Cooking Home-Raised Tilapia and Using the Leftovers

by Leilehua Yuen

My Dad has been raising tilapia the past few years, and decided it was time to harvest. Being the recipient of four lovely fish, I had to try some recipes.

Dad gave me the fish already cleaned, so preparing them was easy-peasy. I cut some lāʻī and laid them in a baking dish. I slashed the top side of the fish and inserted slices of lemon. The leftover syrup from making candied ginger was poured over the fish, and it was baked about 15 minutes. I then covered it in mushrooms and minced green onions and added a bit more of the ginger syrup, then baked it about 20 minutes more.

Tender white flesh, it was quite good!

I served it with hōʻiʻo salad.

Tilapia Salad in lunchware by Geraldine Duncann

I removed the bones from the fish we did not eat and broke it into smaller pieces, then added the remaining hōʻiʻo salad. Enough mayonnaise to stick it together, and served with tortilla chips. It also would make a great salad!

I’ll add more recipes next time Dad gives me more tilapia!

Celebrating Hawaiʻi Foods and Lifestyles since 1983

Kau kau (pronounced “cow cow”) means “food,” or “meal” in Hawaiian pidgin. It is also used to mean “to eat,” as in “let’s go kau kau” – “let’s go eat.”

The Kau Kau Kitchen cooking column started in 1983 in the Hawaiʻi Tribune Herald. Then-editor Sherm Frederick was looking for a new cooking column. I suggested my mother. Sherm was excited, and said he’d love to have a local person write the column. I eplained that my mother actually lives in California. Ok, that would not do. So I asked if he minded if I wrote the column, myself. He invited me to submit some columns, and thus my writing career began.

The first column was on the Kona Coffee Festival. I’ve still got a copy of it somewhere. As soon as I find it, I’ll post it.

After writing it for a year or so, I self-syndicated and it began appearing in the Maui Sun newspaper, a small magazine in Las Vegas, and a few other publications catering to HawaiÊ»i expats. It also grew into a radio show on KHLO, and a short-lived TV show on Hilo’s old Channel 2. Diamond Papaya did a Kau Kau Kitchen special on Papayas, and the brand was featured in some local cooking events created to promote local agriculture and food products. Some cookbooks and kitchen products also spun off the original column.

I was fortunate to be invited to lots of great foodie events I never would have otherwise seen, and I got to meet many wonderful folks in the industry. But juggling all of that was a lot of work. I ended up putting Kau Kau Kitchen on “autopilot” for a few years and returned to school, seeking a degree in journalism.

After a number of career twists and turns, with Kau Kau Kitchen cruising along, primarily existing as books and occasional event or media appearances, the Internet was born. Kau Kau Kitchen went on-line.

I’d already been producing Kaʻahele Hawaiʻi (by now the world’s oldest Hawaiian culture and arts website), for a few years. Konabob Stoffer of KonaWeb had helped me to set it up. So putting Kau Kau Kitchen online seemed quite doable. It was much more cost effective than paper publishing, and I could reach far more people.

Now, after 40 years of covering Hawaiʻi’s mixed-plate food and culture, I am looking forward to what the future will bring!

A hui hou!
~Leilehua