This something I’ve wanted to do for a while. Roy Yamaguchi does it better, but I thought I’d try my hand at it. French food? Got that down pat. French technique? Not so much, as I’ve never had the whole formal culinary training, but I do know how to make the four mother sauces and their derivatives. I figure that has to count for something, right? As for Hawai’i…yes, I’m a fan of the food. How can you not be a fan of a culture that can so seamlessly blend together fresh fish (especially tuna) and spam? Yes, spam. I grew up on it. There isn’t a Filipino-American kid that did not grow up eating spam. It’s not as bad as people make it out to be. If you cut it up thin and fry it, it tastes just like bacon. In a pinch, you can substitute spam for any recipe that requires lardons.
Sure, my experience with Hawaiian food has been largely of the mix plate variety, but there’s been more to it than trips to Bay Area outposts of L&L’s. I’ve had the poke, the oxtail soup, lomilomi salmon, and the poi. I love the poi. It’s one of those guilty pleasures of mine. Most people try it and don’t like it, because it’s a bland starch, but I’ll watch them scarf down slices of white bread or plates of just plain steamed rice and I wonder what’s the difference?
It started with the poi, you see. I wanted to make poi, but not poi. I’ve tried my hand at making the taro root paste once before, and while wonderfully delicious with it’s subtle sweetness, the intensity of the entire process gave me a headache. Mashing taro by hand isn’t for me. There is pre-made poi, which I’ve seen at the markets on each visit to the islands, but that’s just a little hard to come by in California, especially as I was making dinner in Sacramento. This city is not the food mecca that my native Bay Area is. I could have probably found pre-made poi in San Francisco or Berkeley, not so in Sacramento. I have a hard time finding veal bones out here (Corti Bros is a life saver). So, I turned in other directions to make a poi substitute. I tried apple sauce thickened with agar, which turned out too much like jello. The guar gum worked, but I blew through my stash of it before I blew through my stash of apples. At some point while trying to figure this thing out, and looking through my collection of texts on everything from Biochemistry to Fluid Mechanics (I’m a scientist, ok? Leave me alone!) I remembered my Top Chef Cookbook, and took a page out of Marcel’s playbook, so to speak. Pineapples pureed with xanthan gum. I could kiss that diminutive Molecular Gastronomist for the idea. Armed with his recipe, I went in search of fish.
My original idea was to take a tuna and sear it, and serve Marcel’s “poi” as a side. But, then I saw the opakapaka side by side with the tuna in the fish monger’s case. Let me just say one thing. I love this fish. It ranks up there with hamachi and tuna for me. I spotted some Pacific White Shrimp as well. Both went into a cooler with plenty of ice as I made my way to the Fremont Park Farmers Market.
There, I spotted eggplant. Lots and lots of japanese eggplants. Seeing as my guests were all Sac State Tennis Club members, I had an idea. For some reason, we’d discussed the film Ratatouille, and I thought I’d prepare for them the confit byaldi that was served as the titular dish in Pixar’s film. Besides, I was having help. It would go great.
Prep work consisted of me cleaning the fish, while I set Jay to the task of making small coins of the eggplants, various squash, peppers and tomatoes. Then carefully layering the coins in a buttered baking dish over sauteed leeks, onions and garlic. Salt and pepper between layers and into the oven (425F). The results, I must say, were pretty darn good.
I set Janelle to the task of making the polenta/grits and frying up the shrimp while I made the poi, chilled it, and started frying up the opakapaka in butter. Unfortunately no picture for the shirmp & grits as the file was corrupted.
Tags: Fish, Hawai'i, Poi, Sac State Tennis Club
