Foodstuffs

May 2006

Pūpū party

From Vinnie Shishido

My friend Vinnie and I go way back, maybe even before Hilo Intermediate School. She grew up in Pu`u`eo near my auntie’s house, back in the days when kids roamed the neighborhoods in packs, climbing for guava and waiawī, spitting off the Wailuku Bridge.

Vinnie just retired from the USDA Pacific Basin Research Center in Hilo where she was a research technician, involved in the development of treatment for fruit flies in tropical fruit. If that isn’t exotic enough, she also spends her time tending over 200 species of orchids in her greenhouse and has seen the blue and purple flower of the bamboo that bloomed all over the islands around four years ago. You may not think much about having missed that floral event, but the bamboo blooms maybe once in a hundred years, if it even blooms at all! She swims daily in her lap pool and pampers two dogs: Maya, a Bichon Frisé and Pixie, a Maltese mix. She knits like a pro and makes soft sculpture dolls with recycled panti-hose that she gets from all her friends. She also cooks…man, can she cook! Her husband’s friends meet regularly in their garage and Vinnie prepares all kine pūpū for those lucky guys. Vinnie calls herself “a ho-hum Type B” person...it cracks me up! ~RdC

Here are a few of Vinnie’s recipes:

Miso Grilled Chicken

1 c. granulated white sugar
1 c. shoyu
1 c. miso (white)
1 can beer
1 bag boneless, skinless chicken

Mix first four ingredients together, add chicken and marinate overnight. Grill on hibachi till done. (This also works well with `ahi.)

Portuguese Sausage Breakfast Patties

1 lb. lean pork, chopped into ¼” pieces.
1 tsp. salt
¼ c. water
¼ tsp. pepper
1 Tbs. vinegar
/8 tsp paprika
8 cloves garlic, minced
/8 tsp. ajinomoto
2 Hawaiian red chili peppers, minced
A few drops liquid smoke

Cut, chop or course-grind pork into thin ¼” pieces. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients. (You may want to adjust the amount of each, according to your taste) Add pork and refrigerate for 2 days, re-mixing occasionally. Form into small thin patties and fry until brown on both sides and cooked through. (For pūpū, make the patties smaller.)

Cucumber Kim Chee

6-7 long Japanese cucumbers
1 bottle 6.7oz of Momoya brand Kim Chee base
1 heaping Tbs. crab paste*
2 Tbs. sugar

Wash and cut cucumbers into bite size portions. In a large bowl mix kim chee base, crab paste, and sugar. Add cut cucumbers, toss and mix well. Let sit 2 hours, chilling in refrigerator. Re-mix and toss again and let sit another 2 hours in refrigerator. Mix one more time and place in bottles or plastic container for storage. (Glass bottles keep the kim chee cooler, so it stays crunchy longer.)

*Crab paste can be found in Southeast Asian grocery stores. Recommend the NANG FAH (tue kung) brand.

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