Archive for Hawaiian

Ahi Tuna Poki Salad

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This is a new twist on Ahi Tuna Poki. Marinate good quality cubes of ahi tuna in my Japanese Vinaigrette dressing and serve with your favorite salad greens and diced cucumbers.

It’s oh-so-good, trust me.  🙂

You can find my Japanese Vinaigrette recipe here.

Give it a try. I think you’ll like it. 🙂

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Ahi Tuna Poki Salad
 
A new take on Ahi Tuna Poki that's served in my tangy and slightly sweet dressing with your favorite salad vegetables
Author:
Recipe type: Seafood, Salad
Cuisine: Japanese
Serves: 1 serving
Ingredients
  • Lettuce leaves (I like hearts of Romaine), as much as you like
  • ½ cup diced cucumbers
  • ½ cup diced red onions
  • ½ cup julienned carrots
  • 1 cup diced ahi tuna
  • ½ cup Japanese Vinaigrette
Optional:
  • Red pepper flakes
Instructions
  1. Make my Japanese Vinaigrette as directed in my recipe (see the link above).
  2. Marinate the ahi tuna in the vinaigrette for 10-15 minutes. Pour the tuna and dressing over the salad greens and other vegetables. Sprinkle red pepper flakes over the salad (optional).
Serve and enjoy!

 

Hawaiian Pulled Pork

This is a cross between two of my family’s favorites — Kahlua Pork and traditional pulled pork with BBQ sauce.

The pork has that hint of smokiness like with Kahlua Pork, thanks to a bit of liquid smoke.  The addition of pineapple juice and brown sugar gives the pork a touch of sweetness, but not too much sweetness that you can’t eat the roast pork with our Chamorro standard fare of steamed rice and fina’denne if that’s what you prefer. 😉

In fact, my household is split in how we eat this succulent, fall-apart, fork-tender pork roast.  My oldest daughter and I like to create pulled pork sandwiches topped with my sweet and tangy Pineapple BBQ Sauce.  My husband and youngest daughter prefer it without the sauce — hubby likes it with rice, fina’denne’ and Tabasco, and daughter dearest likes it as a sandwich with a side of the broth (au jus) to dip her sandwich into.

If you’re as busy as I am, you’re usually looking for quick meals to prepare.  One of the last things I want to do when I come home from work is figure out what to cook for dinner.  Thankfully, this is a very easy recipe to prepare.  The pork itself cooks for several hours in a slow cooker or crock pot, and the sauce takes only minutes to cook.  Start cooking the roast in your crock pot when you wake up in the morning, and you’ll have dinner ready by the time you get home from work later in the day.

If you have any leftover pork and sauce, mix them together for the perfect filling for siopao.

Give my recipe a try.  I think you’ll like it. 🙂

Hawaiian Pulled Pork

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Ingredients:

  • 9-10 pounds boneless pork butt or shoulder
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons SEA salt (do not use regular table salt or it will be too salty)
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup pineapple juice
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon liquid smoke
  • 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
  • 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Directions:

1.  Rinse the pork and trim off any excess fat.  Poke holes over the entire piece of pork (or pierce it with a sharp knife).  Place the pork into a crock pot with the remaining ingredients for the roast.  Give it a stir to roughly mix the ingredients together.  Set the crock pot to it’s medium-high setting (I use “auto-shift” on mine).  Cook the pork for at least 8 or 9 hours, 10 if you have the time.

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2.  After 8-9 hours of cooking, the pork will be tender enough to shred.  Skim off the fat from the broth and discard.

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3.  Serve with rolls and top with Pineapple BBQ Sauce or with some broth in a small dish on the side to dip your sandwich in.

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ENJOY!

 

Pineapple BBQ Sauce

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Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup pineapple juice
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup ketchup (you can also use chili sauce)
  • 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  • Pinch of ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup pineapple juice mixed with 1 tablespoon corn starch

Directions:

1.  Place all of the ingredients into a small sauce pan, EXCEPT FOR the pineapple juice-corn starch mixture.  Bring the mixture to a boil.

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2.  Whisk in the pineapple juice-corn starch mixture.  Cook for a minute or two, just until the sauce thickens.

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Serve with my Hawaiian Pulled Pork and ENJOY!

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If you have any leftover pulled pork (about 4 cups of meat), use it to make my Pork Siopao.  Find my recipe here.

Easy Guava Cake

Guava Cake is a delicious Hawaiian dessert that is quickly becoming popular nationwide.  It’s traditionally made with chiffon cake, but my quick and easy recipe uses boxed cake mix.

I like using strawberry cake mix for my recipe–it amps up the guava flavor in my opinion.

Give my recipe a try.  I think you like it. 🙂

Easy Guava Cake

Ingredients:

  • 1 12-oz can frozen concentrated guava nectar
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 8 ounces cream cheese
  • 12 ounces Cool Whip
  • 1 box strawberry cake mix
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 4 tablespoons water
  • Optional:  1 cup guava jelly

Directions:

1.  Prepare the Guava Juice.

Empty the contents of the frozen concentrated guava nectar into a small bowl or measuring cup.

Remove 2 teaspoons of the concentrated nectar and place into a small mixing bowl.  Set this aside for now (you will use this when you make the frosting).

Add 1 1/2 cups of water to the remaining frozen concentrated nectar.  Stir until the frozen nectar completely dissolves/melts and combines with the water.  You should have about 3 cups of juice.  Set aside.

2.  Make the frosting.

Add the cream cheese to the mixing bowl with the reserved 2 teaspoons frozen concentrated guava nectar.

Note:  I had a jar of guava jam in the fridge; I also added a teaspoon of jam to the bowl, but this is totally optional.  If you don’t have any guava jam, don’t worry about it.  I just like to add it to the frosting to give it a guava flavor.

Using a hand mixer, mix the cream cheese and guava nectar until creamy.

Add the Cool Whip to the mixing bowl.

Mix until creamy.  Place the frosting in the refrigerator until ready to use.

3.  Bake the cake.

Empty the contents of the cake mix into a mixing bowl.

Into the bowl add the eggs, vegetable oil, and 1 cup of the guava juice (set the remaining juice aside–it will be used later to make the guava sauce).

Using a whisk or mixing spoon, mix the ingredients together.  Don’t over-mix the batter; mix only until the large lumps disappear.

 Split the batter between two small pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Let the cake cool completely (I inverted it onto a plate to finish cooling).

OPTIONAL:

To give your guava cake a boost of guava flavor, split the cakes in half while still warm.  Heat the jelly in a microwave-safe cup for one minute.  Spread the guava jelly over the top surface of each of the cake halves.  Allow to cool then place the halves back together.  Proceed with the remaining instructions.

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4.  Make the guava sauce.

Place the remaining 2 cups of guava juice into a small saucepan.  Turn the heat to medium high.

Mix the cornstarch with 4 tablespoons of water.  Pour the cornstarch mixture into the pan, mixing with a whisk.

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Continue whisking the mixture over medium high heat, cooking until the sauce begins to thicken.

The sauce will thicken only after it comes to a boil.  Once the mixture starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium low; continue cooking for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat.

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Pour the sauce into a small bowl or measuring cup.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Note: Let the sauce cool completely before pouring onto the cake.

5.  Assemble the cake.

Place one of the cake layers onto a serving plate.

Spread a thin layer of frosting onto the cake.

Spread some of the guava sauce on top of the frosting, staying about one inch from the edge.

Place the second layer of cake on top of the first layer.

Frost the cake (top and sides) with the remaining frosting.

Pour the remaining sauce on top of the cake.  If you have room in your fridge, refrigerate the cake until the sauce and frosting sets completely.  If you have a cake decorating bag and tips, you can be fancy and pipe a border around the edge to keep the sauce nice and pretty in the middle of the cake.

I,  on the other hand, couldn’t stop there.  I’m a sauce kind of girl, so I just HAD to pour MORE sauce over the cake, letting it drip down the sides (yum!). 😉

Slice, serve, and ENJOY!

I couldn’t wait for the sauce to set, so I cut into this cake IMMEDIATELY.  Ahh…it’s all good.  DELICIOUS in fact. 😀

If you have any sauce left, pour some over the cake–man oh man–I want some more cake (I ate 3–yes 3–pieces).

ENJOY!

I also made some guava cupcakes. You can place some guava sauce in the middle (cut a piece of cake out of the top), top it with frosting, then drizzle more sauce on top.

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Ahi Tuna Poke

Poke is a Hawaiian dish traditionally served as an appetizer, but it can also be a main dish when served with rice or corn titiyas.

Modern versions of poke can vary depending on the ingredients you have on hand.  Poke is typically made with cubed ahi tuna marinated with soy sauce (some use sea salt), ground kukui nut (the meat in the inside, though, not the entire nut), sesame oil, ogo seaweed, and hot chili peppers.  You can also use fresh salmon or octopus instead of ahi.

Living in Colorado, I don’t have access to a lot of the traditional ingredients like ogo seaweed and kukui nuts, so I created a different version of poke that my family — especially my 11 year old daughter — loves.

It’s a simple recipe that you can take to entirely new levels by adding the other optional ingredients I listed below.

Give my recipe a try.  I think you’ll like it. 🙂

Poke

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Ingredients:

  • 1 pound ahi tuna
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons kimchee base
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 6 stalks green onions, thinly sliced
  Optional Ingredients:
  • 1 small cucumber, diced
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, diced
  • 1 small sweet onion (Maui onions are good), diced
  • 2 tablespoons furikake seasoning
  • 2 tablespoons ground macadamia nuts (if you can’t find or don’t have access to kukui nuts)
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • Hot chili peppers or Sambal Oelek chili sauce, to taste
  • You can also substitute the tuna with salmon or octopus

Directions:

1.  Cut the ahi into small cubes.  I find it’s easier to slice the ahi when it’s partially frozen.

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2.  Add the sesame oil.

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3.  Add the kimchee base (you can use a chili sauce like Sambal Oelek if you can’t find kimchee base).

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4.  Add the soy sauce.

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5.  Add the green onions.

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6.  Stir to combine.  Let the poke sit for at least 30 minutes (refrigerated) to allow the flavors to meld.

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7.  Serve with hot white rice or freshly made corn titiyas (tortillas).  The photo below shows the ahi tuna poke (on the bottom right of the plate) and ahi tuna sashimi (that’s another recipe, to be posted soon) on the bottom left.

ENJOY!!

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Musubi

I am so happy to be FINALLY writing this post!  Not just because I love musubi, but because it’s my inaugural SPAM post!!!  (Applause, applause, LOL)

I love SPAM!  If you’re from Guam, chances are you love spam too.  If not, well, don’t criticize until you try it.

This reminds me of a time when I was a young Army Captain several years ago.  I was an instructor at the time, and our unit took the students out for a week-long field training exercise.  Being the good Chamorro that I am, I did NOT pack any MREs (meals, ready to eat).  Instead, I packed some pan-de-leche and SPAM!  🙂  My students knew I brought Spam to the field.  Their reaction was, “Ewwww!  Spam!  No thank you!  Never in a million years would we eat SPAM!  They wouldn’t dare corrupt their bodies with SPAM!”  I told them they didn’t know what they were missing.  My NCO (non-commissioned officer) brought along a field stove and later that evening, we fried up some spam and made sandwiches with the pan-de-leche.  As the spam was cooking, we heard some trampling in the bushes–soon, a couple of our students showed up, asking what it was they were smelling.  I asked why–they replied, “It smells GOOOOD!!”  Of course, being the good instructor I was, I told them I wouldn’t DARE corrupt their bodies with my delicious fried SPAM……….and my NCO and I promptly ate the last few sandwiches in front of them.  😉

Now, back to the important stuff…MUSUBI!

Musubi is a popular snack, not just on Guam, but in Hawaii as well.  Sometimes you’ll hear it referred to as Spam Sushi.

It’s made of a slice of spam that’s been grilled, then topped with rice and wrapped in nori seaweed wrapper.

I like to soak the fried spam in a sweet soy sauce mixture before assembling the musubi.  The sweet-saltiness of the spam takes this to a whole new level.

The photos below show my step-by-step process for making Spam Musubi.  If you’ve never tried it, now’s the time.

I just remembered ANOTHER story about Spam…one where I won a radio contest…but I’ll save that for another Spam recipe post.  In the meantime, make some Musubi.  Or, just fry up some Spam and serve it with hot white rice, fina’denne’ and some kimchi.  Mmm Mmm Good!

SPAM MUSUBI

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My OFFICIAL TASTE TESTER, my 11 yo daughter, Alyssa.  🙂

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Be creative!  You can make Musubi with any type of filling.  I used Chicken Kelaguen to make the musubi pictured below.

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