loco moco

lest you think i live off of a diet of sugar, i thought i'd throw in some "real" food, however unhealthy it may be....

loco moco (loh-koo moh-koo), a hawaiian favourite: a generous bowl of rice, topped with a ground beef patty, fried egg, and gravy. traditionally it is made with white rice, hamburger, and a brown gravy, but my version has brown rice, ground sirloin, and a mushroom cream sauce. just 'cause.

the loco moco is said to have originated in hilo, on the big island of hawaii, but it can be found all over the islands, with many various permutations. i happen to prefer the cream gravy over the brown one, grilled fish over hamburger, and brown rice over white, but that doesn't stop me from order the basic config time and again.

i once ordered a pork chop loco moco from sam choy's restaurant here on guam, which consisted of four scoops of rice, two grilled pork chops, two fried eggs, a heaping mound of grilled caramelized onions, and a shiitake mushroom cream gravy. after i was rolled out of the building, down the parking lot ramp, and woke up from my food coma, i tried recreating the mushroom cream sauce. i believe the sam choy's gravy is made with a pound of butter, 3 cups of half and half, some soy sauce and shiitake mushrooms thrown into the pan that the pork chops are cooked in, which is all well and good but actually, is not all well and good--i mean, @#$% &*#@!!!! a pound of butter to loosen up the pork grease and bits and then finished off with cream? oh go ahead, try it. live a little. die a lot.

i now do a mushroom gravy based on cream sauce i once had at the swiss inn in honolulu. considerably lighter, but packs a ton of flavour, without adding much more work (although, ya gotta try the sam choy gravy of death™ sometime--why not).


mushroom cream gravy

a handful of mushrooms sliced (about 1 to 1 1/2 cup--hey i have a beeg hand)
1 tbsp butter (or less, if using pan drippings)
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp brown sugar
chopped parsley (optional)

sautee mushrooms with a little butter or in the pan used to cook the meat portion of your moco until wilted. add wine, heavy cream, and sugar. simmer for a minute or two, add parsley, and season to taste.


update: this, i believe is the recipe for the gravy of death™ (without the dill, though)--and the pork chops are stuffed with crab meat in this recipe too [jaw dropping to floor]