My obsession with all things Polynesian rolls on...  Since the Kona Cafe Sweet Bread was such a huge hit in my house, I decided to kind of build an entire dinner around the how badly I wish I was at the Poly right now.

Whenever it comes to making dinner that everybody is going to eat, it's always a trick.  Everybody has their own likes and dislikes, and of course, the only overlap I can bet on is that somebody's like somebody else's dislike.  I love onions, my other half, he hates them.  The adults like pork and steak, the kids like chicken.  One loves corn, the other hates corn.  But I have to say, this recipe made me really, really excited because it seemed to be on everybody's "Ok, I'll try it" list.  Or at least the "you have no reason to not try this" list.

One of the fun things about this recipe is that it has a history.  It started out as a signature dish at the Papeete Bay Verandah, a restaurant at the Polynesian that opened with the resort (and the park) in 1971 and closed in 1994 to make way for what is now known as 'Ohana.  After Papeete Bay Verandah closed, this dish (along with much of the old menu) did return for a period of time, only to be officially retired a couple years later.  While a version of this does wander on and off the Kona menu from time to time (that version is a more updated dish, using mandarin oranges), this is a classic dish that's largely been retired.

Now, maybe I'm weird, but I've never, ever prepared beef like this before...  In fact, I've never prepared meat like this before.  This recipe calls for you to dredge the meat in a flour/cornstarch mix and then the egg, then fry it.  I've always, and I mean always, put meat in the egg and then the flour mix...  And I was convinced I'd somehow gotten the order of
things wrong.  That first batch, I was so sure it wouldn't come out and I'd have to switch to doing it the way I was used to.  When it came out perfect...  Well...  Let's just say it was another reminder of why the folks at Disney get paid the big bucks and I don't.

While there are a lot of steps, this was pretty easy to make and not really all that time consuming, and the resulting dish was amazingly delicious.  I served mine over rice (spoiler alert: that rice recipe is the next recipe I'll be blogging about) and while it was sublime using the beef, using chicken would work just as well and would be a healthier (and cheaper) option.  I did leave out the red peppers, though.  Because I still don't like peppers.  I also added just a splash of cornstarch because I wanted the sauce a little thicker.

The results of this dish?  Let's just say there were no leftovers...  And I'm so ready to be at the Poly. 

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Orange Beef

As was served at The Polynesian Resort

 

Orange Sauce

°o°  1 tablespoon olive oil
°o°  4 scallions, chopped 

°o°  1/2 teaspoon crushed red peppers 

°o°  4 tablespoons soy sauce 

°o°  1 cup orange juice  

°o°  2 tablespoons sugar  

°o°  1/2 cup water  

Beef
°o°  1 pound flank steak 

°o°  2 tablespoons cornstarch 
°o°  2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

°o°  2 eggs, beaten 

°o°  2 tablespoons olive oil 

°o°  2 tablespoons butter

°o°  rice for serving

Heat olive oil in medium skillet and saute scallions and crushed red pepper for 2 minutes.  Stir together soy sauce, orange juice, sugar, and water, and slowly add into skillet.  Bring to a boil, stirring frequently for about 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and keep warm.

Slice flank steak into 1/2-inch strips.  Combine cornstarch and flour in shallow bowl or plate.  Place eggs in a wide bowl.  Dredge steak in cornstarch and flour and then in eggs.  Shake of excess.  Heat oil and butter in large skillet over medium heat.  Working in batches, cook steak and keep warm until ready to serve.  

When ready to serve, spoon beef over rice, then spoon sauce over beef.  Serve immediately.

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Warning: this post contains a tangent which I promise will all tie together in a way that makes sense.

This weekend is the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend.  The last RunDisney race before the Princess Half Marathon and the Glass Slipper Challenge, an event that I'm running in (and woefully under-trained for).  Right now, my mind is buzzing with pre-race details and plans for our racecation and today was one of the last checkpoints before arrival day...  Early check-in!

For the Princess Half, we'll be staying at Disney's Polynesian Resort, which is an absolutely stunning hotel.  I was lucky enough to stay there in January of 2013 and I loved nearly every minute of it.  It's peaceful, it has a fun theme, it's on the monorail, it has a view of Cinderella's Castle, it's on a lake...  What's not to love about this hotel?  Seriously, any place that trusts me to use a self-serve Dole Whip machine that's within walking distance to my room is a great place.

The funny thing is, other than the required breakfast at Ohana and the rampant abusing of the bottomless refills of our resort mugs (pomegranate lemonade!), we didn't eat there at all.  No Tonga Toast, no pineapple pancakes, not even a Mickey waffle.  We always opted to eat somewhere else.  It wasn't until May of 2013 when a very last-minute trip meant that I was at the mercy of whatever was available and I decided to give Kona a try...  And I figured out why the lobby of The Polynesian always smells so good.  It's the delicious intermingling of the smells of Tonga Toast, pancakes, and sweet bread.  After a completely amazing dinner with wildly unique and delicious food, Kona went straight to the top of my "hidden Disney gem" list and I immediately regretted not eating there every single day of my January trip.

A mistake that will not be made again.

To bridge the gap between now and then, I've started to get all Poly-crazy.  We've watched "Lilo and Stitch" at least 3 times, I've made most of my social media skins something related to the Poly, I even researched the music they play in the gift shop so that I could build a playlist for the gym.  Then suddenly I remembered...  Hey, I have the recipe for Kona's famous sweet bread...  And I even tried to make it for the blog with less-than-spectacular results.  So off to the kitchen I went, with two goals in mind...  Vindication and the satisfying of a craving.

For those who've read my blog for awhile, it's no great surprise that occasionally yeast bread presents some challenges for me...  But I've fine-tuned my yeast bread magic since

then.  Trick number one? I turn my oven on to the very lowest setting it has while I'm making the dough, then when it's time to let it rest and rise, I turn the oven off, cover the bowl, and put it in the warm oven with the oven door open slightly for the first 10-15 minutes or so.

Brilliant, right?  Seriously, I think since I picked up that little trick, I haven't had bread go flat on me.  Then, if I have a second rise, I actually put the oven on to preheat, cover the dough, and put it on the stove.  That usually works, though I have to be careful that it's not so warm that the bottom of the bread is already starting to brown, meaning I'll have a burned bottom by the time it's done (if you laughed reading that, it's OK, I laughed writing it).

If somebody were to tackle yeast bread for the first time, despite my first failures, I'd say this is a great place to start.  Make sure your pineapple juice is nice and warm, but not too warm, don't over-knead and you're good to go. 

The final product, four amazing mini-loaves of bread, is so close to the real thing that it's hard to not eat it all right out of the oven.  Trust me, I know because I made them 4 hours ago and I'm already down to one loaf...

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Kona Cafe Sweet Bread

As is served at Kona Cafe, Disney's Polynesian Resort

 

°o°  1 cup warm pineapple juice
°o°  2 tablespoons active dry yeast

°o°  1/2 cup sugar

°o°  3 eggs, room temperature

°o°  4 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened  

°o°  4 3/4 cups flour

°o°  1 teaspoon salt  

Combine pineapple juice and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and allow to sit about 5 minutes, or until foamy.  Add in sugar, eggs, and butter and mix.

In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt.  Add half the flour mixture into the yeast mixture and mix on low speed until fully incorporated, being careful to not over mix.  Turning off mixture, add remaining flour and incorporate using hands.  The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl, but still be very sticky.

Cover bowl with a slightly dampened dish towel and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

 

Turn dough onto a floured surface and divide into 4 equal portions.  Form each portion into a ball and smooth the surface (I do this by holding the ball in one hand and gently pulling down on the surface of the ball, pinching the excess to under the dough ball...  There's a good video here) and place on a cookie sheet that will be used for baking.  Cut an "X" on the top of each ball about 1/2 inch deep.

Cover with dish towel and allow to rise in the warmest part of the kitchen for about 45 minutes.  10 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 375.  

After 45 minutes has passed and dough has risen again, remove dish towel and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm with macadamia honey butter.

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