By Request
Pot of stew is a quick fix
after a long, tiring dayJean Watanabe Hee, a retired teacher, has found herself a busy second career as a cookbook author.
She's on her third publication, "Hawaii's Best Local Dishes," a follow-up to "Hawaii's Best Mochi Recipes" and "Hawaii's Best Local Desserts."
All the books come from Mutual Publishing and have fairly wide bookstore distribution locally.
Watanabe's latest cookbook spans ethnic cuisines, from Chinese pork hash and Filipino sari sari, to Japanese miso butterfish and Hawaiian squid luau, to Italian shrimp scampi and all-American fried chicken.
These are not fancy, gourmet dishes, but rather everyday hearty fare -- "local," that's the best description.
Included is Tired Teachers Dinner, which seems to fulfill a request from R. Tanaka, who asked for a tomato-sauce-based stew that he'd heard could be made by adding "a can of this and a can of that."
This sounds like just the ticket, an ultra-simple dinner that uses the most basic ingredients. Put it together quickly after a long workday, then let it simmer on the stove while you relax, shower or do a load of laundry.
Watanabe says it's also called Dutch Oven Pork Roast or One Can Pork Roast. (By the way, the recipe calls for whiskey as an optional ingredient, but makes no suggestion as to amount, so you're quite on your own there.)
Place all ingredients in a large pot. Cook, covered, over low-to-moderate heat, 40 to 60 minutes, until meat is tender. Serves 6 to 8.Tired Teachers Dinner
3 pounds meat (pork butt cut into chunks, short ribs or chicken)
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 can sugar (use tomato sauce can)
1 can soy sauce (use tomato sauce can)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1-inch piece ginger, crushed
Salt and pepper, to taste
Whiskey, to taste (optional)Approximate nutritional analysis, per serving (not including salt and optional whiskey): 530 calories, 31 g total fat, 9 g saturated fat, 150 mg cholesterol, greater than 2,000 mg sodium, 27 g carbohydrate, 34 g protein.*
Can you help?
I have drawn a blank on these recipe requests from readers. If you can help, be a hero and get in touch via either of the means listed at the end of this column.
>> Tom Moffett recalls eating an oyster burger at a restaurant on Hotel Street when he was stationed at Pearl Harbor in the 1950s. This isn't much information to go on, but it sounds like a unique enough sandwich that someone might remember it.>> D. Pyles longs for the cold meatloaf sandwich once served at the old Stewarts Pharmacy in Waikiki. A few months ago, readers came up with the Stewarts' orange-bread recipe, which the restaurant handed out on coasters. Perhaps there is hope for another recipe from an eatery that closed decades ago.
>> May Kaneshiro would like to find a recipe for an "awesome" teri-miso marinade.
>> The old Sea View Inn in Haleiwa served fresh banana pie and shrimp tempura that still live in the memory of an e-mail correspondent I know only as Sally. That was 30 years ago, but if anyone has a line on the recipes, Sally would be eternally grateful.
>> Finally, three sweet requests: Lenette Tam wants to make those ultra-hard stone cookies or log cookies sold at several Big Island bakeries, while Kacey has been searching cookbooks for a recipe for pretzel clusters -- those chocolate- or white-chocolate-coated pretzels with candy sprinkles. And Jeannette Book wants to help her mother track down a recipe for tea cakes, which she describes as "4-inch square blocks of dense sponge-like cake with a sugar glaze sprinkled with sliced almonds."
Food Stuffs: Morsels
Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com
Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the
Body & Soul section indicates calculations by
Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts,
a nutritional consulting firm.
