Annie Yonashiro has smuggled some of Hilo’s best recipes out of her hometown and stashed them in her newest cookbook. It’s a bit like culinary espionage, but it’s for a very good cause.
Diners who have traveled to Hilo and tasted the white chocolate and cherry scones from Puff City bakery, or the Oriental BBQ Ribs at Don’s Grill, understand what Yonashiro is revealing. Also in the volume is the Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi from Keaukaha’s Seaside Restaurant, and the mysteries of Kaleo’s Lilikoi Cheesecake served at Kaleo’s Bar and Grill in rural Pahoa are revealed.
Yonashiro, who grew up in Panaewa, learned years ago that publishing a cookbook can make a difference in her community.
This month she publishes her fourth collection, a glossy book of recipes she gathered from Hawaii island cooking professionals and other, less famous sources.
"These are people’s favorites," she said of her new volume. "I collect recipes from my relatives, my cousins, my aunties, my clients and my friends."
They carry names that credit some of their creators, like "Island Brie with Auntie Jojo’s Mango Jam" or "Uncle Peter’s Short Ribs."
Proceeds from the sales of "Annie’s Favorite Favorites: Island Style Cooking Volume II" (Island Heritage Publishing, $15) will be donated to the Hawaii Island Chapter of the American Cancer Society, Special Olympics in East Hawaii Area, and Hawaii County’s Meals on Wheels.
This was a team effort from Hilo to Honolulu, and "I have plenty friends who help me," Yonashiro said.
Yonashiro, 58, co-owns Salon Nanea in Honolulu, and her colleagues and customers worked together in a loose-knit cooperative that sounds like a busy foodie think tank.
A co-worker at the salon came up with the Kalua Pork Nachos. Another co-worker brought to the salon an unusual salad that Yonashiro adapted into the BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad.
When Yonashiro styles hair, she often talks about cooking, and some of her clients pitched potential recipes for the book while sitting in her chair. Others would read and edit portions of the cookbook while she worked on their hair.
Her daughter Adrie prepared ingredients in the kitchen of Yonashiro’s East Honolulu home while Yonashiro cooked. Her client and friend Linda Azuma styled the dishes for the shoot, while professional photographer Glenn Yoza, another client, shot the pictures.
The crew prepared 14 dishes for the first photo session and 17 the next. Her husband, Roy, washed dishes, and "then we ate all the food," she said.
Yonashiro’s cookbook distribution network is equally unconventional. She disperses cases of books to friends from Hawaii island to Kauai and in a variety of Oahu neighborhoods.
As orders come in, each of those outposts handles the grass-roots distribution.
TO ORDER
>> Oahu: 741-1222
>> Hawaii island: 808-959-5995
>> Maui: 808-298-1674
>> Kauai: 808-652-4803
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Yonashiro’s first cookbook project was inspired by Patti Ikeda Tamashiro, a classmate from the Hilo High School class of 1972 who developed leukemia. The proceeds from that first cookbook helped pay Tamashiro’s medical bills.
A second edition of that early "Ohana Style" cookbook raised money for the Hawaii Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
As for this collection, Yonashiro refuses to single out any of the recipes that she thinks are the best.
"I shouldn’t say, because they’re all my favorites," she said. "They’re all good."
CHRISTMAS WREATH CAPRESE SALAD
From “Annie’s Favorite Favorites: Island Style Cooking Volume II”
40 to 50 grape or cherry tomatoes
40 to 50 toothpicks
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
Basil leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
Using toothpicks, skewer 1 tomato and 1 piece cheese, leaving 1/2-inch space at bottom of toothpick for easy grabbing.
Place on round platter in circular pattern, leaving a 2 1/2- to 3-inch hole in center of plate. Add another, smaller circle of skewers, placing each skewer alternately between those of first circle. Sprinkle salt over two circles.
Add another layer atop two circles to hide seam where two rows meet.
Thinly slice 4 basil leaves and sprinkle atop wreath. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle top layer with salt. Take cluster of basil and place at top of wreath to make it look like ribbon.
Approximate nutritional information, per serving (based on 1/2 teaspoon salt): 120 calories, 8 g fat, 3.5 g saturated fat, 10 mg cholesterol, 200 mg sodium, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 3 g sugar, 6 g protein
