[Dean's World] Andrew Cory: Recipe: Loco Moco

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Posted by Andrew Cory:
Recipe: Loco Moco
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1164929154.shtml


   Some of you may know: for the last month or so, Iâve been seeing a
   rather wonderful woman. Sheâs smartâbut dumb enough to date me--,
   funny, a student at [1]Mills College, and eats only Kosher meats.
   Thank the gods Iâve got a recipe thatâs A) vegetarian and B) tasty...

   The Basics:
   Serves: 
   Iâll give you the 1 person recipe.

   Difficulty:
   2 out of 5. All the ingredients have to be cooked separately, which
   makes the timing a bit tricky. Still, itâs hard to screw up any given
   ingredient...

   ingredients
   3/4 of white rice per person
   1 patty (Veggie- or Ham- burger) per person
   1/2 cup of brown gravy per person
   1 egg per person

   Optional: 
   1-2 slices of pineapple per person
   1/2-1 cup of diced onion per person

   Untested-but-sounds-tasty:
   Garlic?
   Bell Peppers?

   Itâs a Hawaiian dish called [2]Loco Moco, and if you read the
   Wikipedia entry, youâll note that it features a hamburger patty. I was
   introduced to the meal in its vegetarian form, and that (oddly for me)
   is how I tend to prefer it. By all means, however: if you want to make
   this dish using the more traditional slice âo- cow, Iâll recommend a
   quarter- to half- pound of beef per person...

   The first thing we're going to is toss some music on the stereo. Since
   this is an American food of Hawaiian origin, Iâd recommend some
   [3]Jack Johnson. Alternately, you could recall that the dish is both
   upbeat, unknown, and unsubtle fun, and go for some [4]Kimberly Trip.
   Whatever you chose, do it quick: Iâm starting to get hungry...

   Now that we know what weâre listening to, we need to start some rice.
   There are lots of types of rice, and I wonât tell you which is best.
   Itâs easy to make and hard to screw up. It adds bulk to just about any
   meal, and just about anything can be done to it. I use a ridiculously
   over sized rice cooker former GF picked up for me at a garage sale. I
   prefer rice cookers because you pour your water and rice in and then
   forget about it...

   At this point, Iâd just kill some time until the rice is about 5-10
   minutes from being done. Unless youâre using a boiling pot of water on
   a stove, in which case Iâd wait until the rice was done. Donât worry,
   though: thatâs why we picked out music first. This is also a good time
   to dice the onion, if you wanted to add that...

   The next thing weâre gonna do is grab our [5]McCormick Brown Gravy
   package. Pour a cup of cold water into a smallish pot. Open the
   package and pour all the powder into the water. Turn the heat on
   medium and start stirring. Keep stirring. Stir some more. Make sure
   you scrape the bottom as you stir. There will come a point when the
   gravy thickens under your whisk, and you will literally watch it
   change consistency. Itâs actually kinda rad. Once this has happened,
   turn the heat off. Time to make us some veggieburgers...

   The thing about veggieburgers: theyâre so pulverized, pasteurized, and
   bastardized that theyâre almost wholly unnatural. You can undercook
   them in the sense that they wonât be all the way thawed, but safety
   isnât an issue. I donât know why people think this is healthier...

   Anyway, throw âem on a pan and put that pan on some heat. Medium,
   heat, if you please. When itâs been sizzling for about 2 minutes,
   flip. If you want to add your onions (already diced), now would be the
   time to toss them onto the pan with your veggiepatty. You'll want to
   stir them every minute or so, when they sizzle and turn opaque,
   they're done. Once they're done and the patties are done, turn the
   heat down so it's almost off. Let that be for another couple
   minutes...

   Now we need to make an egg. Crack an egg into a small pan. Set that
   pan onto low heat. Youâre done when the egg white turns, um, white
   (itâll be sort of a clear yellow before this). When itâs done, turn
   the heat off...

   Now, grab a bowl. No, not a serving bowl, an eatinâ bowl. Pour the
   rice into it, flip your veggieburger onto the rice, slide your egg on
   top (careful here, donât break the yellow bit; unless you overcooked
   the egg, the yellow part is still liquid.), and pour some gravy on the
   whole thing. If you want to add some pineapple, this is an excellent
   opportunity...

   Happy eating...

   (crossposted at [6]the Punning Pundit, a blog you ought to read more
   often)

References

   1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_College
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loco_Moco
   3. http://www.amazon.com/Between-Dreams-Jack-Johnson/dp/B0007GAEVW/sr=8-1/qid=1164924415/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-1413504-3552052?ie=UTF8&s=music
   4. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/002-1413504-3552052?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=music&field-artist=Kimberly%20Trip
   5. http://www.mccormick.com/productdetail.cfm?id=6277
   6. http://www.punningpundit.com/archives/2006/12/recipe_loco_moc.html