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?
Local-Style Da Kine Fried Rice
- 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!
- In a sauté pan, put about 2 – 3 tablespoons EACH of sesame oil and cooking oil. Heat.
- Beat five eggs briefly with a fork and 1 teaspoon salt and pour into the oil. Cook as if you were making scrambled eggs.
- When cooked, remove eggs from pan with slotted spoon and put in a bowl. Keep the oil in the pan.
- Cut up five pieces of bacon in 1⁄2″ pieces. Put in sauté pan and fry till crisp. Remove to same bowl as eggs.
- Put riceinto sauté pan and fry for about ten minutes, turning every now and then, scraping bottom of pan.
- Put bacon and eggs back into pan and add about 1⁄4 c. or more chopped green onion. Stir well.
- 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.
- Grab your ohana—and your chopsticks!
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