Crock Pot Butterfish Foil Packets for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID:  Good, but prefers the misoyaki sauce most restaurants use and too many bones
SHE SAID: Same as above

Butterfish steaks were on sale at the local Japanese store...great!  The male half of this couple LOVES butterfish.  The female half of this couple thought she hit the jackpot.  Well, the butterfish steaks were frozen...surprisingly enough they tasted great BUT they were ALL steaks near the tail...BONES BONES BONES...what a pain.  It's not unusual to find some bones in your butterfish, even at restaurants, but these had a LOT.  Also, we both ended up with stomach aches immediately after eating the fish.

We had about half a cup of sukiyaki sauce leftover from our sukiyaki dinner the other week, so we decided to cook our butterfish steaks in foil packets with the sukiyaki sauce.  It was good, but the taste was very light...not like misoyaki sauce which is much saltier.

We'll definitely cook butterfish in our crock pot again, but think we'll spend a little more for better cuts.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10 - 20 minutes (depending on how much you have to clean your fish)
Cook Time: 3 hours on high
4 qt crock pot

3 butterfish steaks (if you're a big eater, you may want to cook 4-5 steaks)
1/4 c. sukiyaki sauce
foil

Cut a piece of foil for each piece of fish large enough to fold into packets.  Rinse, pat dry and place one piece of fish in each foil.  Pour 3-4 T. sukiyaki sauce over each piece of fish.  Fold each into sealed packets.  Turn up the ends to minimize the amount of sauce that spills out.  Place foil packets in crock pot.  The foil packet on the top layer didn't seem to allow for the sauce to boil much.  The two pieces on the bottom of the pot were a darker brown color.

We served this with Japanese rice and stir fried baby bok choy or shanghai cabbage in a katsu sauce.

Enjoy...we did, except we'll be using a better cut of butterfish next time!

Dining Out: Nico's Pier 38

Photo from Nico's website, grilled ahi sandwich

On Friday the male half of this couple wanted to have fish for lunch.  He wanted to go to Nico's Pier 38.  The female half of this couple said, "have you been to Uncle's?"  He says, "I've never been there, let's try it."  She says, "How about La Tour since the last time we went it was closed due to the tsunami warning.   Since all three restaurants are very close to each other, we decide to try La Tour.  La Tour is a POPULAR lunch spot apparently.  The parking lot was already full (and Lowe's next door hasn't even opened yet!).  As we waited in the line of cars for parking, someone opened the door to La Tour and the line was to the door.  We said, "next time" and were on our way to Uncle's.

We got to Uncle's, grabbed a table, then noticed the prices went up, a lot!  After a couple of minutes perusing the menu, we decided since Nico's was right next door to Uncle's we'd walk over there.  Wow, the line!  Nico's is a very popular place..reasonably priced, but be careful...if the menu doesn't say "Fresh" next to the dish, the fish may be "previously frozen" or at least taste that way.

Photo from Nico's website, fresh catch plate.

There was a band playing Hawaiian music, so there were no tables open and diners weren't leaving.  Seating is open air, most of it's covered and there are a few cement tables with cement benches and umbrellas across the driveway along the water.

We tried the Grilled Ahi Sandwich which was ok, tasted like previously frozen fish.  We also tried the fresh catch which was Swordfish in a creamy caper sauce, this was very good.   Check out the photo above from Nico's website...the fish wasn't even that big, it was skinner, a bit longer, but we sure didn't get that much.  The french fries were ok...we've had better at other restaurants.    The photo to the left is also from Nico's website and again, the fish wasn't even that big.  We also got our plate with a scoop of brown rice.

All in all, Nico's is a good place to try.  If you're trying this place, go either early or later, we got there at their peak lunch hour...so we waited a while for our food.  The $9.95 we paid for the fresh catch plate was worth it.  If you're visiting Hawaii, this is a nice place to get a local plate...but we don't recommend some of the other non-seafood items.  We've tried the loco moco once and it was just ok.

Easy Crock Pot Chicken Provencal for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good.
SHE SAID: Very good...tastes like a lot of the other chicken with wine and tomato sauce dishes we've made, but you can taste the anchovy paste!

The male half of this couple doesn't like a lot of sauce on his pasta

We had a half cup of white wine leftover from cooking another dish, so we decided to try Chicken Provencal this weekend.  (Plus we saw a Chicken Provencal recipe in a Crockpot Cookbook at Barnes and Nobles a few weeks ago...mmm).

We were going to make fish, but we ended up having lunch at Nico's on the pier (two fish dishes - one very good and one just ok).  More on Nico's in another entry.  So, with fish on the lunch menu and the rain coming, we decided on something more comfort food-ish.

We decided to serve this on pasta...mmm.  Wine makes everything taste good!  The recipe is another one we tweaked to fit what we could find in our market...and it's actually a sauted recipes, but we decided to throw everything into the crock pot.

RECIPE:
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 7-8 hours on low (try not to cook on high)
2 qt crock pot

6-8 boneless skinless chicken thighs (wash and pat dry)
1 T. olive oil
3/4 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. freshly ground pepper
1/2 red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. red or white wine
1 1/2 c. canned crushed tomatoes with juice
1/2 t. dried rosemary
1/2 t. dried thyme
1/3 c. olives (black, nicoise, kalamata or green)
1 t. anchovy paste
pasta of your choice, depends on how much you want and if you're low carb-ing it.

If you have the time, sear the chicken in a pan (use the oil and salt/pepper on your chicken).  Transfer chicken to crock pot.  Layer in onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme, olives, then wine.  Mix anchovy paste into crushed tomatoes, then pour mixture over chicken.  Cover and cook for 7-8 hours.  If you make the larger batch, you'll have enough for one leftover serving.  Serve over a bed of pasta.


Enjoy...we sure did!

Dining Out: Tanioka's in Waipahu

With an upcoming trek to Kapolei, we decided to pick up lunch at Tanioka's on our way back to town...to eat someplace different.  At any given time, there is a line at least 10 people or more waiting to order fresh poke or pick up okazu like mochiko chicken, corned beef hash patties, etc.  This past Sunday, there was a line of about 20 people...and by the time we got to the poke (seasoned raw fish) area, there looked like at least 15 more behind us.

We've always found Tanioka's poke to be very fresh and in a wide variety.  There's regular ahi limu poke, spicy ahi poke, dried poke, tako poke and a LOT more.  We got our favorite, spicy ahi poke which was excellent.  The ahi limu poke was great also.  We also tried the spicy marlin which didn't taste very spicy...come to think of it, it really didn't have much flavor.

We also got their famous fish patties...chopped up poke pan fried in patty form.  Very good, but a bit on the salty side.  There are so many things to choose from, if this place were closer to town, we'd probably eat there regularly!

If you're not from Hawaii and aren't sure what to get, the workers there are friendly and will give you samples of the poke items.

Crock Pot Cuban Style Chicken for Two

RECIPE RATING:
HE SAID: Good, but didn't care for the sliced onions and diced tomatoes (texture)
SHE SAID: Good, could use more sazon

Our intentions were to make some fish in the crock pot this weekend, but we needed comfort food with the rain.  We've made Chicken Fricassee, the Cuban style one before and loved the flavors, so we decided to try a new Cuban style recipe.

The aroma from this dish as you prepare it is wonderful.  We took a recipe we found on the web and tweaked it to what we have available in the market here and added some sazon.

It was good, but next time we may cut down on the vinegar...it was good, but a bit overpowering.  We'll probably add some dry white wine and more sazon next time too.

RECIPE:

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 6-7 hours on low
4 qt crock pot

6-8 pieces boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 small can diced tomatoes
1 c. chicken broth (we used low sodium, free range)
2 T. olive oil
1/2 c. white vinegar
3-4 T. garlic, minced
2 T. cilantro (we used freeze dried this time)
1 T. cumin
1 T. garlic powder
1 t. kosher salt
1 pkg. sazon
avocado, sliced

Wash and dry chicken thighs, placed in crock pot.  Add all other ingredients except avocado.  Stir.  Cover and cook for 6-9 hours on low or 3-5 hours on high.  Garnish with avocado and a splash of vinegar.  According to the recipe we found, the splash of vinegar is a must!

We served over a bed of Japanese rice (because we were making musubis for the next day) and corn.

Enjoy..we did!

Dining Out: Blazin' Steaks in Manoa

We've always wondered if Blazin' Steaks at the Manoa Marketplace was any good.  For the price, we must say, it's pretty good.  The female half of this couple tried this place the early part of 2010 (Downtown Honolulu location).  The steak plates were ok, but everything else wasn't and the selection was poor.

For the past few months, we've threw out the idea to try the Manoa location...but the female half of the couple was reluctant due to the experience she had at the Downtown location.  Today we decided to go for it and we're happy we did.  We found another inexpensive place in Manoa with surprisingly good fish!  Wow, imagine that.  For $6.95 we got the sweet chili fish plate which had some sort of white fish with sweet chili sauce (yum), 2 scoops of brown rice and tossed greens.  We also ordered the grilled steak plate which came with grilled steak seasoned with salt and pepper, 2 scoops of brown rice and tossed greens.  We thought for $6.95 we'd get a piece of dried out fishy tasting fish, but the fish was moist and better than the steak!

Plates come with the choice of white or brown rice or for $1 more you can get fried rice.  There's a self service "bar" with condiments like Korean BBQ sauce, ketchup, shoyu (soy sauce), etc.  The selection at this location is pretty big.  See menu.

We're definitely going back...maybe to try the Thai peanut sauce fish.

NOTE: 4/5/11 - If you shop at the Safeway in Manoa, there is a $2 off coupon...you have to buy the large plate and a drink which eats up the $2....so really not a savings if you weren't going to buy a drink.

Dining Out: Genki Sushi

The other night we ran out to price some cabinets...it was getting pretty late, so we decided to grab something quick to eat before the restaurants closed and we would be left with only fast food choices.   Well, the choices near the hardware store were pretty limited and we had a coupon for Genki Sushi, a kaiten-zushi or conveyor belt sushi restaurant.  So, Genki Sushi it was!

If you've been to Japan like we both have, you know what good quality sushi tastes like.  Genki Sushi is an affordable way to satisfy your sushi cravings, but don't expect high quality here.  We've been to the Ala Moana, Ward and now the Waikele locations.  Each has it's pros and cons.  At each location we've had great and poor servers.  Great and poor quality sushi.  Our recommendation - order off the menu (versus taking sushi off the conveyor belt).  It's a cool concept, but if there aren't a lot of people eating, the fish looks like it's been sitting there for days.

The turnover of sushi at Waikele seemed pretty low.  We saw some not to attractive pieces of fish coming around.  However, everything we ordered off the menu was pretty good (even though our waiter messed up our order twice).   Our favorite item is the spicy ahi.  Actually, next to Waipuna Sushi in Manoa, Genki has one of the best spicy ahi mixes in our opinion.  We've been ordering the spicy ahi bowl instead of the sushi.

The female half of this couple loves the scallop and mayo, but that's a hit and miss.  There are times it's pretty good and there are times you wonder if it's real scallop!  The Ala Moana location still serves O-toro Salmon which is the fatty salmon when available.

For the price, Genki Sushi is a good deal....but if you're looking for higher quality sushi try Akasaka, Yohei or even Kahala Zippy's sushi bar.

As mentioned earlier, we were starving, it was almost 8:40PM and we needed to eat quickly before last call...so no pics of the sushi this time!