By Misty I.

“Go home cook rice!” If you grew up in Hawaii, legions of us really did cook rice when we came home from school. At my house we had an army green Sanyo rice cooker, nothing fancy.

Recently, I taught kids how to cook rice on the stove without a rice cooker. Some of them are experienced campers and already knew how thanks to their awesome parents. If you’ve ever gone camping with these “magic people” who can cook rice on a camp stove you understand what a valuable skill it is. You can’t beat fresh, hot rice at the beach.

If their stove top rice was edible, the kids had the option of making “fried Spam poke.” They cooked the rice like pros, the rice came out perfectly!!!

Let me back up a bit, I got some chuckles about cooking Spam with the kids from adults at work who did not grow up in Hawaii. I get it. I get that Spam is frowned upon by many, many people in and out of Hawaii. Yes, I know Spam is unhealthy and that we need to seek healthier options. I know I can make tofu poke instead of Spam poke, okay? But I choose Spam occasionally. Yes Spammmmmm. Can you tell I was a little offended by the Spam hater?

For the record, the kids were required to cook the rice and taste it to ensure it was cooked properly. The fried Spam poke part was optional, I didn’t require anyone to cook/eat Spam. Guess what? Yup, you bet they wanted to make fried Spam poke. In fact when it was time to eat they “mopped” it, which means not a single Spam cube or rice grain was left. Can you guess what else happened after the kids made fried Spam poke? The ultimate. At least four of them made it for their family within a week. How did I know? The kids didn’t tell me, their parents did! Yay, I am so proud of these kids. #spam4eva #hawaiidaswhy

One more thing…If you are like me and try to get away with NOT making Spam musubi as much as possible, make this! Waaaaay easier.

Fried Spam Poke

Ingredients:

2 cans Spam (regular or low sodium) cubed into ¾” cubes
2 Tbsp. shoyu
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
4 cups cooked rice
Aji Nori Furikake (to taste)
Sriracha and mayonnaise (optional and to taste, mixed together)

Method:

1. Cut Spam into ¾” cubes. Definitely smaller than an average poke cube.
2. Fry Spam in a medium size non-stick pan until crispy on all sides. Like really crispy.
3. Add shoyu and sugar directly onto crisped Spam and mix around until its absorbed by Spam cubes.
4. Add the hot rice to a small aluminum pan followed by a generous sprinkling of furikake all over (I love furikake and am heavy-handed.)
5. Top with fried Spam “poke” cubes.
6. Mix sriracha and mayo to taste and put it in a squeeze bottle. The kids can squeeze on the poke bowls to their taste. Many of them are apprehensive about the sriracha “aioli” until they taste it.

That’s it, only easy!