Blend mushrooms into loco moco, a delicious Hawai’i-style meal
The Hawaiian comfort food loco moco is usually heavy on the meat. This version uses mushrooms to lighten the dish and add umami flavor.
Eating loco moco instantly transports me home. There is a new ache to cook Hawai’i’s food away from the islands because of the tragic Maui fires. To help those who have lost their homes, I’ll be cooking a couple of fundraiser events the week of Sept. 20 (follow @poidogforever for details) and donating 10% of sauce sales through poidogphilly.com to World Central Kitchen’s Maui relief fund.
The sugarcane plantation era-derived “local food” of Hawai’i is meat- and carbohydrate-heavy. Traditional loco mocos (like the one served at my former restaurant Poi Dog) include rice, fried egg, and beef, and might require a scheduled nap after consumption.
This blended burger loco moco, which uses fresh bella mushrooms, is both lighter on your digestive system and on the planet, since it requires less red meat.. Fresh mushrooms are ‘onolicious (Hawaiian pidgin for delicious), and easier on the environment. Growing one pound of mushrooms requires only 1.8 gallons of water as opposed to about 2,000 gallons of water per pound of beef. Adding mushrooms to a typically all-beef dish makes it more nutritious and sustainable.
Kiki Aranati is a James Beard finalist, a chef, and owner of Poi Dog sauces.
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
16 ounces baby bella mushrooms, chopped (in a food processor is fine)
2-3 stalks green onion, sliced thin and down to the quick
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil or neutral vegetable oil (for searing)
Combine all ingredients.
Form patties (just under 6 ounces each) with your hands.
Heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil or neutral vegetable oil in a nonstick pan on high heat.
Sear patties for about 3 minutes on each side. Be gentler with them than the average hamburger patty as they’re more delicate and have a higher water content (if you don’t want to be gentle with the patties, roast the chopped mushrooms and strain off some of the liquid first).
Serve with steamed shortgrain brown rice, a cup of mushroom gravy and two eggs, fried sunny side up or over easy.
