive, Kailua Kona, HI 96740 and the phone number is 808-327-1234..easy.

Wait a minute! I'll just Yelp it… and I did, and as my friends from Kona looked at my phone and the photos and the other people's comments, they all agreed. Hey this is easy, I'm just reiterating what others have said on Yelp…I'm a copycat! Yay! Easy!

First comment comes from a Jason C. out of Honolulu, he likes the loco moco, claiming it is excellent, claiming that the patty is huge about 1/2 pounds. He also loves the Crispy Huli Huli chicken, the fried poke with a nice aioli, this guy even likes the Homemade Corned Beef Hash for breakfast. Hey this Jason guys has it down.

My friends from Kona nods their heads, "Yeah bradda Ron, this guy's comments is right on, that's what we like too. We also like the Japanese plate sometimes, get miso soup, and the Hawaiian plate get everything, poi, lomi salmon, lau lau…da works bradda.. Nuff Said! If this couple says Pine Tree Cafe is the place to go..that's it, if I ever get there, I'll go to Pine Tree and eat like a horse.

The next few photos are from Google Images and I am not making any money off of these blogs so no worries.

PINE TREE SIGN

Pine Tree Saimin Yelp no name

Pine Tree Yelp no name

Pine Tee Yelp no name

Pine Tree Yelp no name

There's some of the pics from Google Images, just to give you an idea of their presentation, and by just reading Yelp, man I gettingz hungreh very very hungreh! So take this blog and keep it, copy and paste it somewhere… maybe we can all meet up on a maiden voyage to Pine Tree Cafe in Kailua Kona. Until next time, be cool and not a fool!

© 2014