RECIPE BY: KIMI WERNER

Aweoweo:

Remove gills and guts of fish. Leave skin and scales on (aweoweo or nabeta only, all other fish, please scale). Score skin and meat on both sides. Season generously with Hawaiian salt, garlic salt and coarse black pepper. I like to slightly bend the fish as I season so that salt and pepper goes into the cuts and flavors the meat. Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a pan over medium high flame. If fish is too big for pan, chop in half. Place fish in hot oil. Cook until fish skin is crispy and golden brown. I also like to smash a clove of garlic and add it to hot oil for the last couple minutes of frying. Serve hot with chili pepper water.

Kumu:

Scale fish, remove gills and guts. Score skin and meat on both sides of fish. Steam fish. This can be done in a steamer with water, wrapped in foil on a BBQ, baked covered, covered in the microwave, etc; as long as it’s covered while cooking, it will steam. For this particular fish, I added an inch water to a big pot then put a plate in the pot. I cut the fish in half so that it would fit on the plate and covered and cooked on high. It only took a few minutes, but cooking time will always depend on the method of steaming and the size of the fish. Chopping the fish in half always makes it cool much faster.

In a separate pan I sauté greens (bok Choi/kale/ choi sum/etc) in olive oil and garlic. Plate cooked greens as a bed for kumu. Place kumu (putting both halves back together to form whole fish) on the bed of cooked greens. Pour shoyu over the fish letting it run through the fish meat and greens. Top with chopped green onions and cilantro. Heat small amount (around 1/4 cup for 2 lb kumu) of peanut oil until smoking. Carefully (stand back and better to do outside if possible) pour smoking oil over fish, allowing it to infuse the herbs into the fish meat and add a silky texture to the sauce. When eating, spoon this soy/herbal/peanut oil over your fish meat and greens.