Thursday, December 13, 2012

Loco Moco


We have a little less than a month left of our sabbatical. Next week we will head to Maui, and spend a few weeks there with family. And that will be the end of sabbatical. That means packing up our things, saying goodbye to friends and family, moving back to Los Angeles from Hawaii, and returning to work.

It also means that we are scarfing up our final round of Hawaiian cuisine. There are so many foods unique to Hawaii that we are going to miss. Yes, I know there is L & L Hawaiian Barbeque in the contiguous U.S., but that stuff is crap. Luckily, during our 6 months in Hawaii we've perfected certain home-cooked local dishes.

One meal that we made at home recently was loco moco, a Hawaiian classic. Loco moco is bonafide island soul food, essentially consisting of a mound of white rice, a hamburger patty, a fried egg, all smothered with brown gravy. If you want to die young with clogged arteries, loco moco is your ticket. But boy, is it delicious. Here's a simple, straightforward way to make it at home.

Loco Moco

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1 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup finely diced onions
salt & pepper to taste
1 can beef broth
couple dashes of Worcestershire sauce
flour for thickening
4 eggs
hot cooked white rice

Mix hamburger, onions, and salt & pepper. Form into 4 patties. On a frying pan, sear patties on high heat until juices begin appearing on top. Flip, and cook for another few minutes, until slightly charred (but still tender on the inside). Place patties on the side. To make gravy, use the same pan, and pour in some broth, scraping all the bits of charred hamburger with a spatula. Pour in remainder of the broth. Bring to a boil, and let reduce 3-5 minutes. Turn heat to low, and simmer. Add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. In a separate bowl, mix flour with some water. Slowly whisk in the flour/water mixture until gravy is thick & smooth. Set gravy aside. On a frying pan over low heat, cook each egg sunny-side up. To assemble loco moco, place a mound of rice on a plate, top with hamburger patty, top with an egg, and pour gravy over all of it. Makes 4 servings.

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