Dan­it Schus­ter­man, wife of Rab­bi Sholom Schus­ter­man of the Maui Mitz­vah Cen­ter, a Chabad house, has served thou­sands of Shab­bat, hol­i­day, and oth­er spe­cial meals at her Upcoun­try Maui home. She has now col­lect­ed her dis­tinc­tive yet quick and easy recipes in a beau­ti­ful new cook­book, Maui Kosher.

Ms. Schus­ter­man explains in her intro­duc­tion that liv­ing on Maui, where there is a scarci­ty of processed kosher food, has made her rely on her cre­ativ­i­ty and on the abun­dance of won­der­ful local pro­duce. She very much appre­ci­ates the avo­ca­does grow­ing on her back­yard tree, the sweet Kula straw­ber­ries at the farm­ers’ mar­ket near her home, as well as all the oth­er deli­cious trop­i­cal fruits and veg­eta­bles that grow in the rich vol­canic soil.

Home­made teriya­ki sauce (recipe in the book) or a bot­tled kosher one is a fea­ture of the eas­i­ly pre­pared Salmon Teriya­ki recipe. The Broiled Mahimahi, a fish found in the oceans of Hawai’i, or the Poached ​‘Opaka­pa­ka,’ a pink snap­per which abounds in the Pacif­ic waters, would be per­fect to serve as a first or sec­ond course. The Oki­nawan Sweet Pota­toes with Lime could accom­pa­ny a meat or fish dish. Although any type of sweet pota­to may be sub­sti­tut­ed, the Oki­nawan has a beau­ti­ful pur­ple col­or. Bring the Maui Gold Pineap­ple Sal­sa to the table and you are hav­ing an island feast. The dessert of Straw­ber­ry Napoleons made with fresh sliced straw­ber­ries would be a most yum­my end­ing for a dairy meal. The Trop­i­cal Fruit Sal­ad speaks of the island fla­vors.

Hawai’i boasts many vari­eties of man­go, a fea­tured ingre­di­ent in Pep­per Steak with Man­go. Not nec­es­sar­i­ly Hawai­ian dish­es, the Ital­ian Baked Chick­en or the Orange Soy Chick­en must make the Chabad House din­ner guests very con­tent.

We have friends who bring us macadamia nuts each year after their vis­it to the Islands, hence I eager­ly turned to the recipe for Choco­late Macadamia Nut Cook­ies, which are made with just two ingre­di­ents: choco­late chips and roast­ed salt­ed macadamia nuts. High­ly rec­om­mend­ed! With great plea­sure, I say ​“Alo­ha” and wel­come you to the won­der­ful fla­vors of Hawai’i. Each recipe is accom­pa­nied by a col­or pho­to­graph. Index, list of kosher symbols. 

Recipe: Span­ish Olive Dip

The inspi­ra­tion behind Maui Kosher