Recipe: School Kine Pizza

Do you folks remember the school kine lunch pizza? I sure did. The rectangular slices of pizza that had a super soft and bready crust with the pizza sauce, cubed pepperoni and cheese on top? Simplicity at its best! Well I am WELL out of school age but still think about this from time to time. Apparentely I am not the only one since there are many recipes out there. I went crazy and bought all the ingredients to try to make this at home. The recipe calls for a “pourable” crust, I’m intrigued. So how did it go?

Dry Ingredients! It didn’t call for sifting but I did it anyway.

Grease your pan and add a thin layer of cornmeal.

Yup, it’s a pourable crust. Here it is! Let it rest in the pan for 20 minutes before baking.

I made this recipe twice, the first time – the crust was not enough so for the second time, I made 1.5 of the crust recipe and I think that did the trick in terms of thickness of the crust. The first time it was much too thin and burned at the edges.

Spices for your homemade pizza sauce!

Oh my gosh, this pizza sauce recipe was so easy to make. Who knew?? It was mainly a can of tomato paste but you have to buy a bunch of seasonings including marjoram which I never used before. But boy was it easy to make…

I went a little hog wild with the toppings, I wanted pepperoni and italian sausage for the second round but they don’t sell the italian sauage little balls in stores! You know? Like the ones you get when you order pizza?? So I had to buy a tray of the italian sausage myself and then ball them and fry them up before using them. Ugh. But here is the meats and sauce on top of the pre-baked crust…

So. Much. Cheese. You use a lot of cheese for this recipe. You actually add a bit of cheese to the pizza sauce too and then the rest goes on top. How much did I use? Well the big two pack shredded mozzarella cheese from Sam’s, I used a full bag.

Voila! All baked and ready to eat. What was the verdict? Mixed. I didn’t care for it myself because the crust isn’t what I liked or remembered, wasn’t soft. This crust is kind of hard and super bready/doughy. The brothers, devoured it. My coworker, she liked it! Chan? I think he just thought it was just ok. So yeah, not much of a winner. Perhaps I could just buy the Pilsbury pizza crust in the can and just make the pizza sauce myself next time. I’m glad I tried it to finally simmer down my interest but I don’t think this recipe matches what I had in school.

School Lunch Pizza

Pourable Pizza Crust
Ingredients

  • ½ teaspoon (7 g) Active Dry Yeast
  • 1 ⅔ C (375 ml) Warm Water (110 °F)
  • 2 ½ C (320 g) All-purpose flour
  • ¾ C (55 g) Instant, non-fat dry milk
  • 2 T (25 g) Sugar
  • ¼ t Salt
  • 1 ½ t Vegetable Oil (or more, enough to grease pan)
  • 1 ½ T (15 g) Cornmeal

Revised Crust Recipe (1.5 size measurements)

  • 10.5 g Active Dry Yeast
  • 2.4 C (562.5 ml) Warm Water (110 °F)
  • 480 g All-purpose flour
  • 82.5 g Instant, non-fat dry milk
  • 35 g Sugar
  • ½ t Salt
  • 2 ¼ t Vegetable Oil (or more, enough to grease pan)
  • 22.5 g Cornmeal

Directions

For best results, have all ingredients and utensils at room temperature.

  1. Dissolve dry yeast in warm water. Let stand 4-5 minutes.
  2. Place flour, milk, sugar, and salt in mixer bowl. Using a whip, blend on low speed for 4 minutes.
  3. Add dissolved yeast and oil. Blend on medium speed for 10 minutes. Batter will be lumpy.
  4. Coat sheet pan with oil and sprinkle cornmeal on pan evenly.
  5. Pour batter into pan. Let stand for 20 minutes.
  6. Prebake until crust is set: Conventional oven: 475 °F for 10 minutes. Convection oven: 425 °F for 7 minutes.
  7. Top each prebaked crust with desired topping or use Pizza With Ground Beef Topping recipe (see D-31), or Pizza With Cheese Topping recipe (see D-30).
  8. Bake until heated through and cheese is melted: Conventional oven: 475 °F for 10-15 minutes. Convection oven: 425 °F for 5 minutes.
  9. Portion by cutting each sheet pan 4×5 (20 pieces per pan).

Recipe Credit: Tasting History with Max Miller

Recipe: Korean Spicy Baby Octopus with Pork Belly

I’ve been ordering Korean Spicy Baby Octopus with Pork Belly at Frog House many times and I absolutely love it. While I can’t recreate the dish with the proper wok hei at home, I think I did pretty good! I made a batch and ate it with Chan. He liked it too! It’s a bit of a hassle recipe so I think I rather go eat it at Frog House lol.

Holy Grail Sauce

Sliced Zucchini and Carrots

Sliced Onions

Baby octopus massaged with flour – this helps to take away the smell

I found this in the frozen seafood section of Hmart – another name for it is webfoot octopus.

Look at how cute it is after parboiling. Almost too cute to eat, not really though, I’ll eat it.

Frying up the pork belly, adding sugar was an interesting step but a good one! Caramelized pork!

Frying up the pork with the onions

Frying up the octopus and onions with the zucchini and carrots – adding the octpus, sauce and green onions…

Voila! Done! Serve it with somen noodles or white rice!

Korean Spicy Baby Octopus with Pork Belly

Ingredients

  • 300 g Pork Belly, thin – 2 inch slices
  • 300 g Webfoot Octopus
  • 100 g Green Onions (sliced angled – 1 inch sticks)
  • 120 g Onion (half onion), sliced thin
  • 50 g Carrot, sliced thin
  • 2 medium zucchinis, sliced thin
  • 20 g chili pepper (optional)
  • 1 T sugar
  • ⅔ C water
  • Sesame Oil to taste (1 T, more or less to your taste)
  • 2-3 T Flour (to clean octopus)

Sauce Ingredients

  • 3 T Red Pepper Powder (Gochugaru)
  • 2 T Red Pepper Paste (Gochujjang)
  • 4 T Soy Sauce
  • ½ T Oyster Sauce
  • 1 ½ T Corn Syrup
  • 1 ½ T Sugar
  • 25 g Garlic (5-6 cloves)

Directions

  1. Place 2-3 T of flour on the octopus and massage for 1-2 minutes, rinse octopus thoroughly in water and drain.
  2. Combine sauce ingredients and set aside.
  3. Parboil octopus in boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and cut octopus into more bite size pieces (in half works fine), set aside.
  4. Cook pork belly in large skillet for 1-2 minutes, add 1 T sugar and continue browning pork belly over medium high heat.
  5. Add onions and cook while stirring for about 1-2 minutes until the onions are nice and browned.
  6. Add ⅔ of the sauce and continue to stirfry for about a minute. Add ⅔ C of water and continue to stir fry for another minute.
  7. Add sliced carrots and zucchini (chili pepper too if you are using it), stirfry for 3-4 minutes until vegetables get a bit tender. 
  8. Add octopus, green onions and remaining ⅓ of the sauce and continue to stirfry for 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle on sesame oil right when the dish is complete and mix it in. 
  9. Serve with bowls of hot rice or over cooked and drained somen noodles!

Recipe Inspired by: hoon & elen’s today cuisine

Mixed Plate Friday

Chan and I went over to a friend’s house for mochi making before the New Year. This is the first time I’ve ever been to one and wow…they have a freaking system for it! More like 4 systems, look at those mochi makers! They make a whole bunch to share with friends and family. I was a part of the assembly line to shape the mochi. They even bought a new contraption this year that also cuts the mochi down to size! What an efficient process!

Mini Garden Express Roast Duck & Chicken on Rice | $15.50

I haven’t been to Mini Garden Express in such a long time. We used to go to Ranch 99 all the time because they just had so much options for meals. Do we really need another Home Depot so close to the one in Iwilei? I don’t think so. Or could Home Depot have considered my feelings and kept the food court at the bottom and just built on top of it (lol)? Anyway, came here the other weekend to grab dinner. My god, the prices. I mean if I think about it objectively now, I guess this is actually a good price. You’re getting roast duck and shoyu chicken and roast duck is not cheap nowadays. They don’t make the best roast duck but it’s good enough. I used to get it with fried rice but I didn’t want to pay the additional $3, I’m broke right now okay? LOL.

Prime Rib

Christmas calls for a prime rib. Prime rib is so crazy expensive, I think this hunk of meat which wasn’t even that big cost me upwards of $83. It gets gobbled down so fast that I wish I just baked a chuck roast hahaha nah nah. Gotta do it up at least once a year. The cooking method is perfect as always – and because I was tired and lazy, I didn’t even do the slits with garlic inside and it still turned out good. Now I can be even lazier.

Recipe: Japanese Miso Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry

I try my best to meal prep every weekend so that I have lunch for the week. It’s not always easy but hopefully it keeps me eating a little healthier and helps me save money. I follow Haruma Recipe on YouTube and have made a few of his recipes, he makes some really good dishes – just simple Japanese dishes. This one couldn’t be simpler, I had to try it! It doesn’t even ask for minced garlic, no real chopping needed. I don’t know about you folks, but I have always bought fresh garlic and peel and mince it myself. I would never use the “jarlic” but I am seriously considering buying the pre-peeled garlic and one of those garlic crushers – I think it would make me a much happier person lol. I’ll keep you folks posted.

Junkest part is cutting up raw chicken breast and seasoning it, I don’t love handling raw chicken. He is genius, he cuts up a milk carton, cleans it and lays it flat on his cutting board to cut up the chicken. You gotta watch his video, I’ll link it below.

A simple miso sauce, broccoli and chicken breast and you’ve got a dish! So easy. I taste tested it, not bad! Nothing crazy delicious or fancy, just a good simple dish you know?

Taste of Japan: Umami-Packed Miso Chicken and Broccoli Stir-fry Recipe


[Ingredients / 1-2 servings]

  • 250-300g Broccoli
  • 300g Chicken breast

[Seasoning / Miso sauce]
・25g Miso
・10g Soy sauce
・18g Cooking Sake
・12g Sugar

[Toppings etc.]
・Black pepper

Recipe Source: [Haruma Recipe]Japanese Food Recipes in English

Recipe: Spicy Nametake Tofu

Not much of a recipe today folks. Went to a potluck and someone brought a dish similar to this and I loved it so much. The recipe was of course…oh just throw these things together (lol). So I had to just guess at what to throw on. I just got a block of soft tofu, a bottle of the nametake (seasoned mushroom) which I mixed with some crunch garlic chili oil. Oh brah, I can just eat this whole block of tofu in one sitting.

Look at how pretty! I usually buy the tofu from Sam’s or Costco so you know it doesn’t look like this. I bought this one from a grocery store, forgot the brand but if you want this one, just look at the bottom of the tofu package for this design and you will get this!

Yum yum yum.

Recipe: Kona Inn Banana Bread

Hi everyone! So sorry for the unannounced break. This is peak busy season for me at work so it’s just been super hard. I also haven’t been eating out with good food lately so even moreso I don’t have much to post. Might be more mixed plate posts than not. I hope you folks are all doing well! I’m actually heading to Korea at the end of October and while that sounds like I have a lot of time, I really don’t (lol). Time has been flying by and October is in DAYS.

Before I get into the recipe, I can announce that KCC 220 Grille is currently back in service! Go support the culinary students and get some onolicious wallet-friendly food! Here is the link: https://sites.google.com/hawaii.edu/culinaryartsprogram-kapcc/220-grille?authuser=0.

Anyway, quick recipe post. Someone posted this recipe on Facebook – it was definitely a picture of an old school recipe book. Everyone was raving about it so I just had to make it.

Doesn’t look super good ah? Like…looks dry almost. I was not convinced. Not until I tried it. Oh my gosh, this bread is so nice and banana-y and super moist, dense but not too dense you know? This is how I found the pan at work…

Insane that people don’t throw things into a rubbish can that is like 2 feet away. I don’t know what to tell you! But safe to say it was a winner. I actually shared 3 loaves with the office and all three were gone in an INSTANT. Here’s the recipe!

Kona Inn Banana Bread

Original Recipe

Ingredients:
1 C butter
2 C sugar
6 or 7 ripe bananas, mashed
4 eggs, well beaten
2 ½ C all-purpose flour, sifted
1 t salt
2 t baking soda

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar thoroughly; add bananas and eggs. Sift dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture. DO NOT overmix. Pour into two greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes.

Recipe: 7 Layer Dip

Yummmm, who doesn’t love a 7 layer dip? Too bad you can’t find 7 layer dip in stores too often. Or it’s only like 5 layers. It’s best homemade and boy…before I made it, I didn’t realize how pricey this can get.

1. Bean Layer (heated up a can of refried beans in the microwave)

    2. Guacamole (bought a big container from the store, too lazy to make my own!)

    3. Big tub of sour cream (I used 14 oz) mixed with one taco seasoning packet, genius!

    4. Salsa! (technically an extra layer so I made an 8 layer dip!)

    5. Green Onions

    6. Shredded Cheese, recipes call for Mexican Blend, I used a bag of Sharp Cheddar and think it worked great.

    7. Chopped Tomatoes (I only needed to chop one tomato up, also deseeded the tomato)

    8. Chopped Olives

    Some of these “layers” are a bit borderline to me. Sprinkling on the tomatoes and olives did not feel like layers but I’ll take it! Actually a very easy dish to make, I like to make it the night before so it can set in the fridge. Serve it up with some tortilla chips! I made two big batches, one for the bros and Chan and one for an office potluck. Was winnahs!

    Mixed Plate Friday

    Sushi Robot Breakfast Bento | $4.77

    When Sushi Robot first closed down, I was sad! They were a great place to swing by to grab food after my early morning Don Q run for work. Well, they reopened in the mini food court on the side and I was elated! They are open early and serve up super cheap foods.

    Richie’s Drive Inn Mini Mushroom Chicken | $10.14

    Oh man, to watch Richie’s go down like this is sad. I know they changed ownership recently but I still wanted to give them a chance. My laziness loves that they have a drive thru option even though it’s a hot mess system lol. I decided to give their mushroom chicken a try this day. It’s basically their chicken katsu smothered with mushroom gravy. Was salty and not good. And their mac salad? OH THE BIGGEST HEARTBREAK. They used to have one of the best mac salads around, now they add big chunks of potato and olives? It’s so odd. Did not taste good. Their chili dog plate still seems to be good so I will probably just get my bro that from here on out since that’s his favorite.

    Somen Cone Sushi

    What is the official name for this dish? I made this for a get-together last week. Was a hit! Family loved it, office loved and the friends loved it! I’ve seen variation of this dish but I made it a little different. It has taegu, ocean salad, imitation crab, cucumbers, tropics dressing, etc. And you can’t forget the fresh sprig of cilatnro on top. What a pain to make, it’s easy to cook up but stuffing over 40 of these? It took like over an hour, my back hurt. Anyways, delicious!

    Recipe: Thit Kho (Vietnamese Braised Pork Belly with Eggs)

    I’ve seen Thit Kho up and down social media and usually from Vietnamese folks who were raised eating this so they were I guess tired of being served it? Excuse me! This dish looked delicious to me and I don’t think I’ve seen it on menus here so I knew I had to try to make it myself. The stars aligned for me one day, I saw quail eggs at Costco and got myself the skinless pork belly, game on!

    Woohoo! So many eggs…

    My first time cooking quail eggs…tried to cook it the least time possible because I knew I would have to cook it additionally in the dish too. No one wants the grey ring of death. I also had to peel all 36 of these mini eggs, heh.

    Slice up the pork belly and boil it for a few minutes, helps to “clean” the pork belly!

    What is this you ask? It’s a heaping amount of sugar with oil. I had to heat this up over low heat to get it browned up but not burnt, you know? Caramel!

    I had to move fast! Once it got browned up, I added the pork belly. Look at the nice color!

    Yum, the aromatics. Garlic. Shallots. Thai Chilis. No can go wrong. I should use more shallots in my cooking.

    Smelled so good…

    Add the eggs in and then let it simmer a bit. Make sure you mix it around good so the eggs get coated in the wonderful caramel sauce too. I didn’t add too much shoyu and salt to this because it asks for so much fish sauce! Recipes ask for coconut soda but I don’t have access to that so I just used coconut water. The dish was super good. I actually followed three different recipes to make this dish so I’ll just link them below!

    Recipe inspirations:
    Wok & Kin
    Cooking Therapy
    Simply Recipes

    Recipe: Spam Musubi Rice Krispies Treat

    You read that title right. Spam Musubi Rice Krispies Treat. What a genius idea! Mixing the saltiness of the spam with the sweetness of the marshmallows? It worked perfectly. And I’m not one that usually likes to mix sweet with savory. Decided to make this on a whim and shared it with the office. They ate it up! Although, I do wonder how long this lasts on the counter due to the spam. I guess I would just throw it in the fridge if there is any left after a day. I almost marinated the spam in a teriyaki sauce since that’s what I do for real spam musubis but decided against it which was a good thing. I think that would have made the spam sweeter which would work against this dish.

    Fried up half a can of spam, diced up small! I fried them up until they were nice and crispy.

    Half a stick of BUTTAH. No, I didn’t wash my pan after the spam frying. No worry beef curry.

    Full bag of marshmallows – IN!

    Once the marshmallow is nice and melted, add in the 6 cups of rice krispies!

    Can’t forget to add spam to this party.

    Furikake!

    I wasn’t sure how much furikake to add. I didn’t want it to overpower the dish. I do think I want to add a bit more next time while also sprinkling a bit more on top!

    Spam Musubi Rice Krispies Treat

    Ingredients:
    1/2 can of spam, small diced
    6 cups of Rice Krispies or puffed rice cereal
    4 tbsp unsalted butter
    1 bag of large Jett Puff marshmallows (12oz)
    Furikake to taste

    Directions:

    • Small dice half the can of spam. Add the spam dices to a pan and cook for about 15 minutes until they’re crispy! Strain on a paper towel and cool.
    • Melt the butter in a pot over low heat. Add the marshmallows and stir until fully melted
    • In a separate bowl, add the cereal and spam bits. Pour in the marshmallow mixture and mix.
    • Pour into a greased baking pan – spray the bottom of a measuring cup and use that to press down. Top with furikake or leave as is! You can also shape them into cute onigiri if you’d like too!
    • Let cool and enjoy!

    Recipe Credit: Tabemanda