Elle and I love this YouTube channel Kimi Swimmy. Kimi Werner is a woman who lives on Maui and is a champion spear fisherwoman. She is native Hawaiian (I believe her dad is white, mom is Hawaiian) and grew up there. She blends spear fishing and cooking her catch with insights about Hawaiian culture. She films at her house, usually in the backyard, and it’s refreshingly normal! Her house isn’t fancy, she’s not dressed up and none of it seems fake and staged like so much of social media.
Her videos remind me of Hatteras when I was a kid. Neighbors visit and bring fresh fish they’ve caught. Dogs from down the street wander into the yard and stay for supper. I remember riding around in the truck with my dad delivering fish to friends of my parents. Kimi’s glimpses of life on Maui remind me so much of the tight bond between locals in Hatteras before this place was a well known tourist destination.
But anyway, Kimi’s channel is about food! She shares recipes for fish she caught or meat that was harvested by herself or her friends. The emphasis is on living close to the land and understanding where your food comes from. Elle and I watch her videos and then cook fish my dad caught. On the weekends, our family will spend all day at the beach until we’re sunkissed and sandy, then Elle and I will come home for a quick shower, turn on YouTube and start cooking dinner. It’s our thing in the summer.
We have made some excellent recipes lately! I recommend the Fish Taco episode. The white sauce takes your tacos to the next level. Even my uber-picky husband lapped it up. We used the recipe again this weekend with ground beef tacos. The pico de gallo and white sauce go with whatever meat you want to use.
We also have been really into poke bowls lately. Poke bowls are basically rice, meat and whatever vegetables you like. We used fish my dad caught, edamame, cucumber, shredded carrots, peppers, avocado, pickled ginger and a little store-bought kimchi. We topped with chia and sesame seeds. I could eat this every day!
We did not love the store-bought kimchi, so we pickled some vegetables to try next time. Pickling is easy peasy and a great way to use up your garden harvest before it goes bad. We did onions, carrots and cucumbers to use as toppers on our poke bowls. We re-use pickle jars when we don’t have enough mason jars. If you’re planning on eating the food and not storing it indefinitely, empty pickle jars are perfect and thrifty!
Summer cooking is fun because we have fresh garden ingredients and fresh fish. We love coming off the beach after a day of swimming, surfing, paddleboarding and hanging out with friends, and making something healthy and filling.
Simple Southern 