Emergency Hekka

We know a secret spot where watercress grows wild, looking like a weed to most, but like the first step on the road to hekka to us.

According to the cookbook, "What Hawaii Likes to Eat," hekka is based on sukiyaki, a dish with a sauce made of shoyu, sugar and mirin. The cookbook author says the dish was created by sugar plantation workers who used the sauce and whatever else they had on hand.

For me, hekka always had to have watercress and aburage, some kind of meat, usually chicken or pork, and it was served over rice. This is one of my favorite dishes. The watercress adds a flavor you can't recreate with anything else.

I think my love for watercress comes from my mom who loves it raw as much as she likes it cooked.

Mmm. 

Surprisingly, watercress on a simple cheese pizza is wonderful. 

Hekka

1. Stir fry thin-sliced meat in some hot oil for a minute of two. Add a chopped onion and cook for a few minutes. Carrots can be added here. Small pieces. Mushrooms (like shiitake) too.

2. Mix up a 1/3 cup each of brown sugar, shoyu and mirin. Instead of mirin, I used rice vinegar.

3. Lower the heat and simmer for five minutes or so.

4. Add ingredients that just need to be warmed through like aburage and bamboo shoots. Lastly, add a big bunch of watercress. I cut the lengths into three pieces. I add the bottom third first, then the middle section and then the top goes in.

5. Serve over rice. Chopped raw sweet onion or green onion tastes good for a garnish.

* I like the texture-variety mushrooms give in a dish like this. Shiitake would be the usual choice for me, but we used snowbank morels (see one of the mushrooms in the upper left corner of the dish). The mushrooms were fresh, so we cooked them separately with no oil or liquid. The fresh mushrooms give off a lot of liquid in the pan. After the liquid is cooked off, the mushroom flavor is concentrated and the meat is not soggy and retains a bite. We added them on top of the dish before serving.

How do you like your hekka?