Steamed ʻUlaʻula Koaʻe – Kau Kau Kitchen

A friend gave us a five pound ʻulaʻula koaʻe last night. It had been caught that morning. I decided that I should cook it immediately, as it is rare to get such a magnificent fish so fresh. Unfortunately, I had not been shopping lately, so had few of my usual ingredients.

First stop was my garden, where I gut several spring onions and a handful of garlic grass. Then I rummaged about in the fridge and found a jar of black bean sauce and some garlic chili sauce, as well as some miso paste. I minced the onion and garlic grass and stirred as much as I could in to a 50/50 blend of the black bean sauce and garlic chili sauce.

I stuffed the body cavity of the fish with the onions and paste. I also coated the skin with a thin layer.

The roasting pan had miso broth in it for steaming the fish. While the miso does not really do much to the flavor of the fish, but the fish drippings make the miso outstanding! A rack was set in the pan, and then lāʻī (tī leaves) were laid on that. The fish was then covered with more lāʻī. Not having a lid for the pan, I covered it with aluminum foil to hold in the steam.

The fish and the pan were far larger than my little convection oven, so I put it in the big grill on the lānai. It cooked for about 45 minutes at 350℉.

It was moist and tender, delicately flavored with the black bean, onion, and garlic, with a hint of heat from the chili paste. We enjoyed it very much. The minced spring onions in the body cavity were a perfect condiment.

I saved the head, tail, and fins to deep fry for snacks tomorrow.

Celebrating Hawaiʻi Foods and Lifestyles since 1983

Kau kau (pronounced “cow cow”) means “food,” or “meal” in Hawaiian pidgin. It is also used to mean “to eat,” as in “let’s go kau kau” – “let’s go eat.”

The Kau Kau Kitchen cooking column started in 1983 in the Hawaiʻi Tribune Herald. Then-editor Sherm Frederick was looking for a new cooking column. I suggested my mother. Sherm was excited, and said he’d love to have a local person write the column. I eplained that my mother actually lives in California. Ok, that would not do. So I asked if he minded if I wrote the column, myself. He invited me to submit some columns, and thus my writing career began.

The first column was on the Kona Coffee Festival. I’ve still got a copy of it somewhere. As soon as I find it, I’ll post it.

After writing it for a year or so, I self-syndicated and it began appearing in the Maui Sun newspaper, a small magazine in Las Vegas, and a few other publications catering to HawaiÊ»i expats. It also grew into a radio show on KHLO, and a short-lived TV show on Hilo’s old Channel 2. Diamond Papaya did a Kau Kau Kitchen special on Papayas, and the brand was featured in some local cooking events created to promote local agriculture and food products. Some cookbooks and kitchen products also spun off the original column.

I was fortunate to be invited to lots of great foodie events I never would have otherwise seen, and I got to meet many wonderful folks in the industry. But juggling all of that was a lot of work. I ended up putting Kau Kau Kitchen on “autopilot” for a few years and returned to school, seeking a degree in journalism.

After a number of career twists and turns, with Kau Kau Kitchen cruising along, primarily existing as books and occasional event or media appearances, the Internet was born. Kau Kau Kitchen went on-line.

I’d already been producing Kaʻahele Hawaiʻi (by now the world’s oldest Hawaiian culture and arts website), for a few years. Konabob Stoffer of KonaWeb had helped me to set it up. So putting Kau Kau Kitchen online seemed quite doable. It was much more cost effective than paper publishing, and I could reach far more people.

Now, after 40 years of covering Hawaiʻi’s mixed-plate food and culture, I am looking forward to what the future will bring!

A hui hou!
~Leilehua