Our Take On The Local Flavors Of Hawaii

Aloha!

E Komo Mai Our Take On The Local Flavors Of Hawai’i

There are just certain foods that the people of Hawai’i eat that we wanted to feature here, with our added spin on them. Or as I like to say, “We Whann It Up.”

Sometimes we will come across a recipe that I know is going to be good, but I can just tell that it needs our creative touch. Our last name is Whann, pronounced Wan, which is why we tend to “Whann Things Up!”

We lived in Hawai’i for 13 years so we do know a bit about the locals, and their foods. Because of our last name, the local people accepted us more on the island. I think they assumed we had local family roots. Sometimes I would get asked if ‘I was married to a local boy?’ 🙂

As I told Mackenzie’s mother during the Hawai’i wedding planning, “Utilize Brodie. Have Brodie make any reservations for you. Hawaii is probably the only state in America where the name Whann will get you a better table than the name Parish.”

We hope you like what we’re doing here. There will be more additions as time goes on. But for now we hope you enjoy what we have to offer.

Mahalo,

Julie and Gordon

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Chop Chop Duck Salad w/ Kimchi and Kimchi Peanuku Brittle

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Kimchi Peanuku’s (Peanuts)

(Recipes Down Below)

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Asian Salad

This is more of an idea than a recipe. It is easy to put a twist on a salad and make it Asian simply by adding some Asian ingredients to your Lettuce or Cabbage base, such as Snow Peas, Exotic Mushrooms, Bok Choy, Carrots, Water Chestnuts, Cashews, Edamame, etc. And, perhaps a topping of Won Ton Strips, Sesame Seeds, along with a nice Asian Dressing. I also enjoyed a nice Asian Salad with some Asian Shallot Crackers.

Julie

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GRAB A BOWL, RECIPES START HERE

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Kimchi Peanuku Brittle

(Peanuku is the Hawaiian word for Peanut)

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Ingredients:

8 Cups Cashews

8 Tbsp. Sugar

4 tsp. Water

4 Tbsp. Peanut Oil

4 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

2 Tbsp. Garlic Salt

2 Tbsp. Mother in Law’s Gochugaru Korean Chile Flakes

4 Tbsp. Mother in Law’s Gochujang Fermented Chile Paste Concentrate

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Begin by placing your Cashews into a large bowl then set aside.

Add your Sugar and Water to a large pot and turn the heat up to medium.

Now, add your Peanut Oil and Sesame Oil to the pot. This brand (Kadoya) of Sesame Oil from Japan is one of my favorites.

Mix the ingredients together.

Here are two of the next ingredients. These are some really great products we found and thought they would add some great flavors to the recipe. Taste them first to decide how much or little you want to add.

Add your Garlic Salt then the Mother in Law’s Gochugaru Korean Chile Flakes to the pot.

Add your Mother in Law’s Gochujang Fermented Chile Paste Concentrate to the pot. Again, taste the ingredients before you add it. We both really loved the flavor and we can take the heat. It really wasn’t as hot as it looks. There was a great deal of flavor to these ingredients.

Just look at the beautiful color of the ingredients together. Taste this and adjust the ingredients to suit your needs. We both really liked it.

Add your wet seasoning mix to the bowl of cashews. At this point, preheat your oven to 325’F.

Mix them well to evenly coat the cashews with the flavorful wet mix.

Cover your large sheet pan with some parchment paper. Then add your Cashews to the baking sheet.

Evenly spread your Cashew mixture over the sheet pan.

Great picture Julie of the flavorful Cashews!

Place the sheet pan into the oven for 15 min.

After the 15 min. remove the sheet pan and stir the nuts around breaking them up. Smooth them back down…

Bake them for another 10 to 15 min.

Here you can see the mixture turned very Brittle Like. Break them up into medium pieces then enjoy!

Julie placed them on a decorative Hawaiian themed tray! These were very addictive and we love the heat and flavor.

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Chop Chop Duck Salad w/ Kimchi and Kimchi Peanuku Brittle

This is a great way to utilize your Kimchi Peanuku Brittle.

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Salad Ingredients:

1 Radiccio – sliced

1 Red Bell Pepper – sliced into rings

2 Shitaki Mushrooms

6 Baby Portabella Mushrooms

1 Bunch – Flowered Chives

~20 Snow Peas

3 Green Onions – sliced

1/2 Sweet Onion – sliced thinly

1 Large Carrot – peeled and shredded

1 Mango – thinly sliced

~5 Sage Leaves – sliced thinly

7 Romaine Lettuce Leaves

~15 Tiki Cherry Tomatoes – sliced in half

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These are all really fresh ingredients, which is important for a great salad. I also love the variety we chose.

Slice the Radiccio in half then remove the triangular shaped core. Add to a large bowl.

Slice your Red Bell Pepper’s top off and remove the seeds. Then slice it into rings as shown.

Now, slice those rings in half or smaller depending on your taste.

Here I have both the Shitaki and Baby Portabella Mushrooms. I like to quickly wash these then let them dry a bit. This will remove the dirt usually on the mushrooms. Slice the Mushrooms thinly as shown.

Now remove the lower part of the Flowering Chives. We find these at our local Asian Market. They are very good and have great flavor.

For the Snow Peas, remove the end point that was attached to the vine as it can be hard to eat.

For the Spring or Green Onions, slice off the root ends then remove the dried green part of the onion.

Slice the Green Onion into medium sized rings.

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Remove the root end and top of the onion then remove the outer brown skins. Now, slice the onion thinly as shown then half the rings.

Slice off the ends of the Carrot then peel it.

Now, grate the Carrot.

Slice around the seed of your Papaya. You can leave the skin on then slice it off later.

Wash your Sage leaves then roll them together and slice them thinly as shown.

Place all the ingredients into the bowl. Here we have washed the Romaine Lettuce leaves and set them aside to dry. When done, rip them into small bite sized pieces.

We found these unique Tiki Cherry Tomatoes. We both really loved their color and flavor, which were a must for this salad.

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Salad Dressing Vinaigrette Ingredients

2 Tbsp. Aloha Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp. Mirin

2 Tbsp. Sesame Oil

3 Tbsp. Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce

Pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt

1 Tbsp. White and Black Sesame Seeds

3 Tbsp. Jordanian Honey

1 Tbsp. Mother in Law’s Gochujang Fermented Chile Paste Concentrate

3 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

6 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar

Garnish with:

Kimchi

1 Roasted Chop Chop Duck – bought from our Asian Market

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This is one of the most elaborate Vinaigrettes I have ever made. All the ingredients really worked well together and surprisingly I just winged it. Sometimes you just have to go with your sense of taste and theme of the recipe.

(Notice Gordon’s fingers in the photo left, above? He is giving me the measurements of the sauces he’s using. We don’t ever write down much, I photograph the information needed for each recipe. I was going to remove the photos of his fingers giving measurements now that he has finished the write up, but I think they look good included, so I will leave them as they are.) 🙂

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Start by using some great Soy Sauce… which for me is Aloha…. and it is Hawaiian, so perfect. I don’t like the taste of Kikkoman’s as it has a winy taste to it. There are hundreds of types of Soy Sauce so get out and try some of the more not so common ones. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Place it into a large jar as shown. Be sure you have the lid for it!

Now add your Mirin. This gave the vinaigrette and nice sweet flavor.

Again, this is a really good tasting Sesame Oil. It then goes into the jar.

This is another great product of Hawaii, and it is an exceptional Teriyaki Sauce. So of course, it has to go into the vinaigrette.

I know we have a good amount of salt already in this, so just add a touch… or leave it out, your call. I love these black and white Sesame Seeds so they had to go in. Julie’s idea.

This Mother in Law’s Gochujang Fermented Chile Paste Concentrate had a great taste and I thought it too would go well with the other ingredients.

The vinaigrette needed some type of sweetener, so I used this Jordanian Honey. You can use any Honey you like.

Pick out a good tasting Olive Oil as well. The greener the better and don’t trust the color of the bottle. This one just happens to be in a green bottle.

Now, for the last ingredient, the Apple Cider Vinegar. There should be more of it than the Olive Oil.

Shake it well.

Use a small Romaine Lettuce leaf to taste the vinaigrette and adjust the seasonings as needed. One of my class Chefs said the vinegar should be just enough that the taste touches the back of your throat. I use that advise whenever I make a vinaigrette, and it has always worked well for me. The taste was really good, but needed a touch more Honey and Vinegar. I shook it up again then tasted again and it was perfect. Here you can see the Chopped Duck!