It's usually less than $2 so it's a nice, cheap alternative to meat. You can find canned jackfruit at Asian and Indian markets. In fact, a lot of vegans use it for their barbecue recipes. The stringy flesh of this fruit resembles pulled pork. Lately I have been getting into using jackfruit as a meaty substitute. I didn't have ti leaves or banana leaves so I improvised based on other kalua pig recipes. I will most definitely be trying this again in a month or two so I can compare the results. I decided to use just the ingredients I had on hand already, so there is some tweaking to be done. This is my very first attempt at cooking local-style food. Most of the kalua pork found in restaurants is an oven-roasted pork shoulder rubbed with salt, wrapped in ti leaves, and cooked with liquid smoke. After hours of slowly cooking in the ground, the meat absorbs the smoke from the wood and banana leaves. The meat is rubbed with salt and wrapped in ti and/or banana leaves then cooked with hot stones and burning koa wood. Traditionally, kalua pig is cooked in an imu (a large hole in the ground that acts as an oven).
Kalua pig is one of those quintessential local dishes you will find at any gathering or diner. If anyone has any types on cooking perfect rice, please let me know. All the while, lamenting my poor rice-cooking abilities. I made myself some scrambled tofu and kale, curled up on the couch, and watched Real Housewives of Atlanta. I probably could have gotten by with poorly cooked rice for the loco moco, but I also needed decent rice for my burger patties.Īfter three failed attempts (and a couple cups of rice), I gave up on cooking rice this week. My usual crunchy/gloopy rice just won't cut it to form the rice balls for the musubi. This week I was torn between two dishes: loco moco and "spam" musubi. However, quinoa and couscous simply will not do in my veganized local dishes. I have adopted quinoa and couscous instead of rice for most of my every-day recipes. I promise I am pretty good at cooking other grains. My momma never used a rice cooker and her rice was pretty good (most of the time). I won't use a rice-cooker because I feel like that is cheating. I know what you are thinking, but I won't do it. It doesn't matter the type of rice, I ALWAYS find a way to mess it up. I want to make fragrant jasmine basmati rice. It comes out burnt, or gloopy, or crunchy in the middle. It's taking me many years to finally admit this.