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Aloha, my hawai'ian friends, my continental friends and everyone who reads this.
We watched a family grow taro in Hawai'i last night on TV. They turned it into gallon bags of poi, which they sold in grocery stores. Someone said that poi is the first solid food a baby eats and the last solid food an elder eats. I tried poi a couple times. It's an acquired taste. If I could find some here, I would probably eat it regularly. It's very healthy.
So, all this talk of Hawai'i and poi made me homesick for the islands I love and miss so much. Result: I am making a hawai'ian recipe for dinner: huli-huli chicken. We tasted that one day when we visited the Dole plantation on Oahu. There were some people selling the chicken right off the barbecue they towed behind their truck. They were doing brisk business as it seemed everyone around there was lining up to get some. When in Hawai'i, do like the hawai'ians. We lined up and bought ourselves huli-huli chickens while enjoying the aromatic smoke that came off that barbecue.
That's all they sold: chicken, but what magnificent chicken!. We stopped at KFC to get fries, sides and drinks. We then drove to Ala Mohana park in Honolulu, laid out the feast and ate like kings while the sun sank below the horizon. The chicken saleslady recommended we buy a chicken per person. Against our better judgement, we did. There were 4 of us. We bought 4 chickens and we only had bones to throw away, it was that good. Also, I have to admit they were not the biggest chickens we had ever seen. But, what they lacked in size was more than made up in taste. Oh, so tasty, I was sucking the bones. My mother would have been mortified at my lack of decorum. Sorry, Ma.
Right now, my chicken is brining in water, soya sauce, freshly minced garlic and ginger. The glaze is reducing on the stove and I'll finish all this on the BBQ later on. Oh, it smells so GOOD in here, I wish I could bottle it and each send you a sample to sniff! I'll serve it with plain white rice, broccoli and cranberry salad, fresh corn on the cob. There will be sugarless ice cream for dessert.
Wish you were all here to enjoy it with us.
Aloha.
Pu'ole, a.k.a. Sylvain.
I can see right now that you and Mike will hit it off famously. He reads cookbooks everyday and is off to purchase all the odd ingredients. Tonight was a strange menu for us. Ribeye steak, new potatoes, salad with iceburg lettuce. Way too mundane for a chef such as he.
Someone D-mailed me, asking for the recipe. My dear friends, I give my recipes freely to anyone who asks. Here goes:
HULI HULl CHICKEN
Serves 4 to 6
Split chicken halves are whole chickens that have been split in two through the breastbone. Buy them at the market or split them yourself. Lee Kum Kee Tabletop Soy Sauce is our favorite supermarket brand.
GLAZE
2 ½ cups pineapple juice
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup rice vinegar
4 garlic cloves, minced - I press mine
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons Asian chili-garlic sauce - I used sambal olek, an indonesian chili-garlic paste, but I only used 1 tsp.
2 cups wood chips soaked for 15 minutes - I used mesquite because there is no kiawe wood available over here.
1. BRINE CHICKEN
Combine water and soy sauce in large bowl. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir into soy sauce mixture. Add chicken and refrigerate, covered, for at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours. I brined for 4 hours.
2. MAKE GLAZE
Combine pineapple juice, sugar, ketchup, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and chili-garlic sauce in empty saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until thick and syrupy (you should have about 1 cup), 20 to 25 minutes.
3. PREPARE GRILL
Seal wood chips in foil packet and cut vent holes in top. Open bottom vents on grill. Light about 75 coals. When coals are covered with fine gray ash, spread evenly over bottom of grill. Arrange foil packet directly on coals. Set cooking grate in place and heat, covered with lid vent open halfway, until wood chips begin to smoke heavily, about 5 minutes.
For gas grill, place foil packet directly on primary burner. Heat all burners on high, covered, until wood chips begin to smoke heavily, about 15 minutes. Turn all burners to medium-low. Scrape and oil cooking grate.
4. GRILL CHICKEN
Remove chicken from brine and pat dry with paper towels. Arrange chicken skin-side up on grill (do not place chicken directly above foil packet). Grill, covered, until chicken is well browned on bottom and meat registers 120 degrees, 25 to 30 minutes. Flip chicken skin-side down and continue to grill, covered, until skin is well browned and crisp and thigh meat registers 170 to 175 degrees, 20 to 25 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to platter, brush with half of glaze, and let rest 5 minutes. Serve, passing remaining glaze at table.
MAKE AHEAD: Both the brine and the glaze can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Do not brine the
chicken for longer than 8 hours or it will become too salty.
I must investigate where HULI HULI comes from... I always thought it was the asian accent of HURRY HURRY... Dave, you there? You know where the HULI HULI comes from?
Ayah! Dave me think you got asian accent light on. Make me raugh. Invite evelybody, put water in soup and slice meat thinner, eat too much anyway, Ayah!
My chicken turned out saltier than the one we remembered. Nonetheless, it was delicious. The recipe has been modified to address that next time. I have made chicken on the barbie countless times before but even with too much salt, that was by far the best yet. Turn-turn is basically what you do the whole time it cooks. Baste and turn, close the cover, get some smoke going. Count 60 seconds, repeat. We'll make it again for sure.
since you are on the subject of food, have any of you heard of boerewors, a traditional South African sausage? almost all foreigners we meet love it.
Isaac
Thanks, Dave...didn't know what HULI meant...
Whenever using a local recipe, I usually leave OUT the salt and add it later...after tasting. Almost all of the local HULIHULIs have far too much for me... Your recipe sounds really GOOD!!!
Oh Carol, I tell you: that one is a keeper for us. Anyone who makes this, please let me know how it turned out and what your thoughts are about the result.
On the subject of rice, I am making red rice with shitake mushrooms for supper with tilapia and asparagus. In Japan, the red rice was reserved for the imperial household because the Son of Heaven had decreed that anything red was reserved for his exclusive use. I read somewhere that he was known as the Vermillion one. Anyone not connected to the imperial household caught eating that rice was put to death on the spot.
Red rice is a whole grain rice that requires 45 minutes of cooking and colours the water blood red. The cooking water will also stain the counter red if you drop some and let it dry. Bleach is the only thing I have found that removes those stains. It has a nutty flavor that is just to die for. I love rice. OK, let me rephrase that: I love food. Finally, something one does not have to peel. I also keep black rice, arborio rice, sushi rice, basmati rice, jasmin rice, wild rice and regular plain white rice on hand. Uncle Ben has never seen my kitchen and if I have anything to say about it, he never will. It's a good thing.
