Fried Rice and Ohana

Imag­ine a clus­ter of smil­ing keikis, (kids), sit­ting around a cal­abash filled with mouth-water­ing Hawaii local-style fried rice. Shar­ing deli­cious food from a cal­abash serv­ing bowl is a Hawaii tra­di­tion. As it does every­where around the world, not just in Hawaii, eat­ing meals togeth­er cre­ates com­mon bonds for every­one, chil­dren and adults alike, solid­i­fy­ing the feel­ing of ohana, or fam­i­ly. Talk­ing sto­ry, enjoy­ing laugh­ter, weav­ing togeth­er remem­brances of times gone by — and build­ing mem­o­ries for the future — are all a part of shar­ing a cal­abash meal. It is the very warp and woof of island life, prompt­ing the use of the endear­ing term, “cal­abash cousin.”

Dur­ing the many years our fam­i­ly lived in Hawaii, and on our annu­al return vis­its, we always look for­ward to shar­ing a par­tic­u­lar­ly local dish with our friends and fam­i­ly, Local-Style Da Kine Fried Rice. I’d like you to share this meal with your ohana and those you care about….and it makes great left­overs — and freezes well! Did I men­tion it is gluten-free?

fried riceLocal-Style Da Kine Fried Rice

  1. Cook a pot (in a rice cook­er if you have one)— about three reg­u­lar mea­sur­ing cups — of short grain rice (not long grain!) and let it cool overnight or longer in a zip-lock in the fridge. The next day, take the rice out of the fridge, open up the zip-lock, and let the rice come to room tem­per­a­ture before start­ing, unless you want rice pop­ping all over your cook­top because of the moisture!
  1. In a sauté pan, put about 2 – 3 table­spoons EACH of sesame oil and cook­ing oil. Heat.
  1. Beat five eggs briefly with a fork and 1 tea­spoon salt and pour into the oil. Cook as if you were mak­ing scram­bled eggs. 
  1. When cooked, remove eggs from pan with slot­ted spoon and put in a bowl. Keep the oil in the pan.
  1. Cut up five pieces of bacon in 12″ pieces. Put in sauté pan and fry till crisp. Remove to same bowl as eggs.
  1. Put ricein­to sauté pan and fry for about ten min­utes, turn­ing every now and then, scrap­ing bot­tom of pan. 
  1. Put bacon and eggs back into pan and add about 14 c. or more chopped green onion. Stir well.
  1. Sim­mer, stir­ring every fif­teen min­utes or so, scrap­ing up brown bits from bot­tom of pan, for about 45 min­utes. Adding shoyu (soy sauce) is very option­al depend­ing on per­son­al preference.
  1. Grab your ohana—and your chopsticks!

[Soren­son-Mar­go-Bio]

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