Coconut Cream Pie

This is a very good pie.  I made it yesterday.

Ingredients:

1  baked pie crust

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

pinch of salt

4 eggs, seperated

3 cups milk

1/4 cup softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups shredded coconut ,lightly toasted in the oven.

Directions:

Preheat oven 425*

Bake the pie crust until brown.  Take out of oven and let cool.

In a heavy saucepan c ombine 3/4 cup sugar, cornstarch and salt well.

Gradually add the milk and one egg yolk at a time and combine well.

Place saucepan with filling on medium heat and cook until it comes to a full boil.Whisking constantly ,Reduce heat and  cook 2-3 more minutes and remove from heat.Stir in the shredded coconut , butter and vanilla.

Set aside to cool for 25 minutes.  When cool pour into cooled pie crust.

Now make the meringue!

Beat the egg whites to soft peaks.  Add remaining sugar a little at a time , beating until stiff peaks.  Spread on the cool pie filling.  Sprinkle remaining toasted coconut over top of meringue. Bake in oven until meringue is a nice brown.

Remove and let cool before serving.

Luau Stew

Today I made some luau stew.  Sure it was hot weather but my tummy wanted some luau stew!  What is luau stew, you might be asking.  It is made with Taro leaves and beef stew meat and seasonings.. i also made a pan of cornbread to go with it! Of course CORNBREAD is NOT what you would eat at a Hawaiian table with this dish.. it would be poi, poki to go along with it...

These are the Taro leaves.. the root of this plant is what is used to make POI.

so the root was cut off and these are the taro leaves.

These are the stems from the leaves and the outerskin has been peeled off and then the stems broken up into pieces.

Then the leaves and stems are cleaned.  As you can see I placed them in the kitchen sink filled with water and gave them a good swishing around to cleanse them.  I let them sit there for awhile as I start the stew going...

This of course is the beef stew ... I place it in a big old pot with a little oil and brown it a bit then add the water to the pot as you see below.

The beef stew meat is in the pot with water filled to about 1/2 full.  I scoop the scum from the meat boiling off and add the seasonings which I will post with the instructions later.

The next step is to go to the kitchen sink where the leaves and stems are in the water and take about 3-4 leaves and roll them up and cut strips and then add to the pot of meat and water and then add the stems as well. 

This is the stew cooking away and steam coming up so the camera couldn't get too close to the pot.  Now this is good eating!!

I have pretty much showed how to do this stew and as far as the seasonings go I do it by taste.. I make mine a little different from the way I was taught to make it by my Native Hawaiian sister in law who BTW was a wonderful cook!  She just added Hawaiian salt to the water but I put minced garlic and chicken bullion granules in mine.. For this big pot of stew I added about 1 tsp of salt, about 1 TBSP minced garlic and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup chicken boullion granules.  Just do it by taste.. start with a little and add more if needed of all the seasonings.

While that stew was cooking I got out my cast iron skillet and made a batch of corn bread to enjoy with the stew.  We didn't have poi (cause we are living in the mainland now and I forgot to pick up some red snapper for hubby to make his poki but I did get the can of sardines opened and sliced up some onion on top of the sardines and added some ALOHA shoyu ( our favorite brand) to it.

So were were both happy with our meal tonight!! 







Dark Cherry Cobbler

This is a very quick way to make cobbler.  Last summer I canned some dark cherry pie filling and since I had only 2 remaining  jars left I decided to use them for a cobbler.

Ingredients:

Cherrries

2 tbsp butter/margerine

cornstarch/water for thickening

no need to add sugar as it is already in the pie filling if using canned cherrie pie filling

Bisquick or self rising flour

3 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup sugar/splenda

 Milk .. enough to wet the dry ingredients like bisquit dough

Directions:

Open the lids of the jars of Cherries in a baking dish..I used my meat loaf dish

stir the cornstarch and water together and mix in with the cherries good.  Add the 2 Tbsp butter

For the dough add the sugar and stir into the flour good and then

using a fork mash the butter into the flour like you would do a pie crust

Add the milk with enough to make to the consistancy of biscuit dough.

Add the dough one Tbsp at a time on top of the filling. 

Place the cobbler in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 1/2 hr or until crust is a golden brown.



Easy Spareribs

I forgot to take a picture of these spareribs before they went on the table so what you see is the leftovers.  I got this recipe some years ago from an old Hawaiian cookbook and it has been a favorite around my house ever since.  Since there are just 2 of us this recipe makes enough for 2 meals.. its good served with chinese chow mein noodles..

Ingredients:

2-3 lbs ribs cut for making spareribs

4 cloves garlic

1/2 cup vinegar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup shoyu

Hawaiian salt to taste (or sea salt)

Pineapple chunks (save the juice)

Directions:

Brown the ribs. Add the sauce ingredients and simmer until  cooked.

Thicken the pineapple juice with cornstarch and add to the ribs.