Poi, one of my favorite foods, made its way home from California in my suitcase. (Thanks Auntie Hilda)
I made a dish of steamed ahi tuna and shrimp, a fresh onion or two from my garden and a tomato and a few bits of pineapple (canned, ick)....steamed the fish and shrimp with hawaiian salt, tossed it in the veggies and left it in the fridge for a bit. The salt draws out the moisture from the fish. My cousin Cindy says that type of dish is called poki.
I cooked the poi in the old fashioned way (slow heat not microwave) and had myself some poi and poki. Then I had a bit more poi with some maple sugar and lots of pickled ginger.
It tasted so good I did the same thing again, today, only I just had to reheat the poi-the poki was already cold.
Chilled food makes awesome leftovers-because it's already supposed to be chilled-so it's not really leftover at all. Who is to say it isn't just the way it was supposed to be in the first place?
I was lazy and snagged the wikepedia bag of poi,but I will deny it because my bag looks just like it, only not any more because I ate it...heh heh....except for the bit I'm saving for tomorrow.
Poi is one of those things you either like or you don't, you cannot obtain it in Oklahoma or Texas unless you peel your own taro and that is a giant pain in the ass, so don't come sniffing around here looking for poi. If you're lucky I'll make you some polenta. Hmmmm.....polenta and salted fish.....maybe it would work.
5 comments:
Goodness, I had to go to Wikipedia to find out what it is but still not sure! Don't even know what kalo is.
I've never tasted Poi - all I know about it is what I learned as a kid when reading about Hawaii.
Now Polenta - there's a meal! With meatball gravy, what a wonderful winter dish.
"What's Polenta" was an inside joke on a weight watcher's message board I belonged to once. People would join, sign up for the core program, realize bread didn't work well, and discover POLENTA! In the good old days you could buy it in a can and it was called corn meal mush. My Grandma Effie used to slice it and fry it in bacon grease for as long as anyone wanted to stand there and eat it.
I prefer olive oil now. Remember the cans of bacon grease on the stove? EWWWWW Ok, maybe not so much, I forgot you were Jewish Mim.
Anon, I think you mean taro-and they are kin to elephant ear plants. In fact, I had visions of my own poi plantation in my backyard-but the flooding, climate, etc made it impractical unless I were to suddenly be transported to Hawaii or the Phillipines.
I've only had Poi once ... at a Luai in Hawaii and it tasted like not much of anything. But I'd be willing to try it again. No Polenta ... I've had it in restaurants and it was greatness. I've tried cooking it at home and it never works out the way I planned.
don't know what you're talking about....ha ha
Post a Comment