Hawaiian Pizza

I've been working on a Pizza Cookbook for about five years now and I was wondering what you sophisticates put on your Hawaiian Pizza. As for me, I use a Hawaiian bread dough, marinara sauce, jalepeno jack cheese, red onions, bacon, ham, and pineapple chunks. While not exactly Hawaiian, I find that the jalepeno cheese offers a good spicy balance to the sweetness of the dough and pineapple. Other variations are using a ham glaze for the sauce or replacing the ham with SPAM (hey, Hawaii IS the worlds biggest consumer of SPAM). A little essence of cloves can also add a nice touch too. Let me know what's on YOUR favorite Hawaiian pizza...

On 2005-09-16 12:44, tikitortured wrote:
... I was wondering what you sophisticates put on your Hawaiian Pizza ...

Sophisticate? Is that kinda like an Aristocrat?

How about foods from all the cultures that settled Hawaii
Some ideas for REAL Hawaiin Pizza..gotta add Portuguese chourico...Japanese Eggplant...Chinese Roated Pork....Island Pineapples... Marquesan breadfruit chips...Maui onions.....Mauna Kea Chevre (Big Island Goat cheese)... Maui Laetiporus mushrooms (chicken of the woods)
Hawaiian cherry tomato puree. All on a Hawaiin Sweet Bread crust

Never been a fan of the Pizza Hut version...of grocery store Hormel ham and Dole Pineapple chunks.

Bake up that bad boy on a wood fire oven...whoa Bruddah..brok da mout!

The Islands are nuts for Spam......

In case you don’t live in Hawaii, you may not have seen the new SPAM label showing up on shelves there. But the press has. It’s beautiful. We have pictures. This expert journalism has not only swept the nation with a quick human-interest story, but it has made SPAM all the more delicious. And it has let the world know about this most exotic SPAM confection called musubi.

So it might beg the question: What is SPAM musubi?

Well, you take a slice of fried SPAM, which has been marinated in a special sauce, place it on top of formed and sticky sushi rice and wrap a piece of seaweed, or nori, around it to hold it all together. It’s like sushi. Ok, it’s pretty much like sushi. Except it’s not fish. And the SPAM is fried. So you can’t call it raw. Which makes it not so much like sushi. But whatever. That’s not what matters here. Length is all that matters to some musubi enthusiasts. And those busy beavers have got themselves into the record books.

According to legend, the longest SPAM musubi was constructed at the 2003 SPAM JAM in Waikiki. Reports varied that it was between 125 and 132 feet long. Now that’s a lot of SPAM, and even more rice. But never fear, they keep building them longer and longer. Where will the madness stop? Possibly at the Vidinha Stadium field during the Kaua’i County Farm Bureau Fair. The Rotary Club of Poipu Beach worked for 59 minutes with an assembly line of eight teams to crush the previous record by spanning a football field with our favorite treat. That’s right, this new record is 100 yards. That’s an amazing 300 feet. Or 3,600 inches. Or even 14,400 quarter-inches.

When you think about it in those terms, it’s simply astounding. Good work, Rotary Club of Poipu Beach. May this crazy musubi race now come to an end. Before someone gets hurt.

salsa instead of tomato sauce

T-Wahine..why Salsa instead of Tomato?
....I know how much Hawaiians love Mexican food (hell, everybody does) but have you ever tasted REAL Hawaiian Cherry toms? They rock...ummmm Lomi Lomi!

When I was in Hawaii last we counted seven new Taco shops/Mexicana restaurants. In just one year! When I was at the National Restaurant show in Chicago last year, I saw a stat that Mexican/Southwest will eventually overtake Italian as America's #1 restaurant by ethnic type. Asian is a close third.

Now, I hungry for some Maui Pork Tacos with mango-chile salsa.

Ciao Senoritasan..adios!

Tititortured..have you read Pizza a Slice of Heaven by Ed Levine. Definate MUST READ! He describes in depth every great pizza joint in the USA. In Phoenix and Scottsdale, we are lucky to have three Grimaldi's Coal Oven Pizzerias (which are offshoots of the Brooklyn legendary Pizzeria)
We also have Pizzaria Bianco, which has recieved global praise! (I know..Phoenix..right?) Mario Batalli says Bianco is THE best Naples style pizza maker in the USA.
Other amazing Pizza books are:
Pizza (from its italian Origins to the Modern Table) by Rosario Buonassisi

I promise that book is the best tome ever written on pizza.

Wahine..try to find Nueva Salsa by Rafael Palomino. Rafeal is the executive chef at Vida, Pacifico, and Sonora restaurants in New York. He has the tropical salsa thing down pat!

Hey Rum Numb Davey, that pizza you described sounds d-lish, have you ever made it? Guess I gotta go to my local Hawaiian specialty shop to get those ingredients.

When I lived on Maui..my bro, Rich Protheroe owed Brian's Pizza, and we used to make pizzas all the time utilizing sustainable Hawaiian Pizza all the time using REAL Hawaiian foods. We smoked da kine so we always had the munchies and everybody got their OWN pie.

Some of those ingredients are very seasonal, and some would be prohibitive on the Mainland. We would make Calzones the size of FOOTBALLS. Some of the biggest local Bla Laas and Mooks could eat TWO of them. We would eat Kona Coffee brownies by the pound, too.

Good thing we body surfed and rode our boogie boards all day or we would be Jaba the Hut size..Some of those Samoans are Jaba the Hut size!

Oh those halcyon days (cue Boys of Summer by Don Hendley)
You can find Portuguese sausage, and many good ingredients in Califas!

On 2005-09-16 14:45, Rum Numb Davey wrote:
T-Wahine..why Salsa instead of Tomato?

Because it tastes really good! You could also do half BBQ and half salsa for a spicy, smoky kick. I'd use Bull's Eye Hickory.

I also make a BBQ chicken pizza (pre-cooked breast meat with red peppers, onions, cheddar & mozza) I use Bull's Eye Bold Original bbq sauce, however Trader Joe's makes a very tasty one too. No tomato sauce on that one either.

Boy I'm hungry.

Nice Salmon in the pics on your website. Hey Salmon Pizza..ah shucks, Wolfgang Puck already did that one. Made him rich.
Well, you can put Kraft Bullseye Sauce on your chix pizza if you want to..I am sticking with Hawaiian Toms....I thought we were making a hawaiian pizza, not a Kansas City BBQ pie.

I like long pig and pineapple on a pizza myself (Like Hannibal Lecter meets Don the Beachcomber. Great feed after sacrificing a young virgin to the pagan volcano gods). Serve with rum and enjoy.

Would it be wrong to put POI on a hawaiian pizza? What the hell IS poi anyway? And do you HAVE to eat it with your fingers? My fingers are filthy, would I look a fool to use a spoon?

Poi may be wrong, but Taro chips could be crunchy pizza topping fun!
Poi, the staple of the traditional Hawaiian diet, is made from taro, an ancient root crop grown throughout the tropics for its edible corms and leaves. Poi was the staple carbohydrate in the diet of the early Hawaiians and also served as an excellent source of vitamin B, calcium, and phosphorous. Because of its small starch grains, poi is an easily digested carbohydrate - an excellent choice for infants, the elderly and those who must choose their diets carefully. In addition, poi has been found to be practically non-allergenic. Those allergic to milk or grains, such as wheat and rice, can often enjoy poi with no adverse reactions. Early Hawaiians not only used the taro plant for food, but also utilized the various parts for medicinal purposes; treating ailments ranging from insect bites and fevers to heart problems and stomach disorders. I tried to like Poi, and I just never acquired a real taste for it. Brought back the childhood trauma of my Scottish childhood a bowls of salted oatmeal and porridge.

Damn Rum Numb-D, you are a virtual cornicopia of information! Thanks for that. I might like poi, sounds interesting. Sounds kinda like grits, and I loves me some grits!

How about a taro pizza crust? Sure, it would be purple, but with all the toppings, I bet would be good! I have had taro pancakes, so I guess it could make a solid pizza crust.

TW..would the Taro crust firm up enough to support the weight of the ingredients.

David

Not sure, RND, but maybe the taro could be blended with some regular flour to firm it up. I figured if it could work for pancakes, it might work for pizza. But a purple crusted pizza would make me believe it to be more Hawaiian. I would leave off the pineapple, but adding Spam is a great idea!