Hawaii’s largest producer of macadamia and kukui nut oil products turns 20 years old this year. As part of Oils of Aloha’s birthday celebrations, HAWAII Magazine was invited to take a tour of its production facility in Whitmore Village on Oahu.

Their expeller-pressed process is a complex multi-step procedure that extracts and purifies the macadamia and kukui nut oils. It also turns the nuts into a “press cake” that can be ground into a natural exfoliant, which is used in scrubs and facial cleansers. Every part of the nut is used, including its shell.

Oils of Aloha owners Barbara and Dana Gray (pictured right) started the company in 1988 in the historic Koga Theater in Waialua on Oahu. You may be familiar with Oils of Aloha’s skin, hair and sun care products. Perhaps you were one of our “Postcards to Hawaii” or “2007 Best of Hawaii” ballot winners who received Oils of Aloha’s products. (And you can win a gift from Oils of Aloha simply by filling out our 2008 Best of Hawaii ballot.)

What most people don’t know is that Oils of Aloha also makes macadamia cooking and salad oils.

To our surprise, our entire lunch (except for the kalua pig and poi) was made with macadamia oils, including the macadamia smoked salmon, Pele’s Firehouse chicken, Kauai Herb Bruschetta and—our favorite—Haleiwa Heat Deep-Fried Turkey. Even the salads and desserts were made with the macadamia nut oil.

Here’s the recipe for the Haleiwa Heat Deep Fried Turkeys. It calls for a lot of turkeys and whole lot of macadamia nut oil.  It's  designed for parties, but we couldn’t figure out how to reduce it and still get the same effect.

Haleiwa Heat Deep Fried Turkeys

What you’ll need:

4 turkeys (10 to 12 lbs. each)
Injection Mixture (see below)
Flavor injector needle
Dry Rub (see below)
4 to 5 gallons Oils of Aloha Hawaii’s Gold Macadamia Oil for deep frying
10-gallon pot, propane tank and large strainer

Haleiwa Heat Injection Mixture

1 gal. Oils of Aloha Haleiwa Heat Macadamia Oil
12 oz. soy sauce
1 jar (1.62 oz.) paprika
3/4 cup salt
1/4 cup pepper
Combine all ingredients and stir occasionally while injecting to keep the ingredients blended.

Dry Rub

1 jar (1.62 oz.) paprika
3/4 cup salt
1/4 cup pepper
Combine all ingredients and blend well.

Directions:

Remove parts from inside the turkeys. Rinse and pat dry. Stir Injection Mixture to keep ingredients blended. Fill needle and inject four times on top of each leg from front to back. Inject half a needle into each wing joint. Inject a needle into each drumstick and thigh. Sprinkle part of the Dry Rub into cavity of each turkey, then rub remainder on outside. Heat macadamia oil to 375ºF, preferably outdoors.
Very carefully and slowly lower turkey into hot oil and cook until golden brown (allow 3-4 minutes per pound). When cooked, the turkey will float to the surface with a perfect crispy, brown skin. Carefully remove from hot oil and allow any excess oil to drain back into the pot, then place the turkey on an oven rack. Allow turkeys to rest for 20 minutes before carving. Makes 20 servings.

For more Oils of Aloha macadamia nut oil recipes, click here.


 

A mysterious package arrived for me at front desk. I felt like a mad scientist when I opened it and a fog rose from the Styrofoam box packed with dry ice. When the fog cleared, I saw five whole boxes of Mikawaya’s Mochi Ice Cream.

Mikawaya is based in Los Angeles, but mochi ice cream is a Hawaii favorite. It’s a perfect combination of textures: ice cream, still hard despite its journey across the Pacific, wrapped in soft mochi (Japanese sweet rice cake).
The frozen treat, available online and at many stores, comes in seven flavors: Mango, Strawberry, Vanilla, Kona Coffee, Chocolate, Red Bean and Green Tea (there's also a Taro Mochi, but it's seasonal and currently not available). Our favorites were strawberry and mango, a perfect afternoon treat.

If you want to be more adventurous with your dessert, you can also try this recipe.

Mango Mochi Ice Cream with Raspberry Sauce

1 box Mikawaya Mango Mochi Ice Cream

Raspberry Sauce:

1 (10 ounce) package frozen raspberries (thawed)

1/4 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons water

In small saucepan, combine raspberries and sugar over medium heat. Cook until raspberries are broken down (about 10 minutes). In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch and water until combined.  When raspberries are broken down, slowly whisk in cornstarch mixture. Bring to boil and cook 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Chill well.

Serve individual Mango Mochi Ice Cream on plate. Drizzle with Raspberry Sauce.


 

You may have heard that many of us here in Hawaii eat Spam.

Fried Spam, eggs and rice for breakfast. A Spam musubi before lunch. A spam musubi FOR lunch.

Guilty as charged.

In a state where every McDonald’s restaurant has a Spam breakfast platter on the menu, is it any wonder we put aside a day each year to celebrate our obsession with the canned pink luncheon meat from Austin, Minnesota?

Hawaii’s largest Spam festival, the Waikiki Spam Jam, makes its sixth-annual appearance Saturday, from 4 to 10 p.m. A good-sized portion of Waikiki’s main drag, Kalakaua Avenue, will shut down for the street festival. There’ll be a couple of entertainment stages. Merchandise booths will sell Spam T-shirts, sunglasses, dolls, straw hats and other paraphernalia. The winner of a Mr.-or-Ms. Spam beauty contest will get a year's supply of salty pork goodness.

And yes, Virginia, a dozen or so Honolulu restaurants are setting up food booths to sell Spam-enhanced culinary creations to the famished multitudes bound to show up.

You might ask, “Derek, I'm staying in Waikiki this weekend, should I go?” To that, I might answer, “If you’re not a vegan or on a low-cholesterol diet … why not?”

Spam folklore has it that Hawaii residents were introduced to the stuff during World War II when fresh meat was hard to come by in our isolated archipelago. Apparently, it was love at first bite. These days, it’s said we consume 7 percent of all Spam sold in the United States annually, and 16 times more Spam per capita than any other state. Pretty scary for a state with just a half-percent of the U.S. population.

Spam cookbooks abound, giving credence to fans who wax lyrical about the canned meat product’s limitless culinary applications. But most local folks—present company included—dig it most in a Spam musubi: a tasty, extremely portable snack consisting of a marinated slice of fried Spam snuggled in a block of sticky rice wrapped with dried seaweed.

(That’s a Spam musubi I enjoyed this morning, in the top photo.)

We’ve got more information on this weekend’s Waikiki Spam Jam here. But if you need a good laugh or proof that Spam-maker Hormel Food Corporation has a sense of humor about its much-maligned “mystery meat,” click here, and toss a query at the all-knowing “Book of Spam.”

And click here for a "How to Make a Spam Musubi" video we found on YouTube.

 

A DASH of Aloha: Healthy Hawaii Cuisine and Lifestyle
Kapiolani Community College
Watermark Publishing, $15.95

The best parts of A DASH of Aloha occur after page 47.

That’s when this new Hawaii-centric guide to healthy eating habits and physical activity—put together by Kapiolani Community College’s much-lauded Culinary Arts Department—steps out of its brief educational mode and into some very appealing recipes.

Macadamia nut butter and lehua honey muffins. Tofu lemongrass curry. Shiso pesto-marinated opakapaka. Molokai sweet potato-lemongrass bisque. Loco moco fried rice. (For the uninitiated, loco moco is a favorite Hawaii comfort food—typically, white sticky rice, topped with a homemade hamburger patty, fried egg and brown gravy. Good stuff.)

There are more than 70 recipes in all in the book. Each emphasizing cooking with low fat, farm fresh, locally-grown ingredients, for a healthier diet.

DASH, or Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension, is an eating plan designed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The plan encourages reduced fat cooking using more fruits, vegetables, whole-grain products, fish, poultry, nuts and low-fat dairy. Lean red meats and sugar are copacetic, in moderation.

The book starts out with an easily digestible description of the DASH eating and exercise plan, before digging into its collection of recipes. Created by the instructors and students of KCC’s culinary school—which has graduated many of the state’s top chefs—the recipes match the DASH ethos with ideas, ingredients and tastes largely familiar to Hawaii palates. (See loco moco fried rice, above.)

Each recipe even carries a nutritional label—yes, just like the one on every box of Pop Tarts—for an accurate reading of calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, etc. therein.

You can purchase A DASH of Aloha here.

The dish pictured above—chicken adobo wilted salad—is the first from the book I’ll be trying out at home. Here’s the recipe:

8 oz.         chicken thighs, boneless, skinless and cut into bite-size pieces
8 oz.         chicken tenders, fat-free, cut into bite-size pieces
1 can        garbanzo beans, rinsed, drained
6 cloves    garlic, sliced thin
4 oz.         mushrooms, halved
½ cup       balsamic vinegar, plus extra for seasoning
1 tsp.        soy sauce
4 each      bay leaves
10 each    peppercorns
2/3 cup     chicken broth, low-salt
1 tbsp.      extra-virgin olive oil
6 cups       baby arugula

1.    Add all ingredients (except chicken broth, olive oil and arugula) in a pot with a cover.
2.    Bring to a boil, reduce to medium heat.
3.    Cook, partially covered, until liquids are evaporated (about 10 minutes).
4.    Add chicken broth, scraping the bottom of the pot.
5.    Remove from heat. Add olive oil and more vinegar, if desired.
6.    Top salad greens with hot chicken mix and toss to combine.
7.    Serve immediately with crusty rolls.

Serves: 6
Calories per serving: 210
Calories from fat: 50
  

If you thought the Mai Tai was a hit, try the “Pua ‘Olena,” a cocktail inspired by a song on Tia Carrere’s Grammy-nominated Hawaiiana album.

Each year, bartenders from Hawaii’s Outriggers Hotels and Resorts create drinks, inspired by the Grammy-nominated albums in the Hawaiian category, for the Outrigger’s Hotels and Resorts’ fourth annual “Signature Drink Contest.”

Last night, Bob Melton, a bartender of Chuck’s Steakhouse in Waikiki, took top honors for the second year in a row.  His lilikoi-guava-lychee cocktail concoction was inspired by Tia Carrere. “The way Tia sings Pua ‘Olena inspired me to make a drink seeking the same sweet smell and essence of the ‘olena blossom,” says Melton.

Here’s his winning recipe, full of Island flavors:
 

Pua ‘Olena
1 oz. Yazi Ginger Vodka
¾ oz. Malibu Coconut Rum
½ oz. Sohi Lychee Liqueur
1 oz. Lilikoi Juice
1 oz. Guava Juice
½ oz. Kiwi Fruit Juice

Mix all ingredients in a shaker filled with ice. Shake to chill and strain in to a chilled martini glass.

(BTW: We got Melton to make us one.  It rocks.)

Besides Carrere, other nominees for the Hawaiian Grammy are

• Keola Beamer’s Ka Hikina O Ka Hau (The Coming Of The Snow)
• Raiatea Helm’s Hawaiian Blossom
• Cyril Pahinui’s He‘eia
• Treasures of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar produced by George Kahumoku Jr., Daniel Ho, Paul Konwiser and Wayne Wong.

For a complete listing of the Grammy Award nominees, click here. The awards will be aired Feb. 10, 2008 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

As the winning bartender, Melton will travel to Los Angeles to serve his drink at a special Grammy Awards party.