CookSpace owner finds ease in rice cooker recipe

For Melanie Kosaka, food represents more than what we pop into our mouths or fry in a pan.

"My interest has never been in just how someone can replicate a dish, but how food engages us in our community," said the owner of CookSpace at Ward Warehouse, a culinary venue that houses cooking classes and food events.

Kosaka, 53, has built a whole career around food. 

She spent 20 years producing cooking shows for television, then in 2008 created Share Your Table, a multiplatform project centered on food articles, recipes and video. All the while, she has been involved in organizing food events, such as programming for the Hawaii Food and Wine Festival, and helping conceptualize Mangoes at the Moana.

CookSpace, a venture with Good to Grill owner Jason Kim, allows Kosaka to get back in touch with the analog life, something she thinks others might need as well.

"We’re all constantly online. We consume and produce so much," she said. "I felt I needed to get back to the tactile."

Kosaka’s bustling lifestyle of 60-hour workweeks often keeps her from the tactile joy of cooking in her own kitchen. A single mom, she says she and 17-year-old daughter Akiko Bates literally eat on the run much too often. 

So when chef Sharon Kobayashi came to CookSpace and demonstrated Rice Cooker Quinoa "Spanish Rice," a recipe tailor-made for busy families, Kosaka was all over it. 

The dish calls for quinoa, ground beef, stock, carrots, bell peppers, tomato sauce and salsa. Everything goes into the rice cooker, and with a press of the "on" button, dinner is ready in an hour.

"This is a good recipe — it’s easy to do and it’s very forgiving. You can be flexible with the ingredients, and it’s accessible because everyone has a rice cooker," she said. "Cooking shouldn’t be something people think is so hard and that you need special equipment to do. At the end of the day, everybody will go home, cook rice."

Kosaka loves the lineup of healthful ingredients: "It’s how I like to cook: grains, vegetables and animal protein, but with the plants at the center of the plate."

But what makes the recipe a keeper is its versatility, says Kosaka. Replace Spanish ingredients with ground pork, Japanese dashi and shiitake mushrooms and make an Asian dish. Or use brown rice instead of quinoa.

Kosaka tops her Spanish version with sour cream, tomatoes, jalapenos and radish for crunch.

"It’s a great everyday recipe, and it’s also perfect for a potluck. You can (jazz) it up with toppings and serve it in lettuce cups," she said.

Kosaka began her career as a culture and arts producer for PBS Hawaii in 1981, and a decade later formed Melanie Kosaka Productions to develop the public-television series "Hawaii Cooks With Roy Yamaguchi." In 1997 she started First Daughter Mediaworks, which developed such series as "New American Cuisine," featuring top American chefs such as Alice Waters and Michel Richards; "Double Happiness"; and "Kitchen Sessions With Charlie Trotter." The Trotter show won the James Beard award for best national television cooking show.

"My entry into food has always been through culture, or at the intersection of where people engage with food through things like politics or science," she said.

In 2008 she ventured into the digital world with Share Your Table, offering articles, recipes, blogs and videos online as well as on its own cable channel and via a mobile app. Share Your Table has been on hiatus since Kosaka launched CookSpace last year.

Accustomed to the broad reach of digital media, Kosaka seems almost apologetic that the CookSpace classroom format "touches only 30 people at a time."

But in this venture she hasn’t completely left the digital world. "I wanted CookSpace to be a place where people can create," she said. "I also set it up as a studio where we can share what we’re doing, so we can produce videos and other content. It’s a balance of experiential and digital media."

Growing up in Aiea, Kosaka was surrounded by family who loved food.

"My mom was a pretty good cook; my aunties, too. They were always excited to try something new," she recalled. "You know how some families do sports?Food was the way we connected as a family."

The impact has proved to be lasting and strong not just in Kosaka, but in her brother, chef Lance Kosaka, who earned a sociology degree but always had a strong interest in cooking.

"My brother is five years younger than me, so we didn’t grow up together. But when I came home from college, I saw him immersed in cookbooks. I told him, ‘How can anyone read so many cookbooks?’ He went on to study at Kapiolani Community College, then worked for Roy (Yamaguchi) and then Alan (Wong) for something like 17 years."

Lance Kosaka is now executive chef at Top of Waikiki.

After spending all week working on food-related projects, quality time for Melanie Kosaka means actually being able to cook something herself.

"I’m not a fussy cook; I don’t make food with a lot of sauces. I like completion. A leg of lamb, roasts, stews can be completed in a few hours," she said. "I try to make one thing on Sunday, and on a good week I can get a couple of different dishes out of that one thing.

"I find cooking very relaxing. If I’m sorting out a problem, I work it out while I’m cooking."

For more on CookSpace, visit cookspacehawaii.com.

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Though this recipe calls for using a rice cooker, the dish can be prepared on the stove. Cook ingredients in a heavy-bottomed pan, simmering about 30 minutes or until the quinoa is tender. Then turn off the heat and let it stand, covered, for 10 minutes before serving. 

Melanie Kosaka suggests using the quinoa as a filling for lettuce wraps. Top with such items as avocado, salsa, diced tomatoes, sliced olives, shredded cheese, jalapenos and sour cream. She recommends using Manoa or romaine lettuce leaves.

Change up the ingredients and transform the flavor palette: Go Asian using pork, shiitake mushrooms and dashi in place of the beef, vegetables and seasonings listed here.

Rice Cooker Quinoa ‘Spanish Rice’ by Chef Sharon Kobayashi

1 pound ground beef (or turkey)
1-1/4 cup quinoa (substitute with brown rice)
1/4 cup marinara sauce (use favorite jar brand)
1/4 cup salsa (favorite jar brand)
2 bell peppers, diced small
2 carrots, peeled and grated
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
1 (15-ounce) can fat-free beef broth 

Add all ingredients except beef and broth to 10-cup rice cooker. Mix well to combine. Break up beef into small chunks and add to pot. Add broth and turn on cooker. When cooker goes off, let quinoa steam additional 10 minutes (a total of about 70 minutes cooking time), then gently fluff before serving.

Note: Brown rice might take an additional 20 to 30 minutes. Serves 5 to 6.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (based on 5 servings and 10 percent fat ground beef): 360 calories, 12 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 60 mg cholesterol, greater than 1,300 mg sodium, 36 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 4 g sugar, 26 g protein