We're baaaack....

Mmm. I just love cooking in Hawaii. So many new things to try, and old favorites that only taste right with ingredients I can get there. And of course, the cool things that Costco only carries in Hawaii! Let's start with Costco. We were on the Big Island, so that means a store just north of Kailua town on the Kona side. My favorite thing there are the avocados, Sharwill grown right there on the island. They are firmer than Haas when ripe, and larger. Perfect texture for including in makizushi! Of course, for that you need fresh ahi and they carry that at Costco, too. Toss in a slab of pipikaula (Hawaiian beef jerky), a whole pork butt ($1.59/lb) for making kalua pork, and a tub of Hawaiian-style mac salad and you have all the basic makings for ono grinds (aka great meals). I'm a huge fan of plate lunch, so gotta have the mac salad. I always take along some rice, that way when I use it up I know I have a couple of pounds in the luggage for bringing home Kona coffee (oh, yeah, Costco has that, too). For the kalua pork, since I can't dig an imu (underground oven) at the condos where we stay you make it this way: for each 6-lb chunk of pork butt, rub it with 1T coarse salt (Hawaiian red alae salt is fun, but kosher is fine) and 1T of liquid smoke in the morning. Let it sit all day, then roast (covered) overnight at 225 degrees. I just use a big foil steam pan for 12-15 lbs of pork butt. Then when the meat is cool enough, shred it and pick out the fat at the same time. Bag it up and freeze some, keep some in fridge. This will feed four people generously for lots of things for two weeks. For a kalua pork plate lunch, use about 6 oz pork and a cup of shredded green cabbage, steam together for about 15 minutes. Serve with rice and mac salad. Other ways to use the pork: in a kalua pork quesadilla, you see these on menus all over the island but great homemade. Just some pork, sliced sweet maui onion (easy to get at one of the farmers markets all over the place), a little hot chile (ditto), some shredded jack cheese and of course flour tortillas (okay, yes I go to Safeway for those). You can use a bottled salsa, but why not chop up a papaya, some chile, some onion, and a little cilantro and have a fresh fruit salsa with it? Keeps several days. And you can change it up by adding some pineapple or even some apple bananas as the week goes on. We also use the kalua pork in BBQ pork sandwiches, toss some minced fresh pineapple and maybe some dark rum into the sauce for an island touch. More on all this later, next time I'll tell you what we do with the whole tenderloin we buy at Costco at the beginning of our trip...