Cookbook offers a taste of firefighters’ favorites

This could be even more successful than those fundraising calendars showing Honolulu’s firefighters baring their muscles — and those were red-hot popular back in the day.

The long-awaited cookbook titled “Recipes From Hawaii’s Firehouse Kitchens,” first reported in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in July , is now available to the public.

Initially released only to firefighters by the nonprofit Hawaii Professional Firefighters Foundation, the book contains more than 250 recipes from more than 100 cooking firefighters from all over the islands.

Because few people are cooking for a firehouse full of more than a dozen adults, the recipes have been scaled down to manageable family-size portions. The book also includes back stories and anecdotes from firefighters’ lives and experiences, including funny stories and what motivated them to make certain dishes, said publicist Mona Wood-Sword.

“We wanted to make sure their personalities are in there,” she said.

Preparation of the tome was an in-house affair.

The recipes were compiled by foundation office manager Daisy Canite.

“She’s the one who coordinated the book, and she credited everybody in the book except for herself,” Wood-Sword said.

The vast collection of recipes might become material for annual fundraising cookbooks, to be released over time.

Recipe tester and photographer Maryellen Markley also serves as the the foundation’s board president.

To mark the launch, the foundation is releasing one of Canite’s favorite submissions, sent in by Renny Tsark, a Honolulu Fire Department retiree.

Titled “Rookie Pork Butt,” it has five ingredients, and while it is a stove-top recipe, it likely would work well in a slow cooker.

The recipe calls for a can of condensed tomato soup, poured into a bowl and mixed with a can full of soy sauce and a can full of sugar; the blend is then poured over a large pork butt in a large pot. Steamed cabbage wedges serve as a foundation on individual plates when the dish is served.

On the stove top, the pork and sauce should be simmered for three hours until the meat is fall-apart tender. Shred the pork and transfer it to a platter atop the cabbage. Strain any remaining sauce through a sieve, add a simple cornstarch slurry and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the sauce thickens, then pour it over the pork and cabbage and serve.

Tsark and Canite will prepare the dish on an upcoming episode of “Living 808” on KHON-TV, likely in May.

The fundraising cookbook can be ordered over the phone or by email, and can be paid for with cash, check or credit card.

Buyers on Oahu can pick up their books at the foundation office at 1018 Palm Drive from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, with a call ahead recommended. The books also can be mailed domestically for an additional $6.95 per book for shipping and handling.

“Recipes From Hawaii’s Firehouse Kitchens,” printed by Mutual Publishing, will be available at retail outlets in the coming weeks, though the foundation will receive a significantly larger share of sale proceeds through books it sells directly to consumers, Wood-Sword said.

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